The Children's Foreign Language Anxiety Scale: Reliability and Validity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydin, Selami; Harputlu, Leyla; Ustuk, Özgehan; Güzel, Serhat; Çelik, Seyda Savran

2017-01-01

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has been mainly associated with adult language learners. Although FLA forms a serious problem in the foreign language learning process for all learners, the effects of FLA on children have been mainly overlooked. The underlying reason is that there is a lack of an appropriate measurement tool for FLA among children.…

Information and Communication Technologies in Learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL): Attitudes of EFL Learners in Vietnam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ngo, Hong T. P.

2017-01-01

Given breakthroughs in information and communication technologies (ICTs), language learners are increasingly presented with opportunities to advance their proficiency in a target language (herein English as a foreign language or EFL). The attitudes of learners toward the use of ICTs (ICT attitudes) can be predictive of their adoption of ICTs for…

Foreign Language Learning and Identity Reconstruction: Learners' Understanding of the Intersections of the Self, the Other and Power

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sa'd, Seyyed Hatam Tamimi

2017-01-01

The present qualitative study sought to explore the relationship between English language learning and identity reconstruction from the viewpoints of Iranian language learners. The data were collected by means of focus-group interviews with forty-five male intermediate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). To define the concept of…

Combining Formal and Informal Learning: The Use of an Application to Enhance Information Gathering and Sharing Competence in a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sato, Yukiko; Rachmawan, Irene Erlyn Wina; Brückner, Stefan; Waragai, Ikumi; Kiyoki, Yasushi

2017-01-01

This study aims to enhance foreign language learners' language competence by integrating formal and informal learning environments and considers how they can improve their grammatical and lexical skills through the gathering (comprehension) and sharing (writing) of information in the foreign language. Experiments with German learners at a Japanese…

French Vocabulary in "Encore Tricolore": Do Pupils Have a Chance?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tschichold, Cornelia

2012-01-01

British learners acquire very little vocabulary in their foreign languages, compared to pupils elsewhere in Europe, particularly learners of English as a foreign language. Could the materials used for teaching help explain this difference? An analysis of the vocabulary loading of a textbook for French as a foreign language commonly used in…

Intelligence and Metacognition as Predictors of Foreign Language Achievement: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pishghadam, Reza; Khajavy, Gholam Hassan

2013-01-01

This study examined the role of metacognition and intelligence in foreign language achievement on a sample of 143 Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Participants completed Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices as a measure of intelligence, and Metacognitive Awareness Inventory as a measure of metacognition. Learners' scores at…

The Impact of First and Second Languages on Azerbaijani EFL Learners' Writing Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shabani, Mansour; Tahriri, Abdorreza; Ardebili, Samaneh Farzaneh

2016-01-01

There has always been a debate whether or not the learners' first language (L1) can facilitate the process of learning foreign language. Since foreign language writing (FL) is a complicated process, it seems that the role of the learners' L1 and its effect on FL writing is of great importance in this regard. The present study aimed at…

Online Games for Young Learners' Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, Yuko Goto; Someya, Yuumi; Fukuhara, Eiji

2014-01-01

Young learners' use of instructional games in foreign language learning is not yet well understood. Using games that were part of the learning tools for an online assessment, Jido-Eiken, a standardized English proficiency test for young learners in Japan, we examined young learners' game-playing behaviours and the relationship of these behaviours…

Factors Influencing the Use of Captions by Foreign Language Learners: An Eye-Tracking Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winke, Paula; Gass, Susan; Sydorenko, Tetyana

2013-01-01

This study investigates caption-reading behavior by foreign language (L2) learners and, through eye-tracking methodology, explores the extent to which the relationship between the native and target language affects that behavior. Second-year (4th semester) English-speaking learners of Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish watched 2 videos…

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety of Arab Learners of English: The Effect of Personality, Linguistic and Sociobiographical Variables

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dewaele, Jean-Marc; Al-Saraj, Taghreed M.

2015-01-01

The present study focuses on the link between psychological, sociobiographical and linguistic variables and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety of 348 Arabic learners of English (250 females, 98 males). Data were collected using the Arabic Foreign Language Anxiety Questionnaire (AFLAQ; Al-Saraj, 2011, 2014) and an Arabic version of the…

A Model of Foreign Language Anxiety in the Saudi EFL Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alrabai, Fakieh

2014-01-01

Feelings of anxiety are commonly expressed by Saudi learners in their English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. These feelings typically exert detrimental effects on these learners' foreign language attainment. This paper reports on the findings of a large-scale study for which three data collection iterations were conducted over three years to…

Understanding Learners' Self-Assessment and Self-Feedback on Their Foreign Language Speaking Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Shu-Chen

2016-01-01

This study examines university learners' self-assessment and self-feedback on performance as captured in audio files from a foreign language speaking test. The learners' were guided to listen, transcribe and analyse their own speaking samples, as well as propose future actions for improvement. Content of learners' self-feedback was scrutinised…

Attitudes of EFL Learners towards the Internet

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydin, Selami

2007-01-01

Related literature indicates that the Internet has an important role and great potential in foreign language learning. It is also obvious that attitudes of learners affect learning process significantly. This study aimed to investigate the attitudes of foreign language learners and to find the relationship between attitudes and subject variables.…

Transforming Cultural Conflict in the Foreign Language Classroom: The Case of Arabic at Defense Language Institute

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrett, Tyler; Trosky, Abram; Tawadrous, Adel

2018-01-01

This paper considers the impact of global and national political polarisation on perspectives of instructors and learners in Arabic classrooms at Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) in the United States with particular interest in understanding cultural conflicts that occur between instructors and learners. Instructors and…

A Critical Appraisal of Foreign Language Research in Content and Language Integrated Learning, Young Language Learners, and Technology-Enhanced Language Learning Published in Spain (2003-2012)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dooly, Melinda; Masats, Dolors

2015-01-01

This state-of-the-art review provides a critical overview of research publications in Spain in the last ten years in three areas of teaching and learning foreign languages (especially English): context and language integrated learning (CLIL), young language learners (YLL), and technology-enhanced language learning (TELL). These three domains have…

Individual characteristics of language learners in lesson planning for specific purposes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivleva, N. V.

2016-04-01

This paper provides a summary of internationally recognized methods and approaches in teaching foreign languages with the focus on teaching foreign languages for specific purposes. It also covers the idea of mastering a foreign language through knowing speech units which are necessary for individual language learners in the professional area with due regard to criteria provided by the author. The criteria were developed on the basis of the theory on adaptation of complex systems and also observation in the teaching process.

Measuring Adult Learners' Foreign Language Anxiety, Motivational Factors, and Achievement Expectations: A Comparative Study between Chinese as a Second-Language Students and English as a Second-Language Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Li-Ching

2013-01-01

This dissertation focuses on interpreting the impacts of foreign language anxiety and individual characteristics on the achievement expectations of Chinese second-language learners and English second-language students at the university level. Four research questions are examined through quantitative design. In relation to methodology, this study…

Effects of Sound, Vocabulary, and Grammar Learning Aptitude on Adult Second Language Speech Attainment in Foreign Language Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saito, Kazuya

2017-01-01

This study examines the relationship between different types of language learning aptitude (measured via the LLAMA test) and adult second language (L2) learners' attainment in speech production in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classrooms. Picture descriptions elicited from 50 Japanese EFL learners from varied proficiency levels were analyzed…

The Role of Incidental Unfocused Prompts and Recasts in Improving English as a Foreign Language Learners' Accuracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahimi, Muhammad; Zhang, Lawrence Jun

2016-01-01

This study was designed to investigate the effects of incidental unfocused prompts and recasts on improving English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' grammatical accuracy as measured in students' oral interviews and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) grammar test. The design of the study was quasi-experimental with pre-tests,…

Students' and Teachers' Assessments of the Need for Accuracy in the Oral Production of German as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chavez, Monika

2007-01-01

Previous research indicates that foreign language learners are much more focused on accuracy, particularly grammatical accuracy, than their teachers are. The purpose of the current study was to gain a more detailed understanding of American learners' views of the need for accuracy in the oral production of a foreign language (German) by (a)…

Reasons behind Young Learners' Learning of Foreign Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akçay, Aslihan; Ferzan Bütüner, Tuba; Arikan, Arda

2015-01-01

English has become a compulsory lesson starting at the second grade in Turkey while younger learners are growingly introduced to it at earlier ages through various pre-schools, day-care programs and private courses. This descriptive study focuses on young learners' self-reported reasons for learning English and other foreign languages. Twenty…

Designing Interaction Tasks in Second Life for Chinese as a Foreign Language Learners: A Preliminary Exploration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lan, Yu-Ju; Kan, Yu-Hsuan; Hsiao, Indy Y. T.; Yang, Stephen J. H.; Chang, Kuo-En

2013-01-01

The aims of this research were to develop guidelines for designing interaction tasks for learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) and to investigate the attitudes of CFL learners toward a full CFL class in Second Life (SL). Three research questions were addressed in this research: (1) what are the attitudes of CFL learners toward the…

Vocabulary Input from School Textbooks as a Potential Contributor to the Small Vocabulary Uptake Gained by English as a Foreign Language Learners in Saudi Arabia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alsaif, Abdullah; Milton, James

2012-01-01

Research repeatedly reports very little vocabulary uptake by English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in public schools in Saudi Arabia. Factors such as the teaching methodology employed and learner motivation have been suggested to explain this but a further explanation, the vocabulary input these learners receive, remains uninvestigated. An…

Investigating Predictors of Nonacademic ESOL Learners' L2 Literacy Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ro, Eunseok; Ryu, Jin

2013-01-01

The factors determining foreign language abilities have received copious attention from foreign language studies, and these research findings provided highly converging pedagogical implications for language teachers. However, not many studies have focused on non-academic learners especially with respect to their literacy skills. To fill this gap,…

Young Foreign Language Learners' Interactions during Task-Based Paired Assessments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, Yuko Goto; Zeng, Wei

2014-01-01

Despite the popularity of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in foreign language (FL) education at elementary school, it remains unclear how young learners' FL abilities can best be evaluated with tasks. The present study seeks to understand developmental differences in interactions among elementary-school students during task-based language…

The Effects of Modality, Information Type, and Language Experience on Recall by Foreign Language Learners of Spanish.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mecartty, Frances H.

2001-01-01

Investigated the effects of modality, information type, and language experience on recall by foreign language learners of Spanish. Fifty-four intermediate and advanced level university students participated in the study by reading and listening to an expository passage, and then performing a recall task. The protocols were then statistically…

Schematization and Sentence Processing by Foreign Language Learners: A Reading-Time Experiment and a Stimulated-Recall Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tode, Tomoko

2012-01-01

This article examines how learners of English as a foreign language process reduced relative clauses (RRCs) from the perspective of usage-based language learning, which posits that language knowledge forms a hierarchy from item-based knowledge consisting only of entrenched frequent exemplars to more advanced schematized knowledge. Twenty-eight…

Let Me Learn with My Peers Online!: Foreign Language Learning through Reciprocal Peer Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dekhinet, Rayenne; Topping, Keith; Duran, David; Blanch, Silvia

2008-01-01

Rayenne Dekhinet, Keith Topping, David Duran, and Silvia Blanch describe a pilot project on the use of Internet-assisted reciprocal peer tutoring in foreign-language learning. The eight-week project connected Spanish-speaking English-language learners at a primary school in Catalonia with English-speaking Spanish-language learners at a Scottish…

Attitudes of Foreigners Who Learn Turkish as a Second Language towards Turkish Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maden, Sedat

2017-01-01

There is a very close association between language and culture. Thus, cultural values should be prioritized in language training and cultural knowledge should be concurrently instructed. Turkish culture should also be introduced to learners of Turkish as a foreign language. Therefore, it is important to determine the attitudes of learners of…

Advanced L2 Learners and Reading Placement: Self-Assessment, CBT, and Subsequent Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brantmeier, Cindy

2006-01-01

There is a dearth of research involving advanced second language (L2) learners in the USA [Brantmeier, C., 2001. Second language reading research on passage content and gender: challenges for the intermediate level curriculum, Foreign Language Annals 34, 325-333; Young, D.J., 2003. Workshop on overcoming anxiety in the foreign language classroom.…

Student Perception of Language Achievement and Learner Autonomy in a Blended Korean Language Course: The Case Study of Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahn, Misook

2017-01-01

The blended learning model, which combines the traditional face-to-face learning method with an online application such as a learning management system (LMS), became popular and more practical for both teachers and learners in foreign and second language education because of its effective methodology for course delivery and socialization…

Collaborative Enquiry through the Tabletop for Second/Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Mei; Preston, Anne; Kharrufa, Ahmed; Kong, Zhuoran

2014-01-01

Interactional communicative competence and higher-order thinking have been well documented as two of the biggest challenges for second/foreign language learners (EFL learners). This paper evaluates the use of digital tabletops as tools for problem-solving tasks in groups. The evaluation is based on a preliminary study of an application of the use…

Perceiving and Traversing In-Class and Out-of-Class Learning: Accounts from Foreign Language Learners in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Chun

2015-01-01

Learning takes place across different social contexts, and understanding how learners perceive and traverse different learning contexts enables educators to gain a more comprehensive view of their learning processes and to support their learning better. This study examined how undergraduate foreign language learners perceived their learning…

Helping Learners Succeed: Activities for the Foreign Language Classroom. Language in Education: Theory and Practice, No. 36.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omaggio, Alice C.

In response to the need for dynamic foreign language materials with a communicative focus, this report addresses the relationship between learner characteristics and success in language learning. It suggests that a self-pacing individualized option should be available to students to deal with unique problems. The problems may be dealt with by…

English Language Education among Young Learners in East Asia: A Review of Current Research (2004-2014)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, Yuko Goto

2015-01-01

The teaching of foreign languages to young learners is growing in popularity around the world. Research in this field, particularly of English as a second/foreign language education in East Asia, is a relatively new area of empirical inquiry, and it has the potential to make significant contributions to child second-language acquisition…

Investigating the Explicit Instruction of Apology Speech Act on Pragmatic Development of Iranian EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rajabi, Shima; Azizifar, Akbar; Gowhary, Habib

2015-01-01

Learning a foreign language requires students to acquire both grammatical knowledge and socio-pragmatic rules of a language. Pragmatic competence as one of the most difficult aspects of language provides several challenges to L2 learners in the process of learning a foreign language. To overcome this problem, EFL teachers should find the most…

Multilingual Learners and Foreign Language Acquisition: Insights into the Effects of Prior Linguistic Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de la Fuente, Anahí Alba; Lacroix, Hugues

2015-01-01

In foreign language classrooms we often find that, in addition to their mother tongue (L1), learners already speak--or are learning--at least one other language. As a result, they already have an array of linguistic and cognitive skills that may prove very useful if they are adequately exploited during the language learning process. However, in…

Conceptualizing Language Learners: Socioinstitutional Mechanisms and Their Consequences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kibler, Amanda K.; Valdés, Guadalupe

2016-01-01

Through examination of one recently manufactured term for language learners (Long-term English Learners) and review of a century of "MLJ" articles, we examine varying "socioinstitutional" conceptualizations of second/foreign/heritage language learners as shaped by educational institutions and related stakeholders over time,…

Uncovering Undergraduate English-as-a-Foreign-Language Learners' Perceptions of Reticence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zare-ee, Abbas; Shirvanizadeh, Maryam

2014-01-01

The study of factors influencing undergraduate learners' participation and/or reticence in second/foreign language classrooms, a relatively recent line of research, can contribute to the betterment of language teaching and learning practices. In this work, we attempt to investigate the causes of a population of undergraduate English as a foreign…

Heritage Language Learners' Perceptions of Acquiring and Maintaining the Spanish Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torres, Kelly Moore; Turner, Jeannine E.

2017-01-01

The number of heritage language learners in American universities is increasing each year. Similar to monolingual students, this subgroup of learners is required to complete university level "foreign language" coursework, which can be a source of anxiety. Particularly, this subgroup of learners may experience high levels of anxiety due…

Motivation et environnement (Motivation and Environment).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferenczi, Victor

1982-01-01

Discusses the nonexistence of explicit reference to the learner's mental, linguistic, and cultural universe in traditional methods of teaching a foreign language and proposes teaching techniques that will facilitate the integration of the learner's local environment in the foreign language class. (AMH)

Learning Strategies Used by Successful Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thu, Tran Hoang

2009-01-01

This study examines the language learning strategies employed by successful learners of English as a foreign and second language. Two successful English learners whose first languages are Mandarin were interviewed, and asked to complete a questionnaire and a self-evaluation measure to indicate their perceived level of language proficiency as well…

Analyzing Learner Language: Towards a Flexible Natural Language Processing Architecture for Intelligent Language Tutors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amaral, Luiz; Meurers, Detmar; Ziai, Ramon

2011-01-01

Intelligent language tutoring systems (ILTS) typically analyze learner input to diagnose learner language properties and provide individualized feedback. Despite a long history of ILTS research, such systems are virtually absent from real-life foreign language teaching (FLT). Taking a step toward more closely linking ILTS research to real-life…

Optimizing New Language Use by Employing Young Learners' Own Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oga-Baldwin, W. L. Quint; Nakata, Yoshiyuki

2014-01-01

The use and appropriate amount of students' own language (OL) in foreign language classes remains a subject of debate. While exclusive new language (NL) use may not necessarily always benefit all learners, especially young language learners (YLLs), overuse of the students' OL may not provide the same range of communicative experiences as greater…

Foreign Language Teachers Organising Learning during Their First Year of Teaching Young Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stelma, Juup; Onat-Stelma, Zeynep

2010-01-01

This paper explores the experience of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers moving from teaching older learners to teaching younger learners. The context of the study is the Turkish private primary school sector. In response to a 1997 educational reform, many schools in this sector introduced English as a subject in the first year of…

Adopting Social Networking Sites (SNSs) as Interactive Communities among English Foreign Language (EFL) Learners in Writing: Opportunities and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razak, Norizan Abdul; Saeed, Murad; Ahmad, Zulkifli

2013-01-01

As most traditional classroom environments in English as Foreign Language (EFL) still restrict learners' collaboration and interaction in college writing classes, today, the majority of EFL learners are accessing Social Networking Sites (SNSs) as online communities of practice (CoPs) for adopting informal collaborative learning as a way of…

The Influence of Chinese Character Handwriting Diagnosis and Remedial Instruction System on Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsiao, Hsien-Sheng; Chang, Cheng-Sian; Chen, Chiao-Jia; Wu, Chia-Hou; Lin, Chien-Yu

2015-01-01

This study designed and developed a Chinese character handwriting diagnosis and remedial instruction (CHDRI) system to improve Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners' ability to write Chinese characters. The CFL learners were given two tests based on the CHDRI system. One test focused on Chinese character handwriting to diagnose the CFL…

Teaching Word Stress to Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Learners through Internet-Based Video Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hismanoglu, Murat

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study is to elicit problem causing word stress patterns for Turkish EFL (English as a foreign language) learners and investigate whether Internet-based pronunciation lesson is superior to traditional pronunciation lesson in terms of enhancing Turkish EFL learners' accurate production of stressed syllables in English words. A…

Variability in Chinese as a Foreign Language Learners' Development of the Chinese Numeral Classifier System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Jie; Lu, Xiaofei

2013-01-01

This study examined variability in Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners' development of the Chinese numeral classifier system from a dynamic systems approach. Our data consisted of a longitudinal corpus of 657 essays written by CFL learners at lower and higher intermediate levels and a corpus of 100 essays written by native speakers (NSs)…

Word Reading Efficiency, Text Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension among Chinese Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jiang, Xiangying; Sawaki, Yasuyo; Sabatini, John

2012-01-01

This study examined the relationship among word reading efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension for adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Data from 185 adult Chinese EFL learners preparing to take the Test-of-English-as-a-Foreign-Language[TM] (TOEFL[R]) were analyzed in this study. The participants completed a…

Differences between Visual Style and Verbal Style Learners in Learning English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Chiu-Jung

2014-01-01

English proverb is an interested part when learner applied it in real life situation. The participants of this study were chosen from a big university in the middle area of Taiwan. The researchers selected some learners from Department of Foreign Language (DFL) and Department of Non-Foreign Language (DNFL). 40 students were from DFL, and 40…

Introducing Genre into Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language: Toward a Genre-Specific Approach to Elementary/Intermediate Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shinji, Kawamitsu

2015-01-01

Despite the social turn in views of language and the increasing attention to an application of genre theory in teaching languages, the field of Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language (JFL) has not yet found genre a valuable resource for approaching learners' writing ability. Writing is still practiced as a psycholinguistic space to check learners'…

Optimising the Use of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) Sites for Listening Activities in a Korean English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nah, Ki Chune

2011-01-01

Using the Internet through a mobile phone for learning English as a foreign language (EFL) listening skills has significant potential, and language learners in South Korea hold clearly positive attitudes towards using this. However, the barriers discouraging language learners from using the Internet for EFL listening have not yet been thoroughly…

The Role and the Use of Indonesian Language in the Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arung, Fernandes

2015-01-01

Mostly learners and even teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) are still not able to speak grammatically and fluently just because they lack of the Indonesian language proficiency and comprehension. This research was done to investigate how the Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) can assist the teachers and learners of EFL in improving their…

Exploring the Use of Multidimensional Analysis of Learner Language to Promote Register Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aguado-Jimenez, Pilar; Perez-Paredes, Pascual; Sanchez, Purificacion

2012-01-01

This paper discusses the use of multidimensional analysis (MA) of learner language to promote the awareness of linguistic concepts such as register and variation. Our research explores the introduction of learner register awareness by using MA of learner language in the field of university Foreign Language Teaching (FLT). In this context, a group…

Lernersprache: Ein theoretisches Konzept und seine praktische Relevanz (Learners' Language: A Theoretical Concept and Its Practical Relevance)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lauerbach, Gerda

1977-01-01

It is hoped that from learners' faulty use of the foreign language, clues may be found for foreign language teaching. Some "factors" are examined: negative transfer, learning and communication strategies, over-generalization. Also discussed are ways of dealing with various errors. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

An Exploration of Chinese EFL Learners' Unwillingness to Communicate and Foreign Language Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Meihua; Jackson, Jane

2008-01-01

This article reports the results of a study of the unwillingness to communicate, and anxiety of Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in English language classrooms. A 70-item survey of 547 first-year undergraduate non-English majors revealed that (a) Most of the students were willing to participate in interpersonal…

Exploring Podcasting in English as a Foreign Language Learners' Writing Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bamanger, Ebrahim Mohammed; Alhassan, Riyadh Abdulrahman

2015-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether giving English as a foreign language learners podcast lectures in addition to the traditional lectures help them to enhance their English language writing, and to explore and discover useful information regarding the adoption of podcasting as a learning or training tool in order to better…

Using Information and Communication Technologies to Motivate Young Learners to Practice English as a Foreign Language in Cyprus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diakou, Maria

2015-01-01

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are continuously evolving and when integrated appropriately these can facilitate foreign language learning classes. Connecting the curriculum to real world tasks in this way prepares "learners for the challenge of coping with the language they hear and read in the real world outside the…

Anxiety over EFL Speaking and Writing: A View from Language Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gkonou, Christina

2011-01-01

The assumption that foreign language learners experience a high level of anxiety mainly when faced with speaking activities implies that research should focus on those learners prone to anxiety over that skill. Despite not being widely investigated, foreign language writing anxiety also seems to be a concern for a large number of students. Drawing…

Pre-Service Preschool Teachers' Beliefs about Foreign Language Learning and Early Foreign Language Teaching in Slovenia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fojkar, Mateja Dagarin; Skubic, Darija

2017-01-01

The implementation of foreign languages in preschool education has prompted the need for qualified teachers. However, most recent studies report a gap between the supply of qualified foreign language teachers of young learners and the demand for such teachers as foreign languages are introduced earlier and earlier. The authors of this paper…

The Effects of Presenting Different Types of Vocabulary Clusters on Very Young Learners' Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karabulut, Aslihan; Kesli Dollar, Yesim

2016-01-01

The main aim of this study was to find out which type of vocabulary cluster--semantic, thematic and unrelated--very young learners benefit from the most while learning foreign language vocabulary. The study also aimed at shedding light on the effects of these three vocabulary clusters on the immediate and delayed recall of foreign language…

Foreign Language Teachers' Language Proficiency and Their Language Teaching Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, Heather; Conway, Clare; Roskvist, Annelies; Harvey, Sharon

2013-01-01

Teachers' subject knowledge is recognized as an essential component of effective teaching. In the foreign language context, teachers' subject knowledge includes language proficiency. In New Zealand high schools, foreign languages (e.g. Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish) have recently been offered to learners earlier in their schooling,…

Second Language Learners' Divergence from Target Language Pragmatic Norms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gomez-Laich, Maria Pia

2016-01-01

Pragmatic competence is an indispensable aspect of language ability in order for second and foreign language (L2/FL) learners to understand and be understood in their interactions with both native and nonnative speakers of the target language. Without a proper understanding of the pragmatic rules in the target language, learners may run the risk…

The Role of Private Speech in Cognitive Regulation of Learners: The Case of English as a Foreign Language Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarab, Mohamad Reza Anani; Gordani, Yahya

2015-01-01

Investigations into the use of private speech by adult English foreign language (EFL) learners in regulating their mental activities have been an interesting area of research with a sociocultural framework. Following this line of research, 30 advanced adult EFL learners were selected via the administration of Oxford quick placement test and took a…

Shaping the Future of Foreign Language Education: FLES, Articulation, and Proficiency. Report of Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lalande, John F. II, Ed.

