Academic English Learning Research Articles

DEVELOPING ENGLISH INTERACTIVE LEARNING MEDIA BASED ON ANDROID BY USING ARTICULATE STORYLINE 3 APPS

This study was conducted in response to the challenges encountered by students in learning English within an academic context. The identified issues included a lack of interactive learning resources, difficulties in comprehending English materials, limited opportunities for practice, and time constraints within the classroom. Consequently, the aim of this research was to develop an Android-based English interactive learning app using the Articulate Storyline 3 application, specifically tailored to support students in an academic setting.The research employed the Research and Development (R&D) methodology, utilizing the 4-D (four-D) version and following the Luther-Sutopo model for system development. The target population consisted of seventh-grade students at SMPIT Al-Fityah Pekanbaru, with a sample size of thirty students. Data were collected through questionnaires and a pretest-posttest procedure. Statistical analysis involved the utilization of Aiken's V formula, the Moment Kappa formula, and the t-test formula. The study yielded three key results. Firstly, the validity test demonstrated a high validity score of 0.88, indicating the reliability and appropriateness of the developed learning app for its intended academic purposes. Secondly, the practicality test produced a score of 0.98, indicating that the learning app was practical and feasible to be used within the academic teaching and learning process. Lastly, the effectiveness test revealed a significant improvement, with a two-tailed significance score of 0.00, which was smaller than the significance level of 0.005. This indicates that the learning app was highly effective in facilitating the academic teaching and learning process. Based on the results of the three tests, it can be concluded that the developed app provides a valuable tool for both teachers and students in the academic English learning process. 

PROTOTYPING A WEB-PUBLISHED ACADEMIC ENGLISH COURSEBOOK FOR INDONESIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHER EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM STUDENTS

This publication addresses the prototyping phase of a web-published academic English coursebook, which is exclusively designed and developed to assist the 6th semester primary school teacher education study program students at Universitas Negeri Makassar in learning academic English. Large-scale social restriction due to Covid-19 pandemic, which restricts any form of regular face-to-face meeting, and the fact that an English coursebook has not been developed yet at the locus of this study led the authors to set this as both an important and urgent goal to be reached through design-based research, which comprised (1) preliminary study; (2) prototyping; (3) assessment; and (4) systematic reflection. In prototyping the artefact, standard web programming languages including PHP, HTML, and CSS were synergized. The samples of this study were 5 classes consisting of 125 6th semester students majoring in primary school teacher education study program at Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia. Through iterative cycle of prototyping, the findings of this study provide an ideal design of a web-published academic English coursebook exclusively addressed to solve a contextual educational issue detected in the locus of this research, as mandated by literature on design-based research. Besides, this publication discusses ideas of web design and development that work for academic English learning purposes. In addition, this publication also deals with the effectiveness issue of the web-published academic English coursebook in assisting non-English major students in learning academic English through online distance learning delivery mode. This publication theoretically contributes to the domain of teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) and instructional learning design.

Retracted: Construction Path of Academic English Learning Environment in Colleges and Universities from the Perspective of Education Ecology.

[This retracts the article DOI: 10.1155/2022/6727334.].

Success factors for English as a second language university students’ attainment in academic English language proficiency: exploring the roles of secondary school medium-of-instruction, motivation and language learning strategies

Abstract Displaying a strong competence in English as a second language (L2) is a major advantage for university graduates in personal development and career advancement. There are limited studies that have explored how the implementation of English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) in non-Anglophone universities can affect students’ academic English proficiency. This mixed-method study explores how both the learners’ variables (motivation and L2 learning strategies) and the medium-of-instruction policy implemented at secondary and university settings can contribute to students’ success in academic English learning at a bilingual university in Hong Kong. The findings of a large-scale questionnaire reveal that the effect of medium-of-instruction in students’ secondary school education is not a significant predictor of students’ academic English language proficiency at university. The findings suggest that university students who previously attended secondary schools which adopt medium-of-instruction other than English tend not to be disadvantaged in improving their academic English proficiency. Institutional factor (i.e. provision of EMI lectures at university) and learners’ variables, including students’ L2 strategy use and motivation, are statistically significant predictors of the student’s English language proficiency. The implications for higher education policy in Hong Kong and worldwide will be discussed.

