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This study examined the effects of three different types of corrective feedback (CF) on the acquisition of declarative/procedural knowledge of the English past tense in a foreign language (FL) classroom setting. The participants comprised Japanese university students, and five classes were assigned to recasts, explicit correction, metalinguistic prompt, task-only, and test control groups. The first three groups performed tasks designed to elicit past-tense forms and received CF. The task-only group performed the tasks without any CF, while the test control group completed pretests and posttests only. Participants’ declarative and procedural knowledge of the past tense was measured at the pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest. The results generally showed that recasts and explicit correction were effective for the development of declarative knowledge of the structures, while metalinguistic prompts were beneficial for the development of procedural knowledge. Thus, metalinguistic prompts would be one of the best types of feedback to provide in an FL classroom setting to help learners develop procedural knowledge of past-tense forms. However, to effectively develop their declarative knowledge of past-tense forms, recasts and explicit correction should also be provided.

Instructional design is usually focused on the presentation of materials. The principles of teachers’ language-use strategies have scarcely been discussed. In an EFL context, teachers are required to use the target language to promote learners’ language acquisition. What is the language like when the learners still have low language proficiency? This study aims to describe the speech features of nonnative teachers of English addressed to lower-proficiency learners in EFL classes. The data were collected by observation, interview, and recording the teachers teaching English in lower classes, i.e. semester one, and its comparable counterpart of higher classes, i.e. semester five of the English Department in a public university in Malang, Indonesia, and then analyzed by describing and comparing inter-levels intra-subjects. Despite some variability among subjects, it was found that there was a tendency that the language addressed to lower-proficiency learners has specific characteristics encompassing formal, interactional, and native language features that were simpler than that to higherproficiency learners. This study concludes a principle of instructional delivery that student’s level of knowledge and language ability determined the level of teacher speech. Hence, instructional designers should also describe how a medium of instruction is used, not merely how the learning material is presented.

This article reports the findings of an action research project, which investigated how university students would respond to Task-based Instruction (TBI), with the primary aim to examine its sociocultural appropriateness in the Japanese EFL context. The study employed a hybrid form of task-based and textbook-focused instruction in English classes at the tertiary level. A survey was administered to collect student feedback, which was examined qualitatively using thematic analysis. The analysis revealed that a majority of students positively viewed TBI in terms of main themes that emerged from the data: Social Skills Building; Personal Development; Future Usefulness, with English Learning as a common sub-theme. Pedagogical implications, as well as suggestions for further research, are discussed based on these findings.

Glossing, providing information for unfamiliar lexical items to promote reading comprehension, has long been investigated as a textual modification technique to promote second language (L2) reading comprehension. Thus far, however, inconclusive findings have been produced as to whether L2 readers’ working memory capacity plays as a moderator of the effects of glossing on L2 reading comprehension. To fill the gap, the present study explored the moderating impact of working memory capacity on the efficacy of glossing in L2 reading comprehension. Eighty-eight Korean university students read two English passages in either a glossed or an unglossed version, while answering multiple-choice reading comprehension items. Participants’ phonological short-term memory was assessed with a digit span task and a Korean nonword repetition task, while their complex working memory was measured with a backward digit span task and an automated operation span task. The results of mixed-effects modeling revealed that forward digit span scores moderated the effects of glossing on L2 reading comprehension scores.

This study reports findings of a meta-analysis on the effects of the age of first exposure, known as the age of onset (AO), on the acquisition of morphosyntax in a second language (L2). Several studies report restrictive effects of AO on L2 grammar acquisition (Abrahamsson, 2012; DeKeyser et al., 2010; Qureshi, 2016); however, there is a disagreement about the way sensitivity to second language acquisition declines (Birdsong, 2009; Long, 2013). Researchers disagree about the nature of the decline and argue whether the decrease that occurs in learners’ ultimate proficiency in the second language is gradual and continuous or gradual but followed by a plateau, without further decline. To explore the nature of AO, 29 samples from 14 studies were analyzed. The results revealed a large effect size1 (d = 1.13, SD = .06) for the impact of AO on ultimate proficiency in L2 morphosyntax. However, for the disaggregated data (i.e., when earlier & late learners are separated), a linear decline was observed for the 6 to 16 age-group (21 samples), while a flattening of the regression line was detected for the 17 to 24 age-group (8 samples). More importantly, the findings revealed two different shapes of decline based on participants’ first language and the target L2. Overall, the findings support a bounded critical period for second language acquisition and indicate the typological distance between the two languages as a major influencing factor.

