The unanticipated transition from traditional/on‐campus to distance learning has not only posed challenges in different contexts at the global level, but it also caused disparity in terms of access to education. As a mandate, Goal 4 of Sustainable Development Goals states that by 2030 all member states should work to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (UNESCO, 2015). In practice, however, the responses of different international education institutions during the Covid‐19 confinement indicate that the achievement of this equity plan at the global level is rather unfeasible. To address this issue from a local lens, this study seeks to examine the plan implemented for online teaching in the Algerian higher education institutions. It draws on a key body of literature on online infrastructure and pedagogy to explore (1) the different online teaching models that were implemented, (2) Algerian higher education teachers' practices within the framework of this new model of teaching, and (3) the different challenges encountered by teachers during this transition. To achieve this end, a qualitative study that is based on an analysis of teachers' interviews is conducted to explore teachers' practices in different higher education institutions in Algeria. The results of this research will not only highlight the prevailing disparities, but will also serve to offer recommendations that could be relevant to future teachers' professional development programs.
Abstract:This study is an exploration of the extent to which reading novels develops Algerian EFL students' empathetic attitudes towards human issues in the novel they are exposed to on the one hand and towards current local and worldwide issues on the other. To achieve this aim, a survey questionnaire is designed. The respondents are 50 MA students of Anglo-American Studies at the English Department of Oum El Bouaghi University (Algeria). The students have been exposed to Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as a part of their syllabus. Accordingly, their reactions to the questions concerning this novel provide the necessary data around which this study hinges. The findings of the research are meant to help teachers and researchers to seek out new possibilities of developing more effective ways of using novel reading in EFL university classes. Additionally, the results serve to raise Algerian EFL students' awareness about reading novels and their impact on stimulating their imagination, critical thinking and emotional attitudes.
Although the native/non-native speaking teacher dichotomy has stirred up ample scholarly consideration and debate in the field of English language teaching, insufficient attention has been devoted to the interactional features that characterize teacher talk, primarily teachers' questioning behavior. This study sought to determine the extent to which native and non-native English-speaking teachers diverge in terms of the different types of questions they employ in their classes. Accordingly, eight classes of a native and a non-native speaking teacher at the department of English of Constantine Teachers' College, Algeria, were audio recorded, transcribed and analyzed according to the different types of questions. The analysis of the results reveals that the native-speaking teacher is more inclined toward promoting a genuine classroom interaction by employing more procedural and referential questions along with an extensive use of comprehension checks, whereas the non-native speaking teacher tended to foster students' participation through an extensive use of display and convergent questions combined with an abundance of clarification requests and confirmation checks.
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