Rey, Melanie, and Pioquinto

People usually communicate with others purposefully. Light sets up four functions of
communication: Initially, we talk to express our wants and needs. Then, we talk to
achieve social closeness. Moreover, people talk to express their changeable goals and
share information. Finally, we talk to achieve social etiquette (Light 62). Notwithstanding
how efficient people are in achieving the four purposes listed above, they just talk.
Efficiency and appropriacy differ from an individual to another. The more that an
individual is competent in communication, the more likely that such purposes will be
achieved. However, Light and Mcnaughton state that an individual’s competence in
communication may differ from one setting to another “depending on the partners,
environments, and communication goals” (3). Communicative competence revolves
around many areas of social life. It brings up understanding and coexistence amongst
people of different language backgrounds. Being a competent in communication
according to Zaščerinska participates in gaining others’ respect, making peace and
even getting job opportunities to work, study and appointing higher positions in society
(1). Moreover, it reminds us about the fundamentality of human life (Light 61). A
competent communicator centralizes and correlates to social intelligence (Wilkinson
305). Communicative competence not only achieves individual’s interpersonal relations,
but also strengthens social adjustment (Morreale, Osborn, and Pearson 2). Many
countries offer scholarships for students all over the globe for the sake of getting in
touch with their cultures and acquiring competence in their languages (Jackson).
Therefore, such students would come back to their countries as ambassadors of the
host countries they lived in for some times. Moreover, communicative competence
establishes bridges of understanding with remote nations, different religious belongings,
cultural diversity (Bin-Hady and Kanade; Chen) and participating in resolving political,
economic, humanitarian and environmental obstacles. For EFL/ESL students,
communicative competence in English might provide them with chances to express
themselves fully (Al-magid 17) and boost them to pursue their study in whatsoever fields
they are interested in whether in their countries or abroad. Many universities set tests
for students to ensure that such students could pursue their lectures (Avineri et al. 254)
when joining high study programs like Master’s and PhD’s. Such universities
recommend students to pass tests like: Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL)
or International English Language Testing System (IELTS) (NUS). Even doing the
Master or Ph.D. in any fields of study in many Arabian countries requires passing the
Proficiency Test in English or the TOEFL test. The TOEFL/ IELTS/ or the proficiency
test is aimed to test individuals’ repertoire in communication. Passing such tests
requires; therefore, competence in linguistics, sociolinguistics, discourse and
communicative strategies that are responsible for keeping communicative channel open
when facing any problems or misunderstandings. So, how important is it to build such
competencies in our students from earlier stages of education! By doing so, we
guarantee their dreams to be fulfilled and accomplish their higher education in various
fields of sciences, arts, economics, medicine, politics, education, etc. Therefore, the
current research is an attempt to investigate the implication of communicative
competence sub/components in English language classrooms at Yaff'ea secondary
school districts of Yemen. Some of the reasons urged the researcher to conduct such a
study are based on the apparent backward level of secondary school graduates in
English. The researcher thought that learners might acquire considerable repertoire
whenever English language teachers set communicative competence as the main goal
of teaching English to their students. In addition, it is required that all components of
communicative competence should be presented in classrooms and students should be
motivated to participate in classroom communicative tasks or activities too. The purpose
of learning and teaching English is to develop students’ communicative competence
(Jidong; Choi; Demo; Gilmore; Zaščerinska; Littlewood). English is taught in Yemen as
a school subject for six years. It starts from the seventh grade of the preparatory school
to the third year of the secondary school. “Crescent English Course for Yemen”
(Henceafter CECY) is the English curriculum set by the Ministry of Education for
Yemeni schools. CCFY is designed to meet the Communicative Approach “theoretical
and pedagogical principles” (O’Neill, Snow, and Peacock 4). The CCFY according to
O'Neill, Snow, and Peacock is a mixed syllabus which integrates both functional and
structural approaches. Because the Crescent course for Yemen is based on the
Communicative Approach, the present study is aiming to investigate secondary school
teachers’ applicability and focuses on developing students’ communicative competence.
More specifically, the present study orients secondary school teachers
Phoebe, Zyra, Marygrace

For the past years, there has been a shift of focus in the field of education: from being
teachercentered to learner-centered (Zare, 2010). In a learner-centered classroom,
Altan and Trombly (2001 in Brown, 2003) explains that the challenges concerning the
diversity of students are met, thus prioritizing the students’ learning needs. This focus
on the learners has led to a number of inquiries as to how students learn. In the area of
second language acquisition, the question is “how DO students learn their/a second
language?” Answers to this question begin with the definitions of two crucial terms
language and learning. Producing a definition for the former is difficult (Aitchison, 1989,
in Workman & Reader, 2008); as for the latter, it can be explained through Krashen’s
theory of it in contrast with the term acquisition. As has been said, language has no
exact setting of mastering the target language, thus concentrating on the learning of it.
