Reviewed by Marilyn Lewis,Honorary Fellow, Auckland UniversityReview Received: 5th June, 2022Review Accepted: 16th August, 2022

The current issue of the ELFI Journal contains five articles that describe a diversity of issues in L2 learning and instruction. The issue also contains one review of a book that delves into social language learning communities in Japan.

Language learners around the world have had to switch to an online remote teaching mode almost overnight due to the unprecedented COVID-19 global pandemic. Hence, they may experience higher levels of L2 speaking anxiety in their language learning process related to their use of new technologies in online learning environments. This research study provides by language educators with some practical suggestions to help their EFL learners reduce their L2 speaking anxiety levels by analyzing the challenges of emergency remote teaching and investigating the effects of online debate on pre-service English language teachers’ L2 speaking anxiety. The study pursued a mixed method research design. Two sources of data collection were used to explore the participants’ L2 speaking anxiety levels and their perceptions of online debating, including a quantitative review of students’ speaking anxiety levels before and after the online debate sessions, and an open-response questionnaire. The research population included 33 EFL freshmen students (15 males and 18 females), between the ages of 18 and 21, in ELT department at a state university in Turkey. Based on the quantitative and qualitative findings, some pedagogical implications are proposed in the end.

University students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL) are required to read and write specialised academic genres. Genre-based pedagogy, developed from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), teaches lexicogrammar and structure of these genres in context. The present study taught the structural staging of exposition and discussion genres to 17 students over a ten-week program, using the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) framework. Pre- and post-instruction essays were collected. Results show that, post-intervention, students preferred the structurally complex discussion genre when responding to a short essay question. There was a small improvement in the use of main genre stages, while the use of generic sub-stages showed the most improvement. Students’ pre-instruction use of main staging suggested some familiarity with argument genres from previous EFL learning, although incidences of sub-stage crossovers and repeated sub-stages in the pre-instruction essays showed a lack of detailed understanding of the genres’ structure. Post-intervention, such crossovers reduced significantly and, regardless of the genre of the final essay, use of sub-stages was appropriate and accurate. The results suggest that a targeted, short-term program helped students understand and use appropriate persuasive generic structures in short academic essays suitable for standardised English tests. Implications for future studies and teaching programs are discussed.

The concern of this descriptive survey research was to exploratory Teachers’ Beliefs and purposes of L1 use and Its Effects on Students’ Oral English Improvement in Selected Primary Schools. To collect the data, classroom observation and interview were used. The classroom observation data were collected through checklist and the results were counted and recorded as Afan Oromo (L1) and English utterances of teachers and then changed into frequency and percentages. Similarly, the interview was presented to eight teachers and the data were recorded, transcribed, and then thematically analyzed. The findings revealed that the participant EFL teachers have favorable beliefs about use of L1 in EFL classes. However, they used more L1utterances than English utterances. For example, they made 1152 utterances among which 564/1152=49% were L1 and 588/1152=51% were English utterances. That means participant teachers used almost the same amount of L1 and English which implies that teachers over used L1 which has a negative effect on students’ oral English improvement. Therefore, teachers are recommended to be good models for their students by practicing more TL than L1 to improve their students’ oral English.

This study investigated the effects of online collaborative writing and writing contributions in Google Docs of 35 Asian EFL university learners in a composition course. Data were collected from students’ pre- and post-test writing, two extended online collaborative tasks: writing descriptive and argumentative essays, and student reflections. Students’ writing performances were assessed using Jacobs et al.’s (1981) composition analytic scoring rubric. Paired sample t-test analysis showed that academic writing performance significantly increased after participating in two extended collaborative writing tasks. Learners developed more extended written texts and texts were more accurate in the post-test writing. Furthermore, Pearson correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r) analysis showed that learners’ text contributions, their use of writing change functions and language functions during the collaborative process was positively correlated with their post-writing performance. This study supports the notion of writing as an exploratory and recursive process, but not linear.

While research on language teachers’ identity construction has grown exponentially, little is known about the comparative analysis of language-school and university teachers’ identity construction. This study investigated the identity construction tensions of Afghan English language teachers in two different contexts: language schools and universities. Data were collected from 16 language-school and university teachers through extensive semi-structured interviews. Data analyses indicated similar and different tensions across the two contexts in influencing the teachers’ professional identity construction. Language-school teachers mentioned tensions such as nepotism, low teacher autonomy, and low communication between teachers and policymakers, and university teachers referred to tensions such as large heterogeneous classes, heavy workload, and segregated education. Additionally, both groups lamented over various socio-educational tensions such as the negative impact of war on English learning conceptions, biased perceptions about Afghan teachers, and lack of parental involvement in educational functioning. The study concludes with implications for addressing EFL teachers’ identity tensions.

Listening anxiety in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning will reduce Chinese language learners’ academic performance, particularly in a formal listening test. In order to explore the effects of listening anxiety on EFL learners and how they cope, this article seeks to investigate my personal narratives and experiences as the first author to explicate challenges and seek solutions. Thus, this article focuses on my exploration of four vignettes, which identify crucial points in unraveling stories of how I could improve listening performance by reducing listening anxiety. This autoethnographic study is inspired by information processing (IP) theory and Schunk’s self-regulated learning (SRL) model. The former reveals how listening materials can be received by learners from an objective view. The latter, based on a subjective angle, highlights three aspects: motivational orientation, self-efficacy, and self-regulation, which collectively affect listening anxiety. Based on the analysis of my stories, findings suggest that anxiety can negatively impact EFL learners’ information processing abilities, thereby leading to poor listening performance. Findings also highlight a need to deal with listening anxiety, identifying and emphasizing three approaches, namely, a mastery-oriented goal, higher self-efficacy and appropriate self-regulation.

The metacognitive approach to listening is drawing increasing attention in the field of second language learning (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012). Nevertheless, the findings of the effects of the metacognitive approach on metacognitive knowledge and listening comprehension are inconclusive, and the impact of language proficiency on how much metacognition intervenes is not certain yet (Vandergrift & Baker, 2018). This study investigates the impact of language proficiency on metacognition in implementing the metacognitive approach and examines whether language proficiency has the same impact on different aspects of metacognition as measured by the Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) (Vandergrift, Goh, Tafaghodtari & Mareschal, 2006). One hundred twelve non-English majors in a university in China participated in this study. Results showed that the listening performance of the experimental group improved significantly compared with that of the control group. This might be attributed to the holistic nature of the metacognitive approach. However, the lower language proficiency may have constrained learners’ engagement in metacognitive activities as the participants had trouble in using some real-time strategies successfully due to their lower language proficiency. Overall, the findings provide support for and shed light on implementing the metacognitive approach.

Welcome to the September issue of the English as Foreign Language International Journal in 2022, which contains 3 articles written by teachers of English as a Foreign Language and researchers in the field. These three articles include topics that deal with professional identities of English teachers at secondary and tertiary levels; English language proficiency and its effect on metacognitive instruction in second language listening and listening anxiety in EFL learning.