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This study aimed at investigating the effects of Task-Supported Language Instruction (TSLI) and two oral corrective feedbacks i.e., situated recast (SR) and negotiated feedback (NF) on the learners’ development of grammatical features: be-passive voice. We utilized a quasi-experimental design on four intact-class encompassing 127 third-semester EFL learners assigned to one control group and three experimental groups. A mixed-design repeated measure analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) was applied to gauge the development of both individuals within the groups and the comparisons between groups. The finding reveals that there is no significant development between pre and post-test depicted in the control group. By contrast, there is a significant development from pre to post-test in the experimental groups in which TSLI + NF has the largest effect sizes of TSLI + SR as well as TSLI-only group. Furthermore, TSLI + SR and TSLI + NF provided a longer-term effect than TSLI group on both tests explicated in the delayed test. We interpret these findings as showing that a dynamic explicit-implicit oral corrective feedback embedded in the explicit instruction provide more potent than those task only and control group on the learners’ development of be-passive voice.

While the importance of task sequencing in task-based research and syllabus design has been emphasized, there is a gap in the literature regarding whether the order in which tasks are presented actually has a significant impact on L2 performance. The aim of the study was to investigate whether task sequencing actually had an effect on L2 written performance. A writing task with three levels of task complexity was given to 88 EFL learners, with one group carrying the three task versions out in the order of increasing task complexity (Simple-to-complex), and the other group in the order of decreasing task complexity (Complex-to-simple). It was found that the cognitive load of the task, as well as learners’ syntactic complexity and lexical diversity shown in their L2 writing, were significantly affected by task sequencing and its interaction with task complexity. Pedagogical implications are noted with regard to the differential effects that task sequencing has on L2 writing, as presenting tasks in the order of increasing task complexity resulted in greater syntactic complexity, while presenting tasks in decreasing task complexity led to greater lexical diversity.

The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent additional interventions to the 3/2/1 task help EFL learners develop speaking fluency. Participants were 48 university students in Japan. The 3/2/1 task was implemented 11 times in one 15-week academic semester. The participants were divided into three groups including 1) comparison group, 2) input enhancement group, and 3) input + peer-check group. Speaking data were recorded in weeks 2 and 14, transcribed, and analyzed based on five fluency measures. The pre-/post-recording data showed significant gains in mean length of runs in both experimental groups and in phonation time ratio in the input + peer-check group. Further analyses indicated that the increase in the mean length of runs is associated with the frequency of target formulaic language usage. The implications of fluency promoting instructions in EFL classrooms are discussed.

To ascertain whether pronunciation instruction can help adult Korean learners of English improve their intelligibility, this study conducted a quasi-experimental study by teaching ten pronunciation rules in Yoo (2011) to two groups of students taking a conversation class in a two-year college in Seoul. The results of the study revealed that the progress made by participants was statistically significant, albeit the increase in intelligibility was relatively small. Of the ten rules, the reduction of unstressed vowels to schwa was perceived to be most helpful for both speaking and listening, while the least helpful was the deletion of /h/ and /v/ in have in sentences such as I should have done that. The flapping rule was perceived to be most helpful for speaking, followed by the pronunciation of /tr/ and /dr/ in words such as truck and dry and the deletion of /n/ after /t/ in words such as international. As for pronunciation instruction in general, participants seem to possess a conflicting attitude for improving their pronunciation. On the one hand, they are eager to improve their pronunciation, even to the degree of native-like pronunciation; on the other hand, they recognize that improving pronunciation may be difficult because of their age.

The present study explored the use of references and conjunctions in 116 argumentative essays written by Chinese university EFL students. Mainly guided by Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) model on cohesion, the study revealed the following major findings: (1) the participants used references more than conjunctions and tended to use demonstrative references and clause connectives and additive conjunctions most frequently in their argumentative essays, (2) high-quality essays had significantly more frequent use of comparative references than low-quality essays, (3) comparative references were a positive predictor for the whole sample’s writing scores and reflexive references a negative predictor for low-quality essay scores, and (4) the participants generally had an appropriate use of different kinds of references and conjunctions, with a small percent of problematic use of different types of references and conjunctions in their writing. It is thus concluded that the use of references and conjunctions greatly affects the quality of argumentative writing produced by ESL/EFL students.

This study examines the comparative attitudes of students and professors toward English-medium instruction (EMI) policies at Korean universities. Specifically, it investigates these stakeholders’ experiences with EMI implemented in science and engineering universities, the main facilitators of EMI and the internationalization of Korean higher education. Within a mixed method framework, questionnaire surveys were administered to 523 students and 37 professors from three leading science and engineering universities, and supplementary interviews were conducted with nine professors. The results of the analysis show that both professors and students believe that EMI should be continued. With respect to their motivations to engage in teaching and learning subjects in English as a foreign language (EFL), the majority of both groups were involved in EMI due to their university’s policy, with lower satisfaction in EMI classes than in Korean-medium classes. More students than professors were unconvinced of the effects of EMI on their English ability. Notably, despite the inadequacy of their English ability, many students were not enthusiastic about enhancing their levels of English language proficiency. These contradictory views are discussed to propose ways to explicitly promote English language instruction as well as EMI-related professional development for subject professors at EFL higher education institutions.