In this regard, the learning of the target language is considered as a cognitive skill, or
that, it uses cognitive approaches or cognitive activities (O’Mally & Chamot, 1990;
Bender, 2003). This is fortified by O’Mally and Chamot (1990), in their statement that in
order for students to be successful in learning it [second language], they must be able to
“describe how knowledge about language is stored in memory and how the process of
second language acquisition ultimately results in automatic language comprehension
and production” (p. 1). The operative word on this statement by O’Mally and Chamot
(1990) is “process” as more research studies concerning second language acquisition
no longer focus on comprehension and production alone; rather, the focus shifted from
the mere product of learning a language to the process of learning a language (Rahimi,
Riazi & Saif, 2008). As a result, language learning strategies “emerged not only as
integral components of various theoretical models of language proficiency but also as a
means of achieving learners’ autonomy in the process of language learning” (p. 32).
Thus, this paper focuses on the language learning strategies of female students
learning English as a second language, and the factors that have influenced these
students’ choice of language learning strategy or strategies. In the aforementioned
studies, it was observed that most of them aimed on identifying the strategies of the
learners and the factors that affected these strategies. Most of these studies, mostly
EFL, suggest that females consistently use language learning strategies compared to
males at a significantly higher rate. To add to the growing literature, this study is slanted
in investigating whether the case of the EFL female students is true on the female ESL
students in terms of language learning strategies as categorized by Oxford (1990). More
than that affirmation, the researchers also looked into the most and least preferred
language learning strategies, and the factors that affect these strategies. With regard to
factors, the focus on the task requirement, age, and the number of years learning is on
the basis of the target school of this research study. For the task, there are two basic
task requirements for first year and second year students: writing and speaking. The
age and the number of years learning English are based on the year levels definition,
though there are ten criteria that enable one to identify whether a certain method of
communication is a language or not. These ten criteria are: Use of vocal auditory
channel, arbitrariness, semanticity, cultural transmission, spontaneous usage, turn
taking, duality or doublearticulation, displacement, structure dependence, and creativity
(Aitchison, 1989, in Workman & Reader, 2008). As for learning vis-à-vis acquisition,
Krashen (1982, in Schütz, 2007) explains that learning is the result of formal education
wherein the student is fully aware of the process that leads him to the actual knowledge
about the language. The student, therefore, is conscious of the rules of the language
derived from his formal exposure and traditional instruction in grammar. Acquisition, on
the other hand, is the result of a student’s meaningful interaction with the native
speakers of his target language (Schütz, 2007). As this present paper’s concern is on
second language acquisition, the focus is on the formal mentioned above
Sherwin , Jham

Should teachers encourage students to learn English in countries where English is used
in many spheres of life as an official langauge, such as the Philippines, Singapore, or
India? My colleagues and I recently discussed this issue because one of our students
was planning to study English in one such country. Nowadays, some Japanese people
go to other Asian countries in order to improve their English because both cost of living
and tuition fees tend to be lower in these countries than in Britain, the U.S., Canada,
Australia, and New Zealand, which are described as English-speaking countries.
Kachru (1992, p. 356) described these English-speaking countries as “the Inner Circle”,
while he called the former colonies of these countries where English is used in many
spheres of life as “the Outer Circle”. The purpose of this paper is to discuss whether or
not learning English in the Outer-Circle countries, especially where English is the
primary medium of school instruction as well as an official language, is beneficial,
paying a specific attention to the Philippines. To investigate both advantages and
disadvantages of learning English in an Outer-Circle country, I visited language
institutions in the Philippines and took both one-on-one lessons and group lessons with
Filipino students as well as international students. I chose the Philippines for the study
because the nation is geographically close to Japan, the cost of living there is much
lower than in Japan, English is the primary medium of school instruction, and there are
a large number of online English language programs offered for the Japanese from the
Philippines.
, Franz, John Mar

The Philippines finally made a bold move towards internationalizing the state’s
educational system, the shift from the old practices to the adoption of the K-12
curriculum. Section 4 of RA 10533 mentioned, that the present and enhanced basic
education curriculum is composed of thirteen (13) years. Kindergarten and Grades 1 to
3 shall be taught in the native tongue or first language of the learners. In consonance,
Section 5 of RA 10157 insisted that the Philippines shall adopt the MTB-MLE method.
