Journal of English Language Teaching (JELT) ISSN: 0973-5208 (Print) The Journal of English Language Teaching (JELT) is an international, double-blind, peer-reviewed scholarly journal published bimonthly by the English Language Teachers’ Association of India (ELTAI). Established in 1965, prior to the formation of ELTAI in 1969 and its registration in 1974, JELT has maintained uninterrupted publication for six decades. The journal provides a rigorous academic platform for research and critical inquiry in English language teaching, applied linguistics, teacher education, and related areas of English studies. It publishes original research articles, theoretical discussions, pedagogical analyses, and context-responsive studies that address issues in English language teaching and learning across diverse educational, linguistic, and sociocultural settings. JELT follows a Diamond Open Access publishing model. The journal does not charge submission, processing, or publication fees (APCs). All published content is freely accessible online, ensuring equitable dissemination of research. Print copies are distributed to ELTAI members as part of the Association’s academic outreach. The journal operates under a clearly defined editorial governance structure and maintains full editorial independence. All submissions undergo a double-blind peer review process to ensure academic integrity, methodological rigour, and relevance to the journal’s scope. Manuscripts are accepted on a rolling basis and must be submitted through the journal’s online submission system. JELT publishes six issues annually (January–February, March–April, May–June, July–August, September–October, and November–December) and adheres to recognised standards of publication ethics and transparency in scholarly communication.
The Society for the Promotion of Education in India
Use of Online Videos to Improve Speaking Skills
While learning the mother tongue, people never feel that they are learning a language, but while learning a foreign language they become cautious. When language learners are asked to speak in English on a given topic, they try to speak, but they may not speak well or fluently due to lack of ideas, information, exposure, and confidence. Even to write a piece of composition they need to get ideas. So, they escape, avoid or postpone due to scarcity of ideas. Owing to this, they lose confidence; they hesitate to speak and show reluctance to write. It becomes inevitable to the learners of vernacular background to acquire communicative competence in English. Using online videos would be a better idea to motivate the learners of heterogeneous groups to enhance their communicative skills. The core of the approach is: ‘the more they see, the more they learn’. The approach presented and discussed here will provide a platform to cater for learners to meet the needs of the present-day world through “computeracy”. The present article focuses on teaching speaking skills through group/team work.
Action research through Mentorship Model: A sustainable Framework for professional development
Action research or classroom-based research is steadily gaining popularity in the Indian context because it focuses on the teachers’ real-life classroom issues and solving those through an enquiry-based approach. English teachers at the school level need to collaborate with professionals in the field to gain insights as well as receive guidance in their journey of action research. School teachers in India are not motivated to conduct research which is largely considered the domain of ‘higher education’. Thus, action research has the potential to bring research practices into the English classroom and encourage teachers to look at their classrooms critically. At present, continuous professional development (CPD) activities in the Indian context are based on the cascade model (Mathew, 1998). To manage the huge number of teachers who need to be part of CPD programs, the cascade model seems to be the most feasible method of teacher education in India. The effectiveness of this model has however been challenged. This paper argues that the mentorship or network-based model can be a sustainable framework citing British Council’s Aptis Action Research Mentor Scheme (AARMS), which is an initial attempt to gauge the feasibility of the mentorship model in the Indian context.
Using Sports Vocabulary to Strengthen English Language Skills of Engineering Students
This paper reports on a small study that was taken up to examine whether using sports vocabulary in classroom assignments could influence and motivate undergraduate engineering students to take more interest in their English learning. Culturally Indians are observed to be very sports loving. One hundred and twelve 2nd year electrical engineering students were considered for the study and were divided into two groups, group 1 comprising the experimental group, and group 2 comprising the control group. Specific language tasks based on sports were given to the experimental group to ascertain their level of interest. A pre and post-test method was applied, in addition to obtaining qualitative feedback from group 1 students. The results reveal that there was a marked improvement in the interest level and in the score level of the students who were subjected to the intervention process.
Designing a Textbook for Undergraduate Students to facilitate Relevance, Reflection and Response
One of the major challenges faced by teachers is the of lack of engagement with the textbook among the students. The reason behind this is that the content of the text is of little relevance to the students and is not close to their hearts. Moreover, the language of the text is not accessible to the students and cannot be comprehended by them without a teacher-directed lesson. The present paper shares the parameters used by the researchers in designing a textbook for general English undergraduate students so that it promotes engagement and critical thinking among them. The paper also shares the ways in which classroom instruction was used to help students connect the content of the text to their own lives and also provide opportunities for them to not only develop their vocabulary and communication skills but also their high order thinking skills.
