Different societies have their own perspectives on the definition of a good language teacher, as their members attach varying degrees of importance to the different skills and personal qualities ...required for effective teaching. While available studies have identified numerous desired language and pedagogical competencies among educators, the dynamic post-pandemic reality has brought increased attention to the importance of building and maintaining relationships with students. This process inevitably involves emotional engagement from both educators and students. Consequently, there is a growing call for both groups to accept their true selves and act authentically in their educational interactions. In response to the promotion of these values in education, this article aims to present the results of a study that sought to examine how experienced language students, representing Generation Z in Poland, define and evaluate authentic behaviours of their foreign language teachers. The participants of the study were asked to complete an online questionnaire containing both open and closed questions about their perceptions of their teachers’ authenticity. The thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed a one-sided, unequivocally positive perception of authenticity, both in the general sense and in relation to the educational context. Numerous positive traits, such as sincerity, openness, sense of humour and didactic expertise were recognised as characteristics of authentic language teachers.
Different societies have their own perspectives on the definition of a good language teacher, as their members attach varying degrees of importance to the different skills and personal qualities required for effective teaching. While available studies have identified numerous desired language and pedagogical competencies among educators, the dynamic post-pandemic reality has brought increased attention to the importance of building and maintaining relationships with students. This process inevitably involves emotional engagement from both educators and students. Consequently, there is a growing call for both groups to accept their true selves and act authentically in their educational interactions. In response to the promotion of these values in education, this article aims to present the results of a study that sought to examine how experienced language students, representing Generation Z in Poland, define and evaluate authentic behaviours of their foreign language teachers. The participants of the study were asked to complete an online questionnaire containing both open and closed questions about their perceptions of their teachers’ authenticity. The thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed a one-sided, unequivocally positive perception of authenticity, both in the general sense and in relation to the educational context. Numerous positive traits, such as sincerity, openness, sense of humour and didactic expertise were recognised as characteristics of authentic language teachers.
As a result of increasing numbers of immigrants, Poland is currently in the process of transition from a predominantly mono-lingual/cultural to multilingual/cultural country. Consequently, a ...constantly rising number of foreign students is joining Polish schools, who face the need to adapt to new social and institutional settings. In response to this demographic trend, the main aim of this paper is to point to the role of different factors recognised as facilitating in the process of school adaptation in the case of immigrant students in the Polish educational system. The research participants, 23 Polish teachers of English, in semi-structured interviews, described over 60 cases of multilingual children they used to work with. Out of these, the accounts describing primary school learners who had adapted well to new educational environments were selected for qualitative analysis, conducted with the aid of NVivo Software. In this case study, the stories of four successful adaptations have been selected to illustrate the importance of factors recognised in the analysis as those which favourably assist the process of school adjustment. These include: (1) the individual dispositions of the newcomer, (2) the behaviours of their classmates, (3) the supportive actions of teachers, (4) parents engagement and assistance.
In accordance with the assumptions of the sociologically grounded labelling theory, anindividuals self-perception and, consequently, their actions, might be influenced by wordsused to describe them. ...Also, in the context of education, including the field of foreign languagelearning, such a process of defining learners in a simplified way, has been proven tohave profound consequences of psychological nature. The main purpose of the article is tooutline the results of a study in which 37 teachers of English shared the stories of their mostdifficult students. The qualitative analysis of the gathered descriptions allowed the identificationof some common features characteristic of, so-called, hopeless cases, among whichmotivation-related problems are the most often enumerated ones. Additionally, many teacherswrote about their struggles while teaching students with special educational needs. The viewsexpressed by the participants of the study might help understand the way in which opinionsabout students are formulated as well as point to the need for significant changes to be madein the area of foreign language teacher education and training.
Communication in a foreign language requires activation of numerous, not necessarily linguistic, competences. As recent studies suggest, in order to facilitate this complicated process, people tend ...to put on different masks and change their personality-related behaviours. Such behavioural changes seem to be typical for testing situations when students’ actions are additionally influenced by stress. Drawing on her own observations and teaching experience, the author of this article strives to point to the correspondence between the manifestation of some behaviours resulting from students’ personality makeups and the effectiveness of their spoken performance in a foreign language. By directing readers’ attention to this correlation, she wants to underline the importance of personality training for the sake of effective communication in a foreign language. Additionally, this article presents the results of a survey conducted among 54 students of English at the Pedagogical University of Cracow – the data collected shows that students intentionally alter their personality-related behaviours in an attempt to earn higher scores on their oral exams. The direction of these changes might constitute useful advice for less experienced foreign-language test-takers.
