English language teaching methods in Azerbaijan

Main material

First, we chose three high prestige journals published in Azerbaijan and reviewed the articles dedicated to any of innovative and modern teaching methodologies published between 2020-2022. The journals are the “Azerbaijan Journal of Educational Studies” published by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Azerbaijan Republic (Baku); the “Transactions of Pedagogical University” Journal published by the Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University (Baku), and the journal of “Scientific Works” published by the Nakhchivan State University (Nakhchivan) (Table 1).

The list of the articles we found

Article review findings. Using the primary quantitative method, we searched for the articles published between 2020-2022 in the journals mentioned above and as a result found only 7 articles. 4 of them have been published in the “Azerbaijan Journal of Educational Studies”, 1 in the “Transactions of Pedagogical University” and 2 in the “Scientific Works”.

Fig. 1. Distribution of teachers. Blue-school, red - university

PBL, Active learning and Interactive methods are the most investigated topics, and each has been studied by two authors. They are preceded by Parallel teaching method, Problem-based learning, Communicative method, Collaborative method that have been researched by one author. In total, the number of the articles are less than we expected.

Fig. 2. The methods used by teachers

Table 1

Later, we investigated the most advanced and innovative teaching methods that are very cutting-edge, effective and common due to some articles published on the Internet. Having shortlisted them we chose 8 of them.

We designed survey questions based on our study results. We held an online survey in the Azerbaijani language among male and female ESL instructors residing and working in the urban and rural schools and universities of Azerbaijan including the capital city. In the online survey, 50 higher education and school teachers participated, and we have opinions of the 50 people from different regions and educational institutions of Azerbaijan.

According to our survey results, the application of some modern teaching methodologies and strategies are neglected under the influence of past ideologies and traditions, and their use can make a big difference to foreign language teaching lessons. We mention the results below and also briefly explain the methods and their essence for those who haven't heard about them.

In the survey, we asked the year of teaching experiences, and consequently, most of the respondents have experiences of teaching between 1-5 and 6-10 years, a few of them are over than 16 years.

According to the results, 52% of teachers are working at schools, and 48% at universities (Fig. 1).

We have asked the name of the method they commonly use during teaching process and a large part of teachers have confused, and mentioned activity names, not methods. The most noted method is communicative by 14 teachers (12 university and 2 school teachers), and others are grammar-translation by 1 (a university teacher), direct method by 1 (a university teacher), CLIL by 1 (a university teacher), project-based learning by 2 (2 university teachers), reproductive learning by 3 (1 university and 2 school teachers), active learning by 2 (2 school teachers), game-based learning by 1(a university teachers) (Fig. 2).

In the next question, we asked directly if they use the Communicative method or not. 82% (41 people) said “Yes”, 12% (6 people) “No”, and 6% (3 people) “I haven't heard” (Fig. 3). Another question was “Do you apply “Differentiated Instruction (DI)” in your ESL classes?” and 64% (32 respondents) said “Yes”, 26% (13 respondents) said “No”, and 10% (5 respondents) “I haven't heard” (Fig. 4).

Differentiated Instruction. It means to tailor classes to meet each student's needs in the classroom. In this method, teachers differentiate material, activities, products, etc. More flexible environment is created for all students in the group, by this way, they are able to learn at their pace and express the content they customize with alternative ways. Learning outcomes remain the same for all learners but how to get those outcomes is an option and autonomy given to student. This method speeds up the learning process and let all students get maximum benefit from classes. The question “Do you apply “Kinesthetic Learning” in your ESL classes?” received 48% (24 respondents) “Yes”, 34% (17 respondents) “No”, and 18% (9 respondents) “I haven't heard” (Fig. 5).

Fig. 3. The question about the use of the Communicative method

Fig. 4. Application of Differentiated Instruction

Fig. 5. Application of the Kinesthetic learning

Fig. 6. Application of the Game-based Learning

Fig. 7. Application of the PBL

Fig. 8. Application of the Flipped Classroom

Fig. 9. Application of the Collaborative/Cooperative learning

azerbaijani innovative traditional teaching foreign language

Kinesthetic Learning. It requires physical contact with material to learn it. In order to produce multisensory learning, teachers use auditory and visual materials. In the classes, learners make things such as posters, charts, group projects, etc. and prepare cards, perform physical movements, field trips, excursions, etc. By this way, students retain information in their long-term memory and effective especially for little ones.

“Do you apply “Game-based learning” in your ESL classes?”. It was replied “Yes” by 86% of the respondents (43 people) and “No” by 14% (7 people) (Fig. 6).

Game-based Learning. GBL is a strategy that combines games and learning environment to achieve self-practice and self-assessment. Teachers choose appropriate elements to apply real life situation. Gamification of classes enables high level of engagement of learners, and at the moment is one of the main trends in teaching foreign languages, especially in higher education institutions.

One of the elements of GBL is digital badging. When students complete their activities or studies, they earn badges and can easily display their level of knowledge to others. By this way, their accomplishments become open to everybody and can be verified by external stake holders.

In classrooms, to perform GBL is highly feasible and only thing needed by teachers is Internet access. A number of educational games and game-based activities have been designed, and they are ready resources for use on the Internet. Most of them are totally free. Alessi and Trollip (2000) categorize educational games as adventure and role-playing games, business games, board games, combat games, logic games and puzzles, and word games. These games can be a single player or multi-players. These kinds of activities are engaging and fun, also changes students' approach to learning process and improves their problem-solving skills.

The next question we asked was “Do you apply “Project-based Learning” in your ESL classes?”. 64% teachers (32 respondents) said “Yes”, 34% (17 respondents) said “No”, and 2% (1 respondent) “I haven't heard” (Fig. 7).

