Pursuing fair writing assessment: Halo effects in primary school foreign language writing in grade six

Students are usually expected to write full texts in English as a foreign language (EFL) at the end of secondary education. However, research on EFL writing at school is scarce, especially regarding less proficient writers, and seldom focuses on deep-level text features such as structure and coherence. Based on a sample of 166 EFL students in Year 9 attending German middle and lower performance track schools, this study examined 326 narrative and argumentative texts. First, we assessed structure and coherence via analytic ratings using detailed rubrics to gain insights into possible challenges for students. Our analysis showed that relevant text parts (such as the conclusion) were mostly missing and that students struggled to establish a broad common thread with argumentative texts being overall less structured and coherent than narrative texts. Second, we used the software Comproved® to conduct holistic ratings of overall text quality and compared them with our analytic ratings. Large correlations between both ratings suggest that structure and coherence are important aspects of text quality. We discuss how our rubrics can serve as a useful tool for assessment for learning and assist less proficient writers in establishing deep-level features in their texts. • We developed analytic rating rubrics to assess text structure and coherence. • Secondary EFL students especially struggle with text structure besides coherence. • Students often omit conclusions and do not adhere to a main idea. • Structure and coherence relate to text quality according to holistic ratings. • Analytic rating rubrics may be used as a tool for assessment for learning in class.

This study investigates the relationship between pausing and revision behaviors, as captured by pause bursts (P-bursts) and revision bursts (R-bursts), and text quality in digital L2 writing contexts among young English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The study involved 22 elementary school students aged 10–11 years, with English proficiency levels ranging from A1 to A2 (CEFRL). Participants completed a picture description writing task, and their writing processes were recorded using keystroke logging software. The results revealed that frequent pauses (P-bursts) were negatively correlated with text quality, suggesting cognitive overload or difficulties in language processing. In contrast, revision bursts (R-bursts) exhibited a positive correlation with text quality, indicating that the revision process played a crucial role in refining and improving the written output. Regression analysis further demonstrated that R-bursts significantly predicted text quality, underscoring the importance of revision behavior among young L2 writers. These findings contribute to our understanding of the cognitive processes underlying L2 writing in digital contexts and highlight the central role of revisions in enhancing text quality among young EFL learners. Educational implications emphasize the need for instructional practices that encourage and support the revision process in writing instruction for this population.

This study investigates the effectiveness of AI tools as instructional supports for grammar in enhancing second language learners accuracy in using non-finite verb forms. The study sample comprised 60 sophomore English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, divided into an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group received instruction via AI tools, including ChatGPT, while the control group was taught through traditional methods. Instructional content encompassed 15 primary non-finite verbs, such as infinitives, gerunds, and participles, designed to help learners flexibly apply these forms in diverse contexts. Conducted over six weeks, the study allocated the initial two weeks to introducing the foundational concepts and forms of non-finite verbs, supplemented with introductory exercises via AI tools. During the following three weeks, learners examined advanced applications, reinforced through personalized exercises provided by the AI tools, supporting accurate usage in complex sentence structures. The final week focused on review and consolidation. Pre- and post-tests measured learners grammatical accuracy, revealing that the experimental group showed significantly greater improvement than the control group, suggesting a clear benefit of AI tools for grammatical precision and retention. These tools offer a tailored learning experience adaptable to learners specific needs, fostering increased learner confidence and autonomy. This study provides a potential instructional framework for educators and empirical support for AI integration in language teaching, contributing meaningful theoretical and practical insights.

Research on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing in Japan has often focused on university or academic-track learners, while the writing development of students in technical and vocational high schools remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by conducting a classroom-based profiling of the lexical sophistication, lexical diversity, and syntactic complexity of short paragraph writing produced by 50 Japanese senior high school students majoring in architecture and civil engineering. Using the web-based tool TextInspector, students’ paragraphs were profiled and compared through descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed broadly comparable lexico-syntactic profiles across the two majors: civil engineering students displayed slightly higher lexical diversity and sophistication, while architecture students produced marginally more complex sentence structures. However, these differences did not reach statistical significance, suggesting that, within short classroom-based writing tasks, shared instructional contexts may play a greater role than disciplinary specialization at this educational stage. Beyond its empirical findings, this study demonstrates the practical value of classroom-friendly corpus tools for diagnosing writing challenges and informing data-driven pedagogy in technical high school EFL settings.

