Earticle

Education has been proposed to be the best approach to advance world citizenship and to resolve conflict. Critical literacy is a strategic instructional practice which aims at raising citizens’ critical and social consciousness. The current study investigated how critical literacy instruction affected students’ responses to conflict and their conception of conflict resolution. Twenty-one EFL college students in an advanced reading class participated in the study. Conflict in society was addressed in class through group dialogue and problem-posing. Open coding was used to analyze the qualitative data from class observation, students’ writing assignment and interviews. Findings revealed the students’ perspectives of conflict, causes of conflict and conflict resolution. Critical literacy helped the students develop inquisitive minds and critical awareness through problem posing and investigating multiple viewpoints. They were trained to accept and respect differences. Taken as a whole, the present study contributes more robust understandings of the role of critical literacy in helping students become critically literate citizens.

This study explored the learning-oriented nature of the student-generated reading comprehension test development, a classroom-based reading assessment task implemented in Korean secondary EFL reading classes, based on Carless’ (2007) framework for learning-oriented assessment (LOA). To this end, six eleventh-grade students, who constituted two groups of three, participated in the study and developed three reading comprehension tests based on the reading texts covered in class. Their test development processes, the actual test items that they developed, and their post-interviews were qualitatively analyzed based on the three key components of LOA in Carless’ (2007) framework: assessment tasks as learning tasks, student involvement in assessment, and feedback as feedforward. In relation to the first component of LOA, the students developed and used reading strategies aligned with the instructional objectives of the course. They also participated in the test development as selfand peer-evaluators of their reading comprehension. The last component, feedback as feedforward, was primarily provided by peers and led to their increased agency and control over reading comprehension. These findings suggest that the student-generated reading comprehension test development was learning-oriented and supported student learning and development in their reading comprehension skills.

Language learning in classrooms has been studied from different perspectives. Among numerous focuses, the present study aims to examine three dimensions—classroom activities, classroom anxiety and teacher roles as well as their interactions by investigating 49 students of an English class at university. Quantitative instruments of three 5-likert scales were used to measure the number and the frequency of classroom activities used in the English class, the level of classroom anxiety of students as well as their perceptions of teacher roles. Results showed that the English class was “often” dominated by interactive activities, coupled “sometimes” with language exercises and “occasionally” with real-life tasks. In this activity-dominated English class, learners revealed rather low level of classroom anxiety. In contrast, the overall higher mean of teacher role perceived indicated noticeably facilitating impact of the teacher in class. Correlational analyses disclosed that classroom anxiety was neither significantly correlated with teacher role nor with classroom activity. However, a significant correlation was found between classroom activities and teacher roles.

This study investigated foreign language speaking anxiety of Saudi tertiary students and the differences between them according to gender and year level. The results indicated that Saudi students experience an overall moderate level of speaking anxiety with an average mean of (3.31). The results showed that speaking anxiety of Saudi EFL students is mainly due to test anxiety reasons followed by communication apprehension and fear of evaluation reasons. These anxiety sources were not in the same order when analysing the differences according to gender. On the one hand, Saudi male students consider negative evaluation as the highest anxiety causing and communication apprehension to be the least. Female students, on the other hand, believe that test anxiety is the most anxiety causing factor and negative evaluations as the least. The results also revealed that second-year students experienced the highest level of anxiety whereas first-year students had the least. However, these differences were not significant. The study also provided implications and future research suggestions based on the results.

To measure the amount, type of anxiety, and gender differences in foreign language classes through online and face-to-face studies, 80 Omani EFL learners were randomly selected to participate in the current research. The adapted version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) questionnaire was distributed among the face-to-face participants, and Foreign Language Virtual Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLVCAS) among the online students. To ensure the practicality of the aforementioned questionnaires, the reliability of both tests was measured in depth. Whereas the students who participated in face-to-face classes stated some low degree of anxiety, the degree was insignificant compared to their online counterparts. In the case of gender, during the online classes, students did not show any difference based on the anxiety; however, through face-to-face learning, the female students experienced a low amount of anxiety.

Listening comprehension is a fundamental part of both L1 and L2 communication. One of the most problematic issues in research on listening comprehension is that the performance of the learners mostly includes mental procedures that are not directly noticeable. This study seeks to identify and describe the association of metacognitive listening strategy use of ESL students with different listening comprehension ability levels and comprehension problems based on the theory of the cognitive process of listening. The quantitative method was used in this research with the presentation of EDA (Explanatory Research Analysis). The listening section of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) was conducted to identify listening comprehension ability levels among 135 ESL students. Listening Comprehension Problem Questionnaire (LCPQ) and Metacognitive Listening Strategy Questionnaire (MLSQ) were distributed to the participants after completing the test to examine their perceived listening comprehension problems and metacognitive listening strategy use. Results showed ESL students’ listening comprehension ability level is in contrast with their perceived listening comprehension problems. Moreover, some associations have been revealed between the participants’ metacognitive listening strategy use and listening comprehension ability levels. However, the mixed results suggest a more dynamic methodology to be used for further investigation of strategy use.

