English As A Foreign Language Courses Research Articles

E‐learning anxiety and satisfaction with online EFL courses in times of COVID‐19: A moderated mediation model of positive coping and gender

AbstractThis study proposed and statistically examined a research model to understand university learners’ satisfaction with online English as a foreign language (EFL) courses during the pandemic. Variables including e‐learning anxiety, positive coping, and gender were under investigation. These variables did not receive much attention in the previous literature, and yet they are considered essential to understanding satisfaction with online EFL courses. A total of 439 undergraduate EFL learners from a university in Taiwan participated in the present study. The technique of structural equation modeling was adopted to test the hypotheses in the moderated mediation model. This study discovered: (1) e‐learning anxiety had a negative impact on EFL learners’ satisfaction with online EFL courses; (2) positive coping was able to reduce the negative impact of e‐learning anxiety on satisfaction with online EFL courses; (3) males used more positive coping strategies than females, and they had better satisfaction scores as well. The results can enrich the current applied linguistics literature by providing an insight into the dynamics of these variables.

Education for Sustainable Development: Mapping Socio-legal and Eco-cultural Sustainability Topics in English Learning

This research aimed to identify socio-legal and eco-cultural values through the participatory mapping (PM) of local wisdom in supporting Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in higher education, which can potentially be applied to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning. The research involved 14 English students at a private university in Bali, Indonesia. The participants were selected to take part in participatory mapping (PM) with community members at a remote village. The results of this study are documented in two major findings. First, with their collective knowledge gained from PM, the English students were able to identify socio-legal and eco-cultural values and utilize them contextually in their report writing. Second, undertaking participatory mapping prior to completing writing tasks in their EFL course could help students to better express their ideas and strengthen their English writing skills. The insertion of two aspects of sustainability in the EFL tasks involved incorporating local values into EFL learning. Through English students experiencing PM prior to completing their writing task, EFL learning can be conducted more authentically with the students paying greater attention to the local culture and values. By exploring socio-legal and eco-cultural sustainability as the core activity of PM in this research, the study contributes to our understanding of the way in which the integration of local values into EFL activities in Indonesia makes a tangible contribution to ESD.

Learning analytics of peer feedback on communicative skills in an EFL course across different learning modalities

This research investigates the improvement of communicative skills in university students via peer feedback activities in an English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) course. Utilizing a comprehensive view of contemporary feedback frameworks, the study engaged 320 students across three cohorts. The last two cohorts transitioned to online Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The final cohort further employed a prototype learning analytics system to enhance peer feedback skills. Answering calls for more research on authentic task-based learning in tech-mediated contexts, this study offers empirical evidence supporting modern feedback frameworks. Results showed that ERT cohorts, especially those using the prototype system, outperformed the face-to-face cohort in communicative speaking tests, highlighting the effectiveness of peer feedback activities in boosting communicative skills.

How can a task-based project enhance students’ transferable skills? An investigation

ABSTRACT Background In a time of rapid technological change, there is a need to provide students with relevant learning opportunities to support the development of their transferable skills. Purpose Set in a higher education context in Taiwan, this study sought to investigate how students perceived their engagement with a task-based, multimedia project within an English as a foreign language (EFL) course. Method Participants were 73 third-year undergraduate university students who were engaged in an 18-week task-based video-making project as part of the EFL course. Data, which were analysed qualitatively, included students’ reflective essays and post-course transcribed interviews with 15 of the students. Findings Overall, the students felt that participating in the task-based project had enhanced their literacy competencies through the process of gathering relevant information; supported their learning motivation and engagement as they sought to discover the necessary resources to generate their videos; and fostered their awareness of how they could apply the knowledge and skills they developed in the course to new contexts. Conclusions Task-based, digital projects can provide one way of helping students to develop transferable skills. As technology continues to evolve, this study highlights the need to consider more fully, in the context of tertiary education, how best to support students to acquire and hone the competencies that they will require in employment.

