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In second language research, a substantial body of research has demonstrated the facilitative role of corrective feedback in second language development (Chaudron, 1988; DeKeyser, 1998; Spada & Lightbown, 1993; Spada, 1997). A number of empirical studies conducted in different settings revealed that context may affect the extent to which different kinds of feedback are noticed and incorporated in subsequent speech by learners. This paper reports an observational study conducted in Chinese EFL classes. Lyster and Mori’s (2006) feedback coding scheme was adopted in documenting the frequency of teachers’ feedback moves and learner uptake rate following feedback. The findings show that the distribution of prompts and recasts was in reverse order compared to other communicative second language contexts. Findings also reveal that explicit correction and prompts had a higher uptake rate than recasts, which was in tandem with previous findings. These results suggest that form-oriented Chinese foreign language context indeed mediates the pattern of feedback and uptake.

L1 and L2 practitioners and researchers advocate teacher read-alouds in the English language classroom as they can bring about numerous language learning benefits. Read-alouds not only motivate students to read but also develop a variety of skills that makes them proficient readers. However, there are limited studies describing how read-alouds are carried out for the purpose of achieving specific objectives. In view of this, this paper showcases a teacher read-aloud session in an English as a second language (ESL) context designed with three objectives in mind, namely to promote comprehension and therefore language acquisition, to convey reading as a joyous activity and to demonstrate how to engage with a book effectively. The session is deemed to be worthy of showcasing as the read-aloud has been designed on the basis of principles of good reading instruction and focuses on objectives that are valued in ESL classrooms.

Literature can establish a particular frame of emotions which allows deeper understanding into it and simulating our social relations. Also, emotional intelligence (EI/EQ) which seeks to fuse cognition and emotion interlocks with social and interpersonal mechanisms involved in language learning. Given the lack of empirical study, the present study is intended to explore the relationship between EI and interpretation of literature among 345 Iranian EFL graduate and undergraduate participants from six Iranian universities. As an additional goal, participants’ major of study and gender are investigated to see how they relate to emotional intelligence skills. EI has been defined in terms of two instruments, based on two models of emotional intelligence, while literature has been limited to short stories and poems. To collect data, MSCEIT and EQ-Map measures of emotional intelligence as well as fourteen short stories and poems were selected and administered by the researcher among the participants, majoring in English literature, translation and teaching of English. Pearson Product correlation procedures and multivariate analysis were conducted. The results indicated that there was a significant positive correlation between EI (MSCEIT and EQ-Map) scores and scores from the interpretation of stories and poems. Furthermore, the female participants were found to have higher EI than the male ones. However, the participants from the three English majors did not differ significantly in terms of EI scores. By implication, syllabus designers should orient a curriculum towards using language through literary genres such as short stores. Also, the tasks and problem-solving activities in the syllabuses should not be necessarily be the same for both male and female EFL learners.

This article reports on methodological issues faced in carrying out a classroom-based study in an English as a foreign language (EFL) setting in an Indonesian university that may have relevance for other planning studies in similar settings. The study investigated the pedagogical value of communicative tasks in an EFL setting. Within the topic of how communicative tasks might be used to generate interactive discourse among adult English students in a foreign language classroom, it examined the oral discourse of such students and their teacher during selected communicative tasks. This article describes the study, including its background, research design, context and research procedures. It then focuses on the challenges faced during data collection and how they were dealt with, and concludes with some lessons learned about carrying out classroom-based research in EFL contexts.

This study investigates the effect of reading on-line English local newspaper headlines (Jordan Times) on university EFL students’ reading skills in English. A survey questionnaire was distributed to check whether students are used to reading newspapers in English or not. The sample consists of 47 students of English Language Classroom Teacher major at Al-al-Bayt University enrolled in CALL course during the second semester 2007/2008. This sample is assigned to form two experimental groups and a control group who received training into three internet service labs at the University campus. The first group was trained to read and analyze the grammatical features of on-line local newspapers headlines in English; the second received training on how to read, and translate on-line local newspapers headlines via using the available on-line free machine translation systems; then to compare the output with its equivalent in local Arabic newspapers; whereas the control group followed the syllabus of CALL Course for EFL students. An achievement test was administered as a pre and a post test to measure the students’ progress in English. The findings revealed that there are significant differences at (α =0.05) due to the effect of reading on-line English local newspaper headlines on both experimental groups. In the light of this result, reading newspaper headlines via the internet is recommended for use in EFL classes.

Teacher journals written in teacher education programs are usually required to be as reflective as possible. However, seldom is guidance given as to what is meant by ‘reflective’ and how to be critically reflective. Ho and Richards (1993) have developed two frameworks for measuring critical reflectivity. This study attempted to train in-service teachers of English in an English Language Teacher Education Programme to be critically reflective by using these frameworks. It investigated whether these teachers became critically reflective after training and whether the teachers’ degree of critical reflectivity and their patterns of reflection changed over time. Results indicate that all teacher journals evidenced some traits of critical reflectivity after training. There seemed to be no great change in the degree of critical reflectivity that the teachers engaged in over time. Most teachers developed their own patterns of reflection which also seldom changed over time.