Reinventing the Mode of Teaching: Question as a way of learning
In the present times, when teaching has become equivalent to mentoring and learning process has acquired a new approach, it is imperative that the learners are put at the centre and their potential is exploited to the maximum by making them actively involved in the classroom. It is time to reverse the trend (especially in a post-graduate class of students of literature), wherein instead of asking answers to questions, the emphasis should be on to encourage them to pose questions. The paper shares thoughts towards the concept that questioning is a mode of learning, questioning encourages learners’ creativity and questioning is a way of sharing unanswered answers. It is based on the hypothesis that questions help to raise issues and given a proper learning environment, a person can improve his/her ability if he/she is allowed to express, think and articulate. The paper also focuses on the advantages such learning can provide in the days ahead.
Teaching Online Reading Skills with Authentic Materials – A Blueprint for a 21st Century Classroom
A lot of reading is done in the online mode these days. In fact, reading from the computer/ smartphone screen is a fact of life in the 21st century and the ability to access, read, and comprehend texts online are necessary 21st Century Skills. Therefore, the teaching of reading skills should necessarily take into consideration the online reading experience. This paper attempts to present a blueprint of a classroom where the learners read and comprehend authentic material on their smartphone screens using language learning strategies (LLS). However, the focus of the design essentially remains on pedagogy and not on technology; it features the application of available resources and accessible authentic materials.
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of English Language Teaching
The Role of Phonetics in Teaching ESL Learners
Phonetics is usually regarded as a subject by itself and teachers of English consider it a tool in accent neutralization at the most. In this context, this paper shows the essential role of phonetics in the teaching of English as a Second Language (ESL) with focus on segmental (phonemes) and suprasegmental (stress, accent, rhythm and intonation) features. For teachers, who have had a good model of English pronunciation in their growing years, the awareness may be intuitive and the features may have become part of their language. But for the others, who teach ESL, learning the nuances of phonetics may be considered a part of their continuing professional development (CPD).
Enhancing Writing Skills: Application of Kagan’s Cooperative Learning Structures for EL Learners
Having good writing skills is a key factor in the continuous assessment, both formative and summative, of a student. Teachers at various levels have adopted various innovative and creative methods in the classroom to ensure that the students excel in their writing skill. At this juncture, Kagan’s structures for English language learners provide a wide platform to enhance writing skills among high school and higher level of learners. This study investigates the effects of cooperative learning in enhancing the writing performance of students from urban areas. The students’ performance was assessed using analytical scoring on the composite scores. The results of the investigation indicate that the students perform better after inclusion of cooperative learning in the writing skills course. These findings provide support to the positive effects of cooperative learning in enhancing students’ writing skills.
New ESL Teacher for the New Education Policy: A SWOT Analysis
The vision of the New Education Policy (NEP-Draft) 2019 reads: “. . . An India-centred education system that contributes directly to transforming our nation sustainably into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society by providing high-quality education to all.” The chapter on Teacher Education reads: “Teacher preparation is an activity that requires multidisciplinary perspectives and knowledge. . . Heartbreakingly, the teacher education sector has been beleaguered with mediocrity . . .” (p.283). The paper works on the assumption that the shift to an India-centred education necessitates addressing several issues. The author-cum-researcher attempts a SWOT analysis of the English as a Second Language (ESL) scenario vis-à-vis NEP 2019. The paper begins by listing perceptions of writers since 1907 and draws on recent research findings to propose appropriate strategies to address the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It is hoped that the presentation would benefit curriculum developers keen on preparing a road map for ESL curriculum design and teacher training.
Teaching English for Communication in Professional and Technical Education
English has the status of an associate language in India, but in fact it has become the most important language. English in India is used not only for communicating with the outside world, but also for inter-state and intra-state communication. English is very important in some systems – legal, financial, educational and business. English symbolizes in Indians’ minds better education, better culture and higher intellect. However, most Indians who know English often intersperse it with Indian languages in their conversation. It is also usual among Indians to speak fluently in English abruptly in the middle of their conversation. The paper deals with the importance of communicative English language competence in every walk of the professional life of an engineer for his bright future and how teachers and students need to make integrated efforts to build their competency in English, skills that would enable students to be successful in studies, campus interviews and their corporate life.
