Adult English As A Foreign Language Research Articles

Book-Talk: An Activity to Motivate Learners to Read Autonomously in a Foreign Language

Abstract In the last decade, extensive reading (ER) had been incorporated into English as a foreign language (EFL) education in various Japanese institutions. It restored the once broken balance of accuracy and fluency in traditional English education, and assisted reluctant EFL learners to start reading. However, ER required rather longer term for elementary learners to enjoy its benefits and the learners needed an extra encouragement to continue ER for the longer term. Book-talk was such an activity to encourage learners to read voluntary and to improve their language skills additionally. In a book-talk, several learners sat around a table, introduced the books they had read during the week, and accepted questions and comments from the others in turn. It also fitted well in lessons because 3-minute talks and 2-minute Q&A of six members took only 30 minutes. We will report how the activity motivated elder students, who had three or more years’ experience of ER, to continue their reading outside the class, and how it encouraged autonomous ER of adult EFL learners, who were reading English books borrowing from the college library. A combination of few talks and many readings worked well in EFL settings.

Language use in the classroom: Identity in classroom discourse

AbstractThis study concerned group of Indonesian EFL learners’ perceptions regarding the use of Indonesian (L1) and English language (L2) by their teachers in the classroom. In particular, the study aimed to unravel how these learners perceived the use of their L1 and L2 during the course of English instruction in the classroom and how their perceptions might have been shaped by different aspects of “identity construction” to which they were oriented. Data were gathered through administering a questionnaire to one hundred seventy-three adult Indonesian EFL learners. Analysis of the learners’ responses suggested that they maintained different perceptions with regard to the use of their L1 and L2 and that their perceptions may be subsumed into two broad categories, each of which reflects the differences in their perceptions. Factors that might have affected the learners’ perceptions were then critically discussed in the light of identity theory in the context of L2 pedagogy. In particular, the theory suggests that different aspects of identity construction to which learners are oriented affect their perceptions of the use of theirL1 and L2 in the classroom. Further, these different aspects of identity construction may also affect how learners are likely to respond to the use of an L1 and L2 in the classroom (and beyond).Keywords: English as a foreign language (EFL), language use, identity theory in L2 pedagogy

Successful vs. Less Successful Iranian EFL Learners: Cognitive Styles, Cognitive Flexibility, and Experience Evaluation

The present study aimed to compare successful with less successful English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners regarding their cognitive styles and flexibility, together with the learners’ evaluation of their experience of doing an unfamiliar cognitive test. The sample consists of 60 adult EFL learners (30 successful and 30 less successful), both males and females symmetrically. The homogeneity of participants’ age of onset, socio-economic class, and motivation was also considered. The data was analyzed, using Chi-square and Gamma correlation. Overall, it was revealed that analytical, logical reasoning, reflective, and learning were the most prominent cognitive styles among successful learners. They also showed a considerable cognitive flexibility. On the other hand, less successful learners were inclined to the random style, along with a lower cognitive flexibility. With respect to gender groups, it turned out that females in the successful group were significantly inclined to the reflective and logical reasoning styles and less successful females adopted a random style. Finally, no significant result was found concerning the cognitive test evaluation. The findings of this study may contribute to a wider understanding of EFL success and failure from the viewpoint of cognitive preferences.

News from the pragmatics classroom: Contrasting the inductive and the deductive approach in the teaching of pragmatic competence

Abstract While the role of pragmatic skills in a foreign or second language has been receiving increased attention both from a research and a language teaching perspective, there is still a lamentable scarcity of systematic empirical studies into the effectiveness of instructional methods in the teaching of pragmatics. Addressing this research gap, this article reports about a quasi-experimental study into possible differences between an explicit-inductive and an explicit-deductive instructional approach in the teaching of pragmatic skills in English as a Foreign Language (EFL), more specifically the teaching of offer refusals to 49 advanced adult EFL learners in Germany. The instruction consisted of three 90-minute lessons, which were spread out over the duration of a 15-week academic semester and designed according to the deductive principle and the inductive principle, respectively. While the deductive group was provided with metapragmatic rules directly at the beginning of the instruction, the inductive group only encountered such rules after engaging in language use and guided discovery. Production data was elicited by means of DCTs and role play in a pretest-posttest format. Effectiveness of instruction was operationalized by means of two indicators: Indicator 1 measured the increased usage of the strategies taught in class, while indicator 2 measured the approximation to a native speaker target. The results indicate that the gains in the inductive group surpassed those in the deductive group, suggesting that when situated within the explicit framework, inductive instruction is more effective in the teaching of pragmatic skills.