In the emerging global information society, a high level of English proficiency can be an important advantage for Asian countries. Likewise, enhanced quality of English teaching can help universities to better equip their students to achieve global competitiveness. The purpose of this study was to determine the attractive quality attributes of English language teaching as perceived by students at two universities in East Asia. The study consisted of two student populations from two countries. The first sample included 30 undergraduate students in Indonesia. The second sample included 40 undergraduate students in Taiwan. A survey instrument was designed based on the Kano Model to collect data for this study. Quality attributes of English language teaching were categorized in accordance with the Kano evaluation table. This study successfully utilized the Kano Model to identify attractive quality attributes of English language teaching for two different student populations. Findings of the study revealed that English curriculums should be specially developed according to the specific student needs in different countries. It is concluded that the Kano Model can be used effectively to assess quality in English teaching. Further studies should be conducted integrating the Importance-Satisfaction Model to evaluate faculty’s quality performance.

The study quantitatively investigates 164 non-English major students from Jiaying University on the use of English vocabulary learning strategies. It is a comparative study focusing on high achievers versus low achievers, Science students versus Arts students, male students versus female students. This study finds that, firstly, there are significant differences between high achievers and low achievers in the use of eleven strategies such as learner autonomy. Secondly, there are significant differences in the use of four strategies such as selective attention between Science and Arts students. Third, there are a few differences between male and female students.

The recast is the most frequently used feedback in classroom settings. Previous research has shown the potential advantages of the recast, although some problems have also been suggested. A measurement that regarded students’ corrective responses after receiving recasts as uptake indicated the low effectiveness of recasts as corrective feedback (Lyster, 1998b; Lyster & Ranta, 1997). This study attempts to examine the effects of recasts by using a measurement established after careful analysis of recasts and students’ responses. Thirty-two intermediate Japanese high school students and a native speaker of English participated in the study, with the native speaker interviewing the students. In measuring the effectiveness of recasts “no opportunity” and “preferred recasts” were not included in the denominator, meaning that they were not coded as corrective recasts; “later incorporation” and “acknowledgement” were included in the numerator, meaning that they were coded as successful. The effects of recasts were also examined according to the error type, the degree of difference between students’ initial utterances and the recasts, and the number of morphemes of recasts. The results showed the relatively high effectiveness of recasts on Japanese high school students’ English learning. Discussion of the findings and pedagogical implications in providing recasts is also given.

Automated speech evaluation (ASE) software is designed to provide instant computer-generated feedback. This study examined the pedagogical practices of a Web-based ASE (WASE) utilized in three different ways in college conversation classes and investigated students’ perceived effectiveness of WASE in improving their speech. Eighty college students participated in the study. All of the participants were required to practice the lessons provided in the WASE employed in this study, MyET, and the scores were taken as formative assessment. A questionnaire was administered at the end of the course to reveal students’ perceived effectiveness of WASE in terms of its instructional and user-interface design. The results show that students in the three classes did not perform differently in the lessons provided in MyET, including consonants, vowels, words, and sentences, despite the ASE’s different kinds of pedagogical practices. Nevertheless, students in Class B and Class C, who practiced pronunciation with MyET in class, received similar scores while Class A, who practiced only after class, received significantly lower scores. As for the functions of MyET, most of the students held neutral attitudes. Moreover, the students in this study did not find the spectrogram and speech contour displays in MyET useful. However, Class C, who received both teacher feedback and ASE feedback, demonstrated a more favorable attitude toward the ASE than the other two classes.

Despite the significant emphasis that process-oriented research has laid on content as compared to mechanical aspects of L2 writing (Raimes, 1983; Spack & Sadow, 1983; Taylor, 1981), many written products are difficult to understand owing to their grammatical inaccuracies (Ferris, 2002). There has been an ongoing controversy in the literature regarding the plausibility of error correction, in general and the extent to which direct vs. indirect error corrective feedback could affect overcoming grammatical inaccuracies in L2 writing, in particular (Ferris, 1999a; Truscott, 1996, 1999). Hence, the present study was an attempt at finding out whether indirect feedback on certain error categories as compared to direct feedback on every single error could have any significant effect on improving the students’ L2 writing ability. Therefore, 44 Ph.D. students of an advanced Academic English writing course were randomly selected from 90 homogeneous students among a total population of 118 students majoring in different engineering fields. Having randomly divided the subjects into two groups of 22 students, the researcher further assigned 8 essays to be written on suggested subjects during one semester. One group was provided with indirect feedback on certain error categories and required to further self-edit the errors marked by the teacher and also provide a revised draft of their texts. The other group was exposed to direct feedback in terms of detailed comments on every single error they had made. Both groups were also required to correct the error categories they could possibly discern in 50 erroneous sentences containing 159 errors from 9 error categories. The results revealed that there was a significant difference regarding the error categories properly identified and corrected by the indirect feedback group. Moreover, there was a significant difference in the writing ability of the indirect feedback group as compared to that of the direct feedback group.

The present paper aims to investigate how pupil’s intrinsic motivation to learn English changes with age, as they progress from lower to higher grades in elementary schools. It attempts to do so by exploring the perceptions held by 213 first-year junior high school students of their English learning experience in Japanese elementary schools. Specifically, the foci in this study are: (1) to explore different patterns in the development of intrinsic motivation with regard to the length of English learning experiences in elementary school; (2) to clarify a typology of English learning experiences in elementary schools with reference to the development of intrinsic motivation; and (3) to investigate qualitative changes of intrinsic motivation. Results show that three elements of enjoyment, willingness to continue learning, and meaningfulness do not necessarily refer to three discrete aspects of intrinsic motivation, but are rather intertwined each other.