Article IX, Section 7 of 1987 Philippine also mentioned that for the sake of instruction
and communication, the languages used in the different regions shall become auxiliary
media of instruction. In addition, DepEd Order 16, series of 2012 stated that there would
be eight (8) languages to be utilized as the language of instruction. These are Tagalog,
Hiligaynon, Kapampangan, Waray, Pangasinense, Waray, Iloko, Maguindanaoan, Bikol,
Maranao, Chabacano, and Cebuano. However, problems arose due to the being
multilingual of the Philippines. The implementers met new challenges and new humps
to fill for the smooth flow of the newly adopted system. According to Kadel (2010), there
are a couple of challenges that many schools have been taking into considerations such
as implementing the mother tongue to learners with multiple mother tongue in one
classroom, lack of mother tongue teachers who are competent in the use of the
language, and lack of sound curriculum and educational materials. In a study conducted
in Uganda by Becker (2013), the mother tongue instruction in multilingual regions has
been questioned as to what mother tongue to use. As a result, it was decided that the
predominant language would become the medium of instruction. Meaning not everyone
could be given appropriate instruction in their mother tongue, thus creating the word,
“linguistic injustice”. As a result, the above dilemmas led to the crafting of this research
which aimed at investigating the challenges and gains that learners earned which they
faced as they acquire knowledge in this curriculum shift in our educational system.
These data were taken from the parents – the respondents.
August, Teresa, and Kyla

In modern society, all goods and services are produced and supplied reflecting the
thinking and attitude of consumers. In other word, everything is made, customized and
operated around consumers. However, in the field of education, learning is conducted
with a set of curriculum and textbooks regardless of learner ' thoughts or inquiries. How
much does education understand the students as consumers? Many science education
experts have tried to make the science education curriculum and textbooks. But, they
don’t actually know what the students wanted to know. The student-centered education
requires personalized learning to take place. Science class is composed by questioning
the natural and social phenomenon of students as a starting point of scientific inquiry
and organizing and creating their thoughts and ideas. In a constructivist perspective that
emphasizes the role of students in teaching-learning, teachers should consider the
nature and extent of students' thinking or understanding before teaching the lesson or
teaching the next step (Scott et al., 1994) [9]. However, in a limited classroom, it is
almost impossible for a teacher to grasp the degree of thought or understanding that a
student has, and as an alternative, students can ask questions (Maskill & de Jesus,
1997) [20]. Donaldson (1978) [4]stated that student questions not only provide insight
into the student's inner world, but also provide the teacher with a significant amount of
information about the student's reasoning. Student questioning is a good guide to what
a student wants to know (Elstgeest, 1985) [5], which is a way to get information about
the preconceptions students already have and their level of understanding (Maskill & de
Jesus. 1997) [20]. Based on the students' inquiries, the teacher will know what the
student wants and will be able to get a lot of data about the student's level of thinking
and prepare for the next class (Kim et al., 1999) [17]. Also, Student's inquiries have an
important meaning in that they link learning and thinking. Students will think through
questions, seek meaning, and relate new ideas to familiar concepts (King, 1994) [18].
And the student's inquiries have an important role to enable the basic elements of
science and science process skills (Chin & Brown, 2002) [11]. When students ask
questions and find meaning, they associate new ideas with familiar concepts (King,
1994) [18]. This can be thought of as a step in the process of information processing
(White, 1988) [26], several studies have reported that students' inquiries-explanatory in
learning activities are helpful in learning (Cuccio-Schirripa & Steiner, 2000) [12]. In this
way, the importance of learner questions has been acknowledged, and studies related
to students' questions have been made in a wide variety of ways. However, the
research on student's question is mostly about the intermediate and post-learning
question, and the research related to the question before the learning is very rare.
Student’s pre-inquiry is learning to diagnose the starting point of the learner and to link
the new information to what the learner knows, and there are factors that can affect
learning. In addition, the teacher must identify the student's thinking and teach the
students according to the student's needs (Ausubel, 1968) [1]. The questions that
students have before they learn can help students to explore and set up inquiry
problems and to engage in inquiry activities and to encourage students' creative critical
thinking and active participation in inquiry (Gott & Duggan, 1995) [7]. In addition,
students 'self-generated questions improve students' ability to think and manipulate
information, so teachers must engage in class with an interest in the questions that
students make (Wellington & Wellington, 1962) [25]. Thus, the researchers will analyze
the pre-inquiries about the scientific needs of students and learners to evaluate the
effect, which is applied to student in the class. Also, when configuring science
curriculum, and to provide a basis for constructing the curriculum and textbooks, the
researchers considered the aspects of the student. The purpose of this research, is to
extract the pre-inquiries (student-level questions) for which students had curiosity in the
elementary science. And analyze their correlation with the elementary science
curriculum, highly correlated inquiries were selected and applied in class.