The value of picture-book reading-based collaborative output activities for vocabulary retention

This study investigated the effects of three instructional modes: picture-book reading-only (PRO), picture-book reading plus vocabulary instruction (PRVI), and picture-book reading plus reading-based collaborative output activity (PRCOA) on young adult EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ vocabulary acquisition and retention. Eighty Taiwanese university students with low to intermediate level English proficiency from three English reading classes participated in each of the three modes once during three weekly 100-minute sessions. Vocabulary knowledge was tested through two post-tests using a modified Vocabulary Knowledge Scale: immediately after each instructional mode to measure students’ vocabulary acquisition, and one month later to measure their word retention. The results showed that the PRVI mode was the most helpful for immediate word learning. However, the PRCOA mode was the most effective for word retention, and most conducive to bettering students’ productive knowledge in both acquisition and retention. This study suggests that explicit learning from vocabulary instruction that directs students’ attention to the words to be learned did not guarantee greater vocabulary gains than incidental learning where new words can be learned as by-products of classroom collaborative output activities. Without trying to memorize words, students learned vocabulary through mental investment in group discussions and generative activities, leading to their mastery of productive word knowledge.

Writing Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency among EFL Learners: Inspecting Their Interaction with Learners’ Degree of Creativity

Based on the peculiarities of developing second language (L2) writing among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners and the significance of studying the way writing skill interacts with EFL learners’ internal factors, the present study attempted to inspect the relationship between EFL learners’ creativity, on one hand, and writing complexity, writing accuracy, and writing fluency, on the other hand. The participants of the study were 185 male and female adult Iranian EFL learners (Mage = 26). The Persian version of O’Neil, Abedi, and Spielberger’s (1992) Creativity Questionnaire, validated by Zaker (2013), was employed in order to estimate participants’ degree of creativity. Participants’ two exploratory and descriptive writings were analyzed through employing the Profile of Larsen-Freeman (2006) by two raters in order to estimate participants’ writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Through running Pearson's Product-moment correlations it was indicated that there are significant correlations between participants’ creativity and writing accuracy, ρ = .84, n = 185, p < .05; creativity and writing fluency, ρ = .77, n = 185, p < .05; and creativity and writing complexity, ρ = .69, n = 185, p < .05. Moreover, running three linear regressions revealed that Creativity can predict 70.1 percent of participants’ writing accuracy (R = .837, R2 = .701); 60 percent of their writing fluency (R = .775, R2 = .600); and 47.5 percent of their writing complexity (R = .689, R2 = .475). The study concludes with a discussion on the findings and stating a number of recommendations for further research.

EFL learners’ strategy use during task-based interaction in Second Life

Motivated by theoretical and pedagogical concerns that the link between second language (L2) learners’ second language acquisition (SLA) and language use in 3D multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs) is still not fully connected in current SLA literature, this study examined the patterns of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ employment of communication strategies during task-based interaction in Second Life (SL). Nine adult EFL learners worldwide were recruited, and they used their avatars to negotiate meaning with peers in interactional tasks via voice chat in SL. Results reveal that confirmation checks, clarification requests, and comprehension checks were the most frequently used strategies. Other types of strategy use were also discovered, such as a request for help, self-correction, and topic shift – accompanied by a metacognitive strategy and spell-out-the-word that had not been previously documented in task-based research in 3D MUVEs. This study demonstrated that SL could offer an optimal venue for EFL learners’ language acquisition to take place and prompt their cognitive processing during task-based interaction. Additionally, 3D multimodal resources afforded by SL provide additional visual support for EFL students’ input acquisition and output modifications. A call for more research on voice-based task interaction in 3D MUVEs is also needed.

