Interactive, Discipline-specific Language Module for Future Teachers

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Teacher education students must prepare themselves to be successful members of the global workforce by being exposed to relevant, discipline-specific activities targeting not only the language content but also linguistic competency, for the tool to thriving in a competitive global community is English proficiency. Discipline-specific English courses require application of English language in various contexts but within one discipline. As such, the researcher was motivated to assess how instructional materials in teaching English courses were being utilized, of the goal of developing learning module that would further help the prospective teachers in the holistic language teaching and learning process.

METHODS

The qualitative-descriptive research design was used with document analysis, interviews, and researcher-made questionnaire as research instruments. This study utilized the five campuses of the Batangas State University offering Teacher Education programs as the research environment. This study made use of the total population of English instructors and students who were able to take the courses English 101 and 103 as respondents. They were obtained through purposive sampling.

RESULTS

The study revealed that Education students from the selected BatStateU campuses perform satisfactorily in Eng. 101 -Advanced Grammar and Composition, while they perform meritoriously in Eng. 103 -Oral Communication. The teachers moderately utilize the available printed, visual, audio, audio-visual, teaching equipment, projected media, and computer and internet-based materials. However, real objects and simulations are slightly used in teaching English courses. The respondents also revealed that they slightly encountered difficulties in teaching discipline-specific language courses relative to classroom management, instructional methodology, and assessment and evaluation. On the other hand, they moderately encountered difficulties in teaching preparation, class participation, and learning facilities and environment.

DISCUSSIONS

In general, the utilization of available instructional materials is not significant to the difficulties encountered by the teachers in teaching discipline-specific language courses. The researcher then proposed a module and remarks that it must be validated prior to adoption in order to help address the problems and difficulties pertinent to the teaching of discipline-specific language courses in the teacher education program.