Earticle

The effect of recasts and prompts on L2 accuracy has already been explored intimately in classroom settings. This study, however, investigates the moderating effect of declarative knowledge on recasts and prompts. To this purpose, 48 Iranian learners of English were assigned to four conditions: +declarative knowledge (DK) recasts, -DK recasts, +DK prompts, and -DK prompts. This assignment was made based on the performance of participants on an untimed grammaticality judgment and a metalinguistic knowledge test which were focused on simple present yes/no and wh- question forms. Learners who appeared to be familiar with the forms in focus were assigned to +recasts and +prompts while those who were unfamiliar with the forms were assigned to -recasts and -prompts groups. A story-completion task and a spot-the-difference task were performed by the participating groups to serve as the pre- and post-test of the study. During communicative interaction, the 4 groups involved received corrective feedback (CF) in accordance with the conditions they had already been assigned to. Results revealed that +DK recasts and +DK prompts groups benefited from feedback sessions more than -DK recasts and -DK prompts groups did and the presence of declarative knowledge made recasts more effective than prompts. Also the recasts group outperformed the prompts group in the absence of declarative knowledge.

In preparation for the World Games 2009 in Kaohsiung City, a conversation textbook was designed by the National Kaohsiung Hospitality College instructors to be used for an English language course related to training student volunteers. This paper reports on the design principles of this conversation textbook, and also investigates a range of discourse features of the dialogues written for it. In the first part of this paper, the goals and objectives of this course and textbook design are explained. Second, the literature in ESP textbook writing is briefly reviewed, and issues related to material authenticity are discussed. In the third part, a detailed analysis of the dialogues in the textbook are reported using the following discourse features: length and turn-taking patterns, lexical density, number of false starts and repetitions, pausing, and the use of hesitation devices. Recommendations and implications for future ESP textbook designers are given as well.

The success of technology integration lies in teachers as designers of technology, pedagogy, and content. Their creativity in this regard involves technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK). In light of limited studies on EFL teachers’ TPCK, this study examined the TPCK of three junior high EFL teachers attending a 12-week CALL workshop in Taiwan through lesson plan analysis and stimulated recall. Results show that these teachers demonstrated a common, though somewhat different, understanding of technology integration in EFL teaching contexts. Specifically, they demonstrated a common knowledge of prioritizing grammar teaching through computer technology and a common preference for incorporating PowerPoint, Hot Potatoes, weblog, and the Internet into language teaching. Their use of technology in teaching further suggests a common understanding that technologies could be integrated into traditional teaching sequence and instructional strategies. These findings help build an understanding of EFL teachers’ application of computer technologies to their teaching contexts.

This exploratory study involved 25 foreign English teachers and 99 Chinese students at a Chinese university, empirically examining their interaction in the Chinese classroom. Based on questionnaires and interview data, this research explores foreign English teachers’ and Chinese students’ perspectives on classroom teacher-student interaction. The author also explores the reasons: the differences of Socratic methods and Confucian methods. The foreign English teachers attributed the factors affecting the interaction to the cultural, linguistic, approach, and psychological/affective factors. However, students attributed the factors affecting the interaction to the motivational and cultural factors and learning habit. Finally, the author identified some pertinent implications for foreign English teachers，the students, and the universities, with a view to improving the quality of classroom teaching and learning.

Task structure as a task characteristic is believed to have a considerable effect on task performance in terms of accuracy, fluency and complexity. Studies in the literature focused on investigating task structure impact on oral out-put; however, this study examines how written task performance is affected by task structure. Thirty two EFL learners were selected for data collection. Each participant, then, narrated two tasks which differed with regard to their inherent structure (tight vs. loose). Collected data were coded and checked for measuring their accuracy, fluency and complexity. Findings of the statistical analysis revealed that structured tasks produced more fluent and complex performances while accuracy remained unaffected. Results have practical implications for language teaching, research and syllabus design.

This study was conducted to examine some error-provoking areas of English pronunciation for Iranian EFL learners. More specifically, it was meant to determine if there was any difference among learners of different proficiency levels in the areas of problematic consonantal features, the vowel schwa, and suprasegmental features. Thirty male learners ranging in age from 14 to 21 at the three levels of proficiency participated in this study. The instrument used to gather the data was an oral test based on some passages containing the problematic pronunciation areas. The passages were extracted from the learners’ course books. The learners were individually asked to read the texts aloud. The recorded learners’ voices were scored on a five rating scale. The analysis of data revealed that learners’ level of proficiency was a determining factor regarding their production of consonantal features (θ, ð, w, initial consonant clusters) and the vowel schwa (ə), but it did not have any impact on the production of stress patterns, and intonation contours. The researchers provide some suggestions to improve the pronunciation ability of EFL learners in general and Iranian EFL learners in particular.

The appropriate use of tenses has long been an area of concern for many secondary school students of English as a second language in Hong Kong. This paper reports on a series of cyclical research lessons conducted with five classes of Secondary Two (Grade 8) students in Hong Kong. The teachers designed the lessons in ways that allowed the students to discern, through variation, the critical features of the appropriate use of past tense and present perfect tense in descriptive texts. Observation and evidence from interviews and comparison between pre- and post-test results suggest that the research lessons helped the students to learn effectively. At the same time, teachers benefitted from the collaborative reflections and investigations, as well as applying the Theory of Variation proposed by Marton and Booth (1997), suggesting that this model of professional practice may have broad application in teacher development programmes.

The rise of English as a global language implies a paradigm shift for English language teaching. English teachers in non-English-speaking (NNS) countries used to connect electronically with teachers in nativespeaking (NS) countries so that their students could mimic or learn from their NS peers. The unequal power relationship between the two classes might have detrimental effects on EFL learners’ confidence and identity. When communication breakdowns or miscommunications occurred, native speakers were not expected to make any adjustments; rather, EFL learners had to learn NS norms. On the other hand, in the global English paradigm, though online communication between NNSs may bring equal footings, this format also encounters adversity such as students’ desire for NS norms and the suspicion that the exclusion of NS disadvantages NNS in the current linguistic landscape dominated by NS norms. This study reports a NNS-NNS online communication project in which fifty-plus university students from Taiwan and Japan collaborated online to enhance their English learning. Students’ perceptions on the roles of English and NS norms as well as their confidence in English are explored from their messages in the discussion forum, questionnaires, and weekly reflections. The advantages and disadvantages of teaching English with NNS-NNS online communications are also discussed.

This study aims to examine the cultural content and its hidden curriculum of one popular internationally published ELT textbook: New American Inside Out (elementary level/2008). The method of content analysis, based on the two coding schemes: The Five Dimensions of Culture and the Categories of Culture, was adopted to codify the content. The results show that this textbook has promoted different dimensions of culture with a focus on the introduction of western products, persons and perspectives. Quite a lot of content related to linguistic practices is found not specific to any culture or country; however, the bias in favor of Target Culture (English-speaking countries) is obvious throughout the textbook in terms of the reading texts and listening scripts. Less interest has been put on the presentation of local and Asian cultures. As for the arrangement of intercultural issues, most of them are put in speaking activities but center on personal sharing of experiences instead of carrying out intercultural reflection and awareness. Drawn upon the findings, the hidden curriculum delivered through the textbook is discussed, and then relevant suggestions are provided with the expectation of developing suitable ELT textbooks to meet the real needs of EFL/EIL learners in the global village.