This study investigated whether metacognitive instruction affected, first, Iranian EFL learners’ listening comprehension and, second, skilled vs. less-skilled listeners’ comprehension. Fifty nine upper-intermediate level learners were selected from two intact classes to participate in 16 sessions. The classes were randomly assigned to the experimental and the control groups. Participants in the experimental group were further divided into skilled and less-skilled listeners based on their listening pretest scores. The treatment in the experimental group centered on practicing integrated experiential listening activities while the control group practiced the product approach. All the participants took listening comprehension tests as a pretest, immediate posttest, and delayed posttest. Results showed significant differences between the experimental and the control groups at immediate and delayed posttests, and a significant progress in the experimental group’s performance over time. Comparing the skilled and less-skilled listeners’ performance showed a significant difference at the pretest. Track of changes indicated significant improvements in the less-skilled listeners over time, while the skilled listeners’ performance only improved significantly from pretest to immediate posttest. The findings expanded on the previous findings that metacognitive listening instruction is an invaluable approach to fostering listening comprehension. Additionally, it presented important implications to be considered in listening classrooms.

In order to investigate strategic language reliance during the management of communication problems, a three-month quasi-experimental study was undertaken in the instruction of 12 wide-ranging communication strategies. Observed interactions of 41 Japanese foreign language learners aimed to assess the relationship between communication strategies and their application during authentic interaction. The findings based on quantitative analysis of the interactions reveal increased use of interaction and reduction-based strategies improved learners’ communicative language ability as measured by a reduction in non-lexicalised pauses. Additionally, qualitative assessment indicates Japanese learners’ selection process in communication strategy reliance is influenced by sociocultural factors prevalent in Japan. Finally, pedagogical application of strategic language instruction is set out to provide EFL Japanese learners with more opportunity to develop productive vocabulary and communication strategy proficiency in order to raise their socio-pragmatic awareness of L2 interactional conventions.

Although a growing line of research has targeted the efficacy of multiple intelligence-based instructions on learners’ language learning and oral communication skills, studies exploring and incorporating the effects of multiple intelligence-based instructions on second language pragmatics development in general and politeness markers, in particular, are rare. The current study attempted to investigate the relative effect of multiple intelligence-based instructions on the politeness markers development. To this aim, thirty intermediate EFL learners studying New Interchange series in language institutes in Tabriz, Iran with the age range 13-17 were employed. McKenzie’s multiple intelligences questionnaires were conducted to pinpoint the participants’ dominant intelligences. Thus, the participants were assigned to two multiple-intelligence based experimental groups (A and B) and a control group. The results of two-way repeated-measures ANOVA (time × group) revealed that the participants in the experimental groups outperformed those in the control group in both comprehension/production posttests and delayed posttests, while there was not any significant difference between the experimental groups in the two testing occasions. Therefore, it can be concluded that adopting teaching methods and materials consistent with learners’ MIs would conspicuously enhance pragmatic competence.

This study examined the relative effectiveness of recasts, explicit correction, and metalinguistic prompts on developing English past progressive forms among second language (L2) learners, and whether the effectiveness of each feedback type was differently associated with L2 proficiency. A total of 197 Japanese learners of English as a foreign language were divided into recast, explicit correction, metalinguistic prompt, task-only, and test control groups. The first three groups performed tasks and received corrective feedback (CF). The task-only group performed the same tasks as the CF groups but did not receive CF. The test control group did not perform the tasks and solely took pretests and posttests. The results showed that explicit types of feedback (explicit correction and metalinguistic prompts) were more effective than implicit feedback (recasts). Further, simple regression analyses showed that L2 proficiency was significantly associated with gains in scores of the recast and metalinguistic prompt groups but not the explicit correction group. These results suggest that L2 proficiency differentially influences the effectiveness of different CF types.

This paper presents the uses of MAKE patterns in writing of Chinese English learners of different proficiency levels. MAKE patterns, such as “make decisions”, “make them have” or “make me happy”, are frequently used in EFL learners’ writing. Previous studies have examined MAKE patterns used by EFL learners, but it is still unclear what the differences are on the uses of MAKE patterns among learners at different proficiency levels. Thus, the present study investigated the different uses of MAKE patterns from a frequency perspective. The study compared MAKE patterns in writings of Chinese English learners at intermediate and upper intermediate levels. Corpus data were extracted from the Language teaching and Testing Center (LTTC) English Learner Corpus. Findings indicate that learners at the intermediate level use MAKE-VP/ADJ more frequently, while those at the upper intermediate level, use the causative function frequently and the support verb function of MAKE. The choice of verbs in the MAKE-VP structure reflects the learners’ lexical and grammatical control while writing. This study promotes the understanding of MAKE patterns used by different English proficiency level learners, which shed light on the developmental process of general-purpose verbs and other lexicons.

Although university English teachers’ professional growth hinges upon active research engagement, they could not individually follow a one-size-fits-all approach to turn into teacher researchers. In this study, through the lens of activity system, we explored how university English teachers could be empowered to mediate their research engagement by reliance on socially enhanced research tools, research community norms, and research scaffolding trends. Thirty Iranian university English teachers (twenty-seven PhD candidates and three PhD graduates) participated in this study. To collect the data, we used semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and online discussion forums. The findings demonstrated that Iranian university English teachers’ research engagement is mediated by research mindset, research interest, and research toolkit. Furthermore, research apprenticeship and academic promotion are the two research norms that university English teachers support. In the research engagement system, research networks and research teams promote the teachers’ collective research literacy. The results further showed that to socially mediate the university English teachers' research engagement, research educators are expected to systematically guide the teachers’ research practices, research materials developers need to curate and produce teacher-friendly research materials, and academic researchers should authorize the teachers to get socialized into teachers’ research communities.