S P Dhanavel

The present study investigated the use of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) by Indian teachers in their classroom vocabulary instruction. It also examined the influence of gender and experience-related differences on their use of VLS in the classroom vocabulary instruction. The paper reports the results of data collected to identify the VLS used by them in their vocabulary instruction. T-test and one-way ANOVA were conducted to analyse and interpret the data. The results indicate that the teachers employ VLS, such as: guessing from the context to find the meanings of new words, group work to learn new words, and using new words in sentences to store them in memory. They also show that the teachers do not prefer VLS, such as: flashcards, L1 similarity used to find the meanings of new words, and the keyword method. Further, they reveal an experience-related difference in the teachers’ vocabulary instruction.

Teacher cognition has evolved into a broad area of research in education, especially language teacher education. It refers to a wide range of teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, emotions, and importantly their instructional decisions in the classroom as they interact with students and materials. It is actually a study of teachers and their teaching on what they say and do in the classroom. It has become an important area of research because certain intangible factors primarily associated with the teachers determine their teaching and by extension their students’ performance. Therefore, it is believed a knowledge of these intangible factors can help in planning and implementing effective professional development programs. Simon Borg has spearheaded this research movement with a number of publications, including reviews, books, and collaborative studies. This chapter discusses teacher cognition and illustrates it with examples from the literature on language education, especially second language teacher education. Further, it also connects language teacher cognition research with some of the classroom research works done by the present author to suggest a model of teacher and student collaboration in teaching and learning English, resulting in continuing professional development of the teacher to the level of good language teacher as established in the literature.

This book provides a comprehensive understanding of India’s continuing professional development (CPD) landscape. It examines the issues surrounding the professional development of English language teachers in India at the tertiary level from multiple perspectives. Further, it evaluates various models of continuing professional learning (CPL) and emphasizes the transformative model as a solution to the social, administrative, or other impediments teachers encounter in their lives. Importantly, it presents examples, solving academic and non-academic problems in formal and informal, and face-face and technology-mediated forms of teaching and learning by teachers of English in different contexts. It discusses the latest developments in the literature related to the transformative and reflective approach to classroom problems faced by teachers on the ground such as classroom environment, students’ socio-economic background, teachers education, and teacher assessment. Also, it positions continuing professional development (CPD) as having transformative power in teaching English in India and how it can improve students’ learning opportunities. The book is relevant to English language teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in India and across the globe to address significant issues in the field: how to handle every classroom situation and how to train oneself as a teacher as well as a teacher educator.

The study investigates the attitudes of learners towards the importance of vocabulary and their choice of sources to learn new words. It chiefl y explores the differences in attitudes and choices of learners by a survey which was conducted among 730 fi rst-year engineering students of Anna University, India. The questionnaire had two different divisions, i.e., importance given to vocabulary learning and sources of new words. The sources of new words further had four sub-divisions based on language skills. The data were collected from students and statistically analysed to answer the research questions of the study. In general, the results show that students consider vocabulary as an important aspect of language learning. Students admit the importance of vocabulary to understand a text. Interestingly, gender influences the choice of sources to learn new words. Further, the medium of education also signifi cantly influences learners' attitudes and their choices of sources in vocabulary learning.

In the past four or five decades, functional uses of language have gained importance. With the rise of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and communicative language teaching (CLT), English is taught for its functional and communicative value in various streams of education, including technical education. The syllabus for functional and technical English is designed and aimed at developing communication skills in students of engineering. However, the teaching and testing of different kinds of courses on English are usually directed towards passing students in English to achieve a target set by the college or university boards of studies. When students face placement interviews and/or attempt to get jobs through them, the recruiters generally complain about the poor communication skills of students as majority of them are visibly unable to communicate competently and confidently in English. There may be several reasons for the glaring mismatch between what is taught and what is learnt. One of the possible major reasons is the dissociation between the affective and cognitive dimension of students when they learn English. If students are able to pass the subject in the examination, what prevents them from passing the test of everyday communication in English? In order to address this issue, use of poetry is suggested for the learning of English in the context of technical education for students of engineering and technology. The functional and technical communicative syllabus can be explored through poetry as an effective resource for emotionally linking the subject, the skill, and students so that they will learn to communicate through English in real-life situations, including placement interviews.

This chapter defines continuing professional development (CPD) in a broad sense, subsuming all forms of CPD practiced internationally. These include top-down and bottom-up, transmissive and transformative, formal and informal, self- and other-initiated, short and long term, and other forms of CPD aiming at developing teachers’ capabilities to achieve student learning outcomes. First, it discusses CPD in the context of education, throws light on most problems in CPD, and suggests the need for an alignment between CPD programs and teacher needs. Next, it examines CPD with reference to language teacher education and then moves on to English language teacher education globally. It considers not only geographical differences but also the variety of procedures available for teachers to engage in CPD. It also addresses the challenges faced by English teachers across the world. Further, this chapter deals with English language teachers in India from primary to tertiary levels and establishes the background for the CPD of English language teachers in Indian higher education. Finally, it provides an overview of all 16 chapters included in this volume, highlighting their contribution to the CPD literature. Essentially, such a contribution lies in the production of knowledge from personal experience by many contributors for English teachers to manage their classrooms and themselves.

Developing the Interpersonal Communication Skills (IPCS) of students at college level is emphasized by the academia and industry to bridge the gap between academic skills and employability skills. Among the qualities sought by the employers from their employees, IPCS are considered the most important. This paper highlights the importance of developing the IPCS, presents the need for academic interventions, and explores the use of poetry in English Language Teaching (ELT), Communication Skills and IPCS development. Poetry is basically a rich source of emotional and interactional diversity. Therefore, this paper argues that a variety of emotions embodied in poetry in English from various countries can be a valuable resource in developing the IPCS of students. It explains the task design, activities, and observations and presents the findings through the response from students. It also presents the limitations of the study undertaken and scope for further research.

Bengal region in India was affected by severe hunger in 1943. The situations lead to social, cultural and economic transformation. Through the analysis of the famine, it is important to understand how human trade and hunger are connected, and what factors forced women to engage in prostitution during harsh conditions. In addition, through the critique of different secondary sources, the paper discusses evidences to whether hunger is the main factor to the rate of prostitution in India. The information used in this discussion is based on a critique of different secondary materials.

This study explored the differences in receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge in terms of word frequency level and vocabulary size in undergraduate learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). A total of 90 first-year undergraduate engineering students from a semi-urban region in India participated in the study. Two quantitative vocabulary tests, the Receptive Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt et al., 2001) and the Productive Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer and Nation, 1999), were applied sequentially to the students. The first test focused on identifying receptive vocabulary size, while the second test measured productive vocabulary size. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results indicate that the students' receptive word knowledge is higher than their productive word knowledge. Similarly, the students' receptive vocabulary size is larger than their productive vocabulary size. Furthermore, the difference between their receptive and productive vocabulary size is 27.69%. In order to bridge this gap and increase their vocabulary knowledge and size, we recommend an activity-based, explicit vocabulary teaching approach through self--learning, group learning and mutual learning in the regular classrooms.