Application of CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) in Testing the English Language Proficiency Level of Polytechnic Students
In these gadget-driven days, our hunger for electronic devices and technology in every field of human life is growing fast. Several technological devices have been developed and updated in the last few decades. Among them the mobile phone has brought satisfaction in human life. Especially among students it is a very popular tool; they cannot imagine their life without this device. Though parents and teachers are against students carrying mobiles into the classrooms as they distract students from their learning, students are still carried away by its applications. Mobile phones have revolutionized the world with their impressive database over the globe. There are, however, a few possibilities of turning this craze for using mobile phones for learning language and testing their communication skills. This study is an attempt to assess English language skills of students and to motivate the learners to improve their language through mobile applications for language learning. This paper discusses the benefits of using mobile phones for learning purposes, particularly for improving technical students’ English language skills through the British Council English Score, which is an online tool for testing English proficiency level in alignment with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), a globally recognized language proficiency standard. I conducted the English proficiency test with the final year polytechnic students using the British Council app. The paper concludes with the findings of the test and some recommendations.Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL);
Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL)
Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR)
Story-Listening in Indonesia: A Replication Study
This study reports on an attempted replication of four previous Story-Listening studies. Conducted with EFL students from five Asian countries, findings confirmed that subconscious vocabulary acquisition can not only occur from Story-Listening using Comprehension-Aiding Supplementation, but also confirmed that gains are durable.
Comprehension- Aiding Supplementation (CAS).
Teaching English in Engineering Institutions in India
English plays an important role as it has emerged as the lingua franca for all types of transactions around the globe. It is the language of education, science, technology, business, industry, commerce, law, etc. It acts as the link language in the multicultural and multilingual social setting of a country like India and also has a strong association with higher education, career enhancement and global employability. The teaching of English to learners from different social and cultural backgrounds in engineering institutions is a potent challenge for the language teachers. These include problems like mother tongue interference, lack of motivation to learn and other sociolinguistic factors. This paper focuses on the prominent problems that interfere with obtaining the desired results in the language classrooms and the techniques that can be adopted to overcome them.
Teaching English to engineering students
The Need for a Course in Academic writing: The Perceptions of Undergraduate Engineering Students
Academic writing epitomizes the language of scholarship which helps one to gain eligibility for higher education. The quality of students’ written work determines their scholarship and acceptance in academia. Students who arrive at the university face the challenge of adjusting to the academic writing demands of their chosen field. They usually face unfamiliar writing tasks in their studies, which they find quite difficult. There is a dearth of literature addressing the academic writing needs of students in India. Though the teaching of academic writing has been practised internationally for several years, many universities in India have refrained from explicitly incorporating academic writing skills. Hence, this study attempts to explore the significance of a course in academic writing for undergraduate engineering students.
Colonial and Post-Colonial Praxis of Teaching and Learning English in India
English, once consisting of a few dialects spoken by the inhabitants of a small island, later emerged as a widespread language snowballing throughout the globe and has now attained the status of ‘link language’, ‘global language’ or the means of international communication and is increasingly becoming ubiquitous. The present article aims at highlighting this trajectory in the growth of English in India. The article discusses the factors responsible for such an expansion and acceptance of English language in the Indian context along with a brief account of the obstacles it faced during its spread. Furthermore, the article provides an account of the existing situation of the integration of English language teaching in the curriculum and of using English as the medium of instruction.
Self-selected reading for pleasure through “Talk to Books” app to improve reading skills among tertiary level learners
As English Language teaching faculty, it is our common experience that a majority of the engineering students lack the required language development, to equip them with the necessary employability skills. Despite twelve years of previous exposure to English language, they remain deprived users of advanced language abilities. Many learners remain poor readers due to non-availability of appropriate resources or ignorance of the significance of reading in their personal and professional life. Of the four language skills (LSRW), reading occupies the most helpful for the acquisition of language and literacy. In this regard, it becomes the prime responsibility of language teachers to inculcate a flair for reading among the students during their formative years. Self-selected reading for pleasure is a tremendous help in language development. This research paper is an attempt at motivating thirty first-year engineering students to develop their reading skills through an app called “Talk to Books” introduced by Google which allows the reader to communicate with a book. It is believed that given an opportunity to select a book of their choice, i.e., self-selected, reading could have an impact in improving reading skills. It involves asking questions and getting responses which can help a reader determine if one is interested in reading that book or not. It further serves as an alternative to the conventional SQ3R strategy of reading. The pre-test and post-test results showed that when the learners used the app it motivated the students in their reading to a considerable extent.