Selected papers from the 1988 conference on foreign language issues for the future include: "Articulation for Elementary School Foreign Language Programs: Challenges and Opportunities" (Carol Ann Pesola); "Articulation: A Resolvable Problem?" (Dale L. Lange); "Profiles of Frustration: Second Language Learners with Specific Learning Disabilities"…

The Link between Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety, Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity and Self-Rated English Proficiency among Chinese Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dewaele, Jean-Marc; Ip, Tsui Shan

2013-01-01

Previous research has suggested that high levels of Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) have a negative effect on foreign language learning (Horwitz, 2001; Lu & Liu, 2011) while moderate levels of Second Language Tolerance of Ambiguity (SLTA) are believed to boost foreign language learning (Ely, 1995). There is prima facie evidence that…

Preferences for Interactional Feedback: Differences between Learners and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaivanpanah, Shiva; Alavi, Sayyed Mohammad; Sepehrinia, Sajjad

2015-01-01

The present study examines Iranian language learners' views on different types of oral corrective feedback and explores the relationship with learners' language proficiency. It then compares the learners' views with those of their teachers. The study is based on a 36-item questionnaire completed by 154 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners…

A Corpus of Writing, Pronunciation, Reading, and Listening by Learners of English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kotani, Katsunori; Yoshimi, Takehiko; Nanjo, Hiroaki; Isahara, Hitoshi

2016-01-01

In order to develop effective teaching methods and computer-assisted language teaching systems for learners of English as a foreign language who need to study the basic linguistic competences for writing, pronunciation, reading, and listening, it is necessary to first investigate which vocabulary and grammar they have or have not yet learned.…

Animacy Effect and Language Specificity: Judgment of Unaccusative Verbs by Korean Learners of English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pae, Hye K.; Schanding, Brian; Kwon, Yeon-Jin; Lee, Yong-Won

2014-01-01

This study investigated the tendency of overpassivization of unaccusative verbs by Korean learners of English as a foreign language (FL). Sixty Korean native college students participated in the study, along with 17 English-speaking counterparts serving as a comparison group. Consistent with the findings of previous research, this study found…

Foreign Language Learners' Motivation and Its Effects on Their Achievement: Implications for Effective Teaching of Students Studying Japanese at Universiti Brunei Darussalam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keaney, Minako; Mundia, Lawrence

2014-01-01

An increasing number of students at the University of Brunei Darussalam are studying the Japanese language. However, research on the relationship between learners' motivation and their achievement has not been given sufficient attention in Japanese foreign language education compared to English in Brunei. The present study, which utilized a…

Opportunities to Attend to Language Form in the Adolescent Near-Beginner Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erlam, Rosemary; Pimentel-Hellier, Malcom

2017-01-01

This study investigated the occurrence of incidental focus on form in an under-researched context, i.e. the intact foreign language classroom with near-beginner adolescent learners. Two classes of near-beginner learners of L2 French and of L2 Spanish participated in the study. All interactions involving the teacher and a proportion of the students…

A Qualitative Research on the Teaching Strategies and Class Applications of the High School Teachers Who Teach English in Turkey as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gocer, Ali

2010-01-01

Nowadays, whichever position the individuals work in, they feel the need to learn a foreign language even a second foreign language. In parallel with the need for a foreign language, the importance of the foreign language teaching increases. In language teaching, conditions such as the facilities of the environment, learner's features, the social…

Integrating Learner Corpora and Natural Language Processing: A Crucial Step towards Reconciling Technological Sophistication and Pedagogical Effectiveness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Granger, Sylviane; Kraif, Olivier; Ponton, Claude; Antoniadis, Georges; Zampa, Virginie

2007-01-01

Learner corpora, electronic collections of spoken or written data from foreign language learners, offer unparalleled access to many hitherto uncovered aspects of learner language, particularly in their error-tagged format. This article aims to demonstrate the role that the learner corpus can play in CALL, particularly when used in conjunction with…

Exploring Young Learners' Foreign Language Learning Awareness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muñoz, Carmen

2014-01-01

The present study explores young learners' awareness of foreign language learning and of their learning conditions. The participants were 76 Catalan-Spanish children who were learning English at primary school. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal data were collected by means of two different interviews that contained questions related to pupils'…

Attitudes and Motivation in Early Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Djigunovic, Jelena Mihaljevic

2012-01-01

This paper focuses on young foreign language learners' attitudes and motivations. An overview is given of the main issues in this research area, based on key European studies. Approaches to studying these affective learner characteristics are described. Some attention is devoted to data elicitation techniques and the importance of triangulation.…

The Effects of Multisensory Structured Language Instruction on Native Language and Foreign Language Aptitude Skills of At-Risk High School Foreign Language Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard; And Others

1992-01-01

A multisensory structured language (MSL) approach was utilized with two groups of at-risk high school students (n=63), taught in either English and Spanish (MSL/ES) or Spanish only. Foreign language aptitude improved for both groups and native language skills for the MSL/ES group. A group receiving traditional foreign language instruction showed…

Form-focused Communicative Practice via CMC: What Language Learners Say

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meskill, Carla; Anthony, Natasha

2007-01-01

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is being used widely to support and extend foreign language instruction. Language learners are practicing the target language by communicating with their instructors, peers, and native speakers at a distance. This study examines high-beginning and low-intermediate learners of Russian and their uses of, and…

Collaborative Writing Revision Process among Learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in an Online Community of Practice (CoP)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razak, Norizan Abdul; Saeed, Murad Abdu

2014-01-01

This qualitative study aimed to identify the revision strategies among learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). It also examined the focus of these strategies and learners' participation and membership in an online community of practice (CoP). As part of shared practices in this online CoP via a Facebook group, these revision writing…

Assessment of Language Learners' Strategies: Do They Prefer Learning or Acquisition Strategies?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altmisdort, Gonca

2016-01-01

The aim of this study is to evaluate learning and acquisition strategies used by second/foreign language learners. This study is a comparative investigation of learning and acquisition strategies of successful and less successful language learners. The main question of the study is to investigate if there is a relationship between the learners'…

An Evaluation of a Self-Access Centre through EFL Learners' Eyes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balcikanli, Cem

2017-01-01

Learner autonomy has become a central concern in the recent history of language learning. Self-Access Centres (SACs) play a critical role in fostering learner autonomy specifically in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) settings. As SACs aim at enabling learning to occur independent of teaching, in these centres, language learners are given more…

Enhancing EFL Learners' Writing Skill via Journal Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tuan, Luu Trong

2010-01-01

"Frequently accepted as being the last language skill to be acquired for native speakers of the language as well as for foreign/second language learners" (Hamp-Lyons and Heasly, 2006: 2), English writing, for a number of EFL learners, appears to be challenging. This paper sought to investigate if learners can grow out of the writing…

Collocational Differences between L1 and L2: Implications for EFL Learners and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sadeghi, Karim

2009-01-01

Collocations are one of the areas that produce problems for learners of English as a foreign language. Iranian learners of English are by no means an exception. Teaching experience at schools, private language centers, and universities in Iran suggests that a significant part of EFL learners' problems with producing the language, especially at…

The Influence of Exposure, Parents, and Linguistic Distance on Young European Learners' Foreign Language Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindgren, Eva; Munoz, Carmen

2013-01-01

The project Early Language Learning in Europe (ELLiE) has studied the longitudinal effects of an early foreign language (FL) start in seven European contexts. This article presents a sub-study of ELLiE that investigates the impact of out-of-school factors on learners' listening and reading skills in year four of formal FL instruction. More…

Serious Use of a Serious Game for Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, W. Lewis

2010-01-01

The Tactical Language and Culture Training System (TLCTS) helps learners acquire basic communicative skills in foreign languages and cultures. Learners acquire communication skills through a combination of interactive lessons and serious games. Artificial intelligence plays multiple roles in this learning environment: to process the learner's…

College English Learners' Discursive Motivation Construction in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gu, Mingyue

2009-01-01

There are abundant studies of second/foreign language learning motivation. However, there appears to be insufficient research into how language learners' discourses mediate the construction of their learning/motivation. This paper investigated the discursive construction of two English language learners' motivation in a comprehensive university in…

Foreign Language Teaching and Learning in the Netherlands 1500-2000: An Overview

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilhelm, Frans

2018-01-01

The Netherlands are quite unique in that the Dutch have always learned various foreign languages. Until 1940, French was the most important foreign language. Between roughly 1870 and 1970, Dutch learners in grammar schools and higher secondary schools were even obliged to learn three foreign languages: French, German and English. Since 1970,…

Constructing a Voice in English as a Foreign Language: Identity and Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nasrollahi Shahri, Mohammad Naseh

2018-01-01

Situated in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context, this study navigates the intersection of language learner identity and foreign language engagement. Specifically, drawing on the concept of voice (Canagarajah, 2013; Johnstone, 1996; Kramsch, 2003), Bakhtin's (1981) theory of language, and the notion of investment (Darvin & Norton,…

The Relationship between EFL Learners' Language Learning Strategy Use and Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balci, Özgül; Ügüten, Selma Durak

2018-01-01

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between language learning strategy use and foreign language achievement, focusing on differences in gender. A total of 263 English as a foreign language students enrolled in English preparatory class program at Necmettin Erbakan University, School of Foreign Languages participated…

Foreign Language Anxiety of Students Studying English Language and Literature: A Sample from Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elaldi, Senel

2016-01-01

A considerable number of foreign language learners experience a feeling of anxiety in language learning process. The purpose of this research was to find out foreign language anxiety levels of students studying in the Faculty of English Language and Literature at Cumhuriyet University, Sivas, Turkey when they were in preparatory class and when…

Identity Construction and Reversal Conceptual Transfer among Iranian EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gholaminejad, Razieh

2017-01-01

This article draws on a qualitative study which seeks to explore whether Iranian English as a foreign language learners experience any reversal conceptual transfer and whether they construct two identities as a result of learning a foreign language. The findings from the open-ended questionnaires distributed among 65 undergraduates at the…

Using the SIOP Model for Effective Content Teaching with Second and Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kareva, Veronika; Echevarria, Jana

2013-01-01

In this paper we present a comprehensive model of instruction for providing consistent, high quality teaching to L2 students. This model, the SIOP Model (Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol), provides an explicit framework for organizing instructional practices to optimize the effectiveness of teaching second and foreign language learners.…

Recoding Strategies of German Learners of English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Treutlein, Anke; Schöler, Hermann; Landerl, Karin

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether German learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) acquire additional recoding strategies that they do not need for recoding in the consistent German orthography. Based on the psycholinguistic grain size theory (Ziegler & Goswami, 2005) we expected students with little experience in EFL to use the same…

Comparing Teachers' Judgments of Learners' Speech in Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orton, Jane

2014-01-01

Pedagogical norms for Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) shared by teachers, curriculum writers, and resource designers inside and outside of Chinese societies are yet to be established. To initiate and inform dialogue within the CFL community over shared expectations of learners, this study compared the judgments of students' oral presentations…

Children's Interaction and Lexical Acquisition in Text-Based Online Chat

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coyle, Yvette; Reverte Prieto, Maria José

2017-01-01

This is an empirical study in which we explore child foreign language learners' interactional strategy use, uptake, and lexical acquisition in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC). The study was carried out with 16 10-year-old Spanish English as a foreign language learners paired with age- and proficiency-matched English native…

Promoting EFL Learners' Intercultural Communication Effectiveness: A Focus on Facebook

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Özdemir, Emrah

2017-01-01

One of the main purposes of foreign language teaching is currently identified by many researchers as developing intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of foreign language learners. Facebook is one of the easiest and quickest ways to communicate with other people, therefore it may potentially be used to promote intercultural communicative…

Online Extensive Reading for Advanced Foreign Language Learners: An Evaluation Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnold, Nike

2009-01-01

The following article reports the findings of a qualitative evaluation of an online extensive reading program in German as a foreign language. Designed for advanced learners, it differs from traditional extensive reading programs in two important aspects: students read online instead of printed materials, and there was no teacher preselection to…

The Impact of Scaffolding and Nonscaffolding Strategies on the EFL Learners' Listening Comprehension Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmadi Safa, Mohammad; Rozati, Fatemeh

2017-01-01

Drawing on sociocultural theory, and a large number of empirical studies conducted on the effectiveness of scaffolding on second or foreign language learning, the authors investigated the application of different forms of scaffolding to improve listening comprehension of the Iranian intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. To…

Profiling Language Learners in Hybrid Learning Contexts: Learners' Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lintunen, Pekka; Mutta, Maarit; Pelttari, Sanna

2017-01-01

This article discusses formal and informal foreign language learning before university level. The focus is on beginning university students' perceptions of their earlier learning experiences, especially in digital contexts. Language learners' digital competence is a part of their everyday lives, but its relationship to learning in and outside…

The Case for Authentic Materials on Videodisc.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saint-Leon, Claire Brandicourt

1988-01-01

Foreign language video is invaluable for enhancing foreign language instruction, particularly when combined with laser videodisc technology, which allows learners to study minute details. Authentic materials should be made available on videodisks to fully exploit the resources of foreign language video. (Author/CB)

Multilingual Effects on EFL Learning: A Comparison of Foreign Language Anxiety Experienced by Monolingual and Bilingual Tertiary Students in the Lao PDR

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phongsa, Manivone; Mohamed Ismail, Shaik Abdul Malik; Low, Hui Min

2018-01-01

Foreign language anxiety is common among adult learners, especially those who lack exposure to the language that they are learning. In this study, we compared the foreign language anxiety experienced by monolingual and bilingual tertiary students in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) who were learning English as a Foreign Language. The…

The Effects of Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising Activities on the Development of Pragmatic Awareness and Use of Hearsay Evidential Markers for Learners of Japanese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Narita, Ritsuko

2009-01-01

The present study investigates the effectiveness of pragmatic consciousness-raising (PCR) activities in the L2 pragmatic acquisition of hearsay evidential markers by learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL). PCR is essentially an inductive approach to facilitating awareness of how language forms are used appropriately in a given context.…

How I See What You're Saying: The Role of Gestures in Native and Foreign Language Listening Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dahl, Tove Irene; Ludvigsen, Susanne

2014-01-01

In what ways do native language (NL) speakers and foreign language (FL) learners differ in understanding the same messages delivered with or without gestures? To answer this question, seventh- and eighth-grade NL and FL learners of English in the United States and Norway were shown a video of a speaker describing, in English, a cartoon image that…

An Investigation of Lexical Progress of Teaching Foreign Languages (TFL) Learners in Terms of Part-of-Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çerçi, Arif

2017-01-01

In the related literature, it has been discussed that issues related to foreign language lexicon have been ignored; therefore, a solid theory of foreign language lexicon has not been constructed yet. In the framework of Turkish as a foreign language, the literature lacks both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. To this end, this longitudinal…

Adult Learners' Perceptions of the Significance of Culture in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brooks-Lewis, Kimberly Anne

2014-01-01

Is learning about culture important when learning a foreign language? One would think that after its long history in the field of foreign language teaching this question had been answered with a resounding "yes". However, I saw little evidence of this in the classroom when I returned to the university to learn a foreign language or when…

Academic Achievement through FLES: A Case for Promoting Greater Access to Foreign Language Study among Young Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Carolyn; Lafayette, Robert

2010-01-01

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 established foreign languages as a core curricular content area; however, instructional emphasis continues to be placed on curricular areas that factor into state educational accountability programs. The present study explored whether foreign language study of first-year Grade 3 foreign language students who…

The Correlation among EFL Learners' Test Anxiety, Foreign Language Anxiety and Language Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cakici, Dilek

2016-01-01

The main aim of this study was to investigate the correlation among test anxiety (TA), foreign language anxiety (FLA) and language achievement of university preparatory students learning English as a foreign language. The sample of the research consisted of 301 (211 females, 90 males) attending a one-year EFL preparatory school at Ondokuz Mayis…

Can Learning a Foreign Language Foster Analytic Thinking?-Evidence from Chinese EFL Learners' Writings.

PubMed

Jiang, Jingyang; Ouyang, Jinghui; Liu, Haitao

2016-01-01

Language is not only the representation of thinking, but also shapes thinking. Studies on bilinguals suggest that a foreign language plays an important and unconscious role in thinking. In this study, a software-Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 2007-was used to investigate whether the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) can foster Chinese high school students' English analytic thinking (EAT) through the analysis of their English writings with our self-built corpus. It was found that: (1) learning English can foster Chinese learners' EAT. Chinese EFL learners' ability of making distinctions, degree of cognitive complexity and degree of thinking activeness have all improved along with the increase of their English proficiency and their age; (2) there exist differences in Chinese EFL learners' EAT and that of English native speakers, i. e. English native speakers are better in the ability of making distinctions and degree of thinking activeness. These findings suggest that the best EFL learners in high schools have gained native-like analytic thinking through six years' English learning and are able to switch their cognitive styles as needed.

The Effect of Reading on Second-Language Learners' Production in Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collentine, Karina

2016-01-01

Tasks provide engaging ways to involve learners in meaningful, real-world activities with the foreign language (FL). Yet selecting classroom tasks suitable to learners' linguistic readiness is challenging, and task-based research is exploring the relationship between learners' overall abilities (e.g., reading, grammatical) and the complexity and…

Language Anxiety among Gifted Learners in Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kamarulzaman, Mohd Hasrul; Ibrahim, Noraniza; Yunus, Melor Md; Ishak, Noriah Mohd

2013-01-01

Language anxiety has significantly sparked great concern in the second and foreign language learning world. Researches have found negative correlation between language anxiety and academic achievement of English language learners; and, most of the studies focus on average school students and tertiary level students. This paper, however, explores…

Achievement Motivational Characteristics of University Foreign Language Learners: From the Classroom to the Tutoring Table

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Paul H.

2008-01-01

What influences who seeks foreign language tutoring? Using expectancy value theory, the present study researches the characteristics of university foreign language students in the language classroom (n = 258) and seeking tutoring (n = 29). Students' performance and mastery goal orientations, achievement task values, self-efficacy for foreign…

Effects of Multimedia Annotations on Incidental Vocabulary Learning and Reading Comprehension of Advanced Learners of English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akbulut, Yavuz

2007-01-01

The study investigates immediate and delayed effects of different hypermedia glosses on incidental vocabulary learning and reading comprehension of advanced foreign language learners. Sixty-nine freshman TEFL students studying at a Turkish university were randomly assigned to three types of annotations: (a) definitions of words, (b) definitions…

Turkish Foreign Language Learners' Roles and Outputs: Introducing an Innovation and Role-Playing in Second Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozbek, Cigdem; Comoglu, Irem; Baran, Bahar

2017-01-01

This study aims to design of the two activities "introducing an innovation" and "role playing" in Second Life (SL) and to evaluate qualitatively Turkish foreign language learner's roles and outputs before, while, and after the implementation of the activities. The study used community of inquiry model consisting of cognitive…

Anxiety as It Pertains to EFL Writing Ability and Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nodoushan, Mohammad Ali Salmani

2015-01-01

This paper reports the results of a study conducted to find (a) the impact of anxiety on EFL learners' writing performance, and (b) the relationship between anxiety and foreign language writing ability. 137 (N = 137) EFL learners took the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), and a writing task on a…

Development of Foreign Language Lexical Competence on the Basis of a Learner's Terminological Thesaurus and Dictionary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chainikova, Galina R.; Zatonskiy, Andrey V.; Mitiukov, Nicholas W.; Busygina, Helena L.

2018-01-01

The article suggests a method of foreign language lexical competence development on the basis of a Learner's terminological thesaurus and dictionary of software terms which includes four main components: classification part demonstrating the inner logic of the subject area, glossary with definitions of key terms, thesaurus demonstrating logical…

Can Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Help Beginning-Level Foreign Language Learners Speak?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ko, Chao-Jung

2012-01-01

This study investigated the possibility that initial-level learners may acquire oral skills through synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC). Twelve Taiwanese French as a foreign language (FFL) students, divided into three groups, were required to conduct a variety of tasks in one of the three learning environments (video/audio, audio,…

The Shape of Joy, the Colour of Fear: Multimodal Abduction in the Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Mark Evan; Johnson, Neil H.

