Genre-Based Approach (One Story in Four Types of Texts)

Going to “Cilangkap” Waterfall

1. RECOUNT
Orientation
Last holiday, my friends and I went to the most beautiful waterfall in my village called “Cilangkap”. Its location is about four kilometers from my village. We decided to go there on foot in order to enjoy the scenery in our journey.
Record
We bought food and drink in a small store before entering the jungle. Having done shopping, we began to walk through the jungle. We enjoyed the fresh air and the scenery so much. We also heard many birds tweeting as if they welcomed our advent. After we walked for about forty minutes, we took a rest for a while. We ate peanut and banana we have bought before in order to recover our stamina. Many monkeys playing on the branches of trees suddenly stared at us knowing that we were holding their favorite food. They came closer to us and it made us afraid, we directly ran away from them without bringing the rest of the food and drink. We ourselves grumbled about the food taken by the monkeys, then we continued to walk until we reached the edge of a river. We knew that we were about to arrive at our destination when we have reached it. Walking for about three minutes, we suddenly forgot our grumbles because they were finally paid by the beautiful scenery from the waterfall and the fresh water wetting our bodies.
Reorientation
Cilangkap waterfall could make us fascinated and forgetful to our problems unconsciously.

2. ANECDOTE
Abstract
I felt so ashamed of myself last holiday.
Orientation
My friends and I went to the most beautiful waterfall in my village called “Cilangkap”. Its location is about four kilometers from my village. We chose to go there on foot so that we could enjoy the scenery in our journey.

Crisis
We took a rest for a while after we walked for about forty minutes. I ate peanut and banana I brought in order to recover my stamina whereas all my friends were interested in looking for birds to test their catapults. Many monkeys playing on the branches of trees suddenly stared at me knowing that I was holding their favorite food. They came closer to me and it made me afraid. I was frightened and I unconsciously pelted them with all food I held in order that they would run away, conversely, the monkeys came more as if I was feeding them. I could not hold it anymore. I shouted to my friends indicating that I need a hand and I began to cry.
Reaction
My friends directly came altogether and got the monkeys rid of me then they tried to make me calm. All of my friends did not feel afraid of monkeys at all, then they were surprised and shocked knowing that I was so afraid of them. They started to laugh seeing that I’ve thrown away all of my food.
Coda
I was still so embarrassed until we arrived at the waterfall.

Lexical Difficulties in Translating Contemporary Spiritual Texts

Hassan Shuqair Abdel Jawad
Department of English, College of Arts and Social Sciences Sultan Qaboos University, Oman  
Hamdan Al-Hajri
Royal Oman Police, Oman  
AWEJ Special Issue on Translation No.5 May, 2016
ISSN: 2229-9327
 

This research article sheds light on an area that is nearly overlooked in translation studies: the translation of spiritual texts. In the first part of the article, the pre-translation moral and ethical dilemma facing the translator of spiritual texts is discussed. It is shown that translators of mystical texts may breach the loyalty to the author “which is, paradoxically, caused by loyalty to the text and its potential readership”. Then this article highlights the uniqueness of spiritual language by explaining what makes it distinctive from other types of languages, by identifying the features that characterize this style of expression and providing some examples where applicable. For example, that spiritual language is symbolic and metaphorical with multi-layered implications, uses strange constructions that may seem ungrammatical at first glance, has rich lexical repertoire, uses rhetorical devices, has power to induce breakthroughs in the consciousness of the disciple when it is nonsensical, of a secretive nature, is seen as insufficient to fulfill the spiritualist’s communication needs, and is inaccessible to the mind without the engagement of the heart.

Cultural Diversity and the Challenges of Teaching Multicultural Classes in the Twenty-First Century

Ahmed Chouari
School of Arts and Humanities, University of Moulay Ismail
Meknes, Morocco
AWEJ Volume 7 Number 3, September 2016
ISSN: 2229-9327

The principal focus of this journal article is to determine the main challenges and the essential competencies needed to effectively teach culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Most of the studies reviewed in this article stress that teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students is not an easy task for any teacher. Some of these studies admit that teachers cannot be expected to perform miracles since they can’t teach what they do not know.

The findings support the assumption that when a teacher steps into the multicultural classroom, she or he steps into a mine zone where she or he has to be very cautious about the language, the type of interaction, the material used, and the way of assessing students. Ignoring or underestimating students’ linguistic and cultural differences is likely to lead to miscommunication or misinterpretation in the classroom. These factors, in turn, may not only lead to serious conflicts between teachers and students, but may also end in poor assessment of the students’ true level. Furthermore, one of the major findings is that good teaching is possible in the multicultural classroom when the following requirements are met: (1) teachers should be aware of the main challenges of these classes, (2) teachers should be well trained and equipped with adequate competencies, and schools ought to be radically reformed with a “multicultural perspective”.

Motivational Practices in English as a Foreign Language Classes in Saudi Arabia: Teachers Beliefs and Learners Perceptions

Fakieh Alrabai
Faculty of Arts, Muhayel Aseer branch
King Khalid University
Saudi Arabia
AWEJ Volume 5 Number 1, 2014
ISSN: 2229-9327

This journal article believes that motivation is a key factor in the acquisition of second and foreign languages. However, motivational techniques have been found to be occasionally or rarely used by participating EFL teachers in this study. Teachers assumed that they most occasionally demonstrate behaviors in class by which they try to develop positive relationships with their students and as well employ a variety of techniques to familiarize students with the values and culture of the target language and its community. Results indicates that teachers least occasionally make use of some techniques to find ways to promote students’ self-confidence, make learning tasks stimulating and enjoyable to students, attempt to present learning tasks in inspiring ways, and promote learners’ cohesiveness in the language classroom.

