MR ROHIB SANGIA

Biography

My academic year as a doctorate student at the University of Aberdeen begins in February 2023. My thesis is an in-depth examination of locally produced EFL textbooks used in Southeast Asia, based on a combination of corpus research approaches, semiotic viewpoints, and NNESTs' determination to improve material quality. In my former position, I taught English as a Foreign Language in a secondary Islamic school in the Maluku archipelago in Eastern Indonesia. It did, however, give me excellent experience in the field of EFL education prior to beginning my PhD studies. For 14 years in this position, I worked hard to improve my teaching methods and get a thorough understanding of the specific demands that must be met in EFL courses. I worked as an ESP teacher for the ILP Corporate Division in Jakarta, Indonesia, for two years before starting to teach English as a foreign language. Following this experience, I am more confident in my abilities as an English language instructor, not only as an instructor but also as an investigator in theory and practice.

Research Overview

My current study aims to determine how well English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks made in four developing Southeast Asian countries help their students acquire English. It is paying attention to a few aspects to be compared. First, the textbooks' readability is looked at since how hard they are to understand can significantly affect how fast and well students learn. Second, the study will look at how well these textbooks balance the four primary language skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—because finding the right balance is vital for a complete way of learning a language. Third, the role of visual semiotics in these textbooks will be examined, focusing on how these symbols can help learning by engaging multiple senses and how teachers use these visuals to help students learn languages. It will also look into how much teachers change these textbooks to meet the needs of different students since personalised learning materials can make a big difference in how much students learn and how well they learn in general. In addition, the study will examine how teachers use additional materials to support the textbooks. Eventually, these findings will be summarised and compared with the available national scores from Independent English assessments, including IELTS and TOEFL.

Funding and Grants

2013 - Recipient of the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs Master's Scholarship

2016 - Recipient of the SEAMEO Regional Open Learning Centre Research Grant

2019 - Recipient of the The Indonesia Endowment Funds for Education (LPDP RI) Foreign Doctoral Scholarship