2014-01-01

In this article, we describe a programme of qualitative research and interpretive analysis around an approach to foreign language pedagogy that aimed to develop learners' symbolic competence through experience with and examination of the signs in acts of communication. Learners were presented with the problem of visually representing the abstract…

A Helping Hand with Language Learning: Teaching French Vocabulary with Gesture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porter, Alison

2016-01-01

Finding ways to make language teaching practices both active and effective is of great importance for young learners. However, extending the foreign language production of young learners in instructional settings beyond the naming of objects is often challenging. The memorisation abilities of very young learners (children aged 5-7) sometimes…

A Descriptive Study on EFL Learners' Perceptions of Facebook

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydin, Selami

2017-01-01

There is a strong need to investigate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' perceptions of Facebook as a language-learning environment, as their perceptions that directly influence their language development and achievement have not been examined within the EFL learning context. Thus, this study aims to investigate EFL learners'…

Focus-on-Form and EFL Learners' Language Development in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication: Task-Based Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eslami, Zohreh R.; Kung, Wan-Tsai

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the occurrence of incidental focus-on-form and its effect on subsequent second language (L2) production of learners of different dyads in an online task-based language learning context. The participants included Taiwanese learners of English as a foreign language at different proficiency levels, and native…

The Influence of Teacher Power on English Language Learners' Self-Perceptions of Learner Empowerment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diaz, Abel; Cochran, Kathryn; Karlin, Nancy

2016-01-01

English language learners (ELL) are students with a primary language spoken other than English enrolled in U.S. educational settings. As ELL students take on the challenges of learning English and U.S. culture, they must also learn academic content. The expectation to succeed academically in a foreign culture and language, while learning to speak…

Linguistic Challenges in the Mathematical Register for EFL Learners: Linguistic and Multimodal Strategies to Help Learners Tackle Mathematics Word Problems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Simon

2015-01-01

In learning mathematics through English, one of the major challenges facing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners is understanding the language used to present word problems in mathematics texts. Without comprehending such language, learners are not able to carry out the targeted calculations no matter how familiar they are with the…

The Evaluation of Second Language Fluency and Foreign Accent

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Chen-Huei

2011-01-01

What is second language fluency? What is a foreign accent? Is it possible for an adult second language learner to speak fluently with a heavy accent or vice versa? What factors contribute to the perception of fluency and a foreign accent? What acoustic attributes correlate with the perception of fluency and a foreign accent? To answer these…

Using Films in Vocabulary Teaching of Turkish as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iscan, Adem

2017-01-01

The use and utility of auditory and visual tools in language teaching is a common practice. Films constitute one of the tools. It has been found that using films in language teaching is also effective in the development of vocabulary of foreign language learners. The literature review reveals that while films are used in foreign language teaching…

Benefits of Multisensory Structured Language Instruction for At-Risk Foreign Language Learners: A Comparison Study of High School Spanish Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Artzer, Marjorie; Patton, Jon; Ganschow, Leonore; Miller, Karen; Hordubay, Dorothy J.; Walsh, Geri

1998-01-01

A study examined the benefits of multisensory structured language (MSL) instruction in Spanish for 39 high school students at risk for foreign-language learning difficulties and 16 controls. On measures of oral and written foreign-language proficiency, the MSL and control groups scored significantly higher than those instructed using traditional…

Empowering the Foreign Language Learner through Critical Literacies Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keneman, Margaret

2016-01-01

This article examines current pedagogical trends in the foreign language classroom and argues that a critical literacies pedagogical approach (Freire, 1970) should guide instruction. A critical literacies pedagogical approach is then discussed in the context of foreign language teaching and learning, and particular attention in this article is…

Children's Foreign Language Anxiety Scale: Preliminary Tests of Reliability and Validity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydin, Selami; Harputlu, Leyla; Güzel, Serhat; Ustuk, Özgehan; Savran Çelik, Seyda; Genç, Deniz

2016-01-01

Foreign language anxiety (FLA), which constitutes a serious problem in the foreign language learning process, has been mainly seen as a research issue regarding adult language learners, while it has been overlooked in children. This is because there is no an appropriate tool to measure FLA among children, whereas there are many studies on the…

Whose "Crisis in Language"? Translating and the Futurity of Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gramling, David J.; Warner, Chantelle

2016-01-01

This contribution questions to whom and to whose learning experience has the idiom of crisis that so pervades the domain of U.S. foreign language teaching been addressed. The authors report on an advanced foreign language classroom-based study from 2013, in which undergraduate German learners translated a 14-page prose poem about translingual…

Cracking the Chinese Character: Radical Sensitivity in Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language and Its Relationship to Chinese Word Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tong, Xiuli; Yip, Joanna Hew Yan

2015-01-01

Radicals are building blocks of Chinese complex characters and exhibit certain positional, phonological and semantic regularities. This study investigated whether adult non-native learners of Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) were aware of the positional (orthographic), phonological and semantic information of radicals, and whether such…

L2 Irregular Verb Morphology: Exploring Behavioral Data from Intermediate English Learners of German as a Foreign Language Using Generalized Mixed Effects Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Thomas

2017-01-01

This paper examines possible psycholinguistic mechanisms governing stem vowel changes of irregular verbs in intermediate English learners of German as a foreign language (GFL). In Experiment 1, nonce-infinitives embedded in an authentic fictional text had to be inflected for German preterite, thus testing possible analogy-driven pattern…

Developing and Evaluating SynctoLearn, a Fully Automatic Video and Transcript Synchronization Tool for EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Hao-Jan Howard

2011-01-01

Authentic videos are always motivational for foreign language learners. According to the findings of many empirical studies, subtitled L2 videos are particularly useful for foreign language learning. Although there are many authentic English videos available on the Internet, most of these videos do not have subtitles. If subtitles can be added to…

Contrasting Effects of Starting Age and Input on the Oral Performance of Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muñoz, Carmen

2014-01-01

The present study focuses on the influence of starting age and input on foreign language learning. In relation to starting age, the study investigates whether early starters in instructional settings achieve the same kind of long-term advantage as learners in naturalistic settings and it complements previous research by using data from oral…

Some Insights into Listening Strategies of Learners of English as a Foreign Language in Vietnam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ngo, Nga Thi Hang

2015-01-01

This study investigated listening strategies used by students in different listening tasks and situations in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Thirty EFL students in a university in Vietnam were recruited for the study. The study aimed to explore what listening strategies EFL Vietnamese learners at university level used and why and…

Using the Learners-as-Ethnographers Approach to Enhance Intercultural Learning among American College Students Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Minhui

2012-01-01

This study explored how the learners-as-ethnographers (LAE) approach facilitated intercultural learning among American students learning Chinese as a foreign language. Two research questions addressed the effectiveness of the LAE approach and students' learning experiences in a non-immersion context. I designed six ethnographic tasks for the…

Exploring the Causes of Listening Comprehension Anxiety from EFL Saudi Learners' Perspectives: A Pilot Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Otair, Ibrahim; Aziz, Noor Hashima Abd

2017-01-01

Anxiety is an important factor in foreign language learning. Very few studies have been done on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Saudi students in listening classes. Therefore, this pilot study was aimed at exploring the causes of listening comprehension anxiety from EFL Saudi learners' perspectives at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia. The…

The Relationship between Demotivation and EFL Learners' English Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Rou-Jui Sophia

2011-01-01

To what extent does demotivation affect EFL learners' English language proficiency attainment? The present study addresses this question by investigating the relationship between technological institute EFL students' past demotivating factors and their English language proficiency. Although the role of demotivation in foreign language achievement…

Self-Instruction and Success: A Learner-Profile Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Francis R.

1998-01-01

Interviews with adults experienced in foreign language self-instruction generated profiles of language experience at learner and self-instructed language-token levels. Results showed separations between languages with and without self-instruction. The most effective learning route was starting with classwork. Ab initio self-instruction produced…

Error Analysis of Present Simple Tense in the Interlanguage of Adult Arab English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muftah, Muneera; Rafik-Galea, Shameem

2013-01-01

The present study analyses errors on present simple tense among adult Arab English language learners. It focuses on the error on 3sg "-s" (the third person singular present tense agreement morpheme "-s"). The learners are undergraduate adult Arabic speakers learning English as a foreign language. The study gathered data from…

Thai Learners' Linguistic Needs and Language Skills: Implications for Curriculum Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ulla, Mark B.; Winitkun, Duangkamon

2017-01-01

Learners' success in language learning always has implications for curriculum and instruction. Thus, it is important to take into account the kinds of learning experiences that these learners will find helpful in learning English as a foreign language; and, highlight them when planning a curriculum and adapting classroom activities. This study,…

Application of Learner Corpora to Second Language Learning and Teaching: An Overview

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Qi

2016-01-01

The paper gives an overview of learner corpora and their application to second language learning and teaching. It is proposed that there are four core components in learner corpus research, namely, corpus linguistics expertise, a good background in linguistic theory, knowledge of SLA theory, and a good understanding of foreign language teaching…

Factors Affecting the Level of Test Anxiety among EFL Learners at Elementary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydin, Selami

2013-01-01

Many studies on test anxiety among adult language learners have been performed, while only a few studies have dealt with overall test anxiety. In addition, these studies do not specifically address test anxiety in foreign language learning among elementary school language learners. Thus, this study aims to investigate the level of test anxiety…

Discourse Functions and Vocabulary Use in English Language Learners' Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rabab'ah, Ghaleb

2013-01-01

This study explores the discourse generated by English as a foreign language (EFL) learners using synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) as an approach to help English language learners to create social interaction in the classroom. It investigates the impact of synchronous CMC mode on the quantity of total words, lexical range and…

What Do Learners Make of Teachers' Gestures in the Language Classroom?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sime, Daniela

2006-01-01

This study explores the meanings that learners of English as a foreign language give to teachers' gestures. It is a qualitative, descriptive study of the perceived functions that gestures perform in the EFL classroom, viewed mainly from the language learners' perspective. The data for the study was collected through interviews with twenty-two…

Incidental Focus on Form in University Spanish Literature Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zyzik, Eve; Polio, Charlene

2008-01-01

Incidental focus on form is one of several ways to direct language learners' attention to formal aspects of language within meaningful communicative contexts. Learners can benefit from focus on form, but the extent to which incidental focus on form, or any other type, is available to learners in advanced foreign language literature classes has not…

Effects of EFL Individual Learner Variables on Foreign Language Reading Anxiety and Metacognitive Reading Strategy Use.

PubMed

Lien, Hsin-Yi

2016-08-01

Past research has shown an association between foreign language reading anxiety and reading strategy. However, individual variables tend to affect foreign language anxiety and strategy use. The present study examined a hypothesized model that specified direct and indirect effects among English and foreign languages readers' distinct variables, including academic level; self-perceived English level; and satisfaction with reading proficiency, reading anxiety, and metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. A total of 523 volunteer Taiwanese college students provided 372 valid responses to a written questionnaire (281 women and 91 men; M age = 19.7 years, SD = 1.1) containing the translated versions of Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale, Survey of Reading Strategies Inventory, and self-assessment background questionnaire. The results showed that self-evaluation of reading proficiency did not correlate with academic level and readers' perceptions. Satisfaction had a direct effect on foreign language reading anxiety but not on metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Results of path analysis demonstrated that the perception learners who had their own reading proficiency predicted their foreign language reading anxiety and was a mediating variable for metacognitive reading strategy use. © The Author(s) 2016.

Assessment of Language Learning Strategies Used by Palestinian EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khalil, Aziz

2005-01-01

This article assesses the language learning strategies (LLSs) used by 194 high school and 184 university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners in Palestine, using Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). It also explores the effect of language proficiency and gender on frequency of strategy use. The findings show…

Form-Focused Discovery Activities in English Classes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ogeyik, Muhlise Cosgun

2011-01-01

Form-focused discovery activities allow language learners to grasp various aspects of a target language by contributing implicit knowledge by using discovered explicit knowledge. Moreover, such activities can assist learners to perceive and discover the features of their language input. In foreign language teaching environments, they can be used…

Topic Centred Subject/Language Learning Materials and Their Use.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rado, Marta

Social bilinguals (second language learners in a linguistic minority) and cultural bilinguals (foreign language learners) often learn side by side in the same classroom, making syllabus planning and choice of teaching methodology difficult. Adopting a bilingual approach and exploring the semantic and discourse aspects of language can overcome the…

Intergenerational Telecollaboration: What Risks for What Rewards?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Erica

2016-01-01

Foreign language telecollaboration pairs learners so that they may improve their language and intercultural skills. A lesser known model, intergenerational telecollaboration, uses senior citizens as native language partners instead of peers. This paper presents the results of an intergenerational videoconferencing project between learners in…

Autonomous Language Learning against All Odds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Xuesong

2010-01-01

Conceptualizing learners' individuality as dynamic and contextually situated, this paper reports on an inquiry that examined the genesis of a disabled learner's success in learning foreign languages on the Chinese mainland. Using source texts such as the learner's published diaries, letters and her autobiography, the inquiry revealed that language…

Examining the Advantage of a Live Instructor vs. Video in a Laboratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caldwell-Harris, Catherine; Goodwin, Kimberly S.; Chu, Emma; Dahlen, Kristina

2014-01-01

Learners often anecdotally report preferring live instructors to videotaped lectures, but few controlled comparisons exist, and none have been conducted for foreign language learning. College students experienced a single foreign language lesson in an unknown foreign language, Samoan, either from a live instructor or from a videotape of the same…

Master Program in Foreign Language Education at New York University Steinhardt (US)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ikonnikova, Maryna

2016-01-01

The article deals with master program in foreign language education at New York University Steinhardt (US). Thus, its peculiarities have been revealed. It has been defined that the study program presupposes mastering of foreign language teaching approaches that meet various needs of learners. It has been indicated that students acquire the…

Mindfulness, Coping Self-Efficacy and Foreign Language Anxiety: A Mediation Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fallah, Nasser

2017-01-01

This study sought to explore the relationship between mindfulness, coping self-efficacy (CSE) and foreign language anxiety (FLA) among a sample of 295 Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Further, the capacity of CSE in mediating the relationship between mindfulness and FLA was tested. The participants were administered…

The Analysis of Cultural and Intercultural Elements in Mandarin as a Foreign Language Textbooks from Selected Malaysian Public Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fong, Chan Suet; DeWitt, Dorothy; Leng, Chin Hai

2018-01-01

Language cannot be taught outside the culture of the society. A foreign language learner needs to learn the context and the cultural elements to avoid conflicts and misunderstanding arising from differing values, beliefs, and customs. Hence, foreign language instruction needs to emphasise intercultural communicative competence and include cultural…

Group Dynamic Assessment in an Early Foreign Language Learning Program: Tracking Movement through the Zone of Proximal Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davin, Kristin Johnson

2011-01-01

Although researchers have begun to explore the implementation of dynamic assessment (DA) with foreign language learners, few of these studies have occurred in the language classroom. Whereas DA is typically implemented in dyads, promising research in the field of foreign language learning suggests that DA may promote development with groups of…

Metacognitive Strategy Instruction as a Means to Improve Listening Self-Efficacy among Iranian Undergraduate Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rahimirad, Maryam; Zare-ee, Abbas

2015-01-01

Metacognitive strategy instruction (MetSI) has been shown to have a strong impact on various aspects of English as a second/foreign language instruction. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of MetSI on the improvement of listening self-efficacy among English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners. A group of sixty female undergraduate…

Doing Being a Foreign Language Learner in a Classroom: Embodiment of Cognitive States as Social Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mori, Junko; Hasegawa, Atsushi

2009-01-01

Encountering trouble producing a word in the midst of a turn at talk is an everyday experience for foreign language learners. By employing conversation analysis (CA) as a central tool for analysis, the current study explores how students undertake a range of word searches while they organize a pair work session designed for the purpose of language…

Reflections on "Memories of War": Project-Based Learning among Japanese-as-A-Foreign-Language (JFL) Students at a Malaysian University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shibahara, Rika

2017-01-01

This study examines Malaysian learners' reflections on the discourses of the Asia-Pacific War in Malaysia and Japan after engaging in "Memories of War" project. The project, which was implemented in an advanced Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language (JFL) class at a Malaysian university, aimed to improve learners' ability to grasp power…

The Role of Social Evaluation in Influencing Public Speaking Anxiety of English Foreign Language Learners at Omar Al-Mukhtar University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elmenfi, Fadil; Gaibani, Ahmed

2016-01-01

This study investigates the effect of social evaluation on Public Speaking Anxiety of English foreign language learners at Omar Al-Mukhtar University in Libya. A random sample of 111 students was used in the study. To analyse the collected data, means, standard deviations, a three-way ANOVA analysis, and the correlation coefficients were used with…

The Use of Learner Autonomy in English as a Foreign Language Context among Saudi Undergraduates Enrolled in Preparatory Year Deanship at Najran University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alzubi, Ali Abbas Falah; Singh, Manjet Kaur Mehar; Pandian, Ambigapathy

2017-01-01

This paper explores the current practices of learner autonomy among Saudi undergraduates at Preparatory Year, Najran University. The Short List questionnaire developed by Dixon (2011) was administered to measure the use of autonomous learning in English as a foreign language (EFL) context. Quantitative data were gathered from 208 male students in…

Chinese English Learners' Strategic Competence.

PubMed

Wang, Dianjian; Lai, Hongling; Leslie, Michael

2015-12-01

The present study aims to investigate Chinese English learners' ability to use communication strategies (CSs). The subjects are put in a relatively real English referential communication setting and the analyses of the research data show that Chinese English learners, when encountering problems in foreign language (FL) communication, are characterized by the frequent use of substitution, approximation, circumlocution, literal translation, exemplification, word-coinage, repetition, and the infrequent use of cultural-knowledge and paralinguistic CSs. The rare use of paralinguistic strategies is found to be typical of Chinese English learners. The high frequency of literal translation, one first language (L1)-based strategy in our study sample, suggests that FL learners' use of L1-based CSs may depend more upon the developmental stage of their target language than the typology distance between L1 and the target language. The frequency of repetition reveals one fact that the Chinese English learners lack variety and flexibility in their use of CSs. Based on these findings, it was indicated that learners' use of CSs is influenced by a variety of factors, among which the development stage of their interlanguage and their cultural background are identified as two important factors. Some implications are finally suggested for the English foreign language teaching practice in China.

Do Language Attitudes Determine Accent? A Study of Bilinguals in the USA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moyer, Alene

2007-01-01

This study presents new data on the degree of "foreign" accent among immigrant learners of English in the USA (total N = 50) as it correlates to learner orientation to the target language and target language culture. Correlation analyses confirm the significance of age of onset and length of immersion, as well as learner attitudes, including: (a)…

The Anxiety Factors among Saudi EFL Learners: A Study from English Language Teachers' Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asif, Fariha

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that trigger language anxiety among Saudi learners in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. The factor of anxiety is especially found among learners while developing proficiency in over all communication and speaking skills as felt by the EFL teachers. The study also seeks to answer…

PETALL in Action: Latest Developments and Future Directions of the EU-Funded Project Pan-European Task Activities for Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopes, António

2016-01-01

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) proposes Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) as an important strategy to develop the learners' linguistic competences along with their communicative skills. Since it is learner-centred and relies mostly on engaging learners in meaningful communicative interchanges in a foreign language, it allows…

Strategy Use for Reading English for General and Specific Academic Purposes in Testing and Nontesting Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Mu-hsuan

2013-01-01

Language-use strategies are considered potentially effective approaches that learners select to accomplish a second- or foreign-language task. In the past three decades, there has been a proliferation of research concerned with learners' strategy use at different levels of language ability and the influence of L1 learner strategies on L2 language…

Who Is Responsible for Understanding in a Conversation? A Contrastive Pragmatic Analysis of Utterances in Japanese and Korean

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoon, Sumi

2012-01-01

Korean learners of the Japanese language and Japanese learners of the Korean language not only feel that it is easier to learn the respective foreign language, but also acquire Japanese and Korean faster than learners from other countries because of the grammatical similarity between Japanese and Korean. However, the similarity of grammatical…

The Differential Effects of Implicit and Explicit Feedback on Second Language (L2) Learners at Different Proficiency Levels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Shaofeng

2009-01-01

The present study investigates the differential effects of explicit and implicit feedback on L2 learners at different proficiency levels as measured by L2 development and learner uptake, which is defined as the learner's responses following feedback. Twenty-three learners of Chinese as a foreign language at two different levels of proficiency at a…

Adjective Identification in Television Advertisements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abd Rahim, Normaliza

2013-01-01

Learning the Malay language has been a challenging task for foreign language learners. Learners have to learn Malay grammar structure rules in order to write simple sentences. The word choice is important in constructing a sentence. Therefore, the study focuses on the use of adjectives in television advertisements among Korean learners at Hankuk…

Using Facebook to Promote Korean EFL Learners' Intercultural Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jin, Seunghee

2015-01-01

Foreign language learners often have limited opportunity to interact with people from the target culture and develop their intercultural competence (IC) through those interactions both inside and outside of the classroom. To identify a new opportunity to engage Korean EFL learners in innovative ways to maximize target language interactions and…

Factors Influencing the Learning of Chinese Characters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Ko-Yin; Wu, Hsiao-Ping

2011-01-01

This survey study, which involved 108 language learners enrolled in first-year Chinese as a foreign language classrooms in the United States, intended to address the research questions, "What types of Chinese-character learning strategies do US learners use?" and "Do US learners' Chinese-character learning strategy use differ based on the…

Task-Modality and L1 Use in EFL Oral Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azkarai, Agurtzane; del Pilar García Mayo, María

2015-01-01

This study examines whether task-modality (speaking vs. speaking+writing) influences first language (L1) use in task-based English as a foreign language (EFL) learner-learner interaction. Research on the topic has shown that different task-modality triggers different learning opportunities with collaborative speaking tasks drawing learners'…

Laying down Pale Memories: Learners Reflecting on Language, Self, and Other in the Middle-School Drama-Languages Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rothwell, Julia

2015-01-01

This article explores one teacher/researcher's development of a drama-language unit and the learners' responses to it. The work is underpinned by a model of intercultural language learning which also acknowledges the pluricultural and plurilingual contexts in which foreign languages are taught in Australia. As part of a…

(In)Complete Acquisition of Aspect in Second Language and Heritage Russian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mikhaylova, Anna

2012-01-01

This dissertation compares the knowledge of Russian Verbal Aspect in two types of learners enrolled in college level Russian courses: foreign language learners of Russian whose native language is English and heritage language speakers of Russian whose dominant language at the time of study is English. Russian Aspect is known to be problematic both…

Empirical Learner Language and the Levels of the "Common European Framework of Reference"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wisniewski, Katrin

2017-01-01

The "Common European Framework of Reference" (CEFR) is the most widespread reference tool for linking language tests, curricula, and national educational standards to levels of foreign language proficiency in Europe. In spite of this, little is known about how the CEFR levels (A1-C2) relate to empirical learner language(s). This article…

Anxiety in English Language Learning: A Case Study of English Language Learners in Saudi Arabia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sadiq, Jamilah Mohammed

2017-01-01

Language anxiety as a specific aspect of language acquisition has occupied a great body of research for the past few decades. In this study, the level of foreign language anxiety among English language learners was investigated. This study was carried out with a quantitative research design using a survey methodology to collect data about the…

Task-Based EFL Language Teaching with Procedural Information Design in a Technical Writing Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roy, Debopriyo

2017-01-01

Task-based language learning (TBLL) has heavily influenced syllabus design, classroom teaching, and learner assessment in a foreign or second language teaching context. In this English as foreign language (EFL) learning environment, the paper discussed an innovative language learning pedagogy based on design education and technical writing. In…

English and Thai Speakers' Perception of Mandarin Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Ying

2016-01-01

Language learners' language experience is predicted to display a significant effect on their accurate perception of foreign language sounds (Flege, 1995). At the superasegmental level, there is still a debate regarding whether tone language speakers are better able to perceive foreign lexical tones than non-tone language speakers (i.e Lee et al.,…

Examining Emotions in English Language Learning Classes: A Case of EFL Emotions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pishghadam, Reza; Zabetipour, Mohammad; Aminzadeh, Afrooz

2016-01-01

Emotions play a significant role in learning in general, and foreign language learning in particular. Although with the rise of humanistic approaches, enough attention has been given to the affective domain in language learning, the emotions English as a foreign language (EFL) learners experience regarding English language skills in listening,…

Facebook Groups as a Supporting Tool for Language Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ekoc, Arzu

2014-01-01

This paper attempts to present a review of Facebook group pages as an educational tool for language learning. One of the primary needs of foreign language learners is to gain the opportunity to use the target language outside the classroom practice. Social media communication provides occasions for learners to receive input and produce output…

Language Learning Strategy Use among Iranian Engineering EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nahavandi, Naemeh; Mukundan, Jayakaran

2014-01-01

The present study aimed at understanding the language learning strategy use of Iranian EFL learners' about learning a foreign language. The main purpose of the study was to understand if there was any relationship between proficiency level, gender and extra education in language institutes and strategy use. To achieve this end, 369 engineering…

An Intelligent Computer Assisted Language Learning System for Arabic Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaalan, Khaled F.