The Representation of Multicultural Content Provided by “World-Class Franchise” English Course Textbook Used in Indonesia: A Critical Discourse Analysis Study

Multicultural values in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks have attracted many researchers, academics, and educators in many studies around the world. However, there is limited literature examining the representation of multicultural content in English course textbooks used in Indonesia, specifically EFL course textbooks from world-class franchise programs. Therefore, this study employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the impartiality of cultural content representation provided by the EFL course textbook regarding different cultures and ethnic groups. This study provided Halliday’s systemic functional analysis to examine verbal data. While Kress and Van Leeuwen’s visual grammar theory was employed to comprehend, analyze, and explore visual representations from selected EFL course textbooks. This study reveals the EFL course textbook does not reflect the diversity of cultures in Indonesia, as it mainly focuses on the perspectives and traditions of Western and European countries. This creates an unfair and distorted representation of other cultures, especially those from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, whose values and beliefs are not adequately considered or respected within the EFL course textbook. The implications of this study suggest that the inclusion of cultural sensitivity within EFL course textbooks is crucial in fostering cultural awareness, promoting respect among EFL learners, and creating a more equitable and inclusive learning environment.

Learning English Under the Sounds of Air Raid Sirens: Analysing Undergraduate EFL Students’ Sustainable Learing Practices

Abstract The article presents a mixed-methods study that examines how undergraduate students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) sustain their practices of learning English during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022–2023. In total, 33 undergraduate EFL students (henceforth – participants) took part in the study. In order to gain insight into their sustainable learning practices, the participants were requested to write a short reflective essay titled “My Thoughts on How I Learn English during the War”. The participants were instructed to write their essays in English within a one-week timeframe. Seeking to identify and classify a range of sustainable practices related to the ways the participants learnt English during the Russo-Ukrainian war, their reflective essays were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The analysis of the participants’ essays revealed the following learning practices that, according to the participants, helped them to sustain their EFL learning trajectory in the wartime EFL contexts: (i) participation in online EFL courses, (ii) communication with the native speakers of English on social networking sites (e.g., Instagram), and (iii) the combination of EFL learning activities offered at the participants’ university. The findings are discussed in detail further in the article through the lens of sustainable multilingualism development. Specifically, we argue that the development of multilingualism in the time of crises is feasible and sustainable, especially if it is coupled with an EFL learner’s inner psychological factors that are further facilitated by the external support offered by the digital learning environments that are (i) institutionalised and systematic, and (ii) extra-mural and unstructured (in other words, digitally wild).

Assessment Tools of EFL Courses via Blackboard: Faculty Members’ and Students’ Perceptions

This study aims at examining the assessment tools used on Blackboard from the perceptions of students and faculty members. For this purpose, two questionnaires were designed and applied to 102 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students and 31 faculty members to measure their perceptions of the assessment tools on Blackboard, the self-efficacy of the EFL students and faculty members in using Blackboard assessment tools, and the challenges they face during the process. Results have shown that most faculty members and students prefer conducting assessment on Blackboard. Results also revealed that faculty members are aware of the assessment tools on Blackboard and feel confident when using them. Besides, both students and faculty members have positive attitudes toward the effectiveness of the assessment tools on Blackboard. However, they believe that there are some challenges related to technical issues, and some EFL students have mentioned that they face difficulties related to the essay tests on Blackboard.

A Needs Analysis for English as a Foreign Language Instruction for Thai Senior Secondary School Students with Hearing Impairment

At present, English holds a significant importance in numerous countries worldwide, including Thailand where learning English is compulsory for students. For students with hearing impairment, however, due to their physical limitations, English instruction is different from that of other students. Additionally, students with hearing impairment have different and specific needs for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction. To design and develop an appropriate EFL course for them, we collected 68 questionnaires from Thai senior secondary school students at two schools for the deaf in Bangkok, Thailand, and 15 from stakeholders including Thai EFL teachers and executives at schools for the deaf in Bangkok, sign language interpreters, and Thai officers from the Special Education Bureau. Then, eight senior secondary school students with hearing impairment and six stakeholders were randomly selected for an interview, and eight structured classroom observations were made at the two schools for the deaf in Bangkok. The data were then quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed and reported using a weaving approach. The findings revealed a wealth of both implications and recommendations (i.e., in course content, schedule management, instructional activities, methods and materials, instructional languages, teacher roles, classroom setting and environment, and assessment) useful for developing a proper EFL course for Thai senior secondary school students with hearing impairment.

