Earticle

Although language learner agency has recently gained attention in the field of applied linguistics, the concept of language learner agency remains predominantly theoretical based; empirical studies in EFL classroom settings centering on this topic are scarce. Furthermore, task-based teaching in language classrooms has gained popularity, yet studies on how tasks are implemented and in which students exert learner agency are understudied. Through audio recordings of group activities, class observations, and interviews with student focus groups, the purposes of this study were 1) to illustrate how a wordless picture book project was designed and implemented in a Taiwanese English course with 31 students, and 2) to explore how the college learners approached and what they did in the collaborative tasks. Situating this work within the conceptualizations of agency as action-oriented endeavors, it revealed that the students exerted learner agency by co-constructing and developing a deeper understanding towards the story content through peer discussions. They self-initiated actions by employing their own resources and self-monitored their Mandarin and English in order to achieve the task objectives. The study also confirmed the learner agency was shaped by the specific communities of practice they engaged in. Based on the results, pedagogical implications will be provided.

The use of classroom assessment as a means of promoting student learning is strongly supported by current international educational research and policy. The purpose of this study was to examine what classroom assessment practices secondary English as a foreign language (EFL) students experience, and how such assessment experience may cater for their English learning motivation. To capture students‟ classroom assessment experiences, a questionnaire was developed based on constructs related to classroom assessment in the literature. Students‟ learning motivation in the EFL course was then measured by the Student Learning Motivation Questionnaire adapted from Guilloteaux and Dörnyei (2008). The results showed that although teacher-controlled performance-oriented assessment was most used in the EFL classroom, teacher-student interactive-informal assessment and student self-assessment emerged as best predictors of students‟ intrinsic motivation and positive attitudes toward the EFL course. The study thus revealed that not all types of classroom assessment practice were equally motivational. Implications of the results for creating a more meaningful learning-oriented assessment environment in the EFL classroom are discussed.

This study examined how low-level Japanese English learners‟ motivation changes throughout an English course in which English is taught through reflective teaching practice. In order to investigate students‟ motivational fluctuation, Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) was applied. CDST can measure how learners‟ motivation changes by focusing on the process of change, as opposed to whether learners‟ motivation changed or not by investigating pre- and post-data, which has been the mainstream approach in motivational research for decades. At the end of each class, a “Weekly Motivational Questionnaire” (WMQ) (Nitta, 2013; Nitta & Asano, 2010) was distributed to 14 participants, and the instructor kept a journal after the class. The materials and techniques used in this class included an American TV drama, games related to the class contents, group/pair work, and the Jigsaw Method (Aronson & Patnoe, 1997). Since the class focused on improving student listening and speaking ability, a TV drama was used as the main teaching material. Trajectory patterns were obtained using the results of the WMQ. Consequently, five motivational patterns were recognized. Through individual analyses, for instance, the importance of repeated use of tasks that are related to students‟ interests are implied. A motivational developmental sequence is also hypothesized.

This study explored the role of Working Memory (WM), introversion vs. extroversion personality types, and verbal and interpersonal intelligences in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners‟ speaking ability. In addition, the role of WM in extroversion/introversion personality was investigated. Sixty EFL learners participated in the study. They took a WM task, an intelligence and a personality test, and engaged in an oral interview. Results of the independent samples t-test indicated that extroverts performed significantly better than introverts in the oral interview. In addition, results of the binomial logistic regression failed to show any role of WM in the likelihood of being extroverted or introverted. In addition, WM significantly predicted 33.4% of variation in verbal intelligence. Additionally, personality type, WM, and interpersonal intelligence significantly predicted 53.6% of variation in speaking ability, with personality (58.6%) and WM (47.7%) making the biggest contribution. These findings provide evidence on the role of personality and WM on learners‟ speaking ability.

Even though it is recognized as the macro-language skill most strongly correlated with the rapid development of foreign language skills, listening is reported to be the most under-researched and the most neglected by foreign language teachers. Motivated by our will to improve as L2 listening teachers, we embarked on an action research project aiming to develop a series of listening training approaches based on contemporary listening research. Focusing on a combination of metacognitive, top-down and bottom-up strategies, twelve English as a lingua franca-informed listening training activities were implemented at a private Japanese university. This paper provides a review of the listening training program for 147 Japanese students. It considers pre and post-program listening assessment, student perceptions of their self-efficacy as L2 listeners, teachers‟ observations and student reactions to the explicit training program. While the program was received favorably by students, as indicated by their positive stance towards listening and communicating in English at the end of the treatment, no improvement in listening test scores was observed.

