Oral Communication Skills and Literacy Gains Through AI Conversational Practice Across Proficiency Levels

This study determined the English Language Proficiency and School Performance in English as well the school performance as a whole. The respondents of the study were both English teachers and grade 10 students in the national high schools in the fifth district of Iloilo, using the descriptive comparative approach. Findings of which served as basis for the enhancement of the existing English manual used in English 101 for the improvement of English language proficiency of the students enrolled in the said subject. Generally, seventy percent of the student and teacher respondents were female. Teachers’ Level of English language proficiency has a significant effect on the level of proficiency of students which has a direct relationship on the school performance. It was also found out that teachers’ performance has no significant relationship with the students’ performance in English and school performance as a whole. Further, student–respondents performance has a significant relationship with their level of English language proficiency which has a direct effect on the school performance as a whole. The English teachers’ performance is related to their English proficiency level, but not associated with the students’ performance in English and school performance. However, the English teachers’ level of English language proficiency significantly affects the students’ level of English proficiency, while the students’ performance has a significant effect on their level of English language proficiency, affecting the school performance as a whole. Enhancement of the English language manual that will be used in English 101 (Study and Thinking Skills) must be adopted. Training & Development Program Design for the Enhancement of English Teachers language Proficiency must be implemented.

The objectives of this study were: (1) to examine the effects of the task types of the WBST-EFT and English proficiency levels on English for Tourism speaking performances in terms of language and content knowledge, and fluency; (2) to study the students’ attitudes towards the WBST-EFT; and (3) to investigate and compare the types and frequency of strategies used by high and low proficiency students in doing the WBST-EFT. A total of 120 third year students who took English for Tourism II course at Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University participated in this study. Stratified sampling was employed to classify the subjects into high and low proficiency groups. The research instruments were a needs analysis questionnaire, a web-based speaking test in English for Tourism (WBST-EFT), the attitudes towards the WBST-EFT online questionnaire, and a speaking test taking strategies coding scheme. Two-way ANOVA was conducted to investigate both the main and interaction effects between the proficiency levels and the task types on the test performances. Additionally, independent samples t-test was employed to compare the attitudes towards the WBST-EFT between the two proficiency groups. Descriptive statistics, frequency and percentage were employed to describe and compare the language for specific purposes (LSP) speaking components, students’ views and their test taking strategies. Content analyses on speech performances and test taking strategies’ verbal reports were carried out to obtain the in-depth information. The findings were as follows. First, proficiency levels had a significant main effect on the LSP speaking performances. Additionally, there was a significant task types effect on vocabulary, language functions and content knowledge. More specifically, task types had greater impact on the low proficiency group than on the high proficiency group, particularly in the content knowledge component. Content analysis revealed prominent features of some speaking components associated with the task types. Second, the two proficiency groups’ views towards the WBST-EFT were positive and not significantly different. Finally, the high proficiency students reported higher frequency and more types of strategies used than the low proficiency group across the three different task types in the online LSP test. However, the difference in types of strategies was not obvious. The results of the current study can be applied to other LSP technology-integrated tests.

Views: 28 ABSTRACT This study employed the think-aloud protocol as a qualitative research method to capture university students’ real-time cognitive processes while reading English texts. The purpose was to investigate the strategies and behaviors associated with ambiguity tolerance in English reading. Twenty university students participated in the study, divided into high, moderate, and low proficiency groups based on their TEM-4 scores. During the reading tasks, participants were asked to verbalize their thought processes, which were then analyzed qualitatively to examine how they comprehended and managed ambiguous information. Findings revealed distinct patterns across proficiency groups. The high proficiency group (H Group) demonstrated the most frequent and effective tolerance of ambiguity, employing adaptive strategies such as contextual guessing, effortless interpretation shifting, and strategic monitoring. The moderate proficiency group (M Group) showed intermediate performance, while the low proficiency group (L Group) encountered significant challenges, including lexical ambiguity, syntactic complexity, and contextual uncertainty, often leading to effortful thinking, repeated checking, and focus shifts that hindered comprehension. Based on these results, the study constructed a heat path maps model to visually illustrate how the three proficiency groups engaged with ambiguity across different stages of the reading process (Intake, Ambiguity Tolerance Proper, and Accommodation). The model highlights that ambiguity tolerance is both a linguistic and cognitive process, shaped by learners’ proficiency levels and adaptive capabilities. Pedagogically, the study underscores the need to design reading tasks that are sensitive to learners’ proficiency levels in order to foster cognitive engagement. Furthermore, it suggests that educators should cultivate cognitive flexibility and emotional resilience through strategies such as contextual guessing, reflective reading, and metacognitive awareness. Strengthening these skills can enhance learners’ ability to manage ambiguity, thereby improving reading comprehension and overall language learning outcomes.