In contemporary academia L2 speakers of English are actively involved in producing research texts in English. Hence, for EAP and ESP researchers it is important to study how L2 speakers write their research and to uncover factors influencing their linguistic and discursive choices. The paper reports on the analysis of 18 interviews with L2 scholars working in the broad domain of social sciences and humanities, some of whom are multidisciplinary researchers. Based on the discussion of epistemic stance expression, the study explores the norms influencing L2 scholars’ research writing practices. The results show that along with disciplinary norms, the norms of writing in a certain methodological paradigm seem to be a significant factor shaping research writing. Another important factor influencing linguistic features of research text is journal requirements. The results have pedagogical implications since they reveal the influences that should be taken into consideration by research writing course designers and instructors.

Writing in English is difficult for multi-lingual learners, and this is not an exception for Vietnamese students who learnt English as-a-foreign-language (EFL). However, few studies have been conducted on how these learners learnt this skill at their up-secondary schools (U-SS). This study thus plans to explore how 335 Vietnamese students at a U-SS perceived the importance of EFL writing, how they learnt it and what difficulties and expectations/suggestions they had in making the learning of this skill effectively. Employing a 5-point Likert-scale survey, open-ended questions and a focus-group interview, the study found these learners’ awareness of the significance of this skill for their future betterment. Moreover, similar to students in other EFL settings, these students learnt this skill for learning other language skills, and their teachers did not have enough time to teach and provide feedback on their writing. However, their positive attitudes and how to learn this skill were greatly influenced by their teachers and educational conditions. These findings are therefore expected to shed more light on learners’ perspectives in learning EFL writing at the U-SS level so that relevant support can be provided to help the learning of this skill in Vietnam and in similar EFL contexts.

The instructed acquisition of the English articles (EAs) has proved to be an ordeal for L2 learners, irrespective of their L1 background. Research suggests that as EAs are non-salient, misusing them may not spark a tangible breakdown in communication. The current study attempted to investigate the short- and long-term effects of explicit instruction on the retention of EAs. Participants were university-level Farsi-speaking EFL learners from three intact groups, namely “processing instruction” (PI) as a deductive intervention, “consciousness-raising instruction” (CRI) as an explicit-inductive intervention, and a “control” group. The PI group received explicit training on the target rules and processing challenges represented by the EAs, coupled with structured input activities. In the second group, through a so-called PACE model as a subcategory of CRI, the focus was on co-constructing the rules. The treatments were followed by three posttests at different intervals. The within-groups analysis of results revealed that CRI had a rather short-term effect on the learners’ productive ability, whereas PI had a late-emerging impact on their receptive performance. Nevertheless, the analysis of between-groups differences indicated that neither of the experimental conditions outdid the control group during any of the posttest phases. The implications for pedagogy and future research are discussed.

This study explores how vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) adopted by medical students would differ in learning medical terminology and general English words. The participants were 109 medical students in a university located in a major city in Korea. Data were collected in the Fall 2021 semester using a survey questionnaire. The study found that there was not much difference in the most frequently used VLS for learning general English words and learning medical terminology. Only three differences existed among the top-ten most used strategies. Out of 66 strategies, about a half showed a statistically significant difference in the frequency of VLS use, and only six were used more frequently when learning medical terminology than when learning general English words. When the participants were divided into three groups by their GPA, the results showed that higher-achieving students are active learners in all circumstances, taking notes during their medical class, imagining word meaning in their cognition, and using space to draw words in meaning groups outside the classroom.

Many learners in Korean EFL contexts find it challenging to speak English fluently due to the lack of practice and exposure. Some recent studies have attempted to rectify this through the incorporation of various tools and methods. Of these, a popularly emerging concept is the use of mobile or personal learning devices. However, their potential is far from being recognized in actual classes due to its challenges relating to scheduling and developing an appropriate model in teaching and learning speaking skills. This study offers a blended learning model that incorporates mobile devices and social networking to overcome the contextual limitations of Korean or Asian EFL learners and examines the impact of the model in English speaking. The study uses an experiment involving 125 participants to investigate the effects of mobile-assisted blended learning (MABL) implementation on the students’ level of speaking proficiency and its factors. The results showed that the MABL implementation positively affected the students’ speaking proficiency and its aspects, such as intelligibility and comprehensibility. Further studies implementing large-scale experiments with students of different proficiency levels and exploring their affective factors and behaviors in MABL environments based on the model used in this study are suggested.