This paper discusses Hong Kong Cantonese ESL learners‟ judgment of the use of the English definite article. 33 Cantonese ESL learners majoring in English participated in the study, which consisted of a grammaticality judgment task requiring participants to judge the grammaticality of 60 sentences with regard to the use (or non-use) of the definite article. Two post-task interviews of four interviewees each were conducted to collect in-depth reports about learners‟ thinking processes during grammaticality judgment and the strategies they employed. The results of the study show that the generic use of the definite article is largely unknown to Cantonese ESL learners, and learners make certain incorrect hypotheses about the use of the. Reliance on L1 translations is also observed, showing learners‟ unawareness of the functional and semantic differences between similar items in the two languages. It is suggested that ESL teachers alert learners to their misconceptions and help learners eradicate their faulty assumptions. The generic use of the, alongside other structures used to represent generic reference, should be incorporated into the curriculum of an advanced ESL classroom. Future research about English article use should not only focus on analyses of learner errors but also tap into learners‟ thinking processes.

Despite the increasing interest in and need for developing empirical and diagnostic assessment schemes in L2 assessment and testing, very little research has been devoted to it. The literature in this area is scant, and only a handful of studies (e.g., Fulcher, 1993; Knoch, 2009; North & Schneider, 1998; Upshur & Turner, 1995) have attempted to explore such possibility. In response to this need for research, this two-phase study developed and validated empirically-derived diagnostic descriptors for use in small-scale classroom assessment in English as a second language (ESL) academic writing. In Phase 1, descriptors that are relevant to the construct of ESL academic writing were developed, and in Phase 2, the use of the descriptors was validated through the multiple analyses. The results indicated that 35 empirically-derived descriptors addressed all aspects of ESL writing skills, including content fulfillment, organizational effectiveness, grammatical knowledge, vocabulary use, and mechanics. In addition, teachers were able to use the descriptors in a consistent manner. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of an empirical approach to assessment scheme development, and underscore the importance of its use for diagnostic purposes.

This study used a genre-based approach within a systemic functional linguistics (SFL) framework to assess the development of English learners‘ understanding of the discussion genre. Fifty-two undergraduates participated in a semester-long course, divided into three groups by English proficiency level. They were administered surveys at the beginning and end of the semester to assess their choice of appropriate lexicogrammatical features. A structural move analysis of their pre- and post- discussion genre writing task was conducted, and the frequency of -ly adverbs was analysed. The results indicated that learners‘ understanding of discussion genre structure improved regardless of English proficiency. Depending on English proficiency, different features of lexicogrammatical functions, especially related to interpersonal meaning improved. The post- survey showed that higher-English-proficiency learners‘ use of auxiliary verbs such as should, will, and can dramatically improved.

Recent studies in task-based research have increasingly implemented ways to measure cognitive load in order to ensure that the tasks that were intended to be more complex placed greater cognitive load onto the learner, which in turn would lead to systematic changes in outcome measures. This study aims to introduce a more objective, indirect measure of cognitive load: time-on-task. In this study, 42 native speakers of English carried out three types of oral tasks that each had three levels of task complexity, operationalized as the number of elements. Cognitive load was measured by learner self-ratings, prospective time estimations, the dual task methodology, and time-on-task. Results of a series of correlational analyses and repeated-measures ANOVA showed that time-on-task, which can further be divided into time-on-planning and time-on-speech, proved to be a valid measure of cognitive load.

Writing plays a crucial role in communication and knowledge construction. In the era of globalization, under the impact of English as a lingua franca, there is an increasing need for written communications in English. This paper provides a review of both theoretical and empirical research on second and foreign language writing, for the purpose of informing ESL/EFL teachers especially those in Asian countries. The review first discusses distinctions between first language (L1) writing and second and foreign language (L2) writing with more focus on L2 writing situated in Asian contexts. Then it presents approaches to teaching writing in L2 contexts which originated from L1 writing pedagogy. Next, it provides a review of empirical research on the implementation of these approaches in L2 contexts, especially in Asian contexts. Finally, the paper concludes with pedagogical implications for L2 writing instruction in this particular context. It is hoped that this paper could offer Asian EFL/ESL teachers a series of pedagogical choices and help them improve the quality of English education in general, and English writing in particular.