The purpose of the study aims to examine the roles of vocabulary and syntactical knowledge on L2 reading comprehension when learners' English proficiency levels were concerned. More specifically, the study investigates to what extent vocabulary and syntactic knowledge contributes to L2 reading comprehension regardless of learners' proficiency levels and whether lexical and syntactic knowledge makes differential contributions to L2 reading comprehension depending on learners' proficiency levels. To this end, 337(male: 153, female: 183) students attending two universities in Korea participated in this study. The participants took the tests in the same order: (1) a vocabulary levels test; (2) a vocabulary test; (3) a grammar test 1; (4) a grammar test 2; (5) a reading comprehension test; and (6) a recall task. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted with SPSS 18.0 to mainly examine the research questions that set up. The results demonstrate that syntactic knowledge plays a stronger role than lexical knowledge regardless of the reading tasks. In addition, the study found that lexical and grammatical knowledge makes differential contributions in accordance with the participants’ proficiency levels. That is, grammatical knowledge, particularly grammar test 1, was shown to be a stronger predictor for high and intermediate proficient groups in performing both reading tasks. On the contrary, lexical knowledge was a stronger predictor for low proficient level students in both reading tasks. Implications are also discussed.

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a research study which examined the degree to which the levels of English proficiency (high vs. low) and education (graduate vs. undergraduate) of students for whom English is a second language (ESL) were associated with differences in their reading behavior patterns. Subjects completed a survey which elicited information about several aspects of their reading behavior patterns including the type of materials read, the amount of time devoted to each type of reading, perceptions of their own reading ability, weaknesses, and needed improvements in reading. The results revealed that many of the mean scores obtained differed significantly, a fact indicating that the subjects’ levels of education and English proficiency were indeed associated with their reading behavior patterns. The paper concludes with a discussion of the instructional implications of the findings.

The present study aims to identify the relationship of the Level of English Language Proficiency along Stress/Intonation, Verbal Abilities, Correct Usage, Reading Comprehension, Spelling and Punctuation, Identifying Error and Logical Organization and their Academic Performance of the 251 college students. Moreover, it aims to determine if their is a significant difference of the respondents’ Level of English Proficiency when they are grouped according to their profile: course, age, sex and dialect spoken. The result reveals that in terms of profile course, there is no significant difference in stress and logical organization. However, in Verbal Abilities, Reading Comprehension, Correct Usage, Identifying Errors and Spelling and Punctuation, there is a significant difference. As to profile age,there is no significant difference in Stress/Intonation, Verbal Abilities, Correct Usage, Spelling and Punctuation, Logical Organization. But in Reading Comprehension and Identifying Errors, there is a significant difference. Respondents aging 18 are better than the rest in Reading comprehension and Identifying Errors. Along profile sex, there is significant difference. Female are better than male in Reading Comprehension, Correct Usage and Identifying Errors. In terms of profile Dialect Spoken, there is no significant difference in English Proficiency Level of the respondents. As to the Academic Performance of the respondents, they are within the average level with 176 or 70.1%. The result reveals that there is significant relationship between the respondents’ Level of English Proficiency and their Level of Academic Performance.

