Metalinguistic reflective beliefs of Saudi EFL teachers in the content of grammar teaching and learning: A cross-sectional survey
Abstract
Teachers' beliefs have been shown to have a significant impact on educational practice, particularly in the domain of grammar instruction, where teachers have strong opinions. Traditional grammar training is sometimes criticized for promoting lower order thinking and relying on rules of thumb rather than new language developments. A rising corpus of research on grammar instruction proposes that linguistics, conceptual knowledge, and introspective or higher-order thinking should be prioritized in grammar training. Generally, this present study explored the metalinguistic reflective beliefs and teachers' beliefs on grammar content knowledge. It hoped to address the gap on this problem of inquiry. This study employed a cross-sectional survey research design for 266 EFL Saudi teachers. A questionnaire was used as an instrument for data gathering in this study. Results showed that Saudi EFL teachers have a positive view of their metalinguistic reflective beliefs. They also have positive beliefs on grammar content knowledge. It also surfaced that there is a positive relationship between the two variables (metalinguistic reflectivity and grammar content knowledge), implying that when teachers have a high level of metalinguistic reflectivity beliefs, they highly manifest acceptable beliefs in teaching grammar content. Implications of this study will strengthen the language teaching skills of teachers to strengthen the grammar curriculum of the Saudi context.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Afshar, H. S., & Farahani, M. (2015). Reflective thinking and reflective teaching among Iranian EFL teachers: Do gender and teaching experience make a difference? Procedia-Social and behavioral sciences, 192, 615-620.
Al Bataineh, K. B., Banikalef, A., & H Albashtawi, A. (2019). The effect of blended learning on EFL students’ grammar performance and attitudes: An investigation of Moodle. Arab World English Journal (AWEJ), 10. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3367595
Al-Ahdal, A. A. O., & Al-Ahdal, A. A. M. H. (2019). Effectiveness of collaborative learning as a strategy in the teaching of EFL. Opcio, 35(Special Issue 20), 1528-1555. https://produccioncientificaluz.org/index.php/opcion/article/view/24566/25013
Alkhodimi, K. H. A., & Al-Ahdal, A. A. M. H. (2019). Literature in English as a foreign language classroom in KSA: Rectifying a relationship with odds. Utopiay Praxis Latinoamericana, 24(Extra 6), 256-264.
Almuhammadi, A. (2020). Teaching grammar: Professional needs of Saudi EFL instructors. International Journal of English Linguistics, 10(3), 14-20.
Al-Qunayeer, H. S., Al-Ahdal, A. A. M. H., & Shawosh, A. E. S. (2020). Ferdinand de Saussure's langue/parole binary in the Quran. International Journal of Innovation, Creativity and Chang, 12(2), 406-417.
Anglada, L., & Banegas, D. L. (2020). Reflections on English grammar instruction in EFL/ESL educational settings. Content knowledge in English language teacher education: International experiences, 49-64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688220973083
Ashraf, H., & Zolfaghari, S. (2018). EFL teachers' assessment literacy and their reflective teaching. International Journal of Instruction, 11(1), 425-436.
Aslam, M. S. M., Al-Ahdal, A. A. M. H., Odeh, B. R. H., & Saied, D. B. A. (2019). Intensive course programme at Qassim University, Saudi Arabia: Finding correlations between course shortcomings and high dropout rates. The Journal of Social Sciences Research, (Special Issue 1), 61-68. https://doi.org/10.32861/jssr.spi1.297.304
Avarzamani, F., & Farahian, M. (2019). An investigation into EFL learners’ reflection in writing and the inhibitors to their reflection. Cogent Psychology, 6(1), 1690817.
Babaei, M., & Abednia, A. (2016). Reflective teaching and self-efficacy beliefs: Exploring relationships in the context of teaching EFL in Iran. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(9), 1-26.
Badash, M., Harel, E., Carmel, R., & Waldman, T. (2020). Beliefs versus declared practices of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers regarding teaching grammar. World, 10(1).
Cochrane Bond, I. A., Feez, S., & Macken-Horarik, M. (2020). Developing students' knowledge about language in the early years: A games-based pedagogical approach. https://rune-uat.une.edu.au/web/handle/1959.11/30883
Donyaie, S., & Afshar, H. S. (2019). EFL teachers' reflective journal writing: barriers and boosters. Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, 7(3), 71-90.
Dwyer, C. P., Hogan, M. J., & Stewart, I. (2015). The effects of argument mapping-infused critical thinking instruction on reflective judgement performance. Thinking skills and creativity, 16, 11-26.
Fuchs, S., Kahn-Horwitz, J., & Katzir, T. (2019). Theory and reported practice in EFL literacy instruction: EFL teachers’ perceptions about classroom practices. Annals of dyslexia, 69(1), 114-135.
Hassan, A., Kazi, A. S., & Asmara Shafqat, Z. A. The Impact of Process Writing on the Language and Attitude of Pakistani English Learners. Asian EFL Journal, 27(4.3), 260-277.