2005-01-01

This paper describes the development of an intelligent computer-assisted language learning (ICALL) system for learning Arabic. This system could be used for learning Arabic by students at primary schools or by learners of Arabic as a second or foreign language. It explores the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques for learning…

Accelerated Learning Techniques for the Foreign Language Class: A Personal View.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bancroft, W. Jane

Foreign language instructors cope with problems of learner anxiety in the classroom, fossilization of language use and language skill loss. Relaxation and concentration techniques can alleviate stress and fatigue and improve students' capabilities. Three categories of accelerated learning techniques are: (1) those that serve as a preliminary to…

Changing Teacher Roles in the Foreign Language Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Francis; Delarche, Marion; Marshall, Nicholas; Wurr, Adrian; Edwards, Jeffrey

1998-01-01

The roles of teachers in traditional second language classrooms are examined and measured against current conceptual trends within the discipline of foreign language learning and teaching. These trends, especially those in interpersonal communication and learner autonomy, require a new understanding of the classroom role of the language teacher.…

Foreign Language Writing Fellows Programs: A Model for Improving Advanced Writing Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snyder, Delys Waite; Nielson, Rex P.; Kurzer, Kendon

2016-01-01

Within the growing field of scholarly literature on foreign language (FL) writing pedagogy, few studies have addressed pedagogical questions regarding the teaching of writing to advanced language learners. Writing fellows peer tutoring programs, although typically associated with first language writing instruction, likely can benefit and support…

Exploring EFL Literature Approaches in Dutch Secondary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bloemert, Jasmijn; Jansen, Ellen; van de Grift, Wim

2016-01-01

There is an increasing awareness that the inclusion of literature in foreign language (FL) curricula can be beneficial to language learners. Especially, the move towards integrated language and literature curricula is gaining ground. In this study we investigated the way English as a foreign language (EFL) is approached in Dutch secondary…

Foreign Language Houses: Identities in Transition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bown, Jennifer; Dewey, Dan P.; Martinsen, Rob A.; Baker, Wendy

2011-01-01

This study examined the lived experience of students participating in foreign language houses to improve their skills in Russian, French, or Japanese. American students residing in apartments with other language learners and a native-speaking resident facilitator were required to speak with one another exclusively in the target language and…

Age, Gender and Grade Effect on Foreign Language Anxiety among Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydin, Selami; Harputlu, Leyla; Çelik, Seyda Savran; Ustuk, Özgehan; Güzel, Serhat

2017-01-01

The number of studies on the relationship between certain demographic variables, age, gender and grade, and the levels of foreign language anxiety (FLA) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context regarding adult and young learners is fairly limited, whereas the findings obtained from prior studies did not reach a consensus on the…

Analyzing Foreign Language Test Anxiety among High School Students in an EFL Context (Note 1)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gursoy, Esim; Arman, Tuba

2016-01-01

With the increasing need to learn languages as a result of globalization there is a great demand on the part of the learners to communicate in a second/foreign language, which is also supported downwards by the governments and upwards by the parents. Among the many aspects of foreign language learning, affective factors are researched a lot as…

Pedagogy of Language Learning in Higher Education: An Introduction. Advances in Foreign Language Pedagogy, Volume 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brauer, Gerd, Ed.

This second volume in the series "Advances in Foreign and Second Language Pedagogy" is an introduction to the pedagogy of language learning in higher education focusing on learner motivation, classroom environments, relationships for learning, and the future of language education. The book reveals numerous links to language education on the…

An Interactionist Perspective to Second/Foreign Language Learning and Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capocchi Ribeiro, Maria Alice

This paper addresses the interplay between the disciplines of psychology and sociolinguistics in second language acquisition. Psychology explains the process by which learners create their second language system, or interlanguage. Sociolinguistics examines the effects of social factors on learners' interlanguage. This paper focuses on an…

Video Chat vs. Face-to-Face Recasts, Learners' Interpretations and L2 Development: A Case of Persian EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rassaei, Ehsan

2017-01-01

This study investigated the effects of two modes of corrective feedback, namely, face-to-face recasts and computer-mediated recasts during video-conferencing on Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' second language (L2) development. Moreover, the accuracy of the learners' interpretations of recasts in the two modalities was…

Learning Diaries in the English as a Foreign Language Classroom: A Tool for Accessing Learners' Perceptions of Lessons and Developing Learner Autonomy and Reflection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porto, Melina

2007-01-01

The aim of this study was to learn from students' frame of reference how they experience foreign language classes. Data include learning diaries written during 2005 for more than 35 weeks (March to November). Subjects were 95 Argentine, Caucasian, mostly female, middle-class, Spanish-speaking College students between 19 and 21 years of age who…

Attitudes towards the Use of Masculine and Feminine Japanese among Foreign Professionals: What Can Learners Learn from Professionals?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Itakura, Hiroko

2009-01-01

Subordinate femininity associated with feminine Japanese has been found to pose barriers for foreign language learners of Japanese, especially among Western female learners of Japanese. The present study investigates attitudes towards the use of both masculine and feminine Japanese among non-native professional speakers of Japanese. The latter's…

A Case Study on English Language Learners' Task-Based Interaction and Avatar Identities in Second Life: A Mixed-Methods Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Julian ChengChiang

2014-01-01

English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' language use in 3-D virtual environments is a vibrant avenue that still deserves more research attention in the field of CALL. To contribute research and pedagogical implications to the current Second Life (SL) literature, this study aims to examine EFL adult learners' use of communication strategies…

Examination of the Relationship Between Autonomy and English Achievement as Mediated by Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety.

PubMed

Ghorbandordinejad, Farhad; Ahmadabad, Roghayyeh Moradian

2016-06-01

This study investigated the relationship between autonomy and English language achievement among third-grade high school students as mediated by foreign language classroom anxiety in a city in the north-west of Iran. A sample of 400 students (187 males, and 213 females) was assessed for their levels of autonomy and foreign language anxiety using the Autonomy Questionnaire and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), respectively. Participants' scores on their final English exam were also used as the measurement of their English achievement. The results of Pearson correlation revealed a strong correlation between learners' autonomy and their English achievement (r [Formula: see text] .406, n [Formula: see text] 400, [Formula: see text]). Also, foreign language classroom anxiety was found to be significantly and negatively correlated with English achievement (r [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text].472, n [Formula: see text] 400, [Formula: see text]). Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess the ability of autonomy to predict language learning achievement, after controlling for the influence of anxiety. In sum, the results of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that foreign language classroom anxiety significantly mediates the relationship between autonomy and English language achievement. Implications for both teachers and learners, and suggestions for further research are provided.

Can pluralistic approaches based upon unknown languages enhance learner engagement and lead to active social inclusion?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dahm, Rebecca

2017-08-01

One way to foster active social inclusion is to enable students to develop a positive attitude to "foreignness". Creating a situation where mainstream students are less wary of foreign languages and cultures, and where newcomers feel their linguistic background is being valued, provides favourable conditions for the inclusion of these newcomers in the classroom and in society. However, language classrooms in French schools rarely take any previously acquired linguistic knowledge into account, thus unconsciously contributing to the rift between multilingual learners (e.g. 1st- and 2nd-generation immigrant children, refugees, children of parents with different mother tongues) and French learners. Native French learners' first experience of learning another language is usually when English is added as a subject to their curriculum in primary school. In some schools in France, English lessons now include the simulation of multilingual situations, designed in particular for the French "quasi-monolingual" students to lose their fear of unknown languages and "foreignness" in general. But the overall aim is to help both groups of learners become aware of the positive impact of multilingualism on cognitive abilities. However, to achieve long-term effects, this awareness-raising needs to be accompanied by maximum engagement on the part of the students. This article explores an instructional strategy termed Pluralistic Approaches based upon Unknown Languages (PAUL), which was designed to develop learning strategies of quasi-monolingual students in particular and to increase learner engagement more generally. The results of a small-scale PAUL study discussed by the author seem to confirm an increase in learner engagement leading to an enhancement of learning outcomes. Moreover, PAUL seems indeed suitable for helping to prepare the ground for social inclusion.

Learner Corpora: The Missing Link in EAP Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilquin, Gaetanelle; Granger, Sylviane; Paquot, Magali

2007-01-01

This article deals with the place of learner corpora, i.e. corpora containing authentic language data produced by learners of a foreign/second language, in English for academic purposes (EAP) pedagogy and sets out to demonstrate that they have a valuable contribution to make to the field. Following an initial brief introduction to corpus-based…

The Effect of Self-Assessment on EFL Learners' Self-Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baleghizadeh, Sasan; Masoun, Atieh

2013-01-01

This study investigated the continuous influence of self-assessment on EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' self-efficacy. The participants, divided into an experimental and a control group, were 57 Iranian EFL learners in an English-language institute. The participants' self-efficacy was measured through a questionnaire that was the same…

Developing Oral Proficiency with VoiceThread: Learners' Strategic Uses and Views

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dugartsyrenova, Vera A.; Sardegna, Veronica G.

2017-01-01

This study explored Russian as a foreign language (RFL) learners' self-reported strategic uses of "VoiceThread" (VT)--a multimodal asynchronous computer-mediated communication tool--in order to gain insights into learner perceived effectiveness of VT for second language (L2) oral skills development and to determine the factors that…

The Relationship between Language Learners' Anxiety and Learning Strategy in the CLT Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Kun-huei

2010-01-01

This paper intends to explore how Taiwanese students perceive the relationship between their language learning strategy and anxiety in the foreign language classroom. Due to their previous learning experience, most of the participants hold an unfavorable attitude toward a grammar-translation teaching approach. Consequently, learner-centered…

From Needs to Wants: Motivation and the Language Learner.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladousse, Gillian Porter

1982-01-01

Discusses theories of motivation in foreign language learning especially as an interactional, dynamic process focusing on how diffuse needs become channeled into wants through behavior itself. Sociological issues involved include the personality model of the learner and the institutional setting where language is being taught. (Author/BK)

Dilemmas of Blended Language Learning: Learner and Teacher Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gleason, Jesse

2013-01-01

Rapidly advancing technology continues to change the landscape of blended foreign language education. Pinpointing the differences between blended language (BL) learning environments and understanding how stakeholders experience such spaces is complex. However, learner experiences can provide a roadmap for the design and development of BL courses.…

The Reading Comprehension Strategies of Second Language Learners: A Spanish-English Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acosta Caballero, Karen Anelice

2012-01-01

Reading comprehension of school-aged students is an important topic of research; however, research on the reading comprehension of adult foreign/second language learners whose first language is English is limited, especially studies investigating the reading comprehension strategies that readers of different proficiency levels use when they…

A Phenomenological Study: The Impacts of Developing Phonetic Awareness through Technological Resources on English Language Learners' (ELL) Communicative Competences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fabre-Merchán, Paolo; Torres-Jara, Gabriela; Andrade-Dominguez, Francisco; Ortiz-Zurita, Ma. José; Alvarez-Muñoz, Patricio

2017-01-01

Throughout our experience within the English Language Teaching (ELT) field and while acquiring a second language in English a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) settings, we have noticed that one of the main perceived challenges for English Language Learners (ELLs) is to effectively communicate. Most of the time, this…

Composing in French and in English: What the Writers Are Telling Us.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crerand, Mary E. Lavin

A study investigated the following questions: (1) How does writing develop in a foreign language context? (2) What are the learners' perceptions of writing in a foreign language? (3) What is the influence of first language literacy skills on second language writing? (4) What is the influence of second language proficiency on second language…

Foreign Language Learners' Views on the Importance of Learning the Target Language Pronunciation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çakir, Ismail; Baytar, Birtan

2014-01-01

Pronunciation is one of the controversial topics in the field of English language teaching as a second or foreign language. The aim of this study is to understand the attitudes of prep class students at Kastamonu University (state university) in Turkey towards the importance of pronunciation in language learning. Therefore, a pronunciation…

Second Language Pragmatic Ability: Individual Differences According to Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wyner, Lauren; Cohen, Andrew D.

2015-01-01

The aims of this paper are to review research literature on the role that the second language (L2) and foreign language (FL) environments actually play in the development of learners' target language (TL) pragmatic ability, and also to speculate as to the extent to which individual factors can offset the advantages that learners may have by being…

Identity processing styles and language proficiency among Persian learners of English as a foreign language.

PubMed

Razmjoo, Seyyed Ayatollah; Neissi, Sina

2010-12-01

The relationship between identity processing styles and language proficiency in English as foreign language (EFL) was investigated among the Persian EFL learners. 266 Persian candidates taking part in a Ph.D. examination at Shiraz University took part. The Language Proficiency Test was used to measure language proficiency in English. The Identity Styles Inventory was used to measure normative, informational, and diffuse-avoidant identity processing styles. Relationships between normative and informational styles and language proficiency and its subscales (grammar, vocabulary, and reading) were positive and significant. Negative relationships between diffuse-avoidant style and language proficiency and its subscales (grammar, vocabulary, and reading) were observed. There were significant sex differences for diffuse-avoidant style and for vocabulary.

Transition in Modern Foreign Languages: A Longitudinal Study of Motivation for Language Learning and Second Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Courtney, Louise

2017-01-01

The current longitudinal study examines the similarities and differences between primary and secondary foreign language curricula and pedagogy along with the development of motivation for language learning and second language proficiency. Data from 26 English learners of French (aged 10-11) were collected across three times points over a 12-month…

The Perceptions of Community College Students to Foreign Language Acquisition Grounded in Multiple Intelligence Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallace, Richard Le Roy Wayne

2010-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine and gain a clearer understanding of the perceptions of foreign language learning of adult foreign language learners attending a South-West Missouri community college. This study was based on the Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory of Howard Gardner. It examined the perceptions of adult language…

Identifying the Perceptual Learning Styles of Foreign Language Learners: A Comparative Study in TR63 (Osmaniye, Hatay and Kahramanmaras)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kurt, Mehmet; Bilginer, Hayriye

2016-01-01

In the globalizing world economy, for the realization of international trade is increasing the need for foreign language learning. TR63 (Kahramanmaras, Osmaniye and Hatay) region is increasing its export every day. Besides these advances, interest is awakening in foreign language education among the region. In preparing syllabus for this kind of…

Foreign Language Reading Anxiety in a Chinese as a Foreign Language Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Jing

2017-01-01

This study examined the foreign language (FL) reading anxiety level of learners of Chinese as a FL (n = 76) in the United States. Data from an FL reading anxiety survey, a background information survey and a face-to-face interview indicated that there was no significant difference in reading anxiety level among four course levels. In general,…

How Does an Interactive Approach to Literary Texts Work in an English as a Foreign Language Context? Learners' Perspectives in Close-Up

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Ha Thi Thu

2016-01-01

Interactive approaches to literary texts in second/foreign language education have enjoyed wide theoretical and empirical support. However, the teaching of literary texts in traditional English as a foreign language contexts still remains information-oriented, with a focus on the transmission and replication of an objectified interpretation of a…

A Longitudinal Study of Motivation in Foreign and Second Language Learning Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ordem, Eser

2017-01-01

Although motivation has been one of the most commonly studied subjects in second and foreign language learning in recent decades, it still remains an enigma for learners and teachers. This longitudinal study aimed to follow a student (N = 1) studying German in both second and foreign language environment for three years. The study was descriptive,…

Role-Play in Foreign Language Acquisition: A Causal-Comparative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Elena A.

2013-01-01

Foreign language educators have been striving to improve practices that support language teaching for adults for many years. Common knowledge insists that children are better language learners than adults. Creation of the new field of neurolinguistics at the end of the 20th century brought about new opportunities for both teachers of foreign…

The Connotations of Language Teacher Autonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Ligang

2017-01-01

With the research on the development of learner autonomy in foreign language education, teacher autonomy has become a hot topic in the research of foreign language teacher education. However, it is the most difficult question to define language teacher autonomy and any answer to it is likely to be subjective. On the basis of expounding upon the…

Differentiating Heritage and Foreign Language Learners of Spanish: Needs, Perceptions, and Expectations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedgcock, John S.; Lefkowitz, Natalie

2016-01-01

Research on heritage language (HL) development and education has characterized the unique linguistic, sociocultural, and affective profiles of heritage-language (HL) students, yet foreign-language (FL) education has only begun to understand HL students in relation to non-heritage students (Carreira & Kagan, 2011; Felix, 2008). To deepen our…

Using Interconnected Texts to Highlight Culture in the Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Maya

2013-01-01

SLA research on foreign language pedagogy has long demonstrated that culture is essential to language learning. However, presenting culture in the language classroom poses certain problems. For learners, there is a tendency to stereotype others and to rely excessively on the teacher. For teachers, there is a tendency to transmit isolated facts…

Foreign Language Students' Conversational Negotiations in Different Task Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardy, Ilonca M.; Moore, Joyce L.

2004-01-01

This study examined the effect of structural and content characteristics of language tasks on foreign language learners' conversational negotiations. In a 2x2 Greco-Latin square design, degree of structural support of language tasks, students' degree of familiarity with German video segments, and task order were varied. Twenty-eight pairs of…

Bridging the Language and Cultural Gaps: The Use of Blogs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia-Sanchez, Soraya; Rojas-Lizana, Sol

2012-01-01

This article aims to demonstrate how the use of an online journal, a bilingual blog, can contribute to filling in the language and cultural gaps of foreign language learners. This case study focuses on the participation, interaction, motivation, language acquisition, feedback and cultural input improved by students of Spanish as a Foreign Language…

What We Can Learn about Strategies, Language Learning, and Life from Two Extreme Cases: The Role of Well-Being Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oxford, Rebecca L.

2014-01-01

This article presents two foreign or second language (L2) learner histories representing the extreme ends of the spectrum of learner well-being. One story reflects the very positive learning experiences of a highly strategic learner, while the other story focuses on a less strategic learner's negative, long-lasting responses to a single traumatic…

Introducing Translation-Based Activities in Teaching English as a Foreign Language: A Step towards the Improvement of Learners' Accurate Use of Words and Expressions in Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mbeudeu, Clovis Delor

2017-01-01

The teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in the world in general and in Cameroon in particular has witnessed, over the last three decades, heated debates on which methodologies to adopt in the classroom and which learning strategies to apply for effective teaching and learning so that learners do not only acquire a linguistic competence…

Improving Second Language Speaking Proficiency via Interactional Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swanson, Peter B.; Schlig, Carmen

2010-01-01

Researchers have suggested that interactional feedback is associated with foreign/second language learning because it prompts learners to notice foreign/second language forms. Using Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and Long's interaction hypothesis as conceptual frameworks, this study explores the use of systematic explicit feedback to…

International Language Test Taking among Young Learners: A Hong Kong Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chik, Alice; Besser, Sharon

2011-01-01

Many children around the globe are learning English as a foreign language, especially in Asia. Numbers of participants and development of programs are increasing rapidly, as is a commercial testing movement targeted toward assessing this group of young learners. For example, the popular Cambridge Young Learners English test series has had more…

Investigating Attitude and Motivation of Iranian University Learners toward English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sayadian, Sima; Lashkarian, Anita

2010-01-01

This paper discusses the attitudes and motivation Iranian learners have toward learning EFL at their university level. Although research of a similar nature has been done in other countries, the present study complements others by following 500 university learners and it provides another avenue for examining the language situation in Iran. To…

Vocabulary Breadth in French L2 Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

David, Annabelle

2008-01-01

Vocabulary is one of the building blocks of language and is a necessary component of learners' development. This paper aims to describe the development of the L2 lexicon from the first year of learning French as a foreign language at school to the last year of undergraduate studies at university by setting out what learners know and how this…

The Challenges of Chinese: A Preliminary Study of UK Learners' Perceptions of Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Bo

2010-01-01

This study aims to highlight aspects of difficulty encountered by Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners and to explore the factors underlying these aspects. Data were gathered through a Chinese Language Learning Difficulty Survey from 164 CFL learners, mostly in British higher education. The survey data provided useful exploratory findings.…

Foreign Language Anxiety on a Massive Open Online Language Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bárkányi, Zsuzsanna; Melchor-Couto, Sabela

2017-01-01

This paper examines learner attitudes, self-efficacy beliefs, and anxiety in a beginners' Spanish Language Massive Open Online Course (LMOOC) by answering three research questions: (1) how do learners feel about acquiring speaking skills on an LMOOC?; (2) do they experience anxiety with regards to speaking?; and (3) do their self-efficacy beliefs…

Learner Differences among Children Learning a Foreign Language: Language Anxiety, Strategy Use, and Multiple Intelligences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Hui-ju; Chen, Ting-Han

2014-01-01

This study mainly investigates language anxiety and its relationship to the use of learning strategies and multiple intelligences among young learners in an EFL educational context. The participants were composed of 212 fifth- and sixth-graders from elementary schools in central Taiwan. Findings indicated that most participants generally…

Perception of a Regional Spanish Sound: The Case of /s/-Weakening

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

George, Angela

2014-01-01

While taking foreign language classes or interacting in the target language community, language learners will be exposed to dialectal differences. This paper addresses how adult learners of Spanish in beginning, intermediate, and advanced Spanish courses at a large US university perceived a common sociolinguistic feature of Spanish, /s/-weakening,…

Usage of Mother Tongue in Learning English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tosuncuoglu, Irfan

2012-01-01

In Turkey, where English is a foreign language and where learners share the same native language, teachers are often reluctant to use small group speaking activities because the learners do the ranking, bridge the information gap, or find an answer activities using their first (native) language. This article studies the problem and suggests a…

Age and Ultimate Attainment in the Pronunciation of a Foreign Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bongaerts, Theo; van Summeren, Chantal; Planken, Brigette; Schils, Erik

1997-01-01

Reports on two studies addressing the issue of ultimate attainment of pronunciation by late second-language learners. Findings indicate that it is not impossible to achieve an authentic, nativelike pronunciation of a second language after a specified biological time. The article argues that certain learner characteristics and learning contexts may…

Referencing in a Second Language: Korean EFL Learners' Cohesive Use of References in Written Narrative Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Jennifer Yusun

2009-01-01

This study examined Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' ability to establish textual cohesion in English through appropriate selection of reference forms and reference management strategies in their written narrative discourse. It employed both quantitative and qualitative analysis to explore how the language-specific reference…

Language Learning Strategies Profiles of EFL Learners in Nepal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dawadi, Saraswati

2017-01-01

This study investigated language learning strategies (LLS) used by English as foreign language (EFL) learners in Nepal. For this study, 370 undergraduate level students from a university in Nepal responded to a questionnaire. The quantitative software SPSS was used to analyse the data. Results indicated that students were moderate users of those…

Do "Current" Teaching Methodologies Really Work in Every Context?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yürekli, Aynur

2017-01-01

This study examines the impact that learners have on the effective implementation of the Communicative Language Teaching Approach (CLT) in monolingual English for Academic Purposes (EAP) class in a country where English is taught as a foreign rather than second language. Based on recorded language lessons of four different learner groups, it…

Reading, Writing, and Animation in Character Learning in Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Yi; Chang, Li-Yun; Zhang, Juan; Perfetti, Charles A.

2013-01-01

Previous studies suggest that writing helps reading development in Chinese in both first and second language settings by enabling higher-quality orthographic representation of the characters. This study investigated the comparative effectiveness of reading, animation, and writing in developing foreign language learners' orthographic knowledge…

Village Voices, Global Visions: Digital Video as a Transformative Foreign Language Learning Tool

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goulah, Jason

2007-01-01

This instrumental case study examines how adolescent high-intermediate Japanese language learners enrolled in a one-month credited abroad program used video as a mediational tool for (1) learning foreign language, content, and technology skills, (2) cultivating critical multiliteracies and transformative learning regarding geopolitics and the…

Learning Strategy Instruction in the Foreign Language Classroom: Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chamot, Anna Uhl; And Others

This resource guide is designed to provide foreign language teachers with suggestions for helping students learn how to become better language learners. The five chapters of the guide for teaching writing skills are as follows: (1) Teaching Learning Strategies (e.g., rationale for teaching, types, useful strategies, guidelines, instructional…

Advanced Foreign Language Learning: A Challenge to College Programs. Issues in Language Program Direction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrnes, Heidi, Ed.; Maxim, Hiram H., Ed.

