The New English Teacher ISSN 2985-0959 (Online)

Editorial

Rusma Kalra — 2024-01-25

The Convergence of the COVID-19 Pandemic and EFL Writing Pedagogy: The Paradigm Shift

Watcharee Kulprasit — 2024-01-25

In the academic context in the COVID-19 era, learning, once traditionally taking place in the classroom, has been changed to be driven online. This happens in all fields of study, including the writing pedagogy. Even in the post-pandemic, its influence can still be witnessed in forms of online or digital learning via various communication platforms such as ZOOM or Webex Meetings. However, though this phenomenon sparks a surprising educational transformation as being discussed in diverse articles across different disciplines, its silver linings, positively affecting writing pedagogy, specifically in the EFL writing instruction context, can be recognized though they come with great challenges as being reviewed. To be aware of these issues, this academic article aims to raise this topic as a paradigm shift of EFL writing pedagogy, particularly in higher education by virtue of the COVID-19 pandemic. In so doing, the novel EFL writing pedagogy frameworks, its new feedback regime, and its triangular dimensions are introduced and discussed for long-term practical pedagogical implications, especially after the pandemic legend in the digital era.

Netspeak in Students’ Academic Writing: A Case in the Philippines

Justy Tuquib — 2024-01-25

The study explored the presence of Netspeak in senior high school students’ academic writing. Several studies have revealed that students’ writing in a face-to-face setting has been observed to be declining, and a limited body of literature explored this phenomenon during a pandemic where classes were largely done virtually. With teachers complaining on the dominance of Netspeak on students’ written communication skills, the study explored whether this phenomenon becomes more evident during the pandemic. The researchers analyzed their academic writing outputs and examined the presence of Netspeak. A total of six (6) writing prompts was completed by 62 students and was given weekly through Canvas, the school’s learning management system. Through discourse analysis, the study revealed that students’ written communication responses showed forms of Netspeak which can be categorized into orthographic deviations, neosemanticism, neologism, and social media expressions. The researchers further argued that the presence of Netspeak could be attributed with so much language creativity and freedom that students enjoy over the Internet amplified by the pandemic. With so many factors involved in the conduct of the study, further studies should explore how students can lessen the use of Netspeak, especially in the field of academic writing.

Posthumanist Reflections in J.M Coetzee’s Disgrace (1999) and Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (2001): Alternative Environmental Ethics of South Africa and Japan

Weeraya Donsomsakulkij — 2024-01-25

This paper aims to investigate the ways in which notions of posthumanism are portrayed and sustained in the post-apartheid South African literature, Disgrace (1999) by J.M. Coetzee and the Japanese animation, Spirited Away (2001) by Hayao Miyazaki, reflecting on alternative environmental ethics. Posthumanism aims for propelling future sustainability by considering what concepts of humanism did to the world, structurally and discursively. Transgressing the binaries of nature and culture, human and non-human, animated and inanimated, posthumanism accredits the archipelic performances beyond modes of positioned identities and their modes of othering. However, as its current main concentration is still on Western countries, its frameworks and outcomes are constrained within Western narrations, ideologies and contexts. This paper, therefore, attempts to transgress this corpus and its epistemologies by looking at two narrations from South Africa and Japan. As a result, the paper attempts to further develop the framework of posthumanism by extending its foci onto Japanese and South African contexts.

Exploring the Effect of Flipped Classroom on Translation, Storytelling, and Knowledge of Culture

Patrisius Istiarto Djiwandono — 2024-01-25

Flipped classroom has been a recurring topic of many educational research. Only a few studies investigated the ramifications of flipped classroom for teaching several subjects in high school. This research set out to find answers to two research objectives, namely : (1) whether there is any difference between the ability of the learners before the flipped learning and after the flipped learning in translation, storytelling, and knowledge of local culture; (2) whether there is any difference between the ability of the learners who learn the three skills only from their teacher (the control group) and the ability of the learners who learn from videos and then receive extra teaching from their teacher and the ability of the learners who learn from videos only without any extra guidance from their teacher. Results showed that two of the groups, the one taught directly by the teacher and the one learning directly from the videos at homes, made gains only in translation. The control group outperformed the other two groups in translation and knowledge of local culture. Some possible causes of the results include lack of students’ and teachers’ preparedness, teaching qualities, immersion to their own culture, and some demographic factors.