Jindal, G. A., & Farley, E. K. (2021). Enhancer grammar in development, evolution, and disease: Dependencies and interplay. Developmental Cell, 56(5), 575-587.
Kawinkoonlasate, P. (2019). Integration in flipped classroom technology approach to develop English language skills of Thai EFL learners. English Language Teaching, 12(11), 23-34.
Kheirzadeh, S., & Sistani, N. (2018). The effect of reflective teaching on Iranian EFL students' achievement: The case of teaching experience and level of education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education (Online), 43(2), 143-156.
Khodabandeh, F. (2017). The effect of MALL-based tasks on EFL learners' grammar learning. Teaching English with Technology, 17(2), 29-41.
King, P. M., & Kitchener, K. S. (2004). Reflective judgment: Theory and research on the development of epistemic assumptions through adulthood. Educational psychologist, 39(1), 5-18.
Kitchener, K. S. (1994). Assessing reflective thinking within curricular contexts. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED415751
Kyeong-ok, Y., & Jeong-won, L. (2020). Effects of two different grammar instruction approaches depending upon EFL learners’ grammar knowledge. The Journal of Studies in Language, 35(4), 583-598.
Kumar, T., Nukapangu, V., Hassan, A. (2021). Effectiveness of Code-Switching in Language Classroom in India at Primary Level: A Case of L2 Teachers’ Perspectives. Pegem Journal of Education and Instruction, 11(4), 379-385.
Lin, C. J., Hwang, G. J., Fu, Q. K., & Cao, Y. H. (2020). Facilitating EFL students’ English grammar learning performance and behaviors: A contextual gaming approach. Computers & Education, 152, 103876.
Loan, N. T. T. (2019). Reflective teaching in an EFL writing instruction course for Thai pre-service teachers. Journal of Asia TEFL, 16(2), 561.
Mansouri, B., Jami, P. Y., & Salmani, B. Y. (2019). Teachers and learners' views on isolated vs. integrated form-focused grammar instruction: a comparison of two contexts. TESL-EJ, 23(3), n3.https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1234793
Mohammadi, M., & Yousefi, M. H. (2019). Iranian EFL teachers and learners’ perceptions of grammar instruction and corrective feedback. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 4(1), 1-17.
Monbec, L. (2020). Systemic functional linguistics for the EGAP module: Revisiting the common core. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 43, 100794.
Nodoushan, M. A. S. (2010). Reflective teaching in EFL classes: An overview. i-Manager's Journal on School Educational Technology, 6(3), 1-6. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1102745
Perkowska-Klejman, A., & Odrowąż-Coates, A. (2021). Polish perspective on the reflective judgement level amongst students of the Erasmus programme. Przegląd Badań Edukacyjnych (Educational Studies Review), 1(32), 23-39.
Qiang, G. X. W. (2003). Reflective teaching: An effective approach to enhancing EFL teachers' professional development [J]. Foreign Language Education, 2. https://en.cnki.com.cn/Article_en/CJFDTotal-TEAC200302022.htm
Qing, X. U. (2009). Reflective teaching-an effective path for EFL teacher’s professional development. Canadian Social Science, 5(2), 35-40.
Sadeghi, M., & Pourhaji, M. (2021). The contributions of working memory and pre-task explicit instruction to L2 oral performance. System, 96, 102409.
Sandiford, C., & Macken-Horarik, M. (2020). Changing stories: Linguistically-informed assessment of development in narrative writing. Assessing Writing, 45, 100471.
Sato, M., & Oyanedel, J. C. (2019). “I think that is a better way to teach but…”: EFL teachers’ conflicting beliefs about grammar teaching. System, 84, 110-122.
Thararuedee, P., & Wette, R. (2020). Attending to learners’ affective needs: Teachers’ knowledge and practices. System, 95, 102375.
Tseng, L. S., & Zhang, L. J. (2020). Empowering learners in the second/foreign language classroom: Can self-regulated learning strategies-based writing instruction make a difference? Journal of Second Language Writing, 48, 100701.
Us Saqlain, N., Shafqat, A., & Hassan, A. (2020). Perception Analysis of English Language Teachers about Use of Contextualized Text for Teaching ESP. The Asian ESP Journal, 16(5.1), 275-299.
Van Rijt, J., de Swart, P., & Coppen, P. A. (2019). Linguistic concepts in L1 grammar education: a systematic literature review. Research Papers in Education, 34(5), 621-648.
Vuong, N. H. A., Keong, T. C., & Wah, L. K. (2019). The affordances of the flipped classroom approach in English grammar instruction. International Journal of Education, 4(33), 95-106.
Yu, F. Y., & Lin, C. C. (2020, November). The effect of different online procedural prompts on student-generated questions task performance for english grammar instruction. In 28th International Conference on Computers in Education, ICCE 2020 (pp. 84-92). Asia-Pacific Society for Computers in Education.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
ISSN 1305-578X (Online)
Copyright © 2005-2022 by Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies