Earticle

The present study attempted to figure out the optimal conditions for peer assessment to be successful from learners’ perspectives. Participants were twenty Korean college students majoring in TEFL, who practiced peer assessment in a content course, completed a pre-, and a post-survey about their perception of peer assessment, and responded to an interview after the semester. Several meaningful themes emerged from their voice in relation to the fundamental elements to be considered in designing and implementing peer assessment. First, working in group to perform the task to be peer-assessed proved to be highly effective in that it could offer much more opportunities to learn from each other first within the group members and then across different groups. Second, face-to-face peer assessment in class was generally preferred over on-line out-of-class, with the immediacy of feedback and other benefits interwoven with it. Third, the more experience of peer assessment in a curriculum and more frequent peer assessing activities in a course was often associated with the learners’ perceived learning achievement. Fourth, the teacher’s intervention could be a necessary condition to make the benefits of peer assessment greater. Implications for teachers and researchers are stated with limitations of the study.

This study aimed to explore the effects of examinees’ perceptions of interlocutors’ proficiency on their test results in paired oral tests. A group of 22 Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) high school students participated in the study. They were divided into three groups based on high, intermediate, and low English proficiency and were interviewed twice: once before the test and once after. Each examinee was paired with and tested with three interlocutors with high, intermediate, and low English proficiency levels. Raw scores from each rater were analyzed to examine potential interactions among the factors using the bias analysis from the Many-Facet Rasch Model. The results showed that the examinees’ perceptions about the effect of interlocutor proficiency on their test results were not consistent nor reliable enough to influence the test results. This study provides evidence that the paired format can be used as a valid and reliable tool to assess EFL learners’ speaking ability regardless of interlocutor proficiency levels, which can be assumed to influence examinees’ perceptions of the oral test results.

The promotion of language learner autonomy has become a standard policy ratified by many language education curricula. Textbooks, one of the key tools for curriculum implementation, have a crucial role in bringing the aspiration of learner autonomy into classroom practice. This study aims to evaluate how existing English textbooks used in Indonesia’s secondary schools support the development of learner autonomy, which is incorporated in current Indonesia’s curricular goals. Two frameworks, from Reinders (2010) and Nunan (1997), were used to evaluate the evidence and levels of supports for language learner autonomy development in five selected English textbooks. The evaluation shows that the current English textbooks have not provided enough tasks that support learner autonomy. When evident, supports are mostly at a very superficial level. The findings suggest that textbooks have not been adequately explored and exploited for developing language learner autonomy.

Despite the wealth of research on writing techniques as well as second language (L2) motivation, research on writing motivation and motivational strategies remain underexplored (Bruning & Horn, 2000; Lee et al., 2018). Even the limited research on writing motivation focuses on exploring students’ views, paying little attention to teachers’ perspectives. To fill this important gap, this study investigates how teachers perceive their students’ writing motivation and the strategies they employ to enhance this motivation. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect qualitative data from four English writing instructors at three private universities in the UAE. Findings show that most students experience low levels of writing motivation. Instructors report encountering several student motivational challenges related to student intrinsic motivation, cost of writing, value of writing, and self-efficacy and expectancy. To address these motivational issues, the instructors ensure providing a pleasant and supportive atmosphere, stimulating and enjoyable writing, effective teaching strategies, autonomous learning and constructive feedback. More L2 motivation research should be done in writing contexts, considering teachers’ experiences in dealing with the complexities they encounter in their classrooms. Teachers’ perspectives and practices will provide a broader picture of learner motivation, indicate where support is needed, and become the base for new professional development experiences.