A University Based Case Study: The Research on the Overall Situation and Influencing Factors of Non-English Major Postgraduates’ Learning Engagement

This research investigates non-English major postgraduates’ learning engagement in academic English by using learning engagement scale. According to previous research and characteristics of academic English learning, by classroom observation, questionnaire and interview method, this research aims to reveal the overall situation of non-English major postgraduates’ learning engagement in academic English, and explore the main factors affecting non-English major postgraduates’ learning engagement in academic English.

The Effectiveness of ESAP and EGAP in ESP Teaching

The study compares a distinct between English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) and English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) to explore the real needs of students and help students and teachers choose proper learning and teaching strategies to improve the effectiveness of English learning and teaching. Literature review is used as a research method and offers an overview of the definitions, pros and cons, case study of EGAP and ESAP. It is concluded that both EGAP and ESAP contribute to the academic English learning, while EGAP focus on academic language study for specific English proficiency tests like IELTS/TOFEL and ESAP focus on academic language study for postgraduate and professional work.

Construction Path of Academic English Learning Environment in Colleges and Universities from the Perspective of Education Ecology.

This paper probes into the construction of academic English learning environment in colleges and universities from the perspective of educational ecology. This paper aims to construct academic English learning environment from the perspective of educational ecology by constructing a teaching community, organizing learning activities, using tool mediation, and optimizing the social and material environment. Understand the construction effect through a questionnaire survey. The results show that among the 1000 surveyed students' average satisfaction with the five elements of the learning environment, the teaching community is 4.6355, the learning community is 4.8963, the learning activity is 4.6987, the tool intermediary is 4.9258, and the social material environment is 4.2536, indicating that the students' satisfaction is high. From the perspective of educational ecology, the construction of academic English learning environment in colleges and universities can effectively optimize teaching and learning community and help to enhance students' motivation, cultivate learning interest, and improve practical ability. The construction effect is worthy of recognition.

Feedback behaviour and preference in university academic English courses: associations with English language self-efficacy

While there has been much research detailing how English as a foreign language (EFL) students attending English for academic purposes (EAP) courses struggle with a wide array of challenges when adjusting to university English-medium instruction, how these students use feedback to self-regulate their academic English learning and what contributes to or hinders this remain unknown. This study investigates Chinese university students’ feedback behaviour and preferences in academic English course settings and their associations with English language self-efficacy within the context of recent feedback research in higher education. Apart from a dominant preference for teacher evaluative feedback, the students were found to be more likely to act on teacher feedback than to proactively seek feedback. English language self-efficacy was also shown to have significant influence on both feedback behaviour and preference. In the light of these results, this paper argues for a pressing need to extend the notion of feedback in academic English courses from viewing it as information transmission or ‘telling’ to recognising it as an iterative process whereby students make sense of information from various sources and use it to enhance their academic English learning.

A Study on the Background and Process of Postgraduates’ Academic English Learning in China

In order to provide reference for postgraduate academic English teaching in China, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive survey in learning background and process before learners go to the graduate school. This study focuses on the academic English course for postgraduates in a key university of China, and the in-depth investigation was carried out from the aspects of students’ majors, graduation colleges, English learning foundation, learning attitudes, English learning and especially academic English learning experience, motivation and knowledge of academic English learning. The triangulation combining the quantitative method and qualitative method was used to analyze the research data. The results shows that the English learners have weak academic English foundation but strong English learning motivation and employ single English learning strategy. The learners reported the effective learning methods of academic English from two aspects: basic English learning skills and academic English learning ability. Accordingly, how to develop the teaching model, carry out the teaching process and define the teaching content are discussed in this research.