Academic reading proficiency is a fundamental determinant of success in higher education, particularly for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. This study examined the challenges faced by English Education Study Program students at Pattimura University when reading academic articles. Employing a mixed-methods approach with a convergent parallel design, the research integrated quantitative survey data (n=39) with qualitative insights from focus group discussions (n=8) to examine reading difficulties, contributing factors, and strategic responses. Findings revealed a hierarchical pattern of challenges, with linguistic difficulties (M=3.31) representing the most significant barrier, followed by cognitive processing (M=2.99) and strategic processing challenges (M=2.93). Complex sentence structures (M=3.28) emerged as the dominant linguistic challenge, surpassing specialized terminology (M=3.18) and unfamiliar vocabulary (M=3.21). Reader factors (M=3.11), particularly motivational sustainability with longer texts (M=3.21), exerted slightly greater influence than contextual factors (M=2.91). Students employed diverse strategies to navigate these challenges, including pre-reading orientation, vocabulary support mechanisms, and emerging technology-assisted approaches, though collaborative reading remained underutilized. Identifying "strategic inertia"—students' reluctance to experiment with new approaches—represents a novel contribution to understanding reading strategy development in academic contexts. These findings suggest that practical approaches to developing academic reading skills must simultaneously address multiple dimensions, including linguistic features, cognitive processes, strategic approaches, and affective factors.

This study explores the strategies used by English as a foreign language (EFL) primary school teachers to promote engagement among young learners in the classroom and examines how these strategies manifest across the behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and social dimensions of learner engagement. Six EFL teachers from five primary schools in the South of Vietnam participated in this study. Data were collected through multiple qualitative methods, including classroom observations (two 35–40-minute full-length lesson videos per teacher), field notes, stimulated recall sessions, and semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was conducted to identify recurring patterns in teacher practices aimed at promoting engagement. This process involved systematic coding of the data using an inductive approach. Triangulation of multiple data sources revealed a wide range of strategies employed by teachers to enhance different aspects of engagement among young EFL learners, with a predominant focus on the behavioral and emotional dimensions and comparatively less attention to cognitive and social dimensions. These results provide insights into the practices of teachers in engaging young learners in primary school classrooms and highlight the need for a balanced use of strategies across all dimensions of engagement. The findings suggest that teacher training programs should emphasize the importance of addressing all dimensions of learner engagement, encouraging a more comprehensive approach to fostering engagement in the classroom.

IntroductionFeedback can support students’ writing and has the potential to enhance writing motivation and reduce writing anxiety. However, for feedback to fulfill its potential, it has to be accepted by students and perceived as motivating.MethodsIn this study, we investigate changes in less proficient English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ (N = 53) writing motivation and affect, as well as their perceptions of teacher feedback and how these relate to students’ argumentative text quality. Measurements were taken before EFL teachers attended a professional learning intervention on feedback (T1) and 8 months later (T2).ResultsFrom T1 to T2, students felt that general feedback quality improved, their writing self-efficacy increased, and their writing anxiety decreased. However, no significant changes in text quality could be observed between T1 and T2, and students continued to struggle with creating structure and coherence in their texts. Regression analyses revealed that feedback perceptions and affective-motivational variables did not predict students’ text quality at T1. Yet at T2, students’ perception of general feedback quality and the effect of feedback on writing motivation were significant predictors of text quality; self-efficacy and writing anxiety were not.DiscussionOur results suggest that more attention needs to be paid to feedback’s motivational impact, especially among less proficient EFL writers.

Teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) worldwide to young learners in primary schools has been challenging to implement due to numerous obstacles, including a shortage of qualified teachers, inadequate resources, and suitable methodologies. However, little research has been conducted into the difficulties of achieving ideal conditions for young learners in EFL in the Global South. The primary objective of this qualitative study was to examine the political aspects of Chile's integration of EFL in primary schools since 1998. Kaplan and Baldauf's language-in-education framework was utilized to examine the ecology of policies surrounding EFL in primary schools in Chile. A focused literature review was used to collect documents related to four separate political dimensions in Kaplan and Baldauf's framework. The corpora were then analyzed, and a thematic analysis was utilized to evaluate the data. The analysis reveals a fragmentation of the curriculum, textbooks, personnel and classroom practices regarding EFL in the primary classroom. Chile serves as an example of how even the most well-intentioned policies can be undermined without proper coordination. The findings suggest a deeper examination of the disarticulation to create more optimal learning and teaching conditions for EFL to succeed in primary schools.