Impact of Listening and Reading Skills Transfer on Speaking Accuracy, Fluency and Complexity of Iranian EFL Learners

Introduction: Over the past decades, enhancing learners’ speaking ability has been a major challenge for teachers and educators of English as a foreign language (EFL). Therefore, the current study aimed to see if reading and listening can boost students’ speaking ability in the process of skills transfer. Methodology: To explore the impact of reading and listening skills transfer on enhancing speaking accuracy, fluency, and complexity, two groups of EFL learners underwent a four-month intervention in which the effects of reading and listening skills on speaking ability were evaluated. One group was exposed to text, and the other group received audio input. Both groups gave summaries after working on different textual and audio tasks. After four months of treatment, both classes took a posttest. Results: The results showed that reading and listening, as a medium of input, boosted the speaking ability of learners. However, the class receiving listening input enjoyed a higher mean value in accuracy, fluency, and complexity and outperformed the class exposed to reading input. Conclusion: This study highlights the role of skills transfer theory while providing evidence for educators and practitioners to incorporate integrated skills practice when designing EFL courses.

Exploring Pedagogical Approach in EFL Courses Based on Bilingual Parallel Corpus

This paper is to examine the feasibility of bilingual parallel corpus as a data-driven approach targeting to comprehensively enhance English competence of EFL (English as a foreign language) learners. In particular, corpus turns out to be functional of assisting EFL learners in acquiring high-frequency words and the collocation and colligation, indicating that corpus can be considered to be optional in pedagogy, as well. Bilingual parallel corpus, more importantly, provides learners with an ideal tool to focus on the translation techniques based on the function of comparing the same words or similar conceptions in corpora of two languages, providing authentic texts to expound translation theories, terminologies and techniques. In addition, corpus implies the use of improving learners comprehension of original texts, further the reading proficiency. It also helps to extend the scope of reading based on the large quantity of authentic materials.

Analyzing learner profiles in a microlearning app for training language learning peer feedback skills

Peer feedback can be described as the act of one learner evaluating the performance of another learner. It has been shown to impact student learning and achievement in language learning contexts positively. It is a skill that can be trained, and there have been calls for research on peer feedback training. Mobile microlearning is a type of technology-enhanced learning which is notable for its short duration and flexibility in the time and place of learning. This study aims to evaluate how an asynchronous microlearning app might improve students’ skills for providing peer feedback on spoken content in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) education. This study used convenience sampling and a quasi-experimental single-group pre-/post- research design. Japanese university students (n = 87) in an EFL course used the Pebasco asynchronous microlearning app to practice peer feedback skills. The students’ app usage data were used to identify five behavioral profiles. The pattern of profile migration over the course of using Pebasco indicates that many participants improved or maintained desirable patterns of behavior and outcomes, suggesting a positive impact on the quality of peer feedback skills and second-language (L2) skills, as well as the ability to detect L2 errors. The findings also suggest improvements that can be made in future design iterations. This research is novel because of a current lack of research on the use of no-code technology to develop educational apps, particularly in the context of microlearning for improving peer feedback skills in EFL.

The Sociocultural Perspective on the Use of L1 as a Supporting Tool for EFL Learning

Many English as a Foreign language (EFL) teachers think that a target language should be solely used as a medium of instruction to allow the learners to immerse in the target language. However, in the learning process, the learners learn about the language content and other cognitively-related skills such as discussion, reasoning, and evaluation to complete the tasks. Some tasks could be more challenging to understand, discuss, explain, or complete in learners’ foreign language because they might need higher competence and fluency in the target language. This article attempts to review socioculturally informed research on the use of L1 in L2 or EFL classes and the features of English as a foreign language. The advantages of utilizing L1 in EFL courses will next be covered. The article will conclude with some advice that EFL teachers might utilize to increase their students’ productivity in EFL classes by utilizing L1 as a supporting tool for language learning.

The Effectiveness of an Online Language Course during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Students’ Perceptions and Hard Evidence

The aim of this study is to analyse the delivery of an online English language course taught at the Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping during the COVID-19 pandemic with the ultimate purpose of identifying those features which could be applied to a prospective blended English as a foreign language (EFL) course in the future. The rationale behind this research is a necessity to redesign the existing language education programme at the University which is outdated and far from being digital. By applying the Mashaw model of evaluating the effectiveness of an online course, the authors analyse the results of the survey carried out among a focus group of 22 students from the radio engineering department of the Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping. In the end, the authors identify the points for further consideration in the process of developing a prospective blended EFL course.