This book includes the following chapters: "Literacy and Advanced Foreign Language Learning: Rethinking he Curriculum" (Richard G. Kern); "A Template for Advanced Learner Tasks: Staging Genre Reading and Cultural Literacy Through the Precis" (Janet Swaffar); "Fostering Advanced L2 Literacy: A Genre-Based, Cognitive…

"Those Anime Students": Foreign Language Literacy Development through Japanese Popular Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fukunaga, Natsuki

2006-01-01

Using multiliteracies and sociocultural perspectives on language and literacy learning, this article describes three Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) students' literacy development through involvement with Japanese popular culture. As part of a larger qualitative ethnographic study, the author interviewed JFL learners who have a particular…

Pre-Service English as a Foreign Language Teachers' Perceptions of the Relationship between Multiple Intelligences and Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savas, Perihan

2012-01-01

The relationship between intelligence, language, and learning is a challenging field of study. One way to study how this relationship occurs and works is to investigate the perceptions of advanced language learners. Therefore, this paper reports a study that was conducted to explore 160 pre-service English language teachers' perceptions about…

Implementation of Task-Based Language Teaching in Chinese as a Foreign Language: Benefits and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bao, Rui; Du, Xiangyun

2015-01-01

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been drawing increased attention from language teachers and researchers in the past decade. This paper focuses on the effects of TBLT on beginner learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in Denmark. Participatory observation and semi-structured interviews were carried out with 18 participants from two…

A Quantitative Action Research on Promoting Confidence in a Foreign Language Classroom: Implications for Second Language Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doqaruni, Vahid Rahmani

2014-01-01

Research has revealed that second language learners often seem passive and reticent in language classrooms. In the age of globalization, however, there is an urgent need for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers to enhance their reticent students' confidence to help them take part more actively in classroom oral activities. In line with…

The Fluctuating Development of Cross-Linguistic Semantic Awareness: A Longitudinal Multiple-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zheng, Yongyan

2014-01-01

Second language (L2) learners' awareness of first language-second language (L1-L2) semantic differences plays a critical role in L2 vocabulary learning. This study investigates the long-term development of eight university-level Chinese English as a foreign language learners' cross-linguistic semantic awareness over the course of 10 months. A…

How Successful Learners Employ Learning Strategies in an EFL Setting in the Indonesian Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Setiyadi, Ag. Bambang; Sukirlan, Muhammad; Mahpul

2016-01-01

Numerous studies have been conducted to correlate the use of language learning strategies and language performance and the studies have contributed to different perspectives of teaching and learning a foreign language. Some studies have also revealed that the students learning a foreign language in Asian contexts have been proved to use different…

The Effect of Mental Imaging Technique on Idiom Comprehension in EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aydin, Burcu

2017-01-01

In an English Foreign Language learning context, where access to native like use of metaphorical language is limited, gaining this ability becomes challenging. For many years, foreign language educators didn't pay much attention to idiomatic language and assumed that idioms could only be taught through rote learning. For this reason, they face…

Early and Late Language Start at Private Schools in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cepik, Saban; Sarandi, Hedayat

2012-01-01

This study examines the interaction effect of age in L2 attainment. It explores whether success in foreign language learning at early childhood grades varies depending on age. It also addresses the beliefs of foreign language teachers regarding the variables under review. Eighty-three 11 year-old language learners who started learning English at…

Informal Language Learning in Authentic Setting, Using Mobile Devices and SNS

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aladjem, Ruthi; Jou, Bibiana

2016-01-01

One of the challenges of teaching a foreign language in non-immersive contexts, is extending the exposure of learners to the target language, beyond school hours. Since it is quite common to find linguistic and cultural exponents of foreign languages, in authentic contexts (i.e., the "Linguistic Landscape"), those exponents may serve as…

United States Special Operations Command’s Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus at ILR 1/1+: Initial Review and Recommended Changes to Improve Results and Lower Cost

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-01

to be useful for proficiency development, and with the limited research available, Doughty found that instructed language learners moved further...absolute speaking proficiency in languages taught at the Foreign Service Institute. Arlington, VA: Author. SOFLO Support Project USSOCOM’s Foreign...on language and linguistics 1999: Language in our time: Bilingual education and official English , ebonics and standard English , immigration and the Unz

Corrective Feedback, Learner Uptake, and Feedback Perception in a Chinese as a Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fu, Tingfeng; Nassaji, Hossein

2016-01-01

The role of corrective feedback in second language classrooms has received considerable research attention in the past few decades. However, most of this research has been conducted in English-teaching settings, either ESL or EFL. This study examined teacher feedback, learner uptake as well as learner and teacher perception of feedback in an adult…

Learner Background and the Acquisition of Discourse Features of Korean in the Australian Secondary School Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Sun Hee Ok

2012-01-01

This paper explores how learner background shapes learner performance on discourse features in writing by analysing data produced as part of the Student Achievement in Asian Languages Education project (Scarino et al., 2011) by Year 10 (mid-secondary school) students learning Korean as a foreign or heritage language. Five participants were in…

An Exploratory Study into Trade-Off Effects of Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency on Young Learners' Oral Task Repetition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sample, Evelyn; Michel, Marije

2014-01-01

Studying task repetition for adult and young foreign language learners of English (EFL) has received growing interest in recent literature within the task-based approach (Bygate, 2009; Hawkes, 2012; Mackey, Kanganas, & Oliver, 2007; Pinter, 2007b). Earlier work suggests that second language (L2) learners benefit from repeating the same or a…

Serving Young Dual Language Learners in Illinois

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meléndez, Luisiana; Chamberlain, Patricia

2018-01-01

Between 2000 and 2010, the foreign born population in Illinois increased by over 200,000, and the number of young dual language learners (DLLs) also grew. By 2015, DLLs were thought to account for more than a quarter of the state's three- and four-year-olds. In addition, more K-12 children in Illinois were being designated as English learners and…

Improving Learner Outcomes in EFL: Does Early Instruction Lead to Greater Achievement?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çelik, Servet; Karaca, Bilal

2014-01-01

Language education curricula and programs worldwide have begun emphasizing foreign language instruction for learners as young as 5-6 years, particularly in English. Yet, while studies have argued for the benefits of early language instruction, the results of this trend in terms of actual achievement are not clear. For this reason, the researchers…

Self-Directed Learning in Preparatory-Year University Students: Comparing Successful and Less-Successful English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alghamdi, Fatimah M. A.

2016-01-01

There is consensus among those involved in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in the Saudi educational context that students' achievement in language learning is below expectations. Much research has been directed towards finding the reasons for low achievement amongst learners. However, very few studies have looked at parameters of…

English Learning Websites and Digital Resources from the Perspective of Chinese University EFL Practitioners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shen, Huizhong; Yuan, Yifeng; Ewing, Robyn

2015-01-01

English language learning (ELL) websites and digital resources have been recognized as an important source of linguistic and cultural knowledge for English as a foreign language (EFL) learners to explore. The up-to-date information carried by authentic materials is invaluable for learners to develop an understanding of the target language/culture.…

The Impact of Computer-Based Instruction on the Development of EFL Learners' Writing Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zaini, A.; Mazdayasna, G.

2015-01-01

The current study investigated the application and effectiveness of computer assisted language learning (CALL) in teaching academic writing to Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners by means of Microsoft Word Office. To this end, 44 sophomore intermediate university students majoring in English Language and Literature at an Iranian…

Exploring the Relationship between Tolerance of Ambiguity of EFL Learners and Their Vocabulary Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basöz, Tutku

2015-01-01

Learning a new language is akin to exploring an unknown land as ambiguous situations are prevalent in language learning. Ambiguity tolerance, which can hinder or facilitate language learning, is considered as an important learning style. The purpose of the present study was to understand how tolerant/intolerant EFL learners are of foreign language…

Similar and/or Different Writing Processes? A Study of Spanish Foreign Language and Heritage Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elola, Idoia; Mikulski, Ariana M.

2016-01-01

Following a cognitively-oriented framework, this study builds upon the authors' previous work (Elola and Mikulski 2013; Mikulski and Elola 2011), which analyzed writing processes (planning time, execution time, revision time), fluency, and accuracy of Spanish heritage language (SHL) learners when composing in English and in Spanish. By analyzing…

How Well Do U.S. High School Students Achieve in Spanish When Compared to Native Spanish Speakers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Richard L.; Luebbers, Julie; Castañeda, Martha E.

2017-01-01

Foreign language educators have developed measures to assess the proficiency of U.S. high school learners. Most have compared language learners to clearly defined criteria for proficiency in the language (criterion-referenced assessment) or to the performance of other monolingual English speakers (norm-referenced assessment). In this study, the…

Lexical Language-Related Episodes in Pair and Small Group Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayo, Maria Del Pilar Garcia; Zeitler, Nora

2017-01-01

The present study investigates whether learner set up in interaction, namely in pairs or small groups, influences the frequency and outcome of lexical language-related episodes (LREs) and L2 vocabulary learning. Thirty Spanish English as a foreign language (EFL) university learners took part in the study. They worked in four groups and seven pairs…

THE NATIONAL INTEREST AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES. THIRD EDITION.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

PARKER, WILLIAM RILEY

WRITTEN AT UNESCO'S REQUEST, THIS DISCUSSION GUIDE CONSIDERS WHETHER OR NOT THE NATIONAL INTEREST WOULD BE SERVED BY INCREASING THE STUDY OF MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES IN THE UNITED STATES AND, IF SO, WHICH SEQUENCE OF STUDY OF WHAT LANGUAGES WOULD BE MOST BENEFICIAL FOR BOTH THE NATION AND THE INDIVIDUAL LEARNERS. FOLLOWING SOME BRIEF INTRODUCTORY…

Leveling L2 Texts through Readability: Combining Multilevel Linguistic Features with the CEFR

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Yao-Ting; Lin, Wei-Chun; Dyson, Scott Benjamin; Chang, Kuo-En; Chen, Yu-Chia

2015-01-01

Selecting appropriate texts for L2 (second/foreign language) learners is an important approach to enhancing motivation and, by extension, learning. There is currently no tool for classifying foreign language texts according to a language proficiency framework, which makes it difficult for students and educators to determine the precise…

Contextual Dynamics in Foreign Language Learning Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kozaki, Yoko; Ross, Steven J.

2011-01-01

Learning context has increasingly been postulated to exert an influence on the dynamics of individual differences in language learning. In a longitudinal design that tested the proficiency gains of 1,682 learners over a 2-year foreign language program, a multilevel modeling approach was deployed in this study to account for variation in second…

Advanced Learners' Foreign Language-Related Emotions across the Four Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piniel, Katalin; Albert, Ágnes

2018-01-01

Individual differences researchers have recently begun to investigate the concept of emotions and their role in language learning (MacIntyre, Gregersen, & Mercer, 2016). Our aim is to report on a project exploring English majors' feelings related to their use of foreign languages. Using a qualitative research design, participants were asked to…

Second- and Foreign-Language Variation in Tense Backshifting in Indirect Reported Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charkova, Krassimira D.; Halliday, Laura J.

2011-01-01

This study examined how English learners in second-language (SL) and foreign-language (FL) contexts employ tense backshifting in indirect reported speech. Participants included 35 international students in the United States, 37 Bulgarian speakers of English, 38 Bosnian speakers of English, and 41 native English speakers. The instrument involved…

Culture in Foreign Language Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kramsch, Claire

2013-01-01

In foreign language education, the teaching of culture remains a hotly debated issue. What is culture? What is its relation to language? Which and whose culture should be taught? What role should the learners' culture play in the acquisition of knowledge of the target culture? How can we avoid essentializing cultures and teaching stereotypes? And…

The Impact of Vocabulary Knowledge on Reading, Writing and Proficiency Scores of EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karakoç, Dilek; Köse, Gül Durmusoglu

2017-01-01

This study is an attempt to clarify the incremental and multidimensional nature of foreign language vocabulary development and its relation to the participants' reading and writing performances and general language ability of English as a foreign language (EFL). With this principle aim, the current study investigated the relationship between…

Language Aptitude and Grammatical Difficulty: An EFL Classroom-Based Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yalçin, Sebnem; Spada, Nina

2016-01-01

This study investigates the relationship between foreign language aptitude and the learning of two English structures defined as easy or difficult to learn. Using a quasiexperimental design, 66 secondary-level learners of English as a foreign language from three intact classes were provided with four hours of instruction on the "passive"…

Video Dubbing Projects in the Foreign Language Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burston, Jack

2005-01-01

The dubbing of muted video clips offers an excellent opportunity to develop the skills of foreign language learners at all linguistic levels. In addition to its motivational value, soundtrack dubbing provides a rich source of activities in all language skill areas: listening, reading, writing, speaking. With advanced students, it also lends itself…

Foreign Language Anxiety's Forgotten Study: The Case of the Anxious Preservice Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tum, Danyal Oztas

2015-01-01

This article argues that nonnative preservice teachers are just as susceptible to foreign language anxiety as are inexperienced language learners, a claim carrying important implications for the EFL classroom. The results of the study described in this article indicate that anxious preservice teachers experience significant levels of language…

Developing Adaptive Systems at Early Stages of Children's Foreign Language Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Espada, Ana Belen Cumbreno; Garcia, Mercedes Rico; Fuentes, Alejandro Curado; Gomez, Eva Ma Dominguez

2006-01-01

This paper describes the integration of hypermedia adaptive systems for foreign language learners at an early age. Our research project is concerned with exploring the relationship between language learning and information technology according to six different phases: a preliminary study of the plausible adaptive system; the development of lessons…

Spanish-Language Learners and Latinos: Two Community-Based Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

López, Sylvia

2014-01-01

The growing U.S. Latino dispersal is allowing for more interactions between students of Spanish and native Spanish speakers. By working with Latino community members, Spanish instructors help meet the standards for foreign language education developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. This article describes 2 projects.…

TANGO, an International Collaborative Bilingual E-Learning Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Álvarez-Mayo, Carmen

2016-01-01

TANGO (Álvarez-Mayo, 2013) uses the cultural aspects of foreign languages to promote oral interaction, enabling students to become self-regulated learners. Through TANGO, foreign language students learn about the cultural intricacies of the Target Language (TL) and use the TL to practise and further develop their oral skills with a partner who is…

A Study of Learning Strategies in Foreign Language Instruction: Findings of the Longitudinal Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chamot, Anna Uhl; And Others

Part of a larger research project, this longitudinal study analyzed differences between effective and ineffective high school and college language learners and changes in strategy uses over time. Related studies include a descriptive study, which identified learning strategies used in studying foreign languages, and a course development study, in…

Listening Comprehension Performance Viewed in the Light of Emotional Intelligence and Foreign Language Listening Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valizadeh, Mohammad Reza; Alavinia, Parviz

2013-01-01

The researchers in the current study were after probing the potential relationship between emotional intelligence, foreign language listening anxiety (FLLA), and listening comprehension performance of Iranian EFL learners. To this end, 233 participants, studying English language and literature at three different Universities in Urmia, were…

The Impact of Integrating Technology and Social Experience in the College Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Yulin

2013-01-01

Technology has been used widely in the field of education for a long period of time. It is a useful tool which could be a mediation to help language learners to learn the target language. In order to investigate how technology and social experience can be integrated into courses to promote language learners' desire to learn English, the researcher…

Exploring the Effect of Teaching Test-Taking Strategies on Intermediate Level Learners on Reading Section of IELTS; Learners' Attitude in Focus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khoshsima, Hooshang; Saed, Amin; Mousaei, Fatemeh

2018-01-01

Language proficiency tests have become common instruments to judge people based on their performance. Thus, the scores on language proficiency tests, such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), play a crucial role in the test-takers' lives. Because of increasing demands on…

Engaging Foreign Language Learners in a Web 2.0-Mediated Collaborative Learning Process (Inclusión de estudiantes de lenguas extranjeras en procesos colaborativos de aprendizaje mediados por la web 2.0)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cote Parra, Gabriel Eduardo

2015-01-01

The purpose of this action research was to explore the types of interactions that foreign language learners experience while using a wiki as a supporting tool for a face-to-face research course. This design allowed me to play a dual role: first, I studied my own classroom setting and students. Second, I implemented a pedagogical intervention based…

Speaking Spontaneously in the Modern Foreign Languages Classroom: Tools for Supporting Successful Target Language Conversation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christie, Colin

2016-01-01

This article reports on the findings of a study into the conditions which promote spontaneous learner talk in the target language in the modern foreign languages (MFL) classroom. A qualitative case study approach was adopted. French lessons, with school students aged 11-16 years old, were observed and analysed with the aim of identifying tools and…

Increasing Language Awareness and Self-Efficacy of FL Students Using Self-Assessment and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kissling, Elizabeth M.; O'Donnell, Mary E.

2015-01-01

This study describes how oral language was assessed in an advanced-level college foreign language (FL) conversation course. Learners used the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Proficiency Guidelines to guide self-analyses of their oral production at intervals throughout the course. The intent was to provide opportunities for…

Strategy Use for Listening in English as a Foreign Language: A Comparison of Academic and Vocational High School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Mu-Hsuan

2016-01-01

Researchers of learner and language use strategies have long suggested that appropriate application of strategies can facilitate second or foreign language learning. Listening is the most fundamental skill in language learning, but for decades this skill was not emphasized in secondary schools in Taiwan. However, in 2012 a new national English…

Beliefs about and Intention to Learn a Foreign Language in Face-to-Face and Online Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alhamami, Munassir

2018-01-01

This mixed-methods study investigates language learners' intention to attend a class and learn a foreign language in face-to-face and online settings using Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (TPB). The data were collected using interviews, questionnaires, and treatments with participants in two groups: a face-to-face language learning (FLL) group…

Teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language in Nepal: Past and Present

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bista, Krishna

2011-01-01

In this paper, the author reviews the history of English language teaching English as a second or foreign language in schools and colleges in Nepal. Teaching English language and literature in Nepal is of about a half a decade, starting from the mid of twentieth century. English learners in Nepal do not have enough exposure to various techniques…

Training Pre-Service Chinese Language Teachers to Create Instructional Video to Enhance Classroom Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Lih-Ching Chen; Wang, Ming-Chian Ken

2014-01-01

Foreign language instruction is a complex and challenging task made even more so by situations in which the learner's native language is radically different from the foreign language being mastered. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of native English speakers seeking to learn Mandarin Chinese. The rapid increase in the availability and…

Influence of Grade Level on Perceptual Learning Style Preferences and Language Learning Strategies of Taiwanese English as a Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Mei-Ling

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between grade level, perceptual learning style preferences, and language learning strategies among Taiwanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in grades 7 through 9. Three hundred and ninety junior high school students participated in this study. The instruments for data…

An Investigation of Chinese University EFL Learner's Foreign Language Reading Anxiety, Reading Strategy Use and Reading Comprehension Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Zhongshe; Liu, Meihua

2015-01-01

The present study explored the interrelations between foreign language (FL) reading anxiety, FL reading strategy use and their interactive effect on FL reading comprehension performance at the tertiary level in China. Analyses of the survey data collected from 1702 university students yielded the following results: (a) Both Foreign Language…

Languages and Language Learners. DIMENSION 2005. Selected Proceedings of the 2005 Joint Conference of the Southern Conference on Language Teaching and the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chambless, Krista S.; Brodman, Marian M.; Terry, Robert M.; Schlig, Carmen; Alley, David C.; Verkler, Karen; Dernoshek, Darrell J.; Ducate, Lara C.; Wilkerson, Carol; Barry, Sue; Lipton, Gladys; Semonsky, Carol; Long, Sheri Spaine; Cherry, C. Maurice, Ed; Bradley, Lee, Ed.

2005-01-01

"Dimension" is the annual volume containing the selected, refereed, edited Proceedings of each year's conference. The theme of the 2005 proceedings was "Many Languages, Many Learners, One World." Following an introduction by editors Lee Bradley and C. Maurice Bradley, the articles selected for this volume are: (1) Effects of FLEX Programs on…

Language Choice among Peers in Project-Based Learning: A Hong Kong Case Study of English Language Learners' Plurilingual Practices in Out-of-Class Computer-Mediated Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hafner, Christoph A.; Li, David C. S.; Miller, Lindsay

2015-01-01

Recently there has been considerable interest in the role of first language use in second/foreign language learning, especially where students share a common first language. However, most research has focused on in-class interaction between teachers and learners. Much less attention has been given to students' out-of-class practices, for example,…

A Look at Advanced Learners' Use of Mobile Devices for English Language Study: Insights from Interview Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kruk, Mariusz

2017-01-01

The paper discusses the results of a study which explored advanced learners of English engagement with their mobile devices to develop learning experiences that meet their needs and goals as foreign language learners. The data were collected from 20 students by means of a semi-structured interview. The gathered data were subjected to qualitative…

Acquiring Interactional Competence in a Study Abroad Context: Japanese Language Learners' Use of the Interactional Particle "ne"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Masuda, Kyoko

2011-01-01

This study examines the development of interactional competence (Hall, 1993, 1995) by English-speaking learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) in a study abroad setting, as indexed by their use of the interactionally significant particle "ne." The analysis is based on a comparison of (a) 6 sets of conversations between JFL learners and…

Non-Native Japanese Learners' Perception of Consonant Length in Japanese and Italian

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsukada, Kimiko; Cox, Felicity; Hajek, John; Hirata, Yukari

2018-01-01

Learners of a foreign language (FL) typically have to learn to process sounds that do not exist in their first language (L1). As this is known to be difficult for adults, in particular, it is important for FL pedagogy to be informed by phonetic research. This study examined the role of FL learners' previous linguistic experience in the processing…

The Use of Discourse Markers among Mandarin Chinese Teachers, and Chinese as a Second Language and Chinese as a Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsai, Pei-Shu; Chu, Wo-Hsin

2017-01-01

This study investigates how the use of discourse markers reflects speaking fluency in Chinese learners. In this study, 220 min of online Chinese courses were transcribed, with 17 Chinese learners and 5 native Chinese teachers as participants. Half of the transcribed data were drawn from students living in Taipei, Taiwan, a Chinese-speaking…

Teaching Vocabulary with Graphic Novels

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basal, Ahmet; Aytan, Talat; Demir, Ibrahim

2016-01-01

Mastery of idiomatic expressions by foreign language learners is often equated with the fluency of native speakers of that language. However, learning these idiomatic expressions is one of the significant problems experienced by learners. The present quasi-experimental study conducted over four weeks in the ELT department of a Turkish university…

Developing and Evaluating a Chinese Collocation Retrieval Tool for CFL Students and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Howard Hao-Jan; Wu, Jian-Cheng; Yang, Christine Ting-Yu; Pan, Iting

2016-01-01

The development of collocational knowledge is important for foreign language learners; unfortunately, learners often have difficulties producing proper collocations in the target language. Among the various ways of collocation learning, the DDL (data-driven learning) approach encourages the independent learning of collocations and allows learners…

Commentary: Learner-Based Listening and Technological Authenticity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robin, Richard

2007-01-01

Language teachers know that even the best technology cannot provide the high degree of interaction required to acquire meaningful proficiency in a foreign language. Even the most polished packages available today cannot evaluate learner input and provide subtle shades of context-based feedback, except in the narrowest of circumstances. In this…

Using Concept Mapping to Teach Young EFL Learners Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Teo, Adeline; Shaw, Yun F.; Chen, Jimmy; Wang, Derek

2016-01-01

Many English as a foreign language (EFL) students fail to be effective readers because they lack knowledge of vocabulary and appropriate reading strategies. We believe that teaching proper reading strategies can help second-language learners overcome their reading problems, especially when the instruction begins in elementary school. Effective…

Teaching Culture and Language through the Multiple Intelligences Film Teaching Model in the ESL/EFL Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeh, Ellen

2014-01-01

This paper will demonstrate how to enhance second language (L2) learners' linguistic and cultural competencies through the use of the Multiple Intelligences Film Teaching (MIFT) model. The paper will introduce two ideas to teachers of English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL). First, the paper shows how L2 learners learn linguistic and…

Content Familiarity, Task Repetition and Chinese EFL Learners' Engagement in Second Language Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qiu, Xuyan; Lo, Yuen Yi

2017-01-01

Previous research has considered the effects of content familiarity and task repetition on second language (L2) performance, but few studies have looked at the effect of these factors on learners' engagement in task performance. This study explores the influence of content familiarity and task repetition on English as a foreign language (EFL)…

Effect of "Tell Me More" on EFL Undergraduate Students' English Language Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gyamfi, George; Sukseemuang, Panida

2017-01-01

This descriptive study aimed at finding the impact of Tell Me More (TMM), an online language-learning program, on English as a foreign language (EFL) undergraduate learners' achievement in a University in Thailand. The study also looked at whether the time of use of TMM had an effect on learners' achievement. Data was collected from the scores of…

The Effect of Supplementary Materials on Reading Comprehension Improvement of Iranian Female High School EFL Learners Based on Gaj and Khate Sefid Text Books

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abbasi, Zahra; Azizifar, Akbar; Gowhary, Habib; Heidari, Mina

2015-01-01

The Impact of using Supplementary books alongside the national academic text book has received great attention of the curriculum and material developers. Since the beginning of language studies, Second & Foreign Language Acquisition (SLA & FLA) researchers have been searching for effective ways of improving learners' language skills. This…

Korean American College Students' Language Practices and Identity Positioning: "Not Korean, but Not American"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Hyun-Sook

2013-01-01

This article explores the intersection between language practices and ethnic identity for 8 second-generation Korean American learners who were participating in a Korean-as-a-foreign-language (KFL) class at a U.S. university. This study aims to examine the fluid nature of ethnic identity by examining how Korean heritage learners negotiate,…

Reception of Japanese Captions: A Comparative Study of Visual Attention between Native Speakers and Language Learners of Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sikkema, Eline C.