This mixed-method study investigated teacher and student perceptions of the importance of taskrelated motivational strategies (TRMS) in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom instruction. A 48-item Likert scale questionnaire covering seven domains of TRMS were electronically delivered to teachers (N = 96) at different institutions in a large city in southern Vietnam and their students (N = 220). Concurrently, thirty-four written reflections were obtained from the teachers (N = 17) and the students (N = 17) to shed further light on their perceptions. Examining the participants’ central tendencies showed that they agreed on the motivational value of task nature, task relevance, task materials, task-related feedback, and during-task teacher behavior, but not on task presentation and task level. Item analyses further revealed statistically significant differences in the participants’ perceptions of as much as 23 percent of the TRMS. Recursive content analysis of the journal data corroborated a substantial part of the quantitative results and offered explanations for why each specific difference occurred. These perceptual mismatches provide important pedagogical implications for how teachers can design and implement tasks in the way that is motivating to students whose English learning is entirely confined within classroom walls.

The study attempts to examine and diagnose Korean EFL high school students’ English reading fluency using an informal reading inventory (IRI). In performing IRI reading tasks, 68 eleventh grade high school students were asked to read aloud the graded texts across 14 levels and answer the reading comprehension questions. As a result of the IRI administration, the data of the 68 students’ oral reading fluency levels, word reading accuracy, decoding errors, and oral reading rate were collected. The results revealed that the students’ ORF levels are widely dispersed. Notably, about 40 percent of the students seemed to be able to read the text of Levels 2 and 3 independently, while approximately 50 percent of the students showed a frustration level in reading at Levels 3 through 5. Besides, less variability was demonstrated in word reading accuracy except for the lower fluency group. The reading rates were found to increase as the participants’ reading levels were higher despite the fact that there exists a significant difference in reading rate within and across the three reading fluency groups. These findings shed light on different aspects of L2 learners’ reading development and allow us to draw pedagogical implications in the Korean EFL context.

The NNEST movement has acknowledged NNESTs’ shared mother language with learners for instructional and emphatic purposes. This study points out that such contributions are appreciated but should not justify instruction heavily or exclusively given in the L1 in English language classes taught by Korean NNESTs, which is predominantly practiced in Korea’s higher education. To help NNESTs in the EFL setting pedagogically and meet learners’ communicative needs, this study suggests consecutive bilingual instruction (CBI) as an alternative that balances NNESTs’ use of English and the L1 in the classroom. For the experiment, the researcher provided all instructions in English and then in Korean for the same content consecutively in five English language courses for one semester. Data were collected from a post-course survey (N = 104) and two focus group interviews (N = 12) to examine how CBI was perceived by students. Findings show that students’ confidence and proficiency in English increased through the courses, and over 90% thought CBI influenced their improvement moderately to very strongly. CBI was especially effective for beginner learners. NNESTs struggling with the burden of English-only instruction are encouraged to adopt CBI as a medium of instruction to develop themselves pedagogically and benefit students’ learning. Implementation strategies are also suggested.

This classroom-based qualitative case study is to illustrate how an English as a subject matter course is taught and examine 17 EFL undergraduate and post-graduate learners’ experiences in and views on their content learning as well as weekly activities in a 15 week-long online course. The participant engaged in doing weekly readings, listening to PPT-based lectures, writing thought papers (TPs) and revising them based on instructor and peer feedback, and joining weekly discussion activities. According to analyses of the data such as learners’ weekly writings, instructor and peer feedback, online discussion posts on an LMS, and an informal mid-term survey and final–self-evaluation, the students had various levels of positive experiences and difficulties due to course demands. Regarding disciplinary specific writing assignments, they valued instructor feedback and considered important focusing on logical flow and coherent organizational structure in addition to appropriate use of such linguistic elements as word choice, vocabulary and grammar. The results of this case study of embedding intensive writing in a disciplinary course shed important pedagogical insights on how to strike balance between teaching subject matter content and ‘writing to learn’ as well as ‘learning to write’.