ICT Integration in Academic Writing: An Experiment in Blended Learning

Justin James
English Language Center
Nizwa College of Technology
Sultanate of Oman
AWEJ Volume. 7 Number 3, September, 2016
ISSN: 2229-9327

The purpose of this journal article is to share the author’s experience with fellow English teachers to encourage them to use technology in teaching. The use of technology is imperative to cope with the 21st century digital age, in which the students have different ways of thinking and practices closely connected to technology. The project is designed and executed under the guidance and continuous supervision of the Ed-Tech Training and Consultancy and was commended as well prepared, well executed and well supplemented with a Quizlet quiz, WebQuest and class Blog.

As technology will continue to play a vital role in our lives, the future of teaching and learning process will be more exciting, productive and rewarding. On the strengths of its findings, this article claims that integration of ICT and innovative experiments with blended learning could be fruitfully used as a good means of achieving intended learning outcomes and making teaching and learning more viable, relevant, learner-fronted, productive, interesting, and stimulating.

Facilitating Character Building through an Academic Writing Practice

Aunurrahman, Fuad Abdul Hamied, Emi Emilia
Indonesia University of Education
Arab World English Journal
http://www.awej.org
ISSN: 2229-9327

This journal article elaborates an academic writing practice that can facilitate character building to the students specifically in Indonesia’s higher education context while at the same time developing the students’ knowledge and skills in academic writing. The academic writing practice is based on a well-known literacy-based teaching approach, that is, genre-based approach (GBA) developed under systemic functional linguistics (SFL).

The aim of this article is to find out how an academic writing practice can facilitate character building to the student teachers of English education department of a private university in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Explicit teaching and group work throughout the genre-based approach teaching stages enables the researcher as the lecturer to develop the students’ academic writing as a medium to communicate their logical and moral reasoning as suggested by the character education and genre-based approach proponents.

Using Poster Presentations with ESL Students

Mark Firth
f1markfirth@yahoo.com.au
Keisen University, Tokyo Nodai University, Obirin University (Japan)

This paper explores the use of poster presentations in ESL students. This particularly works well with the students of different majors in the class find a good range of topics. This article proposes some advantages of using poster presentation: 1. lots of out of class researching and use of class time for collaboration in groups, 2. little or no reading of notes in the presentation, and, 3. highly motivated students working towards a final goal.

On the other hand, there is no explanation on how the teachers should divide the groups of the students since it will be not fair if the students are with the partners they choose by themselves. More explanation about the steps to conduct this poster presentation is also necessary. In addition, it is not cheap to have the posters printed in good papers. However, the cost in this case should be taken into account.

Motivation Factors in Language Learning

Makiko Ebata
Digital Hollywood University (Tokyo, Japan)
cocomaki4@hotmail.com

Motivation in language-learning plays a vital role. It is motivation that produces effective second-language communicators by planting in them the seeds of self-confidence. It also successfully creates learners who continuously engage themselves in learning even after they complete a targeted goal. Three specific elements are strongly believed to build motivation towards language-learning: self-confidence, experiencing success and satisfaction, and good teacher-learner relationships as well as relationships between learners.

Moreover, experience of success and satisfaction has a strong connection with motivation. By realizing their improvement and achievement, students always gain the feeling of success. In order for language students to become satisfied with a lesson, it is required to produce a stress-free classroom and develop integrated-tasks lesson. It is necessary that there is a trust between a teacher and the students so that much communication in a targeted language is developed. These three factors: self-confidence, experiencing success and satisfaction, and good teacher-learner relationships as well as relationships between learners, play an essential role in developing language learners’ motivation.

The Importance of Eye Contact in the Classroom

Robert Ledbury, Ian White and Steve Darn
steve.darn@ieu.edu.tr
Izmir University of Economics (Izmir, Turkey)

This article focuses on the importance of eye contact in the classroom. It is well known that speech is only one part of communication, yet teachers often forget about or underestimate the importance of non-verbal communication in their own and their students’ performance. One aspect of non-verbal communication is the use of the eyes to convey messages. The eyes are a powerful tool for both the teacher and the learner, yet much classroom time is spent with eyes firmly fixed on the book, the board, the floor, the window, or roaming randomly around the teaching and learning environment.

In addition, teachers working in all disciplines in secondary schools have always been advised to develop ‘the look’ as part of their teaching persona. ‘The look’ ranges from ‘be quiet please’, through ‘I’m not going to tell you again’ to ‘don’t mess with me, sonny’, and in this respect is seen as having a disciplinary function. Meanwhile, the business world has accepted eye contact as an important component of achieving success in giving presentations and improving rapport between representative and client, while these days it is possible to find many websites offering advice on how to forge personal relationships through the judicious use of eye contact. Researchers and practitioners in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) have brought the notion of body language and eye contact back to the attention of language teachers, but largely in the context of providing clues to the nature of the students rather than in terms of a teaching tool.

Each Students to Interact, Not Just Talk

Gerard Counihan
profesorSs@blabla.es

The following is a short article with practical tips for EFL teachers who want to get their students talking in conversation class as they do when they are outside the classroom and with friends-that is, interacting.

Interaction involves both social and personal input, and, forms the basis of the vast majority of everyday talking done by natives. Interaction involves the emotions; creativity; agreement; disagreement; people waiting patiently to get in a word; sighing, nodding, gesticulating and so on. Interaction is not waiting to be asked a question. Interaction is not giving a short, one-sentence answer to this question. In some ways, what goes on in a worst-case EFL conversation class is a series of monologues. Eventually, teachers must involve those above criteria to promote students’ interaction.