Perceptions and Effectiveness of AI-Assisted Written Corrective Feedback: A Case Study of Chinese EFL University Students

College English course in Chinese domestic universities focused on Comprehensive English and could not bring a satisfactory result in a long time. Students in theses universities often underperformed in English and they were left far behind by the students in Sino-foreign cooperative universities (SFCU). Through questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations on 256 students and 30 teachers in five Chinese public universities and four Sino-foreign cooperative universities, a huge gap in teaching objectives and modes, teaching staff, medium of instruction, the number of courses taught in English and class size, students’ English learning motivation and teaching effect between the two types of College English courses was found. The time to study and use English for non-English majors in SFCU in the four-year university study can reach 12,000 to 15,000 hours, which is 10-20 times longer than that of the students in Chinese domestic universities. In addition, 90% of students in SFCU can get Band 6.5 in IELTS, but less than 50% of students in Chinese domestic universities can get Band 5.0 in IELTS and 30%-60% of them will regress in English ability when they graduate. This study finds out that SFCU focus on academic English in College English lessons and their teaching modes and language environment can enhance students’ improvement in English, which shows the significance of reference for the reform of College English and the development of students’ English competence in China and other non-English-speaking countries.

This study examined Chinese college students’ perceptions of the college English course. The participants were freshmen and sophomores in a Chinese university. We handed out the original English version questionnaires to 419 students. The results indicated that there were learning problems in students’ motivation with respect to empowerment, interest, and success. There were also gender and class standing differences among the participants. Data from exploratory factor analysis (EFA) illustrated that the factors of usefulness, empowerment and interest received the most attention from the participants (n=367). The results indicated that it was necessary to implement the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach in the college English course. Suggestions on how to change the classroom environment were also discussed.

Seeking professional help for suicidal ideation: A comparison between Chinese and Australian university students

In China, under the influence of examination-driven culture and teacher-centered ways of learning, students' self-regulated learning (SRL) capabilities, self-efficacy, and actual English proficiency are greatly hindered. Given this situation, the Chinese Ministry of Education has promulgated the use of formative assessment in the College English curriculum at the tertiary level since 2004. Feedback, as an integrated part of formative assessment, takes up the largest proportion of the Chinese College English classroom assessment and intends to facilitate SRL and learning. However, whether feedback could facilitate students' SRL and learning has not been fully investigated in this context in China. Therefore, this study first explored how students self-reported their conceptions of feedback, SRL, and self-efficacy, and second, the relationships among these constructs and their English language achievement in the College English course. A questionnaire was used to collect data on students' conceptions of feedback, SRL, self-efficacy, and self-perceived English language proficiency. Their English test scores as an indicator of English language achievement were also collected. A total of 538 participants from a university in Northern China participated in this study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analyses, Pearson correlation analyses, and multiple regression analyses. The results found that Chinese students from the College English course reported a high level of conceptions of teacher and peer feedback, SRL, and self-efficacy, yet a low level of Teacher/Peer Feedback Ignored. For the relationships among these variables, students' conceptions of feedback contributed to SRL and self-efficacy. Besides, self-efficacy was found to be the strongest predictor for self-perceived English language proficiency and standardized English test scores, both indicators for English language achievement. From the theoretical perspective, this study addressed the research gap in the literature by examining four constructs together, that is, students' conceptions of feedback, SRL, self-efficacy, and English language achievement within a university context in China. From the pedagogical angle, the results can also support teachers in their feedback practices to facilitate students' SRL, self-efficacy, and learning.