Over the last decade, teachers in Poland have observed an increase in the number of primary school children with bi/multilingual and culturally diverse backgrounds. Regardless of their complex ...experiences, they face many cultural, social, linguistic and educational challenges upon entering primary school. English teachers are often at the forefront, helping them navigate through the intricacy of their seemingly 'dual lives' (Li and Zhu. 2013. "Translanguaging Identities and Ideologies: Creating Transnational Space Through Flexible Multilingual Practices Amongst Chinese University Students in the UK." Applied Linguistics 34 (5): 516-535, 531). The paper presents the results of an interview study among 23 Polish EFL teachers with a view towards investigating Polish EFL teachers' experiences and ways of working with bi/multilingual children directed at child integration and socialization into the new environment. The collected data was coded following the content analysis approach (Krippendorff. 2003. Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage) and analysed from the ecological perspective (see Bronfenbrenner. 1979. The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; van Lier. 2004. The Ecology and Semiotics of Language Learning. Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers), whereby successful child socialization was observed to be dependent on an intricate network of interrelated factors. The role of the exosystem, i.e. the school system, has been found the least supportive due to the absence of a comprehensive multilingual policy, and lack of teacher support via teacher training, all of which have been concluded to be of urgent need in the emergent multilingual setting.
Because the incidental learning of vocabulary must occur if second language learners are to approach a vocabulary that compares with that of native speakers, this step is crucial (Hatch and Brown, ...1995, p. 374). According to Hatch and Brown (1995), one can include here for example: λ/ Asking others about the word meaning (other students, native speakers, teachers); λ/ Mind mapping; λ/ Using context (situational, discourse, specific context e.g. a text); λ/ Using dictionaries... First question was open and involved giving a definition of learning strategies, the rest was half-open - there were options provided, but the students were also given the freedom of adding their own options. ...when working with less advanced and younger students, teachers should assist them more in the case of vocabulary development, but at the same time should help them to develop autonomy in this field.
New symmetrical arylene bisimide derivatives formed by using electron-donating–electron-accepting systems were synthesized. They consist of a phthalic diimide or naphthalenediimide core and imine ...linkages and are end-capped with thiophene, bithiophene, and (ethylenedioxy)thiophene units. Moreover, polymers were obtained from a new diamine, N,N′-bis(5-aminonaphthalenyl)naphthalene-1,4,5,8-dicarboximide and 2,5-thiophenedicarboxaldehyde or 2,2′-bithiophene-5,5′-dicarboxaldehyde. The prepared azomethine diimides exhibited glass-forming properties. The obtained compounds emitted blue light with the emission maximum at 470 nm. The value of the absorption coefficient was determined as a function of the photon energy using spectroscopic ellipsometry. All compounds are electrochemically active and undergo reversible electrochemical reduction and irreversible oxidation processes as was found in cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) studies. They exhibited a low electrochemically (DPV) calculated energy band gap (E g) from 1.14 to 1.70 eV. The highest occupied molecular orbital and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital levels and E g were additionally calculated theoretically by density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) level. The photovoltaic properties of two model compounds as the active layer in organic solar cells in the configuration indium tin oxide/poly(3,4-(ethylenedioxy)thiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/active layer/Al under an illumination of 1.3 mW/cm2 were studied. The device comprising poly(3-hexylthiophene) with the compound end-capped with bithiophene rings showed the highest value of V oc (above 1 V). The conversion efficiency of the fabricated solar cell was in the range of 0.69–0.90%.
Three novel isomeric helical molecules 2-methoxy-m,n-dimethyl-6-phenyl-6H-5,6,7-triazadibenzof,hnaphtho3,2,1-cdazulenes (m,n = 8,9; 8,10; 9,10), derived from alkylated 1H-pyrazolo3,4-bquinoline ...halides, were synthesized. Their twisted structures containing a seven-membered ring help to sustain a glassy state, which enables a film of good quality to be formed. All compounds exhibit distinct glass transition temperatures (98, 100 and 113 °C, respectively). The racemization barrier of the dyes is rather low, ∼25 kcal/mol. In consequence the compounds were obtained as racemic mixtures, both in solution and crystalline state. The helical structure of azulenes can be clearly seen from their crystal structures; however the racemates belong to centrosymmetric space groups. Finally, the helical dyes were successfully applied as a direct light emitting layer in OLED cell. The configuration of the devices: ITO/PEDOT:PSS/azulene/Ca/Al, emitting greenish-yellow light with CIE coordinates (0.44, 0.54) is reported.
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•A new azulene aza4helicene has been synthesized.•A non-doped OLED based on the dye performed well.•Potential use for circularly polarized (CP) light-emitting devices.
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