The Acquisition of English Restrictive Relative Clauses by Arab Adult EFL Learners

This study investigates the challenges faced by Arab adult learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in acquiring English restrictive relative clauses (RRCs), as well as the factors that affect the process of acquisition. This issue has received considerable attention in second language (L2) research. The present study discusses the syntactic structure of RRCs in English and Arabic with regard to the use of resumptive pronouns and the use of overt versus covert relative markers as related to the definiteness of the head noun. This study is carried out using an acceptability judgment test as the tool for data collection. A sample of 100 male and female adult Arabic speakers is used with the aim of identifying potential acquisition problems. The results obtained provide further support for first language (L1) transfer. This study concludes that participants accepted the use of resumptive pronouns and preferred the overt relative markers determined by definiteness. It is further discovered that certain factors influenced the acquisition process such as participants’ age, age of learning, and age of immersion. The current study has some pedagogical implications for the teaching of relative clauses in the EFL context. Keywords: English Relative Clauses, Restrictive Relative Clauses, Relative pronoun, Arab Learners of English

The role of incidental unfocused prompts and recasts in improving English as a foreign language learners' accuracy

This study was designed to investigate the effects of incidental unfocused prompts and recasts on improving English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' grammatical accuracy as measured in students' oral interviews and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) grammar test. The design of the study was quasi-experimental with pre-tests, immediate post-tests and delayed post-tests. From three intact advanced EFL classes, three groups were formed: recast (n = 20), prompt (n = 20) and control (n = 20). Teachers in the two experimental groups responded to student grammatical errors with, respectively, recasts or prompts, while the grammatical errors of the control group were ignored and content feedback only was provided. The overall accuracy was measured by means of oral interview scores given by two trained raters and the grammar section of paper-based TOEFL. One-way repeated measures ANOVAs with post-hoc comparisons indicated that both prompt and recast groups significantly outperformed the control group, and the prompt group performed better than the recast group both in the immediate and delayed post-tests. Although attempts were made to make learners aware of the purpose of corrective feedback (CF), these findings show prompts which pushed learners to notice and self-correct their grammatical errors were more facilitative in improving their grammatical accuracy than recasts. Overall, these results suggest that the understanding, noticing, mental processing and active repair that prompting brings about are key factors in improving adult EFL learners' general oral accuracy. Implications for more effective unfocused prompts and recasts are also discussed.

Word Reading Efficiency, Text Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension Among Chinese Learners of English

This study examined the relationship among word reading efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension for adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Data from 185 adult Chinese EFL learners preparing to take the Test-of-English-as-a-Foreign-Language™ (TOEFL®) were analyzed in this study. The participants completed a computer-based test battery of word reading efficiency and text reading fluency in addition to TOEFL iBT (Internet-Based Test) reading comprehension. The findings showed a stronger relationship between text oral reading fluency and reading comprehension than between word reading efficiency and reading comprehension. The authors recommended that attention be paid to text oral reading fluency in adult EFL reading research and instruction.

Foreign language teachers organising learning during their first year of teaching young learners

This paper explores the experience of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers moving from teaching older learners to teaching younger learners. The context of the study is the Turkish private primary school sector. In response to a 1997 educational reform, many schools in this sector introduced English as a subject in the first year of primary school (children aged seven and older). These private schools were well resourced and financially strong, but struggled to find English teachers with young learner experience. Consequently, they often hired English teachers from secondary/high schools and the adult EFL sector. The paper explores the experience of four English teachers fitting this profile during their first year of teaching English at the primary level. The analysis focuses on how the teachers organised learning in their classrooms, and how this developed over time. This was an aspect of teaching that the teachers were particularly concerned about during their first year of teaching young learners. The analysis shows how the teachers' understanding moved from a concern with controlling the behaviour of learners towards a broader conceptualisation of how one might organise learning in young learner classrooms. We believe that these teachers' development over the first year of teaching L2 English to children may offer insights for novice and more experienced teachers, of both English and other languages, faced with the challenge of teaching young learners for the first time.