Applying available and accessible technology for enhancing oral communication
This article is about a challenge of using technology in education: the struggle of a teacher to be effective in the regular use of technology. The field of education advocates the use of technology, and teachers are trained for this through various programmes. Educational institutions are well advanced in the adoption of technology. The young learner is often adept in the understanding and use of technology and its gadgets. One obstacle in the effective use of technology is the difficulty of knowing what is to be done, and how it is to be done. The time taken for preparation, and the possible failure to make the sessions effective and interesting for the learner often discourage the teachers. When it comes to using technology for enhancing oral communication skills, an instance of simple success is suggested – the use of WhatsApp groups. A tool that can be practised both inside the class and outside, this can be well used for small groups, and can be delivered within a period of eight weeks.
Learner Autonomy through Digitalized Instruction
Teachers need to acquire digital literacy in order to prepare their students for autonomous learning. In other words, they need to have working knowledge in using digital tools to facilitate self-learning even beyond the four walls of a classroom. In a national workshop conducted recently on ‘Using Digital Tools for Developing Learner Autonomy’, organized by ELTAI, teachers were given hands-on experience in using various digital tools for developing the four language skills among students. In this article, the authors would elaborately discuss the effectiveness of such training and also the extent to which it had paved the way for promoting teachers’ professional development.
This article analyses the causes for the spread of English all over the world. Globalization of language is a recent phenomenon that has revolutionized the cultures, traditions, technologies and lifestyles of people across the globe. In this context, it is fascinating to dwell upon the causes of the rise of a language such as English into the most accepted or most adopted language worldwide. It is essential to understand the factors that shaped modern English. The article outlines the causes of the spread of the English language and its essence in order to appreciate the importance of this ever changing language in the teaching and learning process.
The goal of this paper is to discuss direct teaching of vocabulary using a skill-building approach and aiming at rapid mastery. This includes pre-teaching vocabulary before a story or reading a text, interrupting the reading or listening with vocabulary lessons, and post-story vocabulary instruction.
Teaching English to tribals: A case study of Spiti, Himachal Pradesh
This paper is based on the case study conducted to understand the educational backwardness of tribal learners in the tribal district of Spiti, Himachal Pradesh with special reference to English language. It describes the language learning problems of tribal learners and analyzes the causes of their backwardness in respect of English. A micro approach was used to study and analyze the quality in the education of Tribal learners of Munselling School in Rangrik, Kaza, in the setting chosen for the study. The study was a qualitative study as the hypothesis was formulated after the data was collected through interviews, observations, case study and focus group discussion. It reports the findings on the impact of teaching English to these tribal learners by volunteer teachers.
Making a case for social networks and apps in language classrooms
The impact and use of social media and other learning apps even among non-native users of English like our students cannot be underestimated or negated in our classroom today. New-age jobs, research activities and assignments and a powerful peer pressure have made the use of social media a necessity everywhere. In this context, can we say that knowledge of English among the vernacular-medium undergraduate learners is a deterrent and does not enable them to use social networks and language apps? A study was conducted among undergraduate learners in a suburban college to understand the situation. This paper argues that incidental and sometimes deliberate learning of English occurs during such use. Analysis of the results showed that limited or lack of knowledge of English language, grammar and spelling rules is not an obstacle for students while using social media and apps, and that learning occurs even in these digital spaces.
social media and apps in language learning
English language teaching through technology: Emerging possibilities
This paper tries to explore how the widespread percolation of technology in our daily life can be used favourably for English language teaching and learning. The learning spaces created through the establishment of language labs in schools and colleges could be expanded to include smartphones and wearable devices. Such liberating spaces can not only make language learning interesting, but also render it flexible to the varying levels of the learners. There are also possibilities of combining electronic language learning with traditional classroom methods. Technology is not new to the contemporary learner, though it might be to some members of the teaching community. The present learner is born into the world of technology and therefore, any classroom divorced from technology would make the learner feel like fish out of water. But with technology, the modern student can be scaffolded from “remembering” to “creating”, which is the ultimate stage in Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Developing L2 Academic Writing: Going Beyond CLT and TBLT
This paper aims at emphasising the importance of developing academic writing skills in students at the tertiary level through employing pedagogical instructions for the same in all areas: arts, humanities and sciences. The limitations in the existing pedagogy at the primary and secondary levels have been analysed so as to suggest necessary pedagogical instructions at the tertiary level. Emphasis has been laid on the establishment of writing centres in India, as Academic Writing finds little importance in college syllabi, except in some language courses. The analysis of primary and secondary level language syllabi and teaching methodology has been done based on research done by means of tutoring school students upto XII standard (CBSE) in Delhi. Statistical analysis of IELTS score of 2017 has also been done so as to show that writing skills require explicit instructions.