2017-01-01

Nowadays, television programmes are not only accessed through a conventional TV set; they can be viewed through streaming services on the internet, smartphones, and tablets to name but a few media. For language learners, this development has opened up opportunities for accessing authentic materials in foreign languages outside of the classroom.…

Writing in French in Secondary Schools in England and Germany: Are the British Really "Bad Language Learners?"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gruber, Alice; Tonkyn, Alan

2017-01-01

It is widely assumed that the British are poorer modern foreign language (MFL) learners than their fellow Europeans. Motivation has often been seen as the main cause of this perceived disparity in language learning success. However, there have also been suggestions that curricular and pedagogical factors may play a part. This article reports a…

Is Mobile-Assisted Language Learning Really Useful? An Examination of Recall Automatization and Learner Autonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sato, Takeshi; Murase, Fumiko; Burden, Tyler

2015-01-01

The aim of this study is to examine the advantages of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL), especially vocabulary learning of English as a foreign or second language (L2) in terms of the two strands: automatization and learner autonomy. Previous studies articulate that technology-enhanced L2 learning could bring about some positive effects.…

The Exploring Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition and Common Main Gaps in the Current Studies of Vocabulary Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fazeli, Seyed Hossein

2012-01-01

Vocabulary can be a key factor for success, central to a language, and paramount to a language learner. In such situation, the lexicon may be the most important component for learners (Grass and Selinker, 1994), and mastering of vocabulary is an essential component of second/foreign language teaching and learning that has been repeatedly…

Learner Autonomy in Foreign Language Policies in Vietnamese Universities: An Exploration of Teacher Agency from a Sociocultural Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phan, T. T. Huyen; Hamid, M. Obaidul

2017-01-01

Learner autonomy (LA) is generally accepted as an important goal, either explicit or implicit, in language education policies across polities. Fostering LA in educational settings primarily depends on the role of teachers in enacting macro-level policies at the micro level. While various top-down and bottom-up frameworks for language policy…

Allgemeine Sprachfaehigkeit und Fremdsprachenerwerb. Zur Struktur von Leistungsdimensionen und linguistischer Kompetenz des Fremdsprachenlerners (General Language Ability and Foreign Language Acquisition. On the Structure of Performance Dimensions and the Linguistic Competence of the Foreign Language Learner). Diskussions beitraege aus dem Institute fuer Bildungsforschung, No. 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sang, Fritz; Vollmer, Helmut J.

This study investigates the theoretical plausibility and empirical validity of the assumption that all performance in a foreign language can be traced back to a single factor, the general language ability factor. The theoretical background of this hypothesis is reviewed in detail. The concept of a unitary linguistic competence, interpreted as an…

Foreign Language Anxiety as an Individual Difference Variable in Performance: From an Interactionist's Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Youngsang

This article addresses a research direction in which language professionals' research efforts can be invested to clarify the conceptual framework of the foreign language (FL) anxiety construct and develop an alternative measure to the construct. Current research on the effects of FL anxiety on learner performance has yielded inconsistent research…

Word-Level and Sentence-Level Automaticity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners: a Comparative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Dongmei; Yu, Xiaoru; Zhang, Haomin

2017-01-01

The present study aimed to investigate second language (L2) word-level and sentence-level automatic processing among English as a foreign language students through a comparative analysis of students with different proficiency levels. As a multidimensional and dynamic construct, automaticity is conceptualized as processing speed, stability, and…

The Relationship between English Foreign Language Teachers' Willingness with Post-Method Pedagogy and Their Teaching Effectiveness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khodabakhshzadeh, Hossein; Arabi, Mahdi; Samadi, Farideh

2018-01-01

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between English Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' willingness and conformity with post-method pedagogy and their teaching effectiveness. The participants comprised 134 EFL teachers teaching and 487 EFL learners studying at different language institutes in several cities of Iran.…

Semantic Radical Knowledge and Word Recognition in Chinese for Chinese as Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Su, Xiaoxiang; Kim, Young-Suk

2014-01-01

In the present study, we examined the relation of knowledge of semantic radicals to students' language proficiency and word reading for adult Chinese-as-a-foreign language students. Ninety-seven college students rated their proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Chinese, and were administered measures of receptive and…

Understanding English Speaking Difficulties: An Investigation of Two Chinese Populations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gan, Zhengdong

2013-01-01

Compared with reading, writing and listening, there has been a paucity of empirical data documenting learners' experiences of speaking English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) in different learning contexts in spite of the fact that developing the ability to speak in a second or foreign language is widely…

Using Emotional Intervention to Teach Arabic as a Foreign Language: Instructional Design Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Faryadi, Qais

2012-01-01

This appraisal argues that emotional interventions in learning a foreign Language are vital. Emotions generate desire and desire initiates motivation. Emotion is crucial in creating knowledge and meaning as thus, affecting how learners learn a language. The prime purpose of this assessment is to investigate the effects of positive and negative…

Investigating Foreign Language Learning Anxiety: A Case of Saudi Undergraduate EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Khasawneh, Fadi Maher

2016-01-01

This study investigates the level and sources of foreign language learning anxiety experienced by Saudi students studying at King Khalid University (KKU). It also aims to examine the differences between the level of language anxiety and the students' study level. For this purpose, 97 English majored students from different levels were purposively…

A Comprehensive Pedagogical Framework to Develop Pragmatics in the Foreign Language Classroom: The 6Rs Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martínez-Flor, Alicia; Usó-Juan, Esther

2006-01-01

To prepare learners for successful communication is nowadays one of the main goals of teaching practices of lecturers of English as a Second (ESL) or Foreign (EFL) language in the University setting. Consequently, language teaching needs to focus not only on linguistic or strategic aspects of the target language, but also on the development of the…

Teenagers Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language in a European Confucius Institute: The Relationship between Language Learner Strategies and Successful Learning Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cáceres-Lorenzo, MTeresa

2015-01-01

The present research aims to identify the factors involved in the successful completion of the "Young Chinese Test" 2-A1 (YCT 2-A1) at Spanish Confucius Institute (Canary Islands). Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) entails several learning difficulties compared with other European languages. This study was conducted on 61 monolingual…

Unsuccessful Study Habits in Foreign Language Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bailey, Phillip D.; Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J.

This study determined which study habits would distinguish successful from unsuccessful foreign language learners. Participants were 219 college students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds enrolled in either Spanish, French, German, or Japanese classes. The students completed the Study Habits Inventory and the Background Demographic Form.…

A Pathway to Learner Autonomy: A Self-Determination Theory Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Pingying; Zhang, Jiaxiu

2017-01-01

Concepts of learner autonomy and the self-determination theory provided a theoretical rationale for the action program for learner autonomy. The action program incorporated satisfying learners' basic psychological needs into English Foreign Language (EFL) course education. The action program was implemented for one academic year. Both qualitative…

University EFL Learners' Perceptions of Their Autonomous Learning Responsibilities and Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdel Razeq, Anwar Ahmad

2014-01-01

This study investigated the readiness of university students for autonomous learning of English as a foreign language. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. The study assessed learners' readiness for autonomous learning across three dimensions: a) learners' perceptions of their educational responsibilities; b) learners' abilities…

Learning a Foreign Language: A New Path to Enhancement of Cognitive Functions.

PubMed

Shoghi Javan, Sara; Ghonsooly, Behzad

2018-02-01

The complicated cognitive processes involved in natural (primary) bilingualism lead to significant cognitive development. Executive functions as a fundamental component of human cognition are deemed to be affected by language learning. To date, a large number of studies have investigated how natural (primary) bilingualism influences executive functions; however, the way acquired (secondary) bilingualism manipulates executive functions is poorly understood. To fill this gap, controlling for age, gender, IQ, and socio-economic status, the researchers compared 60 advanced learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to 60 beginners on measures of executive functions involving Stroop, Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) and Wechsler's digit span tasks. The results suggested that mastering English as a foreign language causes considerable enhancement in two components of executive functions, namely cognitive flexibility and working memory. However, no significant difference was observed in inhibitory control between the advanced EFL learners and beginners.

A Teacher's First Language Use in Form-Focused Episodes in Spanish as a Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nakatsukasa, Kimi; Loewen, Shawn

2015-01-01

This study investigates a teacher's L1 use during focus-on-form episodes (FFEs). FFEs assist L2 learning by bringing learners' attention to language. We studied the language used in FFEs in a Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) classroom to better understand the pedagogical purposes of L1 use in the classroom. We video-recorded 12 hours…

A Comparative Analysis of Contracted versus Alphabetical English Braille and Attitudes of English as a Foreign Language Learners: A Case Study of a Farsi-Speaking Visually Impaired Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mobaraki, Mohsen; Nazarloo, Saber Atash; Toosheh, Elaheh

2017-01-01

In the educational system of Iran, in which English is a foreign language, the duration of primary school is six years. After that, these English as a foreign language students enter high school and start to learn English during an additional six-year period. In years seven and eight, English textbooks are embossed in alphabetic English braille;…

Teaching the Anxiety of Learning a Foreign Language That Influences High School Students in Learning French as a Second Foreign Language "The Case of Denizli"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kusçu, Ertan

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to determine the reasons of anxiety levels of high school students who learn French as a second foreign language. The sample of the study consisted of four hundred fifty-six students from two high schools in Denizli province in 2015-2016 academic year. In this study, the effects of variables such as learners' gender,…

The Effects of Task Type on The Quality of Resolving Language-Related Episodes and Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaivanpanah, Shiva; Miri, Mowla

2017-01-01

This study examined how task type can affect the ways in which learners resolve lexical language-related episodes (LREs) and consequently how their vocabulary learning in the LREs is influenced. An intact class of Iranian learners (N = 24) of English as a foreign language were paired up to write a composition and complete a cloze task. The…

Effects of Prosody While Disambiguating Ambiguous Japanese Sentences in the Brain of Native Speakers and Learners of Japanese: A Proposition for Pronunciation and Prosody Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naito-Billen, Yuka

2012-01-01

Recently, the significant role that pronunciation and prosody plays in processing spoken language has been widely recognized and a variety of teaching methodologies of pronunciation/prosody has been implemented in teaching foreign languages. Thus, an analysis of how similarly or differently native and L2 learners of a language use…

Which Desk Dictionary Is Best for Foreign Students of English?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yorkey, Richard

1969-01-01

"The American College Dictionary, "Funk and Wagnalls Standard College Dictionary," Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language," The Random House Dictionary of the English Language," and Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary" are analyzed and ranked as to their usefulness for the foreign learner of English. (FWB)

Communication Strategies in the Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houston, Tony

2006-01-01

The focus of the present study is to examine the communication strategies used by learners and teachers in the foreign language classroom. The data is from introductory Spanish classrooms at the university level. The author analyzed the data for instances of communications strategies according to taxonomy developed for ESL studies. Important…

Teachers' Ambivalence in Integrating Culture with EFL Teaching in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luk, Jasmine

2012-01-01

An increasingly important curricular aim of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is to develop learners' intercultural competence for communication with people from different cultures through English. English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' perceptions and practices in relation to integrating culture with English learning have been…

Workshop Summaries: Excite Students with Tech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez, Augusta; Sonstrom, Stefanie; Silvey, Patricia; Boscarino, Maryanne; Shea, Ida; Trusz, Jean; Perugini, Dorie; Krzemien, Marta; Caplette, Pamela; Lindsey, Barbara; Lindstrom, Sarah

2011-01-01

Glastonbury Public Schools hosted the NNELL Northeast Regional Workshop on September 24, 2011 in which the theme was "Engaging Digital Natives". Rita A. Oleksak, Director of Foreign Languages/ELL and NNELL vice-president delivered the keynote speech motivating the teachers to engage foreign language learners within the classroom and across their…

The Story of Sam: Advancing Proficiency in Reluctant Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dann, Tammy

2014-01-01

In this article, Tammy Dann, describes the issues presented by a reluctant learner in a foreign language class and the strategies required to see effective change. The student described in the article struggled to learn or had difficulty paying attention in the Spanish language class. One strategy used was "LinguaFolio Jr." for students…

Learning Icelandic Language and Culture in Virtual Reykjavik: Starting to Talk

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bédi, Branislav; Arnbjörnsdóttir, Birna; Vilhjálmsson, Hannes Högni; Helgadóttir, Hafdís Erla; Ólafsson, Stefán; Björgvinsson, Elías

2016-01-01

This paper describes how beginners of Icelandic as a foreign and second language responded to playing the first scene in Virtual Reykjavik, a video game-like environment where learners interact with virtual characters--Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs). This game enables learners to practice speaking and listening skills, to learn about the…

The Possibility of Applying YouTube to Motivate Learning Autonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Yiling

2013-01-01

The notion of collaborative learning and teaching in foreign language education has been popular for decades. This concept focuses on learners and encourages them to learn a language by experiential and shared learning. The learners are believed to learn best if they learn through the conscious or unconscious internalization of their own or…

Language Learning on the World Wide Web: An Investigation of EFL Learners' Attitudes and Perceptions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Shu Ching

2001-01-01

Describes the integration of Web resources as instructional and learning tools in an EFL (English as a Foreign Language) class in Taiwan. Highlights include challenges and advantages of using the Web; learners' perceptions; intentional and incidental learning; disorientation and cognitive overload; and information seeking as problem-solving. A…

A Language without Borders: English Slang and Bulgarian Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charkova, Krassimira D.

2007-01-01

This study investigated the acquisition of English slang in a foreign language context. The participants were 101 Bulgarian learners of English, 58 high school students, and 43 university students. The instrument included knowledge tests of English slang terms and questions about attitudes, sources, reasons, and methods employed in learning…

Shadow-Reading Effect on Reading Comprehension: Actualization of Interactive Reading Comprehension: (A Vygotskyan View!)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sadeghi, Elahe; Afghari, Akbar; Zarei, Gholam-Reza

2016-01-01

Reading comprehension has been the main concern for second language learners and researchers. Today with rising interests towards Vygotskyan Sociocultural Theory (SCT), attempts have been made to insert Vygotskyan approach into Foreign/Second Language classrooms emphasizing the role of scaffolding and meaningful interactions to promote learners'…

The Influence of Topics on Listening Strategy Use for English for Academic Purposes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Mu-hsuan

2015-01-01

Listening is an essential skill for English as a Foreign Language learners studying in English-speaking universities to succeed in various fields of study. To comprehend subject material and improve listening effectiveness, learners are generally advised to develop strategies which help them process the target language in specific contexts.…

Native- and Non-Native Speaking English Teachers in Vietnam: Weighing the Benefits

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walkinshaw, Ian; Duong, Oanh Thi Hoang

2012-01-01

This paper examines a common belief that learners of English as a foreign language prefer to learn English from native-speaker teachers rather than non-native speakers of English. 50 Vietnamese learners of English evaluated the importance of native-speakerness compared with seven qualities valued in an English language teacher: teaching…

English Transitivity Alternation in Second Language Acquisition: An Attentional Approach. China Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Yuxia

2017-01-01

The correct use of English verb argument structure is crucial for foreign learners of the English language. Based on an experimental study recruiting 162 Chinese English learners at different proficiency levels, this book suggests that the acquisition of English transitivity alternation follows as a consequence of the cognitive processing of…

Selective Teaching of L2 Pronunciation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Husby, Olaf; Koreman, Jacques; Martínez-Paricio, Violeta; Abrahamsen, Jardar E.; Albertsen, Egil; Hedayatfar, Keivan; Bech, Øyvind

2015-01-01

The pronunciation of a second or foreign language is often very challenging for L2 learners. It is difficult to address this topic in the classroom, because learners with different native languages (L1s) can have very different challenges. We have therefore developed a Computer-Assisted Listening and Speaking Tutor (CALST), which selectively…

A Comparative Study of the Effect of CALL on Gifted and Non-Gifted Adolescents' English Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tai, Sophie; Chen, Hao-Jan

2015-01-01

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has gained increasing acceptance since it provides learners with abundant resources. Most researches confirm the beneficial effect of CALL on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' cognitive, metacognitive, and affective developments. However, the diversity of students' intelligence is associated…

A Case Study of Language Learners' Social Presence in Synchronous CMC

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ko, Chao-Jung

2012-01-01

This study adopts a case study approach to investigate the impacts of synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC) learning environments on learners' perception of social presence. The participants were twelve French as a foreign language (FFL) beginners in a Taiwanese university. Divided into three groups, they conducted some tasks in three…

Improving the English-Speaking Skills of Young Learners through Mobile Social Networking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Zhong; Lin, Chin-Hsi; You, Jiaxin; Shen, Hai jiao; Qi, Song; Luo, Liming

2017-01-01

Most students of English as a foreign language (EFL) lack sufficient opportunities to practice their English-speaking skills. However, the recent development of social-networking sites (SNSs) and mobile learning, and especially mobile-assisted language learning, represents new opportunities for these learners to practice speaking English in a…

Using E-Portfolios and ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alawdat, Maha

2013-01-01

This study examines the use of e-portfolios for ESL (English as a second language) learners. The data were collected by reviewing 11 empirical studies from 2010-2012 in order to synthesize meaningful information about e-portfolios for ESL/EFL (English as a foreign language) acquisition. The studies were coded into two main categories: learning…

Metalinguistic Knowledge and Cognitive Style in Polish Classroom Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zietek, Agnieszka A.; Roehr, Karen

2011-01-01

In this exploratory study, we investigated the relationship between level of English metalinguistic knowledge, or explicit knowledge about the English language, and cognitive style on the wholist/analytic dimension in an intact group of young adult Polish learners of English as a foreign language. Contrary to expectation, metalinguistic knowledge…

Does Project-Based Learning Enhance Iranian EFL Learners' Vocabulary Recall and Retention?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shafaei, Azadeh; Rahim, Hajar Abdul

2015-01-01

Vocabulary knowledge is an integral part of second/foreign language learning. Thus, using teaching methods that can help learners retain and expand their vocabulary knowledge is necessary to facilitate the language learning process. The current research investigated the effectiveness of an interactive classroom method, known as Project-Based…

Lexical Errors and Accuracy in Foreign Language Writing. Second Language Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

del Pilar Agustin Llach, Maria

2011-01-01

Lexical errors are a determinant in gaining insight into vocabulary acquisition, vocabulary use and writing quality assessment. Lexical errors are very frequent in the written production of young EFL learners, but they decrease as learners gain proficiency. Misspellings are the most common category, but formal errors give way to semantic-based…

Computer-Mediated Communication as an Autonomy-Enhancement Tool for Advanced Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wach, Aleksandra

2012-01-01

This article examines the relevance of modern technology for the development of learner autonomy in the process of learning English as a foreign language. Computer-assisted language learning and computer-mediated communication (CMC) appear to be particularly conducive to fostering autonomous learning, as they naturally incorporate many elements of…

A Display of Patterns of Change in Learners' Motivation: Dynamics Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sel?uk, Özge; Erten, Ismail Hakki

2017-01-01

Getting to understand patterns and causes of motivational changes experienced by language learners while studying a foreign language can be of significant value. This paper aims to explore patterns of such fluctuations at the tertiary level. Through a dynamic systems perspective, this study employed Retrodictive Qualitative Modelling to generate…

Revisiting the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS): The Anxiety of Female English Language Learners in Saudi Arabia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Saraj, Taghreed M.

2014-01-01

With the increase in globalization, the study of English has become common in Saudi Arabia, but students' experiences of foreign language anxiety (FLA) have been underexamined. Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are culturally distinct from the Western world, where the most popular assessments of FLA were developed. Through a qualitative and…

Chinese English Learners' Strategic Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Dianjian; Lai, Hongling; Leslie, Michael

2015-01-01

The present study aims to investigate Chinese English learners' ability to use communication strategies (CSs). The subjects are put in a relatively real English referential communication setting and the analyses of the research data show that Chinese English learners, when encountering problems in foreign language (FL) communication, are…

The Impact of Different Types of Journaling Techniques on EFL Learners' Self-Efficacy (El impacto de diferentes tipos de diario en la autosuficiencia de estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baleghizadeh, Sasan; Mortazavi, Mahboobeh

2014-01-01

This article reports on an investigation of the impact of different methods of journaling on self-efficacy of learners of English as a foreign language. Sixty upper-intermediate Iranian English language learners were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions, namely no-feedback, teacher-feedback, and peer-feedback, and one control…

Emotions as Learning Enhancers of Foreign Language Learning Motivation (Las emociones como potenciadoras de la motivación en el aprendizaje de una lengua extranjera)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Méndez López, Mariza G.; Peña Aguilar, Argelia

2013-01-01

The present article reports on a study that explores the effects of the emotional experiences of Mexican language learners on their motivation to learn English. In this qualitative research we present how emotions impact the motivation of university language learners in south Mexico. Results suggest that emotions, both negative and positive,…

Let's Tweet in Chinese! Exploring How Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language Self-Direct Their Use of Microblogging to Learn Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsiao, Ya Ping; Broeder, Peter

2014-01-01

Twitter is becoming increasingly popular as a medium for language learning. This study explores self-directed learning via social interactions that use Twitter as an interactive learning environment. The participants in this study were thirty university students of Chinese as a foreign language at levels 1 and 2 of the "Hanyu Shuiping…

A Study of the Use of Narratives in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Young Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fojkar, Mateja Dagarin; Skela, Janez; Kovac, Pija

2013-01-01

The article reports the findings of a survey, conducted among primary school English language teachers in Slovenia, aimed at revealing their attitudes towards the use of narratives in teaching English as a foreign language to children aged from eight to nine years (3rd and 4th grades respectively). The research results show that most teachers use…

Analysis of Variance in Vocabulary Learning Strategies Theory and Practice: A Case Study in Libya

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khalifa, Salma H. M.; Shabdin, Ahmad Affendi

2016-01-01

The present study is an outcome of a concern for the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Libyan schools. Learning of a foreign language is invariably linked to learners building a good repertoire of vocabulary of the target language, which takes us to the theory and practice of imparting training in vocabulary learning strategies…

A Case Study on the Problems and Suggestions in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning at Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unal, Menderes; Ilhan, Elif

2017-01-01

This study explores and identifies some reasons for the problems of foreign language learning (English) and teaching from the perspective of instructors and learners using the case study model. The data of the study was gathered by a semi-structured interview form, and the study group of the research was composed of English language instructors…

Conflict and Accommodation in Classroom Codeswitching in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tien, Ching-yi

2009-01-01

The concept of "English only" as the best teaching-learning method in English as a foreign language classrooms has been promoted in Taiwan over the last decade. During that time, the concept has been queried and debated. Teachers and learners have come to realise that for beginners and slow language learners, the use of codeswitching in…

Online Text Processing: A Study of Iranian EFL Learners' Vocabulary Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahangar, Abbas Ali; Izadi, Mehri

2015-01-01

The internet has developed into an important source of knowledge in recent times. It is used not just for engaging and entertaining users, but also for promoting language learning, especially for English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL and EFL) learners spending long hours using internet, 85% of all web pages are in English. This experimental…

Exploring Taiwanese Students' Perceptions of Active Explicit Vocabulary Instruction: A Case Study in an English Medium Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, I-Chia

2018-01-01

Vocabulary knowledge is considered important in second and foreign language learning because learners' insufficient vocabulary has been consistently reported as a significant problem in their achievement of second-language (L2) learning. Despite of numerous vocabulary studies, few of them have implemented a learner-centered and interactive…

Output-Based Instruction, Learning Styles and Vocabulary Learning in the EFL Context of Iran

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rastegar, Behnaz; Safari, Fatemeh

2017-01-01

Language learners' productive role in teaching and learning processes has recently been the focus of attention. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the effect of oral vs. written output-based instruction on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' vocabulary learning with a focus on reflective vs. impulsive learning styles. To this…

Overt and Covert Prestige in the French Language Classroom: When Is It Good To Sound Bad?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedgecock, John; Lefkowitz, Natalie

2000-01-01

Examines the performance and perceptions of 100 university-level learners of French as a foreign language, with a view toward exposing the impact of social pressure in the learning environment. Addresses the contradictory nature of learners' perceptions of what it means to "sound good" when speaking French. (Author/VWL)

What Learners Get for Free: Learning of Routine Formulae in ESL and EFL Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roever, Carsten

2012-01-01

Routine formulae are highly frequent, situationally bound chunks that are beneficial to L2 learners' pragmatic performance. These formulae are usually more easily acquired in the target language setting but they are to some extent also learnable in foreign language classrooms. This study investigates the effect of different lengths of residence…

The Effects of Video SCMC on English Proficiency, Speaking Performance and Willingness to Communicate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iino, Atsushi; Yabuta, Yukiko

2015-01-01

This paper introduces a case course with videoconferencing as a way of Synchronous Computer Mediated Communication (SCMC) for foreign language education in Japan. Research questions were to see the effects of videoconferencing on the learners' speaking ability and general English language proficiency, and also to see how the learners'…

Exploring and Contrasting EFL Learners' Perceptions of Textbook-Assigned and Self-Selected Discussion Topics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolf, James P.