Referencing in a Second Language: Korean EFL Learners' Cohesive Use of References in Written Narrative Discourse

This study examined Korean English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' ability to establish textual cohesion in English through appropriate selection of reference forms and reference management strategies in their written narrative discourse. It employed both quantitative and qualitative analysis to explore how the language-specific reference choices and strategies in their first language (L1) may be evident in their second language (L2) discourse production. Participants were Korean adult EFL learners and American native English speakers (NES) in college. Findings from the quantitative analysis of the written narratives showed that the specifically Korean referential strategies of heavily relying on nominals were not evident in the Korean EFL learners' English narrative discourse. However, a closer look at the data with a qualitative approach revealed that the Korean EFL learners' referential strategies were very different from those of the NES. More specifically, the qualitative analysis revealed that, unlike the NES who alternated the use of noun phrases and pronouns strategically to achieve certain discourse effects, the Korean participants did not display such sophisticated use of reference forms within an extended L2 discourse. The findings are attributed to the L1-specific reference management conventions and to the L2 learners' lack of practice and competence in referential strategies at the discourse level.

Producing culturally appropriate narratives in English as a foreign language

Cross-cultural and second/foreign language (L2) studies on oral narratives have suggested that one’s native language and culture affect discourse production in an L2 and have detected areas of difficulty for L2 learners in producing extended discourse. However, written narrative has received less attention, although it can provide rich data on cross-cultural differences and hold important implications for L2 literacy acquisition and pedagogy. This study was designed to investigate culturally preferred written discourse styles and their effects on L2 writing of personal narratives. It explored cross-cultural differences in the use of narrative structural features including evaluation between first language written narratives produced by native speakers of American English and first- and second-language narratives written by Koreans learning English. Differences in first language narrative styles were used to explain how Korean EFL learners’ narrative discourse in English could vary from native English speakers’ discourse norms. Participants were Korean adult EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners and American native-English speakers in the U.S. The findings show that specifically Korean cultural strategies were evident in the Korean English learners’ English narrative discourse rather than the preferred discourse style of the target language and culture. The findings hold implications for L2 writing pedagogy and L2 training in discourse production.

Written narratives as an index of L2 competence in Korean EFL learners

This study investigated how linguistically determined Korean discourse strategies for establishing textual cohesion and marking written register in the Korean language may help explain the differences between the native English speakers’ and the Korean English learners’ written narratives in English. It employed quantitative methods of analysis to explore the use of specific linguistic features of written narratives. Participants were Korean adult EFL (English as a Foreign language) learners and American native English speakers in the U.S. The findings show that specifically Korean linguistic strategies were evident in the Korean English learners’ English narrative discourse rather than the preferred discourse style of the target language. For example, Koreans’ writing in English relied on some specifically Korean linguistic strategies, such as highly frequent use of demonstrative references and repetition. However, it is also observed that the Korean English learners’ English stories tended to diverge from their Korean stories in the direction of the target language norms. In other words, Koreans writing in English did show relative success in approaching English native speaker norms on the narrative and discourse dimensions such as reference, including pronominal reference. The findings hold important implications for L2 writing pedagogy and L2 training in discourse production.

Effects of Mastery and Performance Goals on the Composition Strategy Use of Adult EFL Writers

This study examines the combined effects of contrasting mastery and performance goals on the use of composition strategies by adult writers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Thirty-eight Taiwanese English-major college seniors of homogeneous writing proficiency consented to participate in the study. Based on responses on a goal scale, 19 participants were assigned to the high-mastery-low-performance (HMLP) group, and 19 were assigned to the low-mastery-high-performance (LMHP) group. Participants in the HMLP group were diagnosed as having stronger mastery but weaker performance goal orientations, whereas those in the LMHP group demonstrated the opposite tendency. Evidence from think-aloud protocols indicated that (a) participants used 20 distinctive strategies classified into five categories; (b) the HMLP group used monitoring/evaluating, revising, and compensating strategies significantly more often than the LMHP group; and (c) the frequency of revising strategies and mastery orientations served as two significant positive predictors for better writing outcomes.