Enhancing Communication Skills in English through Interactive Materials
This article reports on the effectiveness of interactive course materials to enhance advanced English communication skills of the learners. The study made use of a railway timetable along with a travelogue to engage the learners in meaningful interaction, which resulted in developing their basic and advanced communication skills. Basic communication skills are the four language skills namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing and advanced communication skills refer to language functions such as discussing, persuading, negotiating, sharing ideas, opinions and views, agreeing and/or disagreeing with others opinions, etc. Literary materials along with non – literary materials were used in order to train the learners to develop their ability to use the language in various circumstances. An action research project is carried out to train the tertiary level learners in using the language in different situations. The result was satisfactory in enhancing not only the language skills of the learners but also their referencing skills.
Acquisition of English Modals (Auxiliaries) in Negative Sentences by Marathi-speaking Children: A study in Second Language Acquisition
In order to facilitate language pedagogy, it is necessary to understand the learner’s path/order of learning as also, learner needs, and the role of diverse conditions under which human learning takes place. With this in mind, the development of the auxiliary system in Negative constructions in various contexts in the process of acquisition of English by Marathi-speaking children was studied longitudinally. The present paper is just an attempt to understand the development of English Modals in Negative sentences. It is concerned with the acquisition order and the amount of time taken by these second language learners to acquire this category properly. The study made it possible to identify the differences/similarities in the order of learning of modals across second language learners.
An Exploratory Study of Language Learning Strategy Use
Literature shows that Language Learning Strategies (LLS) are powerful language learning tools. The present study was conducted with 30 undergraduate Foreign Language multilingual students at JNU with an aim to find out how the use of language learning strategies varied for ESL and FL. Data was elicited by means of a questionnaire divided into four sections i.e. Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing strategies. Statistically significant differences were found in the use of Listening and Speaking strategies. The strategies were also analyzed from cognitive angle to gain a better insight about the difference in learning process for SL and FL. The study also discusses the impact of learner variables on LLS use.
Teaching outside the Teaching Machine: Analyzing and Adopting Geoffrey Kendal’s Approach towards English Plays
English Language Teaching is younger than the desire to learn English in Indians. Many methods of English language teaching have been developed in less than a century. This paper is written based on an experiment done at the GLA University Mathura to teach English language to select students of B.Tech. Second Year, Mechanical Engineering. The paper is divided into two main parts. The first part deals with an approach developed by Geoffrey Kendal. This approach maintains that training in theatre can be a tool for teaching English. The second part reports, elaborates and analyses the experiment done to teach English to students with the help of the approach explained in part one.
Universal Design for Learning: An Inclusive Curriculum
The present one-size-that-fits-all English language curriculums in India are based on pre-determined progression and standardized time frame. Our learners in the classrooms are from a diverse socio-economic background with varying levels of capabilities and vary on many dimensions of learningLSRW Skills, vocabulary, curiosity, interests, motivation, memory, perception, mood and also biological state. However, our present curriculum assumes that every student learns and performs at the grade level. And the present paper is an attempt to reflect on the flaws in designing curriculum which ignores a large number of prospective learners- especially learners with disabilities. It proposes an alternative design which would be flexible enough to cater to the needs of our diverse learners including low proficient ESL learners, and learners with audio, visual, cognitive and motor disabilities.
Video Clippings: A Source to Enhance Communicative Competence
When learners are asked to speak in English on a given topic, they try to speak, but they may not speak well, due to lack of ideas and exposure. Even to write a piece of composition they need to generate ideas. So, they either escape or postpone due to scarcity of ideas. Owing to this, they lose confidence; they hesitate to speak and show reluctance to write. It has become unavoidable to the learners of vernacular background to build up communicative competence in English. So, the author felt that using video clippings from Youtube would be a better idea to motivate the learners of heterogeneous group to enhance their communicative competence. The present article focuses on teaching speaking skills through group work.