2013-01-01

In an attempt to explore the significance of a "willingness to communicate" (WTC) variable in second language (L2) acquisition, this article reports on a survey study that investigated 101 Japanese university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' perceptions of textbook-assigned and self-selected discussion topics. Additionally,…

The Acquisition of English Lexical Stress by Chinese-Speaking Learners: An OT Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuan, Man; Cheng, Wei

2017-01-01

Lexical stress is an important contributor to foreign accent as well as intelligibility of second language (L2) speech. The present study intends to find out to what extent Chinese-speaking learners whose native language has less evident stress can acquire English lexical stress. A production test was administered to nine advanced Chinese learners…

Memorization and EFL Students' Strategies at University Level in Vietnam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oanh, Duong Thi Hoang; Hien, Nguyen Thu

2006-01-01

Experience and observation as learners and teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) convince us that memorization seems to be one of the learning methods that helps EFL students learn and use the English language, provided that memorization is used appropriately to help learners to internalise what they have learned to apply in actual…

The Acquisition of English Restrictive Relative Clauses by Arab Adult EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alroudhan, Hayat Eid

2016-01-01

This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs), as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2) research. The present study discusses the…

Lexical Awareness and Development through Data Driven Learning: Attitudes and Beliefs of EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asik, Asuman; Vural, Arzu Sarlanoglu; Akpinar, Kadriye Dilek

2016-01-01

Data-driven learning (DDL) has become an innovative approach developed from corpus linguistics. It plays a significant role in the progression of foreign language pedagogy, since it offers learners plentiful authentic corpora examples that make them analyze language rules with the help of online corpora and concordancers. The present study…

The Role of Metacognition in the Development of EFL Learners' Listening Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bozorgian, Hossein

2014-01-01

This study investigated the impact of metacognitive instruction on the listening skill, and metacognitive knowledge of a group of male students (N = 30) who were learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Iran. The study participants spoke Persian as a first language and were high-intermediate EFL learners. The participants received a guided…

Analyzing Istruction and Learning of Derivational Morhology in the Spanish Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miguel, Nausica Marcos

2013-01-01

Morphological awareness can help learners of a second language (L2) infer and learn the meaning of unknown words. It is, however, unclear how morphological awareness evolves in adult English-speaking learners of instructed L2 Spanish and how this development relates to vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, the manner in which derivational morphology is…

Effects of Synchronous and Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) Oral Conversations on English Language Learners' Discourse Functions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

AbuSeileek, Ali Farhan; Qatawneh, Khaleel

2013-01-01

This study aimed to explore the effects of synchronous and asynchronous computer mediated communication (CMC) oral discussions on question types and strategies used by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The participants were randomly assigned to two treatment conditions/groups; the first group used synchronous CMC, while the second…

Authentic Tasks to Foster Oral Production among English as a Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramírez Ortiz, Sandra Milena; Artunduaga Cuéllar, Marco Tulio

2018-01-01

Attaining oral production is a challenge for most English language teachers because most of the strategies implemented in class do not engage students in speaking activities. Tasks are an optimal alternative to engage learners in communicative exchanges. This article presents the results of a qualitative action research study examining the effects…

Sociocultural Theory as an Approach to Aid EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Behroozizad, Sorayya; Nambiar, Radha M. K.; Amir, Zaini

2014-01-01

Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) has long been regarded a challenging task. Said challenge is clearly evident in the many studies attempting to delineate some of the major problems faced by EFL learners while trying to uncover both the sources and the solutions. This paper turns to the Vygotskian approach to language learning, in…

Learners' Attitudes toward Foreign Language Practice on Social Network Sites

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Villafuerte, Jhonny; Romero, Asier

2017-01-01

This work aims to study learners' attitudes towards practicing English Language on Social Networks Sites (SNS). The sample involved 110 students from the University Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabi in Ecuador, and the University of the Basque Country in Spain. The instrument applied was a Likert scale questionnaire designed Ad hoc by the researchers,…

Developing Orthographic Awareness among Beginning Chinese Language Learners: Investigating the Influence of Beginning Level Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fan, Hui-Mei

2010-01-01

The present study is based on the theoretical assumptions that frequency of characters and their structural components, as well as the frequency types of structural components, are important to enable learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) to discover the underlying structure of Chinese characters. In the CFL context, since reliable…

Effects of Tasks on Spoken Interaction and Motivation in English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carrero Pérez, Nubia Patricia

2016-01-01

Task based learning (TBL) or Task based learning and teaching (TBLT) is a communicative approach widely applied in settings where English has been taught as a foreign language (EFL). It has been documented as greatly useful to improve learners' communication skills. This research intended to find the effect of tasks on students' spoken interaction…

The Effects of Hypertext Glosses on L2 Vocabulary Acquisition: A Meta-Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yun, Jee Hwan

2010-01-01

In the field of second language acquisition (SLA), "comprehensible input" (Krashen, 1985) has been considered a critical factor to help learners acquire foreign and second languages (L2). From this perspective, the notion of extensive or free voluntary reading (Day & Bamford, 1998; Krashen, 1993) has emerged that L2 learners should be given more…

Use of Interactive Web-Based Exercises for English as a Foreign Language Learning: Learners' Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Yen-Hui

2014-01-01

The study investigated the learner perceptions of a CALL component in a blended language learning context. 52 Taiwanese college students attended instructional classroom sessions and did weekly online assignments in the form of interactive web-based exercises over one semester. Their learning performance was measured by means of two computer-based…

Vocabulary Attrition among Adult English as a Foreign Language Persian Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Asgari, Azadeh; Bin Mustapha, Ghazali

2010-01-01

This study aims to investigate the attrition rate of EFL concrete and abstract vocabulary among continuing and non-continuing Iranian female and male English language learners across different proficiency levels. They are students of a University and majored in different fields (between 20 and 25 years old). There was no treatment in this study…

Pedagogical Values of Mobile-Assisted Task-Based Activities to Enhance Speaking Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mohammadi, Mojtaba; Safdari, Nastaran

2015-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of online mobile-assisted task-based activities on improving Iranian intermediate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' speaking skills. To achieve the purpose of the study, 90 intermediate language learners were selected ranging between 13 to 16 years old and divided into three…

Effects of Using Self-Explanation on a Web-Based Chinese Sentence-Learning System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Jia-Wei; Lee, Ming-Che; Su, Chien-Yuan; Wang, Tzone-I

2017-01-01

Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners generally encounter difficulty in using some special rules of Chinese grammar because such grammar points do not exist in their native languages. CFL learners require an effective learning strategy to assist them in acquiring a greater understanding of Chinese grammar. Thus, we integrated a…

Narratives of Second Language Identity amongst Young English Learners in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Besser, Sharon; Chik, Alice

2014-01-01

This article reports on an exploratory study responding to the problem of understanding how young learners position themselves as speakers of a foreign language. A group of 24 Hong Kong primary-school children (ages 10-12) who are in the process of simultaneously learning English and developing narratives of identities as English speakers,…

Teachers' Role, Learners' Gender Differences, and FL Anxiety among Seventh-Grade Students Studying English as a FL

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Rabia, Salim

2004-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between foreign language (FL) anxiety and achievement in that language. The role of the FL teacher as perceived by the learners was also tested. Participants were 67 seventh-grade students. They were administered an anxiety questionnaire, a Hebrew reading comprehension test, an English reading comprehension…

Hypertext Annotation: Effects of Presentation Formats and Learner Proficiency on Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary Learning in Foreign Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, I-Jung; Yen, Jung-Chuan

2013-01-01

This study extends current knowledge by exploring the effect of different annotation formats, namely in-text annotation, glossary annotation, and pop-up annotation, on hypertext reading comprehension in a foreign language and vocabulary acquisition across student proficiencies. User attitudes toward the annotation presentation were also…

Psychological Attributes in Foreign Language Reading: An Explorative Study of Japanese College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mikami, Hitoshi; Leung, Chi Yui; Yoshikawa, Lisa

2016-01-01

This study explores the internal structure of psychological attributes (i.e., motivation, belief and emotion) related to foreign language reading (FLR) (hereafter FLR attributes) and checks the utility of existing FLR attribute measurements for the specific learner group (i.e., Japanese university students studying English as their foreign…

Learning Vocabulary in a Foreign Language: A Computer Software Based Model Attempt

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yelbay Yilmaz, Yasemin

2015-01-01

This study aimed at devising a vocabulary learning software that would help learners learn and retain vocabulary items effectively. Foundation linguistics and learning theories have been adapted to the foreign language vocabulary learning context using a computer software named Parole that was designed exclusively for this study. Experimental…

Getting Them Speaking: Classroom Social Factors and Foreign Language Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Effiong, Okon

2016-01-01

This study, which focuses on foreign language anxiety (FLA) experienced by Japanese learners of English in four universities, explores causative agents by looking into the classroom. The research questions aim to explore how FLA is influenced by classroom social factors. The study adopted qualitative data collection procedures, and the field work…

Research Writing in a Foreign Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simpson, JoEllen M.

1998-01-01

Reports on the application of a North American system of research writing in a high-intermediate class of English-as-foreign-language learners in Colombia. The system was adapted from a variety of sources representing typical approaches to the introduction of academic research writing at the university level in the United States. (Author/VWL)

The Experiences of Anxiety of Japanese EFL Learners: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leichsenring, Andrew

2010-01-01

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety is an educational phenomenon that has gained growing attention among researchers over the past three decades. It is a form of anxiety that can be debilitating and arises from various sources. This research examined foreign language classroom-based anxiety experiences of two adult Japanese English language…

The Potential for Mobile Learning in English as a Foreign Language and Nursing Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davison, C. J.

2013-01-01

This paper investigates the application of mobile technologies to support learning in a specific field: nursing education for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, which is the context of the author's institution. Using a qualitative meta-synthesis methodology, factors from published literature that facilitates success in mobile learning…

Mutually Beneficial Foreign Language Learning: Creating Meaningful Interactions through Video-Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kato, Fumie; Spring, Ryan; Mori, Chikako

2016-01-01

Providing learners of a foreign language with meaningful opportunities for interactions, specifically with native speakers, is especially challenging for instructors. One way to overcome this obstacle is through video-synchronous computer-mediated communication tools such as Skype software. This study reports quantitative and qualitative data from…

In the Eyes of Turkish EFL Learners: What Makes an Effective Foreign Language Teacher?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çelik, Servet; Arikan, Arda; Caner, Mustafa

2013-01-01

Research on the qualities of successful teachers in Turkey indicates that students consider teacher effectiveness as the ability to ensure an environment in which positive student-teacher interaction can take place. However, further studies are needed to clarify students' perceptions of the qualities of effective foreign language teachers, in…

Applying the Concept of Working Memory to Foreign Language Listening Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Service, Elisabet

Memory research has recently moved from looking at performance in highly artificial laboratory tasks to examination of tasks in everyday life. One consequence is the development of the concept of "working memory." For the learner, foreign language comprehension makes great demands on working memory capacity. Comprehension of a message requires…

The Effect of Language Learning Strategies on Proficiency, Attitudes and School Achievement.

PubMed

Habók, Anita; Magyar, Andrea

2017-01-01

This study examines language learning strategy (LLS) use in connexion with foreign language attitude, proficiency and general school achievement among lower secondary students in Years 5 and 8 ( n = 868) in Hungary. An adapted version of the Strategies Inventory for Language Learning questionnaire was used for data collection. The results showed that Hungarian students mainly engage in metacognitive strategies in both years. Differences between more and less proficient language learners' strategy use have also been found. With regard to the effect of LLS on foreign language attitude, the foreign language mark and school achievement, path analysis indicated a good fit in both years. The metacognitive, social and memory strategies primarily influenced foreign language attitudes and marks in Year 5. The metacognitive strategies had a slight impact on school achievement as well as on foreign language marks. We demonstrated the dominant effect of metacognitive strategies and the low effect of memory strategies in Year 8. In addition, metacognitive strategies also influenced foreign language marks. The effect of foreign language marks on school achievement was also remarkable. There was a strong impact on the children's attitudes through these variables.

Coping with Demotivation: EFL Learners' Remotivation Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falout, Joseph

2012-01-01

When foreign language education is compulsory, competitive, or coercive, how learners cope with stress can determine outcomes, including value of the subject, persistence on task, and level of proficiency. The development of adaptive or maladaptive coping processes toward situated learning goals is influenced by learners' beliefs about themselves…

Exploring the Factors Influencing E-Learning of Turkish EFL Learners through TAM

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cakir, Recep; Solak, Ekrem

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to understand the attitude of Turkish EFL learners towards technology and to determine the factors influencing the academic achievement of the learners while using technology. Survey method was used to collect data about technology acceptance of the Turkish Foreign Language Learners. This research was conducted at a…

The Effect of Phonological Variation on Adult Learner Comprehension.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisenstein, Miriam; Berkowitz, Diana

1981-01-01

Reports on a study of the relationship of English phonological variation to intelligibility for adult second language learners of English. Indicates that learners tested on their ability to understand working-class (New Yorkese), educated (Standard English), and Foreign-accented speakers of English found the standard more intelligible than the…

Helping Metaphors Take Root in the EFL Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowery, Denise

2013-01-01

Learners of English as a foreign language often find it difficult to understand figurative speech, which relies heavily on metaphor. This article explores why metaphors challenge learners and presents ways to incorporate metaphors into EFL instruction to help learners understand figurative speech. Topics discussed include cognitive metaphor,…

Flipped Approach to Mobile Assisted Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yamamoto, Junko

2013-01-01

There are abundant possibilities for using smart phones and tablet computers for foreign language learning. However, if there is an emphasis on memorization or on technology, language learners may not develop proficiency in their target language. Therefore, language teachers should be familiar with strategies for facilitating creative…

Changing Reasons as Reasoning Changes: A Narrative Interview on Second Language Classroom Motivation, Telecollaboration, and the Learning of Foreign Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Negueruela-Azarola, Eduardo

2011-01-01

This narrative interview study of a Spanish learner documents and explains apparent contradictions in a student's story when reporting on why she continues to take Spanish even when she does not like it or perform well in foreign language courses. A dialectical approach to human activity based on sociocultural theory is used to make sense of her…

Kommunikative und rezeptive Kompetenz als didaktische und paedagogische Lernziele des schulischen Fremdsprachenunterrichts (Communicative and Receptive Competence as Didactic and Pedagogical Teaching Goals in School Foreign Language Teaching).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wendt, Michael

1980-01-01

School foreign language texts should use dialogs oriented to likely actual needs of the learners. Learning goals in schools, unlike those of language courses for adults, should include social competence and personality building. The following are discussed: course content, methodology, and the use of media for developing speaking and receptive…

Learning Style and Task Performance in Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication: A Case Study of Iranian EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedayati, Mohsen; Foomani, Elham Mohammadi

2015-01-01

The study reported here explores whether English as a foreign Language (EFL) learners' preferred ways of learning (i.e., learning styles) affect their task performance in computer-mediated communication (CMC). As Ellis (2010) points out, while the increasing use of different sorts of technology is witnessed in language learning contexts, it is…

The Effect of Communication Strategy Training on the Development of EFL Learners' Strategic Competence and Oral Communicative Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rabab'ah, Ghaleb

2016-01-01

This study examines the effect of communication strategy instruction on EFL students' oral communicative ability and their strategic competence. In a 14-week English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course (English Use II) based on Communicative Language Teaching approach, 80 learners were divided into two groups. The strategy training group (n = 44)…

The Effect of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) on Reading Comprehension in English for Specific Purposes Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farahani, Fahimeh

2018-01-01

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has potential to help language learners; however, it has received scant attention. The present study was an attempt to investigate the effect of NLP techniques on reading comprehension of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. To achieve this goal, two…

Activity Theory in Spanish Mixed Classrooms: Exploring Corrective Feedback as an Artifact

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valentín-Rivera, Laura

2016-01-01

This study draws upon activity theory to better understand the implications of corrective feedback (CF) as an artifact on (1) the coconstruction of knowledge and (2) the action-oriented decisions of 10 mixed pairs comprising a foreign language learner (FLL) and a heritage language learner (HLL) of Spanish. To this end, the dyads were divided into…

The Effects of L2 Proficiency on Pragmatics Instruction: A Web-Based Approach to Teaching Chinese Expressions of Gratitude

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Li

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether the effects of pragmatics instruction delivered via a self-access website in a Chinese as a foreign language learning environment vary according to learners' language proficiency. The website provided learners with explicit instruction in how to express gratitude appropriately in Chinese and offered them pragmatic…

Effects of Three Forms of Reading-Based Output Activity on L2 Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rassaei, Ehsan

2017-01-01

The current study investigated the effects of three forms of output activity on EFL learners' recognition and recall of second language (L2) vocabulary. To this end, three groups of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) were instructed to employ the following three output activities after reading two narrative texts: (1) summarizing the…

Triumph through Texting: Restoring Learners' Interest in Grammar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hedjazi Moghari, Mona; Marandi, S. Susan

2017-01-01

It is usually the case that learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) are exposed to language materials in class only, and of course in such a short space of time, they do not always find enough chance to practice English grammar features and become aware of their grammar mistakes. As a potential solution to this problem, the current study…

Benefits and Difficulties of Learning in Group Work in EFL Classes in Saudi Arabia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alfares, Nurah

2017-01-01

This study investigates learners' perceptions of the benefits and the difficulties of group work (GW) in EFL (English as a foreign language) classes. The purpose of this study is to explore the possible effects of GW, in order to better understand learners' attitudes towards GW, and to inform language teachers of students' views of using GW. A…

The Use of Internet Resources and Browser-Based Virtual Worlds in Teaching Grammar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kruk, Mariusz

2014-01-01

Online virtual worlds are becoming important tools in foreign/second language instruction in view of the fact that they enhance learner motivation, promote autonomy and social presence in a 3D environment. Virtual worlds are a type of reality in which students can meet and communicate with other learners in the target language using text, voice or…

Online Domains of Language Use: Second Language Learners' Experiences of Virtual Community and Foreignness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pasfield-Neofitou, Sarah

2011-01-01

This paper examines the use of CMC in both Japanese and English dominated "domains" by Australian learners of Japanese. The natural, social online communication of 12 Australian university students with 18 of their Japanese contacts was collected for a period of up to four years, resulting in a corpus of approximately 2,000 instances of…

Exploring Culture-Related Content in the COCA with Task-Based Activities in the EFL Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopes, António

2013-01-01

The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) at the Brigham Young University website has been used in the English as a Foreign language (EFL) classroom to help learners better understand how language works at different levels of analysis and also to develop their writing skills. However, it also allows learners to explore culture-related…

The Effects of CALL Program on Expanding Lexical Knowledge of EFL Iranian Intermediate Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghabanchi, Zargham; Anbarestani, Mojgan

2008-01-01

Foreign language learning is a challenging task, involving mastering a new sound system, phonological and syntactical forms, vocabulary, and sometimes a new writing system. For the adult second language learner, one of the most frustrating aspects is having an inadequate vocabulary for expressing complex ideas that are so easy to relate in one's…

Textual and Pictorial Glosses: Effectiveness on Incidental Vocabulary Growth When Reading in a Foreign Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kost, Claudia R.; Foss, Pamelo; Lenzini, John J.

1999-01-01

Investigates the effects of pictorial and textual glosses and a combination thereof on incidental vocabulary growth of foreign language learners. Subjects from second-semester German classes read a narrative text passage under one of three marginal gloss conditions: textual gloss (English translation); pictorial gloss; and text and pictures in the…

Voice over Instant Messaging as a Tool for Enhancing the Oral Proficiency and Motivation of English-as-a-Foreign-Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Ya-Ting C.; Gamble, Jeffrey; Tang, Shiun-Yi S.

2012-01-01

The challenge of providing authentic experiences and interactions for fostering oral proficiency and motivation in foreign languages is an opportunity for innovation in educational technology and instructional design. Although several recent innovations have received the attention of scholars, empirical investigation and validation is often…

Foreign Culture Awareness Needs of Saudi English Language Majors at Buraydah Community College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alsamani, Abdul-Aziz Saleh

2014-01-01

Although many EFL learners have a command of internalized foreign language knowledge, they may have difficulty using this knowledge in different contexts. This is due to many interacting factors affecting their performance, mainly lack of target culture awareness. This study intended to identify the cultural aspects suitable to be integrated into…

Evaluation of Oral Fluency in English as a Foreign Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yorozuya, Ryuichi

Fluency can be defined in terms of intelligibility and effectiveness. For learners of English as a foreign language, fluency includes some degree of accuracy in phonological, syntactic, and semantic terms. It is a quality of speech that is produced in novel situations where what is said and how it is said cannot be predicted. To clarify the…

Decreasing Cognitive Load for Learners: Strategy of Web-Based Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Jianfeng

2013-01-01

Cognitive load is one of the important factors that influence the effectiveness and efficiency of web-based foreign language learning. Cognitive load theory assumes that human's cognitive capacity in working memory is limited and if it overloads, learning will be hampered, so that high level of cognitive load can affect the performance of learning…

Extensive Writing in Foreign-Language Classrooms: A Blogging Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Yu-Chih

2010-01-01

A weblog (blog or Web log) has recently become one of the most widely used Internet applications. The current study concerns developing a blog specifically designed for learners learning English as a foreign language. The study investigated the effects of extensive writing by comparing the writing performance in the first three and the last three…

Word Frequency, Function Words and the Second Gavagai Problem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hochmann, Jean-Remy

2013-01-01

The classic gavagai problem exemplifies the difficulty to identify the referent of a novel word uttered in a foreign language. Here, we consider the reverse problem: identifying the referential part of a label. Assuming "gavagai" indicates a rabbit in a foreign language, it may very well mean ""a" rabbit" or ""that" rabbit". How can a learner know…

A Case Study of Chinese University English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Students' Attitudes toward Learning Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayes, Kenneth Michael

2010-01-01

This qualitative case study investigates Chinese university English in the context of foreign language (EFL) learners' attitudes about video-aided instruction (VAI), video recording instruction, and mobile phone instruction (learning technologies). When I was working as an English teacher in Mainland China, several instructors and students stated…

Can Pluralistic Approaches Based upon Unknown Languages Enhance Learner Engagement and Lead to Active Social Inclusion?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dahm, Rebecca

2017-01-01

One way to foster active social inclusion is to enable students to develop a positive attitude to "foreignness". Creating a situation where mainstream students are less wary of foreign languages and cultures, and where newcomers feel their linguistic background is being valued, provides favourable conditions for the inclusion of these…

The Effect of Radical-Based Grouping in Character Learning in Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Yi; Chang, Li-Yun; Perfetti, Charles A.