This research examines the employing of a Play Curricular Activity Reflection Discussion (PCaRD) and Digital Game-based (DGB) through flipped learning on the EFL learners’ grammar skills to improve their achievement and attitudes. The participants were 66 EFL female intermediate students in Iran; the research was conducted over 10 weeks. A PCaRD DGB flipped learning was used for the experimental group (N = 33), and a standard flipped classroom was used for the control group (N = 33). Both groups constructed using the same teacher, time, coursebook, and videos. The PCaRD DGB flipped learning provided mobile-based game apps and a game-based feedback mechanism in the form of collaborative response and created a setting in which learners could engage in more grammar activity, pay more attention to their answers, and improving their grammar skills. The results indicated that the PCaRD DGB flipped learning outperformed the standard flipped learning in grammar achievement and in terms of their positive attitudes. The researcher speculates that the PCaRD DGB flipped learning strengthens EFL learners’ grammar skills and a positive attitude.

This study investigated the effect of the micro flipped method on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ speaking fluency and compared its effect with the traditional face-to-face teacher-fronted method in the EFL context of Iran. To this end, 40 intermediate-level EFL learners in a language institute were selected through a placement test and were assigned to experimental and control groups. The control group (non-flipped classroom) was exposed to in-class activities and instructional materials in the print format whereas the experimental group (micro flipped classroom) was exposed to both in-class and out-of-class instructional materials, including mini videos uploaded before class via Edmodo, a technology-based pedagogical environment. To assess the participants’ speaking fluency, they were interviewed at the beginning and end of their course, and the recorded speech data were analyzed through PRAAT (computer software package for speech analysis) in terms of six aspects of speaking fluency, including articulation rate (syllables per second), rate of all pauses, rate of long pauses, rate of unfilled and filled pauses and mean length of run. The analysis of the data through Mann-Whitney tests revealed statistically significant differences regarding the measures of fluency with the higher articulate rate and mean length of run and lower rates of pauses for the experimental group in the posttest interview. The findings accentuate the role of the flipped classroom and blended learning where second/foreign language (L2) leaners can develop their L2 speaking skills and fluency in online and actual settings.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of using the Interactive Whiteboard on phonemic awareness instruction among EFL first graders. For this study, a word recognition test was used as the research instrument. Pre-test, post-test, and delayed-word recognition were administered to 48 first graders, aged 7 on average, to both the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received the treatment for four weeks using IWB, whereas the control group was taught using the chalkboard. Paired sample t-test, independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA were employed to analyse the data. The findings showed a significant difference in word recognition test scores in favor of the experimental group test (t = 2.50, p < .05). The mean score of the experimental group was better than that of the control group. The current study proposes some pedagogical implications for curriculum designers and concludes with recommendations and further studies on intervention programs.

Late submission, sloppy works, and plagiarized papers are the common hurdles encountered by most English writing teachers. However, there seem to be limited studies addressing these three problems. Therefore, this study utilizes the positive reinforcements by Sharot’s (2011) Optimism Bias (OB), and negative reinforcement through Enactive Learning (EL) (Bandura, 1986, as cited in Feist et al., 2018). Following that, the researchers explore the effects of these reinforcements to the 213 Filipino college students’ academic writing proficiency, their perceptions on these approaches, and the best approach to use in teaching academic writing. This study used analysis of variance (ANOVA) in testing the significant difference among the reinforcements applied such as OB, EL, and combined OB/EL on students’ academic writing proficiency. Specifically, the Tukey Post-Hoc Test presents that there is significant difference between EL and combined OB/EL, OB and EL, but not between OB and combined OB/EL. Moreover, the descriptive statistics reveal that the different reinforcements are manifested and motivating based on students’ perceptions. The results show that the combined OB and EL reinforcements best helped students’ performance and behavior in their academic writing class. Thereby, this paper introduces the potential impact of the Diametric Motivational Approach to college students’ academic writing proficiency.