Research has acknowledged Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) as one efficacious method for leveraging language proficiency across skills and components, leaving the investigation on language learners’ motivation and emotional intelligence of peripheral focus, albeit being essential drives for academic success. This study seeks to fill the gaping void by investigating the impact of team-based mobile learning (TBML) as an instructional framework to leverage EFL learners’ online learning engagement (OLE), trait emotional intelligence (TEI), and EFL learning motivation. This instructional framework involves a mobile instant messenger (MIM), Telegram, to support collaborative learning both within and beyond class hours. Employing a quasi-experimental approach, the study involved 475 undergraduate students at an Indonesian state university across majors, including nursing, management, science education, and non-formal education, with ages ranging from 18 to 22 years. The findings corroborate significant increment in the abovementioned dimensions resulting from TBML, as opposed to the unworthy increase associated with computer-based LMS. Moderate positive correlations also exist among three pertinent variables. Implications suggest how TBML accords English learners with the authentic learning community armed with myriads discourse resources to empower their multidimensional engagement in meaningful literacy practices.

Grounded in social cognitive theory and expectancy-value theory, the current study aimed to present a demotivation scale — Learner Perceptions of Demotivators Scale (LPDS) — designed specifically for use in L2 research and tested empirically to provide evidence of its construct, validity, and reliability. Study 1 sample consisted of 295 Chinese college English learners. An exploratory factor analysis offered preliminary support for a factor structure comprising three dimensions: negative teacher behavior, loss of task value, and low expectancy for success. Study 2 sample consisted of another 320 Chinese college English learners. The proposed factor structure was further corroborated through confirmatory factor analysis, and support for its validity was provided by means of correlating the three dimensions with academic performance and self-efficacy measures. Specifically, all the correlations were negative except for the positive association between academic performance and negative teacher behavior. Further, whereas the model fit confirmed a well-fitting second-order model, one low first-order loading (negative teacher behavior) does not seem to support a second-order factor model. Therefore, the three dimensions should be regarded as separate to best capture the nuances of different demotivators. By establishing a nomological network (demotivation, academic performance, and self-efficacy), the current study illuminates selected aspects of ESL pedagogy.

This study identified the latent profiles of L2 reading skills that characterize EFL first-year high school learners in Korea to examine the nature of the L2 reading ability development in the Simple View of Reading (SVR) framework. Participants included 254 Korean-speaking high school students in mid- or low-income urban areas of Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Decoding, linguistic comprehension, and reading comprehension skills were assessed by six measures in total at the beginning of the school year. Latent profile analysis (LPA) on the six reading-related measures identified three L2 reading skill profiles deviating by almost one SD each on every measure. The three groups showed distinctively stratified L2 reading abilities with close associations among the variables, providing support for the SVR model in EFL populations. Decoding measured by orthographic processing was the least distinguishing skill to infer group membership. The heterogeneity found among the same graded EFL learners is discussed in line with the frustration prevalent among underachieving English learners in Korean schools. Implications for instructions and future research are suggested.

This study explores how native English speakers, non-native English speakers, and bilingual speakers process formulaic phrases compared to non-formulaic phrases and investigates whether processing different types of formulaic sequences gives a comparative advantage or incurs processing costs. Three groups of speakers performed grammaticality judgment tasks: L1 native English speakers (ES), English bilingual speakers (EB), and Korean speakers learning English as an L2 (KS). For the type of stimuli under consideration, English idioms, phrasal verbs and collocations were used for psycholinguistic experiments. First, for all three groups, our results show that formulaic phrases are processed more rapidly and accurately than similar nonformulaic phrases. We suggest that for all three speaker groups, formulaic phrases are represented as whole units as if they are single lexical items and processed as holistically as other morphologically complex words. Second, each formula type is processed with different response times and accuracy for all three groups. This suggests that different formulas are stored, retrieved and organized in a distinct manner in each group’s mental lexicons, reflected in response latency, conceivably due to different formulaicity or semantic opacity. Furthermore, we show that conventionalized phrases, such as idioms and collocations, are processed more quickly and accurately by L1 English or English bilingual speakers, compared to Korean L2 English speakers. This implies that these formulas are problematic for L2 learners’ acquisition or vocabulary expansion. Finally, this study shows that the n-gram frequency or length of the formulas mediate the processing by all three groups, suggesting the possibility of frequency being encoded as part of lexicalized formulas.

This is the second part of the two-part article on language assessment literacy - in terms of understanding and classroom practice - among teachers in schools in Goa, a state in the western part of India (see Kunnan et al., 2021 for the first part). This part focuses on a qualitative analysis of data from interviews/focus group discussions as well as classroom observations. In-depth interviews and classroom observations were carried out to get a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. The article describes the narrative views of teachers and what was observed in classrooms regarding their assessment knowledge and practices. What emerged was a clear picture of two scenarios, labelled as Scenario 1 and Scenario 2. These scenarios represented quite clearly two distinct portrayals of the role and practice of assessment. The first scenario was one in which assessment was not understood and practiced in a way that is meaningful and useful from the point of view of student learning. The second scenario described a situation where assessments were meaningful.