Background: The body, physique and physical fitness of the university students of two countries would be different because their living environments are different. Therefore, this was arranged to assess the body shape, body function, and physical fitness of Chinese and Pakistani university students who study in China.Methods: Data was collected from (n = 30) Pakistani and (n = 30) Chinese students. The selected variables wereanthropometric measures, physical fitness, and physiological tests. Independent t-test and Pearson of correlation were applied for the statistical analysis.Results: results depict the Pakistani students were significantly superior to Chinese students in BMI (P < 0.00, shoulder length (P < 0.04), step test (P < 0.03), standing long jump (P < 0.00) and significantly inferior in sitting height (P >0.05), heart rate (P < 0.00), percentage of fat (P < 0.00), sit and reach (P < 0.00). There was significant correlation with waist circumference (P < 0.03), waist hip ratio (WHR) (P < 0.00), and negatively correlated to weight (P < 0.01), systolic blood pressure with diastolic blood pressure (P < 0.00). Bone mineral density was negatively correlated with heart rate(P < 0.03), and body fat (P < 0.01).Conclusion: the higher body size of Pakistani students is genetically affected, and the lesser in body composition and physical fitness is affected by their lack of physical activities. The study provides a layout of a chart to profile the physical status of Pakistani and Chinese university students.

With the expansion of information and communication technology, many online technologies have been introduced into education, which changes the learning environment. 99% educational institutions support the use of at least one learning management system (LMS). The most used LSM in China is the Superstar Learning Platform (SLP). The study here are mainly answer three research questions 1) What are Chinese university students’ current critical thinking skills? 2) Can SLP promote students’ critical thinking skills? 3) What are students’ attitudes to SLP? The results are as follows: Chinese university students have a medium level of critical thinking skills. After one term of College English Course (CEC) via SLP, students have improved their critical thinking skills from medium to good level, and students have a positive attitude towards SLP in CEC.

Chinese and Japanese university students make an exchanging of opinions regarding the topic "making a mobile phone call in the bus". Both sides of the communication can achieve different changes of cognition through different ways. This paper focuses on Chinese university students, and analyzes their cognition of the traffic etiquette in Japan and China. Unlike Japanese university students' change of cognition, Chinese university students have made more negative evaluation on Japanese traffic etiquette after the communication. However, this does not mean to shield their traffic etiquette. They have the two-way changes of cognition in both social etiquette and personal behavior. These changes may be related to the unbalanced dialogue relationship, as well as the generation of hot issues. How to generate the hot issues, and promote the two-way movement of understanding are the important clues for the design of communication curriculum to enhance the cultural understanding.

Unlike success in first language acquisition, success in learning a second or foreign language is considerably more variable. Recently, second language acquisition researchers have called for more integrative research on individual difference factors. With this goal in mind, this study followed a larger, quantitative study of the links between self‐directedness for language learning and English language learning attainment among university students on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong. Drawing on the findings of that study (Gan, 2003), this 1‐semester study looked closely at 2 small groups of tertiary‐level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in China in order to document how they carried out their out‐of‐class (self‐directed) English learning, as well as to elaborate issues that may be critical to understanding the variability that had already been observed in their English learning outcomes.The data were gathered through interviews, diaries, and follow‐up email correspondence with 9 successful and 9 unsuccessful second‐year EFL students at 2 Chinese mainland universities. Using grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1994, 1998), 6 categories of qualitative data were constructed: conceptualizing English language learning; perceptions of the College English Course; learning and practising strategies; self‐management; internal drive; and English proficiency tests. The study findings suggest that different levels of success may be explained by a complex and dynamic interplay of internal cognition and emotion, external incentives, and social context. The findings imply the need to take a holistic view of variation in language learning outcomes and to broaden the scope of the current practice in learner strategy training.

