The paper studies attitudes of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) towards inclusion of children with special educational needs (SEN) in Serbian mainstream schools. The participants were 96 primary teachers of English with diverse experience in teaching inclusive EFL classes. The results showed that most of the respondents (N=84. i.e. 87.5%) had negative attitudes towards inclusion, due to both the lack of competences and to the absence of adequate conditions for effective inclusive practice: only 29.16% of the respondents claimed they had been specially trained to teach SEN children; 69.79% reported the availability of SEN teams in school, but most of them claimed that the teams met irregularly; only 27.08% (N=26) reported having a classroom assistant in school; most of the respondents (N=89, i.e. 92.7%) expressed their concerns related to a number of challenges they faced in daily work. Considering the fact that teachers are the key to supporting the process of inclusion, and that positive attitude is a predictor of success in inclusive teaching, the change of Serbian EFL teachers' negative attitudes towards inclusion is of great importance. This can be achieved by providing adequate pre-service and in-service education of EFL teachers, and by improving the conditions in our schools.

No abstract

No abstract

Reading comprehension is a very complex process that depends on a number of cognitive and metacognitive skills and processes, the crucial ones being inference skills. The paper presents the results of a study that aimed to identify the inference skills of young learners of English as a foreign language in comprehending a narrative text (a comic strip). The participants were 90 young learners aged 11, drawn from a state primary school in Serbia. The post-reading reflection protocol was used to collect qualitative data on the participants' inference skills, while quantitative data were collected by means of a reading task. The results indicate that successful readers applied a variety of inference skills, flexibly combining local inferences (referential, case and antecedent causal inferences) with global inferences (superordinate goal, thematic, and character emotional reaction inferences), and monitoring their comprehension while reading. By contrast, less successful readers relied mainly on local inferences, not monitoring their understanding, which resulted in poor scores in the reading test. The study highlights the need for integrating the development of young English language learners' inference skills into reading programmes. young English language learners, reading comprehension, post-reading reflection protocol, local and global inferences, world knowledge. introduction Reading Comprehension and Inference Skills Reading comprehension is a very complex process that depends on a number of cognitive and metacognitive skills and processes, the crucial ones being inference skills. Reading knowledge and skills of successful readers operate very quickly in working memory at lower and higher level processing, resulting in text comprehension through the formation of a text model of reading comprehension (Grabe & Stoller, 2011; Nation, 2005). The reader's background knowledge (schema) and inference skills help the formation of a situation model of reader interpretation, without which comprehension is rather shallow (Kintsch & Rawson, 2005). The construction of a textbase and situation model in reading comprehension is very much dependent on inferencing, i.e. "the ability to use two or more

As multimodal texts in which both pictures and words are used to communicate meaning, graphic novels are increasingly finding their place in a foreign language classroom. While multimodality supports comprehension and increases motivation for reading in a foreign language, graphic novel contents offer ample opportunities for developing the 21st century skills, like visual literacy, critical and creative thinking, problem solving, communicative competence, and intercultural awareness and sensitivity. The paper explores how primary learners’ intercultural sensitivity can be developed through a number of age- and language-appropriate activities applied before, during and after reading a graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Yang (2006). The aim of the paper is to support the didactic potential and pedagogical value of graphic novels to foster intercultural learning and develop empathy in primary English language learners.

No abstract

Academic and professional success has never been so dependent on literacy skills in English as a foreign or second language (L2) as it is at the present time. Reading has become a crucial skill in terms of learning mainly due to the fast technological development and a vast body of information available in English on the internet. This situation is placing great demands for reading skill development even to young English language learners. since young learners' confidence and motivation are found to contribute to their linguistic outcomes, the paper aims to study how young learners' motivation contributes to their reading skill development and reading achievement. A survey of reading skills and attitudes was conducted with a sample of 502 young English language learners (aged 11, primary grade five) from six state primary schools located in five distant towns in serbia. Motivation and reading skills were investigated both quantitatively and qualitatively. correlational analysis of these results showed that there was a statistically significant difference in reading outcomes in relation to motivation for L2 learning and to attitudes to different aspects of reading, while the interviews with a sub-sample of L2 learners indicated a crucial role of motivation for extensive reading and fluency development. The findings point to the key role of motivation for young learners' L2 literacy development and have significant pedagogical implications.

No abstract