Research on relationships between textual and textual-plus-pictorial gloss types and working memory capacity has been limited at best. This study examined the degree to which these two gloss types and working memory capacity (WMC), assessed through a listening span task mediate vocabulary learning. 204 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners listened to a text with an unfamiliar topic, before and after which they completed a vocabulary test based on Paribakht and Wesche’s (1997) Vocabulary Knowledge Scale to examine their receptive versus productive vocabulary acquisition. While listening to the text, they received the meanings of twenty selected words through two different gloss types. The results revealed that textual-plus-pictorial glosses led to significantly higher increases in both receptive and productive knowledge. As for the predictive power of working memory capacity, linear regression analysis indicated that WMC did not play a role in receptive vocabulary acquisition in either of the input modes, whereas productive gain scores for both gloss types were equally, albeit insignificantly, predicted by WMC. However, no interaction between WMC and the modality effect was observed. This study confirms the modality effect on intentional vocabulary learning and suggests that the role of WMC is not mediated by gloss types.

This study explores how Korean writing tutors use withdrawal, i.e., canceling feedback or questioning the reliability of feedback, and the different purposes of employing this strategy. While studies investigating interactions between writing tutors and tutees usually focus on those between L1 tutors with non-native speaker tutees, recently, a few studies have examined non-native speaker tutor interactions with tutees. However, very few attempts have been made to examine how EFL tutors work with their tutees. EFL tutor interactions are interesting in that due to self-perceptions of lower English proficiency, these tutors may use unique strategies when interacting with their tutees. To explore these strategies, we audio-recorded 11 writing tutorials of four Korean writing tutors across one semester and interviewed the tutors. Analysis of the recorded data reveals that all four tutors frequently used the strategy of withdrawal. The interviews confirm that withdrawal accomplishes multiple functions: compensating for the tutor’s uncertainty and limited knowledge, attributing the responsibility of revision to the tutee, and considering the tutee’s intentions and emotions. These findings are an important step to better understand non-native writing tutor-tutee interactions and can provide guidance on training future tutors.

Although recent studies of L2 writing development have called for the inclusion of metrics that measure phrasal embedding as well as clausal embedding as indicators of syntactic complexity, taskbased research on L2 written performance still shows a heavy dependence on length-based measures and clausal subordination. In this study, the written performance of 81 Korean learners of English was examined using traditional syntactic measures that most task-based studies rely on, clausal complexity measures, and noun phrasal complexity measures. Participants were randomly assigned to either a Closed group that carried out closed tasks (i.e., tasks with a predetermined answer), or an Open group that carried out open tasks (i.e., tasks without a predetermined answer). Task complexity was manipulated in terms of the number of elements. Generally in line with Kyle and Crossley’s findings (2018), the study revealed that including more encompassing measures of syntactic complexity helped in the understanding of learners’ interlanguage development, especially when considering their level of L2 proficiency.

In the discussion of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNETs) versus native English-speaking teachers (NETs) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context, strengths of NNETs in several aspects of English language teaching (ELT) have been acknowledged, thus contributing to their repositioning in the ELT profession; the same, however, cannot be said about NNETs’ status in the field of English pronunciation teaching. This paper reports on an investigation into Vietnamese EFL teachers’ and learners’ perspectives of who should teach English pronunciation. Data was collected from students via surveys and focus- groups, and from 10 Vietnam teachers of English via interviews and classroom observation. The data was coded and analysed thematically. The study found that while most Vietnamese teachers were ambivalent about their competence as teachers of English pronunciation, learners were able to articulate their views about who and what helped them to improve this aspect of their English. The findings also indicate that learners’ level of English proficiency had a significant influence on their views of whether a NET or a NNET was more beneficial for their learning.

Despite the importance of research article abstracts and difficulties that English L2 writers encounter when writing research articles in English in the field of medicine, little research has investigated lexical bundles in medical journal abstracts. This paper explores the structural and functional characteristics of lexical bundles between two corpora consisting of medical journal abstracts written by English L1 and L2 writers, respectively. The findings, from extensive use of verb phrase-based (VP-based) and text-oriented bundles by English L2 writers, as well as that of noun phrase-based (NPbased) and research-oriented bundles by English L1 writers, show that English L2 writers lack awareness of discipline-specific bundles in medical journal abstracts. The findings of the study would be a valuable source for English L2 writers to explore the use of lexical bundles by English L1 writers in medical journal abstracts reporting clinical trials and randomized controlled trials, thereby helping them develop a better understanding of medical journal abstract conventions.

