How to Change Students’ Perception of Classroom EFL Learning

Abstract

This paper describes basic classroom practices that would change and reshape EFL learners’ perception of language learning at university level. Additionally, it seeks to reroute EFL teachers to get rid of unnecessary complexities that make classroom language learning difficult. Specifically, the paper attempts to give answers to questions related with ways EFL teachers can use to gear their learners towards a positive change of classroom EFL learning. The classroom practices suggested in this paper are designated to help teachers explore pedagogical alternatives that would improve their learners’ performance, and eventually motivate their learners. In order to pinpoint the preferable practices in EFL classroom, the paper used two questionnaires distributed to a sample population of Birzeit University (BZU) EFL teachers and students. Apparently, the findings indicate that there are good practices that teachers need to approach systematically in classroom; on the other hand, the questionnaire results draw the teachers’ attention to abandon some of their needless classroom behaviors. Based on these paper findings, alongside other major findings of studies in this respect, it is possible to objectively highlight certain classroom behaviors, if employed, would change our learners’ negative attitude towards classroom EFL learning. These behaviors, to be examined in the discussion, are confined to five themes: fostering classroom-centeredness, spoon-feeding elimination, reflecting learners’ learning preferences, promoting independent learning, and reconsidering 'wrong' evaluation practices.