Determinants of student performance with mobile‐based assessment systems for English as a foreign language courses

AbstractBackgroundMobile‐based assessment has been an active area of research in the field of mobile learning. Prior research has demonstrated that mobile‐based assessment systems positively affect student performance. However, it is still unclear why and how these systems positively affect student performance.ObjectivesThis study aims to identify the determinants of student performance during students' use of a mobile‐based assessment application in a formative assessment activity as part of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses in higher education.MethodsA structural model based on hypotheses was validated using PLS‐SEM with data from the interaction of 127 students of eight EFL courses from the A1 and A2 levels of English that used a mobile‐based assessment system for a period of 4 weeks. Automatic data collection in the application and self‐reported instruments were applied.Results and ConclusionsUse of scaffolding mechanisms, time on‐task and reported effort are strong predictors of students' learning outcomes. The use of scaffolding strategies predicts students' time on‐task. The provision of corrective feedback is not a predictor of students' learning performance but predicts other constructs such as perceived usefulness and the behavioural intention to use.ImplicationsMobile‐based assessment systems should include scaffolding mechanisms and integrate strategies to increase the perceived relevance of the formative assessment activity to increase the student learning performance. Scaffolding mechanisms are also useful to increase the student time on‐task in the formative assessment activity. In mobile‐based formative assessment activities more elaborated forms of feedback other than corrective feedback are needed to increase student performance.

Designing for a Production-Oriented Approach to Blended Learning in English Language Teaching

Blended learning has been proven to yield benefits and pose challenges to teachers and students. To address the problems in the blended learning design of the previous offering of English as a foreign language (EFL) courses, this study aims to create a better instructional design for an upgraded EFL course integrating multiple MOOCs by strengthening synchrony-asynchrony cohesion and enhancing the stimulation of asynchronous learning activities. The production-oriented approach (POA) was adopted as the framework for the instructional design of the course. After the upgraded course was offered, a questionnaire survey was conducted among the students to investigate their perceptions of the course, and two tests were administered to measure their learning outcomes. The results showed a highly positive attitude toward the POA-guided blended learning design and significant progress in the overall quality of students' interpreting.

Online and Face-to-Face English as a Foreign Language Proficiency in Morocco: The Case of the Moroccan Baccalaureate Students during the Covid

Due to the outbreak and alarming spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a recognized need for alternative ICT-based methods like online and blended methods of teaching school topics, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in particular. It seems that this sudden transition to emergency remote teaching has presented a number of challenges and constraints for EFL practitioners, as well as opportunities throughout all the cycles of the Moroccan education system. In Morocco, EFL learning specifically has become of vital importance. Research on the status of English proficiency and input from an online or distance learning perspective, nonetheless, is scarce and focuses mainly on face-to-face learning and hardly on the impact of online and blended learning on language proficiency in EFL. However, the effectiveness of learning EFL in the Moroccan context - such as English as a foreign language fully online in the Moroccan education system has yet to be uncovered. The principal objective of this paper was to investigate whether learning EFL fully online can be as effective as learning it fully face-to-face. A quantitative methodological approach was adopted. Independent sample t-tests were carried out to compare online and face-to-face learners’ performance in Moroccan secondary schools in a Baccalaureate-level EFL course in the Regional Academies of Casablanca-Settat and Beni-Mellal-Khenifra, Morocco. The key variables ‘age’, ‘gender’, ‘learning outcomes’, ‘the residential environment’, ‘access to Internet’, ‘Net connection availability’ & ‘digital device used’ are controlled. The main findings, wherein the t-value of the seven subtests represented a mean difference of 31,380 in the fully face-to-face group and -17,582 in the fully online group, indicated that online EFL learning in Baccalaureate education cannot be at least as effective as face-to-face EFL learning. This study should, therefore, be of value to language course providers wishing to implement flexible EFL learning and to, broadly speaking, course designers and practitioners and computer-assisted language learning researchers.