2014-01-01

The logographic nature of the Chinese writing system creates a huge hurdle for Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners. Existing literature (e.g., Shen, [Shen, H. H., 2010]; Taft & Chung, [Taft, M., 1999]) suggests that radical knowledge facilitates character learning. In this project, we selected 48 compound characters in eight radical…

Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education: Contemporary Issues in Foreign and Second Language Learning and Teaching, Fall 1999.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Amy L., Ed.; Karam, Morris A., Ed.; Reese, Curt L., Ed.

1999-01-01

This journal presents the following four papers: "Begin with Beliefs: Exploring the Relationship Between Beliefs and Learner Autonomy Among Advanced Students" (Beverly-Anne Carter); "An Exploratory Comparison of Oral Narrative Styles in Korea and the U.S." (Jungmin Ko); "Rethinking the Red Ink: Audio-Feedback in the ESL…

Practice and Evaluation of Blended Learning with Cross-Cultural Distance Learning in a Foreign Language Class: Using Mix Methods Data Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sugie, Satoko; Mitsugi, Makoto

2014-01-01

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) utilization in Chinese as a "second" foreign language has mainly been focused on Learning Management System (LMS), digital material development, and quantitative analysis of learners' grammatical knowledge. There has been little research that has analyzed the effectiveness of…

Internet-Based French as a Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning: Academic Success and Opinions on FFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erkan, Senem Seda Sahenk

2017-01-01

In the 21st century, globalization and technological developments in different domains of life have accentuated the importance of multilingualism and multiculturalism in studying English and French as foreign languages in different countries of the world, including Turkey. This research is aimed at determining the effects of learning vocabulary in…

A Study of Jordanian University Students' Perceptions of Using Email Exchanges with Native English Keypals for Improving Their Writing Competency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mahfouz, Safi Mahmoud

2010-01-01

English foreign language learners generally tend to consider email exchanges with native speakers (NSs) as an effective tool for improving their foreign language proficiency. This study investigated Jordanian university students' perceptions of using email exchanges with native English keypals (NEKs) for improving their writing competency. A…

Learners' Perceptions and Undergraduate Foreign Language Courses at a Colombian Public University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sánchez Solarte, Ana Clara; Obando Guerrero, Gabriel Vicente; Ibarra Santacruz, Diana

2017-01-01

This article reports the results of a study whose goal was to determine the views of undergraduate students regarding the English as a foreign language courses they must take as a requirement for graduation at a public university in Colombia. One hundred and thirty students from 10 undergraduate programs were surveyed and their responses were…

"Impressing Heaven": Creative Non-Fiction as Reflective Practice in Foreign Language Teaching and Cross Cultural Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waldern, Barbara

2015-01-01

"Impressing Heaven" is the title of my collection of short stories about career decisions and experience interacting in English on the part of actual young adult learners of English as a foreign language in South Korea. (See "Impressing Heaven" by Barbara Waldern, July 2012 Smashwords ISBN: 9781476467023). While I was first…

Foreign and Second Language Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Horwitz, Elaine K.

2010-01-01

The possibility that anxiety interferes with language learning has long interested scholars, language teachers, and language learners themselves. It is intuitive that anxiety would inhibit the learning and/or production of a second language (L2). The important term in the last sentence is "anxiety". The concept of anxiety is itself multi-faceted,…

Computer-Supplemented Structural Drill Practice Versus Computer-Supplemented Semantic Drill Practice by Beginning College German Students: A Comparative Experiment

DTIC Science & Technology

1979-01-01

language education in recent years can be seen in the movement from a teacher- to a learner -centered approach. The best evidence of a teacher-centered...most dramatic effect on how the learner is viewed. The learner now is recognized as an active participant in the learning process rather than as a... best , is optional. Cognitive psychologists, such as Ausubel, and many foreign language educators (Rivers, 1976; Grittner, 1977) believe that practice

Working Together Online to Enhance Learner Autonomy: Analysis of Learners' Perceptions of Their Online Learning Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eneau, Jerome; Develotte, Christine

2012-01-01

This study concerns the development of autonomy in adult learners working on an online learning platform as part of a professional master's degree programme in "French as a Foreign Language". Our goal was to identify the influence of reflective and collaborative dimensions on the construction of autonomy for online learners in this programme. The…

Motivation, Gender, and Learner Performance of English as an L3 in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahåt, Rayhangül

2013-01-01

Gender is considered as one of the important variables that effects learner motivation in second or foreign language acquisition. It is also believed that learner motivation has an impact on learner performance as well. Using the expectancy-value theory model of achievement motivation, this study aimed at exploring (1) the impact of gender…

Strategies for Reading Chinese Texts with and without Pop-Up Dictionary for Beginning Learners of Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Jing

2014-01-01

This study is aimed at identifying reading strategies of beginning learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) with and without a pop-up dictionary and at determining if learners retain the reading comprehension gained from using the dictionary. Beginning CFL learners at a Midwestern university answered questions about their reading strategies…

Learners' Perceptions of a Reading Section without Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mulling, Alessandra Belletti Figueira

2017-01-01

This study highlights learners' perceptions about their experience with self-access materials with a qualitative orientation as the best way to understand nuances of how students learn and what they need from learning materials. This paper presents English as a foreign language learners' attitudes when interacting with the computer-reading section…

Exploring the Unknown: The Autonomy of Saudi EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alrabai, Fakieh

2017-01-01

This study addresses a new area of research in Saudi Arabia. Using a sample of 630 Saudi students, it investigates learners' level of autonomy and its relationship to academic achievement in English as a foreign language (EFL). Learners' level of autonomy was measured by a survey, whereas their achievement was evaluated using standardized…

AWE-Based Corrective Feedback on Developing EFL Learners' Writing Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Zhihong; Li, Xiaowei; Li, Zhenxiao

2015-01-01

The effective design and use of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tools in developing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' writing skill and learner autonomy have remained great challenges for system designers, developers, and EFL instructors compared with that of the pencil-paper writing in the context of regular teacher-fronted…

Exploring the Relationship between Modified Output and Working Memory Capacity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackey, Alison; Adams, Rebecca; Stafford, Catherine; Winke, Paula

2010-01-01

This study examines the relationship between learners' production of modified output and their working memory (WM) capacity. The task-based interactions of 42 college-level, native English-speaking learners of Spanish as a foreign language were examined. A relationship was found between learners' WM test scores and their tendency to modify output.…

The Discursive Construction of College English Learners' Identity in Cross-Cultural Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gu, Michelle Mingyue

2010-01-01

There are abundant studies on second/foreign language learners' identities. However, there appears to be insufficient longitudinal research on the construction of learners' L2 identities in systematic interactions between fixed dyads in an out-of-class context. Adopting a critical discourse analysis framework (Fairclough, 2003) and suitably…

Vocabulary Growth of the Advanced EFL Learner

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozturk, Meral

2015-01-01

This article reports the results of two studies on the vocabulary growth of advanced learners of English as a foreign language in an English-medium degree programme. Growth in learners' written receptive and productive vocabularies was investigated in one cross-sectional and one longitudinal study over three years. The effect of word frequency on…

The Effects of Need Satisfaction on EFL Online Learner Satisfaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Po-Hsuan; Adesope, Olusola

2016-01-01

This study explored the effects of need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) on English as a foreign language (EFL) online learner satisfaction and validated the Chinese versions of the need satisfaction scale (NSS) and online learner satisfaction scale (OLSS). We collected data from a questionnaire administered to 199 EFL students…

Potential Bonds between Extroversion/Introversion and Iranian EFL Learners' Listening Comprehension Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alavinia, Parviz; Sameei, Abdolraoof

2012-01-01

The present study was implemented to investigate the possible relationship between introversion/extroversion and the listening ability of intermediate Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners by taking into account their gender, age, and grades of study. A total of 120 Intermediate learners (62 males and 58 females) studying at…

Learners' Motivation and Identity in the Vietnamese EFL Writing Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tran, Ly Thi

2007-01-01

The study reported in this paper explores issues of motivation and learners' identity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing classroom in Vietnam from the perspectives of the learners. It was conducted with thirty English-major students at a university in central Vietnam. While relevant literature appears to place much emphasis on…

Exploring EFL Learners' Lexical Application in AWE-Based Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Zhihong; Li, Zhenxiao

2016-01-01

With massive utilization of Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tools, it is feasible to detect English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' lexical application so as to improve their writing quality. This study aims to explore Chinese EFL learners' lexical application to see if AWE-based writing can bring about positive effects of lexicon on…

The Impact of Scaffolding Mechanisms on EFL Learners' Individual and Socially Shared Metacognition in Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jafarigohar, Manoochehr; Mortazavi, Mahboobeh

2017-01-01

This study investigated the impact of structuring and problematizing scaffolding mechanisms on 240 Iranian English as a foreign language learners' individual and socially shared metacognition in writing skills. The study also sought to find out whether the learners' proficiency level moderated the effect of the scaffolding mechanisms on…

Does Multimedia Support Individual Differences?--EFL Learners' Listening Comprehension and Cognitive Load

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Hui-Yu

2014-01-01

The present study examines how display model, English proficiency and cognitive preference affect English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' listening comprehension of authentic videos and cognitive load degree. EFL learners were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The control group received single coding and the experimental group received…

Dutch courage? Effects of acute alcohol consumption on self-ratings and observer ratings of foreign language skills.

PubMed

Renner, Fritz; Kersbergen, Inge; Field, Matt; Werthmann, Jessica

2018-01-01

A popular belief is that alcohol improves the ability to speak in a foreign language. The effect of acute alcohol consumption on perceived foreign language performance and actual foreign language performance in foreign language learners has not been investigated. The aim of the current study was to test the effects of acute alcohol consumption on self-rated and observer-rated verbal foreign language performance in participants who have recently learned this language. Fifty native German speakers who had recently learned Dutch were randomized to receive either a low dose of alcohol or a control beverage that contained no alcohol. Following the experimental manipulation, participants took part in a standardized discussion in Dutch with a blinded experimenter. The discussion was audio-recorded and foreign language skills were subsequently rated by two native Dutch speakers who were blind to the experimental condition (observer-rating). Participants also rated their own individual Dutch language skills during the discussion (self-rating). Participants who consumed alcohol had significantly better observer-ratings for their Dutch language, specifically better pronunciation, compared with those who did not consume alcohol. However, alcohol had no effect on self-ratings of Dutch language skills. Acute alcohol consumption may have beneficial effects on the pronunciation of a foreign language in people who have recently learned that language.

Teachers' and Learners' Perceptions of Applying Translation as a Method, Strategy, or Technique in an Iranian EFL Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mollaei, Fatemeh; Taghinezhad, Ali; Sadighi, Firooz

2017-01-01

It has been found that translation is an efficient means to teach/learn grammar, syntax, and lexis of a foreign language. Meanwhile, translation is good for beginners who do not still enjoy the critical level of proficiency in their target language for expression. This study was conducted to examine the teachers' and learners' perceptions of…

The L2 Motivational Self System and L2 Achievement: A Study of Saudi EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moskovsky, Christo; Assulaimani, Turki; Racheva, Silvia; Harkins, Jean

2016-01-01

The research reported in this article explores the relationship between Dörnyei's (2005, 2009) Second Language Motivational Self System (L2MSS) and the L2 proficiency level of Saudi learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Male and female participants (N = 360) responded to a questionnaire relating to the main components of L2MSS, the…

Revisiting Fluctuations in L2 Article Choice in L1-Korean L2-English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarker, Bijon K.; Baek, Seunghyun

2017-01-01

The current study investigated the distinction of L2 (second language) English article choice sensitivity in fifty-three L1-Korean L2-English learners in semantic contexts. In the context of English as a foreign language, the participants were divided into two groups based on grammatical ability as determined by their performance on a cloze test.…

Linguistic Models, Acquisition Theories, and Learner Corpora: Morphological Productivity in SLA Research Exemplified by Complex Verbs in German

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lüdeling, Anke; Hirschmann, Hagen; Shadrova, Anna

2017-01-01

The present study analyzes morphological productivity for complex verbs in second language acquisition by analyzing a corpus of German as a Foreign Language (GFL). It shows that advanced learners of GFL use prefix and particle verbs relatively frequently and productively but less so than native speakers do and discusses these findings in the light…

An Alternative to Language Learner Dependence on L2 Caption-Reading Input for Comprehension of Sitcoms in a Multimedia Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, C.-H.

2014-01-01

Most second/foreign language (L2) learners have difficulty understanding listening input because of its implicit and ephemeral nature, and they typically have better reading comprehension than listening comprehension skills. This study examines the effects of using an interactive advance-organizer activity on the DVD video comprehension of L2…

The Opinions and Attitudes of the Foreign Language Learners and Teachers Related to the Traditional and Digital Games: Age and Gender Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uzun, Levent; Ekin, M. Tugba Yildiz; Kartal, Erdogan

2013-01-01

The present study aimed at investigating the differences between the teachers and the "new generation" of learners, their opinions about which language skills would benefit more from games, and the nuances of the two genders (male and female), while also revealing the profiles and tendencies of different age groups in relation to their…

Effects of Online Instructional Conversation on English as a Foreign Language Learners' WebQuest Writing Performance: A Mixed Methods Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Haesong

2013-01-01

WebQuests, or inquiry-oriented activities in which learners interact with Web-based information (Dodge, 1995, 1996, 2007), have recently been gaining popularity in education in general and in language education in particular. While it has the advantage of fostering higher-level thinking through authentic assignments, a WebQuest can be challenging…

The Effect of Dynamic Assessment on Adult Learners of Arabic: A Mixed-Method Study at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fahmy, Mohsen M.

2013-01-01

Dynamic assessment (DA) is based on Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory and his Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). ZPD is the range of abilities bordered by the learner's assisted and independent performances. Previous studies showed promising results for DA in tutoring settings. However, they did not use proficiency-based rubrics to measure…

The Mother Tongue in the Foreign Language: An Account of Russian L2 Learners' Error Incidence on Output

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forteza Fernandez, Rafael Filiberto; Korneeva, Larisa I.

2017-01-01

Based on Selinker's hypothesis of five psycholinguistic processes shaping interlanguage (1972), the paper focuses attention on the Russian L2-learners' overreliance on the L1 as the main factor hindering their development. The research problem is, therefore, the high incidence of L1 transfer in the spoken and written English language output of…

English as a Foreign Language Learners' Major and Meta-Cognitive Reading Strategy Use at Al-Balqa Applied University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Snoubar, Tamador Khalaf

2017-01-01

This quantitative study aimed to investigate and compare the use of metacognitive reading Strategies among English as a foreign language students at Al-Balqa Applied University based on their academic field of study. The Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) (Mokhtari & Sheory, 2002) was the instrument employed. This survey divides the…

Using a Teacher Support Group to Develop Teacher Knowledge of Mandarin Teaching via Web Conferencing Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tseng, Jun-Jie; Lien, Yu-Jen; Chen, Hao-Jan

2016-01-01

Due to its continuous advancement, web conferencing technology is increasingly being integrated into foreign language education; thus, teachers are able to carve out a niche by providing learners with an opportunity to learn a foreign language at a distance without time and space constraints. However, little is known about the relationship between…

Learner Agency and Non-Native Speaker Identity in Pedagogical Lingua Franca Conversations: Insights from Intercultural Telecollaboration in Foreign Language Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohn, Kurt; Hoffstaedter, Petra

2017-01-01

This article discusses insights gained from a case study on telecollaboration for intercultural communication in foreign language school contexts. Focus was on non-native English and German lingua franca conversations between pairs of students (aged 14-16, B1 level) from schools in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain. Telecollaboration…

A Corpus of Young Learners' English in the Baltic Region--Texts for Studies on Sustainable Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sundh, Stellan

2016-01-01

In order to reach far in the work for sustainable development, communication in foreign languages prior to strategic decisions is required from international partners. In this communication English has become the lingua franca. Even though the use of EFL (English as a foreign language) is widely spread, it is clear that in some geographical…

The Anxiety-Proficiency Relationship and the Stability of Anxiety: The Case of Chinese University Learners of English and Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jin, Yinxing; de Bot, Kees; Keijzer, Merel

2015-01-01

Adopting a longitudinal design, this study investigates the effects of foreign language anxiety on foreign language proficiency over time within English and Japanese learning contexts. It also explores the stability of anxiety in English and Japanese over time and the stability of anxiety across English and Japanese. Chinese university students (N…

Overlap and Uniqueness: Linguistic Componential Traits Contributing to Expressive Skills in English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pae, Hye K.; O'Brien, Beth

2018-01-01

This study identified robust predictors of expressive skills in academic English as a foreign language. The participants were 92 Korean-speaking learners of English. The field test of the Pearson Test of English Academic was used as a secondary data analysis. Four communicative skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) and six enabling…

A Blended Learning Model for Teaching Reading in English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karkour, Islam

2014-01-01

The aim of this paper is to describe a blended learning model to be used in Egyptian schools when teaching reading classes in English as a foreign language. This paper is divided into three parts. The first part outlines the Egyptian context and describes the target learners. The second part describes the suggested blended learning model, which is…

Foreign Language Listening Anxiety: A Self-Presentational View

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kimura, Harumi

2017-01-01

This study used a self-presentational framework to investigate second language listening anxiety among university students and demonstrated that second language listening involves social concerns that are specific to second language settings. A set of anxiety questionnaires was administered to 1,177 students, and 17 learners provided verbal…

Critically Engaging with Cultural Representations in Foreign Language Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McConachy, Troy

2018-01-01

There is currently strong recognition within the field of intercultural language teaching of the need for language learners to develop the ability to actively interpret and critically reflect on cultural meanings and representations from a variety of perspectives. This article argues that cultural representations contained in language textbooks,…

Language and Higher Education: Two Current Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brumfit, Christopher

2004-01-01

For higher education, two recent changes in world language practices are crucial: the emergence of English as the default language of international communication, and the technology of the Internet. The first appears to have contributed to problems of motivation for English-speaking learners of foreign languages. Information is provided about…

The Representation of Gender in the Language Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sunderland, Jane

This paper is concerned with the different ways that gender is represented in the English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom, and how this representation may contribute to the socialization of female language learners. Attention is focused primarily on the language teacher's understanding and awareness of gender representations, not to specific…

Engaging Language Learners through Technology Integration: Theory, Applications, and Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Shuai, Ed.; Swanson, Peter, Ed.

2014-01-01

Web 2.0 technologies, open source software platforms, and mobile applications have transformed teaching and learning of second and foreign languages. Language teaching has transitioned from a teacher-centered approach to a student-centered approach through the use of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and new teaching approaches.…

Pre-Service EFL Teachers' Beliefs about Foreign Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altan, Mustafa Zulkuf

2012-01-01

Beliefs are central constructs in every discipline which deals with human behaviour and learning. In addition to learner beliefs about language learning, language teachers themselves may hold certain beliefs about language learning that will have an impact on their instructional practices and that are likely to influence their students' beliefs…

Developing a Principled Framework for Materials Evaluation: Some Considerations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alkhaldi, Ali Ata

2010-01-01

Published language materials are widely used around the world, but many Foreign Language (FL) and/or Second Language (SL) learners still fail to develop their communicative competence satisfactorily and they are still not happy with their language materials. Materials design has recently been characterized by two important developments: first,…

Empirical Studies on Correlations between Lexical Knowledge and English Proficiency of Chinese EFL Learners in Mainland China over the Past Two Decades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Yao; Dai, Zhongxin

2016-01-01

Knowledge of English vocabulary contributes to the learner's proficiency of English as a foreign language, but how the learner's lexical knowledge behaves in the contribution. Researchers in mainland China have conducted studies of various kinds in order to find out how the learner's lexical knowledge correlates with his proficiency. This article…

Effects of Text, Audio and Learner Control on Text-Sound Association and Cognitive Load of EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Enciso Bernal, Ana Maria

2014-01-01

This study investigated the effects of concurrent audio and equivalent onscreen text on the ability of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to form associations between textual and aural forms of target vocabulary words. The study also looked at the effects of learner control over an audio sequence on the association of textual and…

Learners between Childhood and Adulthood: Assessing Writing Competences of Teens Learning French as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lah, Meta

2016-01-01

The article introduces learners between two age groups: childhood and adulthood. The aim of the author is to analyse the writing skills of French primary school learners--mostly 14 years old--and to determine which descriptors could be used to assess them. The article begins with a presentation of the learners' characteristics and continues with a…

A Comparison of Chinese and Colombian University EFL Students Regarding Learner Autonomy (Comparación entre estudiantes universitarios de inglés chinos y colombianos con respecto a su autonomía como aprendices)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buendía Arias, Ximena Paola

2015-01-01

This research seeks to gain deeper understanding of learner autonomy in English as a Foreign Language students from different cultures through the identification and analysis of similarities and differences between Chinese and Colombian students from two public universities: Tianjin Foreign Studies University in China and Universidad Surcolombiana…

Emerging Approach of Natural Language Processing in Opinion Mining: A Review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Tai-Hoon

Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics. It studies the problems of automated generation and understanding of natural human languages. This paper outlines a framework to use computer and natural language techniques for various levels of learners to learn foreign languages in Computer-based Learning environment. We propose some ideas for using the computer as a practical tool for learning foreign language where the most of courseware is generated automatically. We then describe how to build Computer Based Learning tools, discuss its effectiveness, and conclude with some possibilities using on-line resources.

A Study of the EFL Writing of Chinese Learners: A Critical Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ai, Bin

2015-01-01

Writing is often a massive challenge for the learners who study English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Many EFL practitioners are searching for solutions to help learners improve the level of their writing. In this auto-ethnographic study, two narratives are discussed. In the first narrative, the primary challenges of EFL writing encountered by a…

A Survey of Iranian EFL Teachers' and Learners' Perceptions toward Authentic Listening Materials at University Level

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhafarghandi, Amir Mahdavi; Barekat, Behzad; Homaei, Sepideh

2014-01-01

This study intends to deal with attitudes of teachers and learners toward authentic listening materials at pre-intermediate level. Studies have indicated the positive effect of authentic listening materials on motivation and listening comprehension ability in learners of English as a foreign language (Nuttall, 1996; Peacock, 1997; Miller, 2005;…

Students' Views on the Helpfulness of Multimedia Components of Digital Flashcards in Mobile-Assisted Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaplan-Rakowski, Regina; Loranc-Paszylk, Barbara

2017-01-01

This study examines learners' perceptions of the helpfulness of various multimedia components embedded in digital flashcards for explicit, informal foreign language vocabulary learning. Advanced learners of English (N = 59) studied 48 new words using digital flashcards on smartphones. After ten days, the learners completed perception surveys. The…

The Effect of Learner-Generated Illustrations on the Immediate and Delayed Recall of English Idioms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aeineh, Afrouz; Moeeni, Saeed; Merati, Hamideh

2014-01-01

The present study investigated the effect of learner generated illustrations on the immediate and delayed idiom recall of Iranian EFL (English as a foreign language) learners. To accomplish this end, 40 female students participated in this study. A placement test (Quick Placement Test, Version 2) was administered to the participants to ascertain…