This study focused on analyzing how different interactions (face-to-face chatting and chatting with AI chatbots) may affect speaking skills. In order to examine whether using AI chatbots can be beneficial for improving speaking task performances, 110 participants were divided into three groups: a face-toface chatting, AI text-chatting, and AI voice-chatting group. They were assigned three speaking tasks that involved describing a picture, responding to questions, and expressing an opinion, which they did both before and after the experiments. Based on the analysis of quantitative data, the findings of the study indicated that both AI groups improved their speaking performance after the experiment while there were mixed results from the face-to-face interactions. It was found that the participants in the face-to-face group improved significantly better in responding to questions and expressing an opinion while no significant differences were revealed in the describing a picture task. With respect to the effects of using AI chatbots, there were no significant differences in the two speaking tasks (describe a picture and respond to questions) between the three groups. However, the comparative analysis of the three different interaction modes suggested that the AI voice-chatting pairs outperformed in terms of their speaking performance task (expressing an opinion) compared with the face-to-face and AI textchatting groups. Regarding students’ perspectives, descriptive statistics and selected student interviews were reported. Based on the findings of the current study, pedagogical implications and directions for future research are also suggested.

This study aims to investigate the effects of synchronous online discussions in foreign language classrooms, using a control group (face-to-face oral role play) and an experimental group (synchronous online discussion), on the development of English productive skills, such as speaking and writing. The case study employed a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. Thirty students from Danang University of Medical Technology and Pharmacy participated in the research project. Data were collected includes pre- and post- treatment tests at the beginning and at the end of the semester, pre- and post-questionnaires; and semi-structured interviews. Results derived from a t-test analysis revealed that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups in either speaking or writing proficiency at the end of the semester. However, both groups showed a significant gain in speaking and writing proficiency between the beginning and the end of the semester. Statistics indicated significant levels between pre- and post-treatment scores reached by the nonsynchronous computer mediated communication role play and the synchronous computer meddiated communication chat groups.

This study examined the evidence for the validity of the content of the Joint Admission Examination-English (JAE-E) developed for university admissions in Macau. The areas of investigation were the linguistic characteristics of the test, the alignment between the test and CEFR levels, and the comparison between JAE-E and other admission examinations. Five experienced English teachers from Macau were recruited to provide expert judgments. In addition to the judgments, two instruments used were Coh-Metrix and CEFR scales with descriptors. Results showed that generally the JAE-E was valid in terms of its content. The Coh-Metrix results suggested that the tests were suitable in terms of narrativity, syntactic simplicity, word concreteness, and deep cohesion (although not in terms of referential cohesion). In terms of CEFR alignment, the test was at B1 level for reading and C1 level for writing. Finally, suggestions for improvements were put forward in terms of integrated skills, scenario-based assessment, and technology.

Mobile technologies are receiving an increasing attention within diverse educational contexts. However, the scope of research on the affordances various mobile technologies provide to learning outcomes is still limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of using WhatsApp application on vocabulary learning of Iranian EFL learners. Twenty-six female EFL learners at preintermediate level of proficiency were selected through convenience sampling to participate in the study. A vocabulary test was utilized for ensuring the homogeneity of the learners and then the participants were divided into two experimental (N = 13) and control (N = 13) groups, followed by assessing their vocabulary knowledge. Then, the 14-session treatment began, which included teaching new words using WhatsApp in the experimental group and traditional face-to-face method in the control group. At the end of the course, a vocabulary post–test was administered to both groups. Additionally, an attitude questionnaire was administrated to both groups for examining their attitude towards using WhatsApp and the traditional vocabulary learning method. The results indicated that the experimental group outperformed the control group. In addition, it was revealed that the learners who used WhatsApp for enhancing their vocabulary skill had a more positive attitude toward foreign language vocabulary learning as compared to the other group. The implications of the study for mobile-assisted vocabulary learning are discussed.