Project-based Learning. The Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget's statement “knowledge is a consequence of experience” is clearly depicting the importance of PBL because we live in the world of projects (Martinez 2014). The PBL is a kind of approach in which learners are engaged in gaining knowledge and improving skills by working on a project for a certain amount of time. In this approach students investigate, and try to solve a problem or a question by using their critical thinking, communication and interaction skills and team work. In order to prepare students for future work life, teachers mostly choose projects based on real life situations.

The question “Do you apply “Flipped classroom” in your ESL classes?” has remarkable responds. 56% (28 people) of the teachers hasn't applied it, 20% (10 people) hasn't heard about it. Only 24% (12 people) of the teachers apply it (Fig. 8).

Flipped classroom. In this type of training, the course material is delivered to the students in advance to let them study at home. During the classes, teacher consolidate the new knowledge acquired by teachers by further expansion of the topic and practical application. This strategy, which supports the individual learning process, can be easily applied in lectures and practical classes.

In Azerbaijan, new material is presented in the course of the lesson, then its explanation is given, and at the end, knowledge on the subject is strengthened. If the students are familiar with the lecture or lesson material from the beginning, then the parts they do not understand or are difficult may be discussed in the class, and it might increase the effectiveness of the lesson.

Now let's proceed with the question “Do you apply “Collaborative/Cooperative learning” in your ESL classes?”. 40 teachers that is 80% of the respondents replied as “Yes”, 9 teachers (18%) said “No”. 2% (1 respondent) hasn't heard about this methodology (Fig. 9).

Collaborative/Cooperative learning. Collaborative and Cooperative learning are similar with a few distinctive properties. The core distinction is that collaborative learning that might happen in any situation when students work together. For instance, at home when helping each other about home assignment which can be online, too. However, cooperative learning happens when students work together in the same place, and in a small group.

Similarities. The both approaches enable active student participation and social interaction. Students bear responsibility fortheir own pace oflearning, and the role of a teacher is facilitator during the teaching process. In both approaches students' cognitive and team building skills are developed. With group work learning process become more memorable, learners' self-confidence and social skills are strengthened. Students learn to understand and respect different perspectives of others.

We are moving to the next question “Do you apply “Universal Design for Learning” in your ESL classes?” 40% (20 teachers) of the teachers never apply UDL in their ESL classes. 32% (16 teachers) implements during teaching process, however, 28% (14 teachers) haven't heard about this approach (Fig. 10).

Fig. 10. Application of the UDL

UDL. It is an approach that encompasses curriculum design and has 3 main components: representation, action and expression, engagement.

Representation. It is about what to teach students, in a nutshell the choice of material such as visual information, auditory information, etc. Students customize information in different ways, so the display of the new material should be versatile. For example, slide presentations, pdf, podcast, sound, colourful fonts, and highlights and others.

Action and Expression. It is about how to teach, and its essence is offering different types of activities that suit all students. Students should be allowed to demonstrate their knowledge with alternative modalities during the learning process. Some students are comfortable when they do written tasks but others in oral activities. Learners can be provided with options about physical action and expression.

Engagement. How to motivate or engage students into any kind of activity is a challenging issue for teachers because the goal of learning differs from students to students. UDL claims that it isn't possible to engage all students by utilizing an option that appeals all students and their area of interest. Thus, teachers should offer multiple options for all students.

The analysis of the survey findings

Looking at the collected data from a predefined group of teachers to uncover insights about the application of advanced and innovative teaching methodologies, interesting view appears in front of us. Let's analyse the information we gathered together.

The good point of the survey is that there is a balance among the respondents, half university teachers and half school teachers/

When we ask teachers to name the methods they use in their lessons, we see that teachers have confused the notions of activity and method. Most of the responses mentioned here are classroom activities, not a method, and only Communicative and Project-based learning are mentioned by a few teachers. Interestingly, none of the other methods mentioned in the survey are noted by the teachers except for two as we mentioned above.

We see that the communicative method is the most known and applied method among Azerbaijani teachers. High percentage (82%) of the teachers use it during the teaching process, and there are teachers that haven't heard about it. In total, 18% doesn't utilize it.

In the Differentiated Instruction, the situation isn't heart-warming because DI isn't applied by 36% of the teachers, though the imbalance of students' skills and knowledge is inevitable almost in all classrooms.

The Kinesthetic learning which can be very effective and interesting approach in teaching English to children isn't implemented by almost half of teachers, and what is more, there are teachers that haven't heard about it.

Unlike the Kinesthetic learning, the result about Game-based learning is hopeful. Most of teachers use game elements during teaching process but most likely not all of them mean technology-based digital activities because access to technology is limited in the classrooms. In Azerbaijani higher education institutions and schools, the number of the smart classrooms is limited, only a few classrooms with smart boards and projectors in each school and university. Thus, teachers take turns using it.

The result about PBL is astonishing because it is one of the key methods that is offered by numerous training programmes in Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, the number of teachers utilizing it is only 64%.

76% doesn't use the flipped classrooms and it is normal because FC is one of the approaches that most of teachers are unaware of it in Azerbaijan. In a traditional lectures or practical classes conducted in Azerbaijan the material is presented during that class not before it.

The percentage of the application of the Collaborative/Cooperative is surprising and the reason is that, there are strict rules about noise control in the classrooms in Azerbaijan. Consequently, group work is mostly ignored, and pair work is more preferable by teachers.

Final question is about UDL which is one of the latest methods developed in the USA, and new for most of countries and teachers. Normally, it isn't applied by 68% in total.

Comparison. The survey results show a wide range of methods are known and applied by teachers; however, the article review shows that most of updated methods are ignored and not researched enough. What is more, due to the survey result the most known and applied method is Communicative method, but when comes to research project-based learning dominates.