The purposes of this research were to 1) compare the effects of self-correction, paper-pencil peer feedback, and online peer feedback on the students’ writing achievement; 2) compare the effects of the students’ levels of general English proficiency (high, moderate and low) on writing achievement; 3) investigate the interaction effect between the types of feedback and levels of general English proficiency on the students’ writing achievement; and 4) survey the students’ attitudes toward the use of feedback activity they experienced in terms of its efficiency, affective and cognitive aspects, and Thai cultural dimensions. The study was conducted with 72 engineering students having different levels of general English proficiency. They were randomly selected and assigned into three groups. Two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), descriptive statistics, and content analysis were used to analyze the data. The questionnaire and interview were used to gain more in-depth data. The results revealed that the different types of feedback and levels of English proficiency had a significantly different effect on the students’ writing achievement, and the interaction effect was also found.

<p>This study investigates the effect of using digital flashcards on L2 vocabulary learning compared to using paper flashcards, at different levels of English proficiency. Although flashcards are generally believed to be one of the most efficient vocabulary study techniques available, little empirical data is available in terms of the comparative effectiveness of digital flashcards, and at different levels of student English proficiency. This study used a mixed-methods experimental design. The between-subjects factor was English Proficiency consisting of three groups: basic, intermediate and advanced. All participants underwent both a digital flashcards treatment and paper flashcards treatment using words from the Academic Words List. For each study mode, the two dependent variables were Immediate, and Delayed Relative Vocabulary Gain. The results of this study indicated that Japanese university students of lower levels of English proficiency have significantly higher vocabulary learning gains when using digital flashcards than when using paper flashcards. Students at higher levels of proficiency performed equally well using both study modes. It appears that by compensating for the gap in metacognitive awareness and effective learning strategies between students of lower and higher levels of language proficiency, digital flashcards may provide the additional support lower-level learners need to match their advanced-level peers in terms of their rate of deliberate vocabulary acquisition.</p>

The objectives of this study were 1) to compare the effects of paper-pencil peer feedback, e-mail peer feedback and web board peer feedback on the students’ writing achievement and to investigate their effect size; 2) to compare the effects of the levels of general English proficiency (high, moderate and low) on students’ writing achievement and to investigate their effect size; 3) to investigate the interaction effect between the types of peer feedback and levels of general English proficiency on students’ writing achievement and to investigate their effect size; 4) to survey the students’ attitudes toward the peer feedback they experience. The study was conducted with 90 engineering students with different levels of general English proficiency in a 3x3 factorial design. Stratified random sampling technique was used in this study for subject selection. In order to ensure the quality of peer feedback, they were trained for 6 hours on how to give useful feedback. The writing achievement test and close-ended questionnaire were used for the quantitative data collection. Two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and descriptive statistics were used to analyze and to explain the data. The qualitative data were gathered from open-ended questionnaire, learning log, and interview. The data in this part were transcribed, categorized, analyzed, and then presented in terms of tables and graphs. The findings were as follows: 1) the different types of peer feedback had a significantly different effect on the students’ writing achievement. It was found that the students in the web board group performed differently from the students in paper-pencil peer feedback group while the differences were not found between other pairs. The magnitude of the effect size was medium. 2) The levels of general English proficiency factor had a significant effect on the students’ writing achievement. Students in different ability groups all performed differently. The magnitude of the effect size for this factor was large. 3) There was no interaction effect between types of peer feedback and levels of general English proficiency on the students’ writing achievement. High proficiency students in the three groups performed better than the moderate proficiency students who performed better than the low proficiency ones regardless of the types of peer feedback they received. 4) The attitudes towards peer feedback of the three experimental groups were more or less the same that they had highly positive attitudes in most aspects explored.

