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Critical Thinking Values in Religious Narratives: CDA of ELT Learning Materials for Young Learners Wahyuni, Irma; Syihabuddin, Syihabuddin; Gunawan, Wawan; Darazi, Mansoor Ali
Register Journal Vol. 17 No. 2 (2024): REGISTER JOURNAL
Publisher : UIN Salatiga

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.18326/register.v17i2.435-470

Abstract

This study examines the use of religious narratives, specifically the story of "Ibrahim, the Father of Prophets," from the bilingual collection Nabi & Rasul Allah (2018), to cultivate critical thinking among young English language learners in Indonesia. This study explores how the morals and language of a story can foster critical thinking in young students. Employing Fairclough's model of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and the transitivity framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), the research investigates the critical thinking skills embedded in the English version of the Ibrahim story. The analysis includes a discourse-based examination of the story’s strategies and social practices, supplemented by interviews with English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Indonesian religious elementary school. This integrated approach highlights the role of critical thinking in selecting appropriate learning materials and emphasizes socio-cultural contributions of religious narratives to material development and instructional design in ELT to young learners. The paper concludes that integrating moral values into English teaching does not negate the necessity of fostering critical thinking. Teachers can use critical thinking to select stories that enhance students' moral understanding and linguistic proficiency. This research contributes to ongoing discussions on the use of storytelling in education and provides insights into effective pedagogical strategies for incorporating critical thinking into ELT for young learners.
Developing Iranian EFL Learners’ Grammatical Knowledge: Insights from Spaced versus Massed Instruction Behbahani, Hossein Kargar; Darazi, Mansoor Ali; Kumari R, Lakshmi
Journal of Languages and Language Teaching Vol. 12 No. 2 (2024): April
Publisher : Universitas Pendidikan Mandalika

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.33394/jollt.v12i2.10296

Abstract

Despite grammar receiving greater emphasis than other language skills in Iranian schools, Iranian EFL students encounter challenges in acquiring the linguistic structures they are exposed to, resulting in insufficient grammar knowledge. This experiment looked into the effects of spaced versus massed instruction on learning modal auxiliaries among Iranian EFL learners with a lower-intermediate command of English. To this end, through an Oxford Quick Placement Tests (OQPT), 78 lower-intermediate learners were selected and assigned in three conditions, with 26 subjects in each: Spaced condition, Massed condition, Control condition. Using a Levene’s test, it was shown that the subjects were homogenous prior to the experiment. Then, a pretest was used. The results of the pretest showed that there was no between groups’ difference prior to the treatment. Afterward, the spaced group received three 30-minute sessions on modal auxiliaries based on Fundamentals of English Grammar by Azar (2016), while the massed condition received the instruction in just a single 90-minute session. The subjects in all conditions were then posttested. The results of a one-way between groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that both treatment groups outperformed the comparison group (p < .05) with a large effect size (eta squared = .63). The results of post-hoc analyzes using Bonferroni adjustment further revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the two experimental conditions (p < .05). That is, the spaced subjects gained more compared to their massed counterparts with regard to the targeted L2 form. Pedagogically, this study suggests ESL/EFL instructors could integrate spaced instruction strategies for enhancing students' proficiency in modals. Material developers may also leverage these findings to create more engaging and effective instructional materials.