This experimental study examined the influence of vocabulary and spelling on teachers’ perceptions of English as a second language (ESL) essays. Sixty-nine pre-service teachers from Switzerland and Germany rated four upper-intermediate ESL argumentative essays and provided written comments on strengths and weaknesses of the student compositions. In Study 1 (N = 34), the level of lexical sophistication and diversity of the four texts had been experimentally varied. Results suggest a successful manipulation, since comments responding to texts with a low quality of vocabulary included more negative feedback points regarding vocabulary. Yet, participants also commented more negatively on grammar when responding to texts with a low quality of vocabulary, indicating a halo effect. In Study 2 (N = 35), the quality of spelling was manipulated in the same four student essays. Results indicate that comments responding to texts with a low quality of spelling involved more negative feedback points regarding spelling (manipulation check) on the one hand, and vocabulary, grammar, and others (halo effects) on the other hand. In both studies, teachers’ perception of strengths and weaknesses correlated moderately with their holistic and analytic assessment of the texts. The implications of this study for classroom practice and teacher education are discussed.

The incorporation of project work and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the teaching of English as a foreign language can have many beneficial outcomes. Research has shown that it can enrich the teaching and learning process, increase student motivation, collaborative skills and foreign language performance. Educationalists argue that it provides opportunities for authentic use of the English, increases willingness to participate in the teaching and learning process, as well as enjoyment. In addition, it develops language skills and critical thinking skills. Bearing the above into consideration, in this article we present a case study of project-based learning for the teaching of English as a foreign language in a primary school. We present the project organization, the stages we followed in sequencing the project activities, the expected challenges and difficulties and the beneficial outcomes. We conclude that the incorporation of Information and Communication Technologies and collaborative project work should form an integral part of the teaching of English as a foreign language.

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has constituted a major part of the curriculum in private and public institutions in Saudi Arabia for over eight decades. More recently, the emergence of English as a global language has made it a socially desirable language in Saudi society, as elsewhere in the world. However, despite the long history of English teaching in Saudi Arabia and the growth of the profession over the years, the overall English proficiency level of the majority of students is low and unsatisfactory. Saudi researchers have reported many reasons for the ineffectiveness of English Language Teaching (ELT) including, but not limited to, low levels of student motivation, negative attitudes toward English, a substandard English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, and inefficient teacher pedagogical practices. These problems fall into two major categories: problems related to the lwhyr of teaching and learning of EFL, and problems related to the lhowr of teaching and learning EFL. In investigating these issues, much of this research has been carried out within individual/psychological/structuralist/positivist frameworks, which has failed not only to problematize the complexity of such constructs but also to appreciate the fact that all realities are produced/(re)produced via ldiscourser. Hence, the present study investigated EFL teaching and learning practices by employing Foucauldian and poststructuralist frameworks. This study used poststructuralism not only as a theoretical lens per se, but also established it through the implemented analytical tools and textual representations of the collected data. Employing a poststructuralist discursive perspective made it possible to view EFL teaching and learning as complex social practices, interacting with the discourses of English and ELT practices available in the global as well as the local context(s). These discourses create the nexus between power and knowledge and impact on what an EFL teacher/ learner does within a classroom setting by constructing perspectives of reality through which he or she comes to understand the EFL teaching and learning process in certain ways which constitute epistemological spaces and generate particular practices. Drawing on policy documents, EFL textbooks, classroom observations, interviews with two Saudi EFL teachers, and focus group discussions with Saudi EFL students in two rural areas, the study identified seven discourses circulating within and competing across the examined discursive spaces. The first three discourses are related to English and its values, including: English as a universal language; English as the language for better employment opportunities; and English as the language for spreading religion. The remaining four discourses centred around ELT with exams as an important aspect of EFL learning and ELT; CLT as the key to success in ELT; L1 as a barrier to successful EFL learning; and EFL textbooks as an essential aspect of the processes of EFL learning and ELT. In exploring the production and (re)production of these discourses through the examination of how visibilization, normalisation, exclusionary/inclusionary acts, classification, and subject positioning as discursive strategies are employed, it was found that whether a particular discourse was made visible or invisible depended on other discourses operating across the examined discursive spaces: the social context, the policy, the textbook, the classroom, and the teachers and students. The analysis of the connection(s) and misconnection(s) between these discursive spaces demonstrated that the interplay between the different discourses constructed discursive battlegrounds, which impacted the processes of EFL teaching and learning. Through the investigation of this interplay, it was found that there was a disconnect and an ambivalent relationship between the study participantsr espoused discourses of English and their EFL teaching and learning practices, suggesting that EFL teachers and learners should not be considered lstabler figures, but rather as social agents with discursively constructed ever changing subjectivities. Furthermore, the analyses of the constructions of the discourses operating within the examined policy texts demonstrate an intra disparity and fragmentation. This was manifested in the difference between the ideals of the EFL curriculum and the institutionally imposed regulating techniques, that is, examinations and teachersr assessment practices which had negative effects on EFL teaching and learning dynamics. Additionally, as a consequence of the competition between the different sources of discursive constructions, I found that there was a gulf between the EFL policies and the enactment of these policies in EFL teaching and learning dynamics in the observed EFL classrooms. The findings of this study also indicate that if a discourse promoted through the policy is mediated by discourses operating in the larger societal context, it became more visible in teaching and learning practices as compared to other discourses that did not have social moorings. This suggests that taking the prevailing social expectations into account at the stage of developing any policy is of paramount importance.nThe study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the interplay of connections and misconnections between competing discourses across different spaces in Saudi educational settings for improving the EFL teaching/learning environments in Saudi Arabia and other similar contexts.n