This article aims at examining the impact of implicit instruction upon the use of English discourse markers (further – DMs) in written tasks at the advanced beginners’ level of proficiency in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The theoretical premises of the present research are based upon the role of implicit instruction associated with pragmatic competence, conceptualised as a fundamental dimension of language ability (Laughlin et al., 2015). The research further described in the article involves a quantitative computer-assisted metho­do­logy of computing the frequency of DMs in the written tasks by a group of EFL learners at the advanced beginners’ level of EFL proficiency (further referred to as participants). The frequency of DMs calculated by the computer program WordSmith (Scott, 2012) revealed that implicit instruction in EFL settings had no positive effects on the participants’ use of English DMs in the written tasks. These findings are further discussed in the article.

The Influence of Semantic Cues in Learning Among Bilinguals at Different Levels of Proficiency in English

This study investigated the effects of two types of bilingual programs (two-way and transitional) on the academic performance and attitudes of fifth-grade students who entered kindergarten or first grade with different levels of English proficiency. A mixed methods design with both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses phases was employed. Quantitative data analyses indicated no significant differences in standardized measures of English achievement, although significant differences were found in other measures, including measures of oral language acquisition in English, Spanish-reading ability, students' attitudes, and perceived levels of proficiency in English and Spanish. Qualitative data analysis indicated that the students in two-way bilingual education programs were more likely to express positive attitudes towards bilingualism. Based on the mixed data, it is concluded that despite some similarity in the effects, each of the bilingual programs also has unique effects. Policy decisions should be made on the basis of relative importance, value, and the costs of these unique advantages and disadvantages.

Among the language capacities that L2 learners of English develop as they increase their proficiency is the ability to use appropriate collocations in the relevant registers of language use. Assessment of this capacity may therefore provide an efficient means of distinguishing among examinees with various levels of language proficiency within a particular register, although research has not yet attempted to operationalize such a measure. The purpose of this research is to explore the use of a measure of developmental, registerspecific collocational knowledge as a means of making relevant distinctions among examinees in a minimal amount of time. Ultimately, such a test could be used in conjunction with other information for norm-referenced decisions such as placement, with a convincing argument for such uses. The first step, however, is to develop the interpretive argument and validity argument for score meaning of such a measure. This validation study followed a mixed-methods embedded and sequential explanatory design consisting of quantitative and qualitative data collection (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007). Quantitative data were collected from performance on the test of collocational ability, a productive vocabulary size test, and a reading test by 206 Chinesespeaking learners of English at three levels of English proficiency. Qualitative data were collected for a sample of the participants during and after the quantitative data collection and analyzed in order to identify evidence to explain initial quantitative results from the collocational ability test including test-taking processes. Qualitative data included screen capturing during test administration (n = 10), post-test interviews (n = 6) and a test reflection survey (n = 206). The test development, piloting, data collection, and analysis provide backing for the assumptions underlying inferences in the interpretive argument.

The objectives of this study were: 1 to explore the extent to which the university students employed English grammar learning strategies (GLS) in online learning; 2. to examine the differences between the use of GLS among the students with different English proficiency levels; and 3. to investigate factors which have an impact on the application of GLS. Data was collected from a class of thirty First-Year English major students enrolling in the course called Grammar 2, using the GLS and focus-group interviews. They were classified into three groups with different grammar proficiency levels, measured by their grade obtained in a grammar course last semester, namely higher-level learners (A, B+), intermediate-level learners (B, C+), and basic-level learners (C, D+, and D). The quantitative data was statistically analyzed by frequency, percentage, means, standard deviation, and ANOVA. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data from focus-group interviews. The findings showed that the students used GLS in general at a high level. The social strategies were used the most while metacognitive strategies were found to be used the least. Moreover, the comparison of GLS use among the three groups revealed no significant differences in their strategy use. Therefore, learners’ grammar proficiency did not have a direct effect on GLS use among the students in this study. Instead, focus-group interviews further revealed a range of factors mediating GLS use namely motivation, learning styles, learning situations, and teachers.

Logical connectives as catalysts for interactive L2 reading