A Comparison of Learning Outcomes Between EFL Course Delivery Modes

This paper reports on a mixed-methods classroom study that compared the effectiveness of three adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course delivery modes –face-to-face group classes, face-to-face one-to-one tuition, and online self-study –for language learning. Learning outcomes from learners’ language-related episodes (LREs), instances in which students “talk about the language they are producing, question their language use, or other-or self-correct” (Swain “Focus on Form” 70) were observed as learners completed the same task in their respective course delivery modes: learner-learner dyads in face-to-face classes, learner-teacher dyads in one-to-one classes, and individuals in online self-study. Learning was operationalized in two ways: firstly, by identifying instances of microgenetic development -that is, observable changes in a learner’s knowledge –within learners’ LREs; and secondly, by analysing responses to a delayed post-test. The results indicate that significantly more microgenetic development took place in one-to-one interaction between teachers and learners, which was characterised by scaffolded support and learner uptake, than in pair-work or self-study. While little microgenetic development was evident in the think-aloud protocols ofself-study learners, the methodological constraint of employing a think-aloud protocol to observe individual LREs may have made observing development more difficult. Learners’ post-test responses revealed that one-to-one and self-study learners attempted a significantly higher proportion of test items relating toLREs produced in the task than group learners, suggesting stronger associations between languaging and learning in teacher-learner interaction and independent study than in pair-work. Pedagogical recommendations are proposed for maximisinglearning potential in all three modes.

Foreign Language Enjoyment, Foreign Language Anxiety, and Achievement in an EFL Course at a Korean University

This study aims to discover if there are relationships among Korean university students’ emotions of foreign language anxiety (FLA), foreign language enjoyment (FLE), and foreign language achievement and if those relationships were affected by gender. The 456 participants completed shortened versions of the foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS) and the foreign language enjoyment scale (FLES). Correlation analyses show that FLE is significantly and positively correlated with foreign language achievement and that FLA is significantly and negatively linked to foreign language achievement. Multiple regression analyses further revealed that FLE exerts a stronger influence on foreign language achievement than FLA, and, interestingly, the effect of FLE is greater for male students, which suggests that male students earned much lower grades when their FLE is low while the difference is much smaller for female students. The results of this study bear important implications for English education, suggesting that to improve foreign language achievement, English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors should strive to lower the FLA and increase the FLE of their students and that the role of FLE can be significantly more important for male students in Korea.

Sustained Content Language Teaching: Insights from an ESL and EFL course

Instructional settings (English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL)) may provide different opportunities for learners’ meaningful language use. This qualitative study was designed to shed light on this issue. The data included multiple sources collected from a sustained content gastronomy language course taught in an American ESL and a Taiwanese EFL context. Findings revealed that various factors (e.g., themes, environment, and learners) contributed to learners from both contexts meeting course goals. The findings further indicate that it is not the ESL/EFL context but instead using a sustained content language teaching approach that incorporates theme-based instruction and dynamic units that ensures learners are provided opportunities for meaningful and purposeful language use.

Understanding, Investigating, and promoting deep learning in language education: A survey on chinese college students' deep learning in the online EFL teaching context

This study aims to (1) develop and validate the four-dimension model hypothesis of deep learning to better understand deep learning in language education; (2) investigate and promote deep learning by conducting a survey involving 533 college students in the online learning English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching context in China. Concretely, this study initially synthesized theoretical insights from deep learning in the education domain and related theories in the second language acquisition and thus proposed the four-dimension model hypothesis of deep learning involving the motivation of deep learning, the engagement of deep learning, the strategy of deep learning, and the directional competence of deep learning. This study subsequently undertook a questionnaire survey utilizing a standardized instrument to confirm the model hypothesis and further investigate the current status and salient differences in students' deep learning in online EFL teaching. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmation factor analysis (CFA), and Pearson's correlation test validated a positively correlated four-dimension model of deep learning with high composite reliability and good convergent validity. Moreover, the descriptive and inferential statistics revealed that the level of students' deep learning marginally reached the median, with the lowest mean of directional competence and the highest mean of motivation; students manifested more instructional motives, neglect of deploying skilled-based cognitive strategies, and deficiency of language application skills, etc.; there existed some significant differences between deep learning and four sub-dimensions across the grade, English proficiency, EFL course, and vision groups. Eventually, this study proffered primary reasons and five appropriate strategies to scaffold and promote students' deep learning in online EFL teaching. Hopefully, this study will be a pioneering effort to clear away the theoretical muddle of deep learning construct in language education and be illuminating to further improve effectiveness in the online EFL teaching context.