This article presents a research project that explored the perspectives of preservice and in-service primary English language teachers on the use of technology-enhanced tasks to support young learners’ development of oral communicative competence in the diverse primary English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. The classroom-based research involved the implementation of technology-enhanced tasks in three different projects in three different primary schools. The projects aimed to support young learners in developing their speaking competence in the target language. Data were collected through classroom observation, teacher training, videography of lessons, and participant interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The results suggest that participants perceive technologyenhanced tasks not only as well suited to supporting children’s development of oral communicative competence, but also as implicitly promoting children’s digital and media literacy. These findings may point to a new avenue of research into teachers’ perspectives on the use of digital technologies in primary EFL classrooms. The article highlights that the use of technology-enhanced speaking tasks can be a subtle way of promoting digital and media literacy in young EFL learners.

The present study investigates common word reading dilemmas across 3 word types among children learning English as a foreign language (EFL). It also examines the effectiveness of a new word reading strategy, perceptual diacritics, for facilitating EFL children’s word reading dilemmas through an experimental design in which the experimental group received training in word reading facilitated by perceptual diacritics. We recruited 46 5th graders who spoke Chinese as their primary language from an urban district primary school. Results indicated that word type strongly influenced the word reading performance of the EFL children. After the intervention, the experimental group improved equivalently across the 3 word types, whereas the control group still struggled with the 2 higher level word types. The findings imply that EFL children have common difficulties with phonological recoding of words with less predictable orthographic patterns. With the help of the new strategy, EFL children may better decode these inconsistent patterns phonologically.

Recent interdisciplinary studies have revealed that hope plays a key role in academic achievement and job performance. Due to the paucity of research on the interface of hope and second or foreign (L2) language teaching, for the first time, this paper sets out to develop a categorical conceptualization of hope for teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). While an exploratory mixed-methods research was designed, using observation and in-depth interviews, grounded-based qualitative data were obtained from experienced Iranian EFL teachers until the theoretical saturation of data was achieved. Thirty-eight items linked to seven main categories were identified. To judge the validation of the qualitative findings, a 38-item questionnaire of hope for EFL teaching was designed and then piloted. Next, to test the generalizability of the piloting-phase findings, the modified 35-item questionnaire of hope for EFL teaching was administered to a convenience sample of 228 EFL teachers from three Iranian provinces of Tehran, Chaharmahal Bakhtiari, and Isfahan. Statistical analyses of the testing data confirmed that 35 items are attached to seven broad underlying components of hope for EFL teaching. Therefore, the main factors, including interpersonal relationship, social purpose, goal-setting, emotion, certainty, source, and anticipated effort were confirmed. Further, the explanatory power of all the items involved in developing hope for EFL teaching was tested and estimated. The findings can shed more light on developing educational interventionist programs which can lead EFL teachers into higher levels of hope for EFL teaching.

This study tested relationships between foreign language (FL) reading and listening anxiety and learner variables in English as a foreign language (EFL). It tested links between foreign language anxiety (FLA) and its cognitive, affective and behavioral correlates in English (i.e. language learning strategies, learning motivation, and performance). Three-hundred-and-six Chinese undergraduates learning EFL were administered the measures via a questionnaire. Regression analyses indicated that EFL performance and EFL motivation were key factors that uniquely predicted EFL reading and listening anxiety. However, the role of EFL learning strategies was not significant after the effects of EFL performance and EFL motivation were controlled for. Despite this, mediation analyses revealed that EFL learning strategies had a significant indirect effect on EFL reading performance and listening anxiety levels with EFL learning motivation as a mediator. This suggests its secondary role in affecting FL anxieties. These findings provide important implications regarding assessment of students’ FL anxiety level as well as identification of and intervention for those with FL difficulties. These findings have extended past studies by highlighting the relative importance of these cognitive, affective and behavioral correlates on Chinese undergraduates’ EFL anxiety in specific domains.