Effects of Mastery and Performance Goals on the Composition Strategy Use of Adult EFL Writers

This study examines the combined effects of contrasting mastery and performance goals on the use of composition strategies by adult writers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Thirty-eight Taiwanese English-major college seniors of homogeneous writing proficiency consented to participate in the study. Based on responses on a goal scale, 19 participants were assigned to the high-mastery-low-performance (HMLP) group, and 19 were assigned to the low-mastery-high-performance (LMHP) group. Participants in the HMLP group were diagnosed as having stronger mastery but weaker performance goal orientations, whereas those in the LMHP group demonstrated the opposite tendency. Evidence from think-aloud protocols indicated that (a) participants used 20 distinctive strategies classified into five categories; (b) the HMLP group used monitoring/evaluating, revising, and compensating strategies significantly more often than the LMHP group; and (c) the frequency of revising strategies and mastery orientations served as two significant positive predictors for better writing outcomes.

Syllable Simplification Strategies: A Stylistic Perspective

This study suggests another perspective in viewing the effect of style on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ errors. It is generally assumed that greater accuracy is obtained by second language (L2) learners as style becomes more formal (Tarone, 1983). Although this “formal equals accurate” axiom correctly predicted L2 learners’ production of singleton consonants (e.g., Dickerson & Dickerson, 1977; R. Schmidt, 1987), however, it did not hold true for their pronunciation of more complex structures such as consonant clusters (Major, 1994; Weinberger, 1987). I hypothesize that for consonant clusters, what varies in accordance with style is the learners’ choice of syllable simplification strategies rather than their error rates. The production of English onset consonant clusters by 20 Chinese adult EFL learners in four types of tasks confirmed this prediction: The use of epenthesis increased as the style of the task became more formal, and the percentage of deletions and replacements became higher in less formal tasks.

Effects of Variations in Orthographic Information on Asian and American Readers' English Text Reading.

Orthographies vary in the support they provide for word identification based on grapheme-phoneme correspondences. If skills developed in acquisition of first-language (L1) reading transfer to reading English as a foreign language (EFL), the extent to which EFL readers' word identification shows reliance on information other than grapheme-phoneme correspondences could be expected to vary with whether their L1 orthography is a non-Roman alphabet such as Korean hangul or a nonalphabetic (morpho-syllabic) system such as Chinese characters. Another influence could be whether EFL readers have learned to read a morpho-syllabic L1 by means of an alphabetic transliteration. English text reading speeds and oral reading quality ratings of three groups of adult Asian EFL readers attending an American university were compared with those of two groups of American L1 readers: Graduate student peers and eighth-grade students. All EFL groups read more slowly than both groups of L1 readers, and their reading was more impaired when orthographic cues were disrupted by mixed case print or pseudohomophone spellings. Some of these effects were reduced in EFL readers from Hong Kong, who had earlier exposure to English. Contrary to previous findings, no effects could be attributed to type of first orthography or early exposure to alphabetic transliteration of Chinese characters, which differentiated the Taiwanese and Hong Kong groups. As a whole, the results suggest that, at least across the L1 groups studied, differences in EFL word reading are associated less with type of L1 orthography than with history of exposure to English.

Adult EFL in Community Schools in Beijing, China

This study investigates the characteristics of Beijing's relatively new community English language programmes and the students who participate in these programmes. It is based on a survey of 140 students and the administrators of English programmes in 15 community schools in Beijing. The findings show that community English as a foreign language (EFL) programmes provide a much needed component to EFL instruction in China. They are unique in areas such as programme planning, funding, course offerings, educational rationale, admission, hiring practices and language skill emphasis. The students in the programmes range widely in age, occupations, special needs and interests. Their motivation to learn is high. They display many characteristics of good language learners, yet they need assistance in developing learning strategies. It is concluded that community language programmes for adults offer a worthwhile, flexible, and effective educational experience that differs considerably from traditional, government-...