English Language Teaching Educational Journal

Shaping the future of translation careers: Student interest and the need for curriculum reform in the AI era

Eko Setyo Humanika — 2024-12-30

This study explores students’ interest in pursuing a career in translation in the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and the growing need for translation curriculum reform. A mixed method was employed, involving 45 students from the English Literature Department at the University of Technology Yogyakarta (UTY) during the 2023-2024 academic year. Participants were selected using a stratified random sampling technique and included second-, third-, and fourth-year students. Data collection was conducted through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The questionnaire assessed students’ interest in translation careers, while the interview provided deeper insight, involving six respondents from the three batches, representing both positive and negative responses to the questionnaire items. The findings indicate that 26,6% of respondents are interested in a translation career, 55,6% are neutral, and 15,53% are not interested. Neutral responses were most common among second-year students and least common among fourth-year students, likely because higher-year students tend to focus more on career planning. The study also highlights the need to reform translation curricula by integrating machine translation into classroom instruction, as a computer assisted as well as automatic. The findings of this study suggest the need for further research on developing an AI-based model for teaching translation.

TED Talk and YouTube for English

Hoang Nguyen Tran Thi — 2024-12-24

Through a personal exploration using autoethnographic methodology, this study delves into the researcher’s experiences as both a student and a teacher, analyzing the benefits and limitations of integrating these social media tools into English education. Data collected through reflective journaling on the usage of these platforms reveals key themes regarding engagement, distractions, and overall academic performance. Ultimately, this study seeks to answer how these platforms have enhanced verbal skills and whether such experiences can be synthesized into lessons or activities to further assist other learners in their educational journeys. The findings point to both positive and negative impacts on teaching and learning development in ELT, with the positive impacts being processed into practical strategies for supporting teaching and learning.

Exploring undergraduate student perception of international student mobility program

Ani Susanti — 2024-12-24

In recent years, the international student mobility program has been popular among university students. In 2017, there were over 5.3 million international students spread globally. The aim of this study is to determine the perception of undergraduate students about the advantages and challenges of International Student Mobility Programs that they have participated in. The subject of this research is students of the English Education Study Program at Universitas Ahmad Dahlan who have joined International Student Mobility Programs. This study used a qualitative research method and the data will be obtained from interviews with the research subjects. The findings in this research are divided into the advantages and the challenges of international student mobility. The advantages of participating in the international student mobility program are language learning, expand the networks, learn new culture, and self-development. There are several challenges that students feel while participating in the international student mobility program, namely language difference, difference habit, study materials and heavier assignments, and time difference. The results of this research will be useful for students who will take part in the international student mobility program in order to better understand the benefits and challenges that are usually experienced by international student mobility participants.

Leveraging gamification to enhance motivation and engagement among EFL learners

Yea-Ru Tsai — 2024-12-24

In recent years, gamification has appeared to be an enjoyable and appealing instructional approach in educational settings. This paper reports the implementation and evaluation of gamified instruction to support learners of English as a foreign language in a linguistics course. Several gamification elements, such as experience points, badges, leaderboard and competition, were deployed on a Moodle course management system. A comparison of the results of the survey on learning motivation revealed that the experimental group had greater learning motivation than did the control group after the instruction, particularly in the dimensions of relevance and satisfaction, suggesting that gamification can increase learners’ interest and satisfaction. To illustrate learning engagement, the data of online activities in the course management system were analyzed and compared between groups. The outcomes were encouraging, showing that students in the gamified group were more likely to submit quizzes and posts on discussion forums than were those in the nongamified group. The analysis of the relationships between gamified learning activities and motivation revealed that learning motivation was significantly correlated with discussion forums, WordWall games and badges. The findings indicate that gamification elements can effectively promote students’ motivation and engagement in learning English as a foreign language context.

ELT Materials Transformed: Exploring Outcome-Based Education Elements in High School EFL Textbooks

Anni Holila Pulungan — 2024-12-24

Infusing outcome-based components such as advanced communication, productivity and accountability, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and flexibility and adaptability are deemed critical in a textbook. Conversely, the evidence revealed shortcomings in certain aspects of textbooks, as exemplified by the "Bahasa Inggris Kelas XII" textbook, which was deficient in advanced teamwork and communication skills. This research endeavor seeks to assess how the textbook incorporates outcome-based education. Utilizing data on the text unit order, the current study employed a descriptive qualitative research framework and acquired data through a Likert scale. The findings disclose that various aspects of outcome-based education are thoroughly addressed in this textbook. Nonetheless, the collaborative component and the intricate communication aspect are conspicuously absent as denoted in chapter 3 and chapter 4. A mere forty-seven percent of the content in the textbook "Bahasa Inggris Grade XII" has been assessed and meets the criteria of outcome-based education. This level of attainment, which falls below expectations, indicates a lack of complete adherence to the principles of outcomes-based education within the English textbook. As this ongoing research carries significant implications for those involved in developing and writing curricula. It is recommended that the textbook aligns with Spady's concept of Outcome-Based Education (OBE), addressing gaps such as the lack of emphasis on teamwork and complex communication aspects. To enhance the achievement of educational objectives, authors are advised to pinpoint areas for enhancement through collaboration with educators, students, and curriculum experts.