Dahang, Czarina, Judy Mae

English in Indonesia becomes one of the foreign languages that are taught in the
schools besides local and national languages [1]. However, it is only considered a local
content subject [2], which means that the schools have their right to teach English or not
by taking into account their local needs and regional condition. In the past, English was
not learnt in the primary school level, but then English is considered essential for
several purposes, such as science, technology, culture, and the like. Therefore, the
Indonesian government decides to include English in the primary school’s curriculum,
known as curriculum 1994, curriculum 2004, and curriculum 2006 or it is called as
School-Based Curriculum [3]. In Indonesia, only several primary schools teach English
to their students. For example, in Yogyakarta, there are only 67 out of 166 primary
schools that teach English to the students (Dinas Pendidikan, Pemuda, dan Olahraga
Provinsi DIY, 2017). It shows that the number of primary schools teaching English has
not reached half the number of primary schools, so the level of English language
teaching readiness in the primary schools has not been encouraging enough. Teaching
English in primary schools means teaching students aged 6-12 years, regarded as
young learners [4]. As they are still young, they will come to the class with different
levels of English knowledge. They may come with excellent English; the others may
know nothing about English at all. This condition causes a difference among students’
motivation in learning English. Some of them feel that English is easy and enjoyable,
and others think that English is difficult and tedious [5]. Furthermore, the students who
are very interested in English need to be facilitated to experience an appropriate English
lesson, while they who are not interested in learning English need to be motivated and
supported more by showing that English is exciting and fun. Consequently, if the
schools have appropriate facilities, such as English books, media, and competent
teachers, they can facilitate and support the students well to learn English. It can be
concluded that teaching English in primary schools must have many challenges. English
can be profitable and destructive for young learners [6]. It might be beneficial if the
activities are exciting and related to young learners’ life. It will also make them willing to
learn English. In contrast, it can be destructive if the activities are not fun and related to
young learners’ life. Hence, it will make them dislike learning English. Along with that
statement, several studies in the area of teaching English in primary schools have been
conducted. They are in the case of textbooks, English teachers, parents’ awareness,
students’ social status, students’ interest, and so on [7,8]. From these phenomena, the
statement saying that there are many problems and challenges in teaching English in
primary schools is true [7,8,9]. Therefore, providing the solutions can help the schools to
solve those problems that may happen in the real implementation of English teaching-
learning processes at schools. The answers can be obtained by giving training for
English teachers, educating parents that English is fundamental, motivating the
students with attractive teaching materials, and the like. As many challenges happen in
teaching English in primary schools, these issues need more attention to be analyzed.
Therefore, several research questions are proposed; What are the benefits of teaching
English in primary schools?, What are the challenges in teaching English in primary
schools?, And what are solutions of the problems in teaching English in primary
schools? Therefore, the research aims are to identify the benefits and challenges in
teaching English in primary schools and to find out the solutions related to the problems.
Janica
Starting from 1995 primary schools in Indonesia are formally allowed to introduce
English as a local content subject to the fourth, fifth and sixth grade students. The
increasing awareness of the importance of mastering English in this global world seems
to have encouraged more and more primary schools to teach it. With Law No. 22 of
1999 on Regional Government, each region of the district level has full autonomy to
organize education for its people. The decision to have English as an optional subject or
as a compulsory subject in primary schools starting from the first grade and even
kindergartens in some regions seems to have been part of the implementation of
regional autonomy. With such a phenomenon, people have raised a number of
questions, of which the main ones are concerned with what approach, methods,
techniques, and materials would be appropriate for English as a foreign language in
primary schools (EFLINPS). This study will however focus on the following question:
What model of teaching and learning is appropriate for English in primary schools? This
question is worth answering because limited observation has shown that the teaching of
English in primary schools has been conducted unprofessionally. That is, the teaching
of English in primary schools has been carried out without considering the specific
characteristics of the students. Instead of teaching English through joyful activities, the
teachers as observed by Bambang Sugeng (2000), Husna (1998), Hanie (1997),
Nafisah Indarwati (2001), and Suyati (2002) taught grammar too much, used translation
without any context, and gave students too much tiring work. To help improve this
situation, under the auspices of the Centre for Curriculum Development, a three-cycle
action research study was carried out in three primary schools in Yogyakarta with the
aim of developing a model of teaching English to primary school students.