Over the past few decades, there has been an increased interest in the formulaic aspects of languages, including English. There has also been work conducted into the learning and teaching of formulaic language and its use by non-native speakers. Despite the increase in English language teaching in China, there has, however, so far not been any combined research into the learning, use and teaching of formulaic language in the Chinese EFL context. This study addresses this gap by investigating the written texts of Chinese university students and the learning, use and teaching of formulaic language in this research context. As background to this study, an overview of existing research on formulaic language is firstly introduced, and then the rationale for this study, investigating formulaic language through student written texts, is established by positioning the role of written language in second language research and the relation between formulaic language and genre analysis studies. After these, specific background information on the EFL context in China is presented by supporting the claim that the EFL students in the study are seen as language learners as well as writers and users of English. The research questions that this study sets out to answer are the following: (1) To what extent do Chinese university students use formulaic language in their written English? a) What are the main structures of formulaic language used by these learners? b) What are the main discourse functions of formulaic language used by these learners? c) What is the relationship between the distribution of structural and functional categories of formulaic language in the learners’ written texts? d) How is the formulaic language used differently in the written texts of Year1 and Year 3 university students? (2) What do Chinese university students perceive formulaic language to be? a) To what extent is this perception different in Year 1 and Year 3 students? (3) How do Chinese university students perceive the learning, use and teaching of formulaic language? The results of this research will present formulaic language use in student written texts, and link this use to students’ self-reported processes, strategies and sources of formulaic language learning and use. Nevertheless, student reflections on the teaching of formulaic language in the research context will be introduced in order to address the research questions thoroughly. A mixed methods research design is employed in this study. The fieldwork took place during one semester (16 weeks) at a Chinese university. The participants were 83 students from the Year 1 and 73 students from Year 3 groups in the foreign language department. The main sources of data were firstly, students’ written texts and secondly, in-depth interviews with 12 informant writers. The findings of the research present a well-rounded description of formulaic language use in Chinese university students’ English written texts, by analysing and comparing the distribution of structural and discourse functional categories in the formulaic strings identified by the student perceptions and through corpus linguistic methods. Also, triangulation of the textual data collected from the written texts and perceptual data gathered from interviews shows some discrepancies regarding the perception of formulaic language in English among students and in researchers in the field. This thesis ends with a discussion of the implications and limitation of the present study, and directions for future research on formulaic language in the EFL context.

Chinese university students’ use of social media is becoming increasingly diverse, and students from private universities in China have different group characteristics than those from public universities. This research endeavoured to establish a comprehensive user profile of Chinese private university students by examining their social media usage patterns. The purpose was to gain profound insights into the distinctive attributes of students in China’s private universities within the context of the current era characterised by extensive data availability. This study employed a questionnaire-based research approach to acquire a dataset consisting of 673 instances of social media usage among students enrolled in private universities in China. Subsequently, exploratory factor analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, extracting five (5) categorical feature tags. Combined with the extracted feature tags and the usage status and perception dimension data, the K-means cluster analysis method was used to perform rapid clustering to derive four (4) differentiated groups comprising information exchange-oriented users, instrument-oriented users, dependent-oriented users and entertainment-oriented users. Furthermore, thorough analysis and description of the essential attributes for these 4 user profile categories have been conducted by incorporating the fundamental user information.

This study explores the practical pathways for integrating ideological and political education into college English courses through the Reading Circle teaching model. The current status of ideological and political education practices in college English course is analyzed through empirical data, and the existing challenges in their integration are also identified. Based on students’ feedback and classroom observation, the reform of ideological and political education in college English courses has been implemented. Specifically, under the Reading Circle Model, student-centered group learning is adopted to subtly integrate ideological and political elements into college English reading courses, thereby fully leveraging the educational role of college English courses.

The current study replicated Wang and Singer’s ([2021]. A cross-cultural study of self-defining memories in Chinese and American college students. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.622527) finding that Chinese college students from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) recalled more self-defining memories (SDMs) focused on high school academic stress than their American counterparts. Seventy-eight American students from a private 4-year liberal arts college and 96 Chinese students from 13 different Chinese universities recalled two SDMs and rated them for affect, recall frequency, and importance. Once again, Chinese college students were more likely than American students to recall academic stress SDMs, but also expressed more redemptive themes in these memories. Overall, Chinese students rated their SDMs as more positive than the Americans, while the American sample tended to recall their negative memories more frequently. Contrasting the SDMs, American students self-reported higher levels of stress about their high school workload and less academic self-confidence. Regressions linked more negative affect in American SDMs to these work load and self-confidence concerns. Chinese students’ SDM negative affect was most strongly predicted by perceived academic stress linked to parental and teachers’ expectations. The discussion highlights the potential influence of Confucian values in the Chinese students’ responses to past academic stress and their internalisation of academic stress memories in their narrative identity.