DIY corpora for Accounting & Finance vocabulary learning

It has been shown that language learners can benefit from a discovery-based learning process whereby they construct as well as consult their own specialist corpora and vocabulary portfolios, for the purposes of translator training (Castagnoli 2006), for general English (Smith 2011) and for academic English learning (Charles 2012; Smith 2015).In the present study, a cohort of 94 international students on an EAP module, majoring in Accounting and Finance, was divided into hands-on (treatment) and hands-off (control) groups. Both groups were subjected to a pre-test consisting of specialist terms that would be encountered on their course (not only in the EAP class, but also on the Accounting and Finance modules). The hands-on group spent about 20 min per weekly class constructing domain-specific DIY corpora and generating subject vocabulary portfolios. The results of a post-test indicated that the hands-on group had achieved a slightly greater improvement in domain vocabulary knowledge than the hands-off group (which used corpora and vocabulary lists provided by the teacher). A participant questionnaire showed that the students found the approaches useful for vocabulary learning.

Disciplinary variations in learning styles and preferences: Implications for the provision of academic English

In higher education, ‘disciplines’ is a construct that demarcates knowledge and academic identities. Individual disciplines commonly have their own practices, and thus the idea of disciplinary specificity has recently attracted research attention although less so within the area of learning styles and preferences. Drawing on the notion of academic tribes and taxonomy of academic disciplines, we investigate how different disciplinary preferences and learning styles manifest among students attending an academic English course. A questionnaire survey was administered to first-year students at a Hong Kong university, and 278 completed questionnaires were returned by students spanning four disciplines: the soft-pure, soft-applied, hard-pure and hard-applied disciplines. Interviews were conducted with 19 participants to triangulate the questionnaire data. The results show that the respondents had some distinct preferences with regard to the disciplinary characteristics of academic English learning. For example, the soft-pure respondents favoured a solitary mode of learning, while the hard-pure respondents had a predilection for collaborative learning. Moreover, the soft-applied respondents had the strongest commitment to and belief in learner autonomy. These disciplinary variations have strong implications for the design and delivery of academic English courses which recognize this specificity.

Advancing Academic English Teaching and Learning in China: A Meta-analysis

Learning Academic English (AE) has been gaining importance day by day globally but China is still lagging behind in this race of Academic English learning and teaching. China is behind the world in teaching and learning English due to many problems that have been creating challenges for Chinese students. This study used the meta-analysis approach to identify the challenges created by the poor academic teaching and learning and the possible solutions to eliminate these challenges. The study uses the correlation and regression analysis to identify the impact of poor English teaching facilities, worse intelligibility, grammatical issues, poor communication skills, and language complexity on the challenges faced by the Chinese students. After the identification of the challenges, policy recommendations have been made based on the qualitative data analysis of the previous studies.

The Development and Validation of the Academic Spoken English Strategies Survey (ASESS) for Non-native English Speaking Graduate Students

This study reports on the three-year development and validation of a new assessment tool—the Academic Spoken English Strategies Survey (ASESS). The questionnaire is the first of its kind to assess the listening and speaking strategy use of non-native English speaking (NNES) graduate students. A combination of sources was used to develop the questionnaire: literature reviews, pilot questionnaire results, feedback from pilot study participants, expert comments, and the author’s academic English learning journal. An exploratory factor analysis based on 384 respondents’ data was conducted to assess the construct validity. Cronbach’s alpha was 0.923, indicating high internal consistency. The study has made a significant contribution because data generated through the use of this questionnaire can provide valuable insights and pedagogical implications.

Two Chinese Medical Master’s Students Aspiring to Publish Internationally: A Longitudinal Study of Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Their Communities of Practice

This paper explores how two Chinese medical Master’s students’ international publication success/failure and their academic English learning outcomes were related to their agency and the social context in which they were embedded by using the notions of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) and community of practice (CoP). While both students were highly motivated and similarly limited in English proficiency, their publication and academic English literacy learning outcomes vastly differed. Analysis via the lenses of LPP and CoP reveals that their differences in scholarly achievement in terms of international publication success and academic English learning outcomes can be convincingly explained by variation in the structure of the CoPs to which they belonged. Their respective CoPs determine their amount and quality of co-participation or mutual engagement with old-timers, particularly the master, which ultimately led to markedly different publication and academic English learning outcomes. Accordingly, I argue that institutions must consider the amount of mutual engagement senior researchers can afford to their research students when allocating advising responsibilities to professors.