This study explored the impact of the Dalton Plan-based instruction on learner autonomy in reading performance among learners in College English course in China. A quasi-experimental design was employed to reach the goal. The experiment was undertaken in one university characterized by students from multi-ethnic background. One second year College English (CE) course class with 16 students makes the experimental class, the other same level CE course class with 15 students composes the control class. The experimental class received the Dalton Plan-based instruction and the control class received conventional classroom instruction. All the participants are medical majors. The data were collected by utilising Autonomous Learning Scale (ALS)，students’ self-reports and semi-structured interview. The findings of this study revealed that Dalton Plan-based instruction was more effective in building learner autonomy compared to conventional instruction. Data from the analysis of the ALS indicated that the experimental group improved in study habits and independent learning. Additionally, findings from the students’ self-reports showed that the students in the experimental group experienced an increase in reading interest, a more regular reading habit, better emotional control, improvement in reading strategies and more adaptable to reading challenges. This research bears crucial pedagogical implications in that the Dalton Plan-based instruction may be considered as a good alternative to choose in the current College English (CE) course teaching and learning reform which highlights the importance of building student’s learner autonomy in their English learning.

This study explored the impact of the Dalton Plan-based instruction on learner autonomy in reading performance among learners in College English course in China. A quasi-experimental design was employed to reach the goal. The experiment was undertaken in one university characterized by students from multi-ethnic background. One second year College English (CE) course class with 16 students makes the experimental class, the other same level CE course class with 15 students composes the control class. The experimental class received the Dalton Plan-based instruction and the control class received conventional classroom instruction. All the participants are medical majors. The data were collected by utilising Autonomous Learning Scale (ALS)，students’ self-reports and semi-structured interview. The findings of this study revealed that Dalton Plan-based instruction was more effective in building learner autonomy compared to conventional instruction. Data from the analysis of the ALS indicated that the experimental group improved in study habits and independent learning. Additionally, findings from the students’ self-reports showed that the students in the experimental group experienced an increase in reading interest, a more regular reading habit, better emotional control, improvement in reading strategies and more adaptable to reading challenges. This research bears crucial pedagogical implications in that the Dalton Plan-based instruction may be considered as a good alternative to choose in the current College English (CE) course teaching and learning reform which highlights the importance of building student’s learner autonomy in their English learning.

High rates of health complaints (HCs) with substantial variation are reported in different university populations, which can be linked to socio-demographic, lifestyle-related factors, and cultural differences. HCs can be categorized into distinct components. This study aimed to identify and compare underlying dimensions of HCs (HC components); to access and compare HC prevalence, and the associations between HC components, socio-demographic, lifestyle-related factors, and perceived stress in German and Chinese university students. Two health surveys were conducted among 5159 university students (1853 Chinese, 3306 German). Factor analysis and logistic regression were applied. The prevalence of HC ranged from 4.6% to 40.2% over the two countries. Germans reported at least three HCs more often (47.2% vs. 35.8%). Chinese students more often reported gastrointestinal complaints. Perceived stress was positively associated with all three HC components in both countries (OR = 1.03–1.50) with stronger associations among Germans. Women more often reported HCs (OR = 1.32–2.43) with stronger associations among the Germans. Having a father with a low educational level was associated with high psychological symptoms among the Chinese (OR = 1.51), but with low gastrointestinal complaints among the Germans (OR = 0.79). The high prevalence of HCs in students requires country-specific interventions.