Major English Language Research Articles

Tiktok Lexical Contents in Use: Attitudes among Bachelor of Arts in English Language (ABEL) Students

The rise of TikTok as an educational tool has opened new avenues for vocabulary development among its users. This study explored the vocabulary levels and attitudes of 90 first- and second-year AB English Language (ABEL) students towards TikTok videos containing vocabulary content. Participants engaged voluntarily in a mixed-method research design, incorporating pretests and posttests, treatment, and interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using T-tests, frequency, and percentage, while qualitative data underwent thematic analysis to uncover participants' cognitive, affective, and behavioral attitudes. The findings revealed a notable improvement in the participants' vocabulary knowledge, as demonstrated by higher posttest scores following the use of TikTok videos. Despite some challenges with the application, participants generally held positive attitudes towards the treatment, recognizing its contribution to their vocabulary enhancement. The study suggests that both English teachers and students could effectively use TikTok videos with lexical content for vocabulary teaching and learning. Additionally, the study highlights the potential for future research to investigate the role of TikTok videos in aiding non-English speakers with foreign language acquisition and other language skills, as this study focused solely on vocabulary development among English language majors.

Perspectives of Language-Major Students at a Higher Education Institution on the Activities of Foreign Language Clubs in Improving Their Speaking Skills

Beyond classroom learning, extracurricular activities also hold significant weight in strengthening students' knowledge and abilities. For language majors, extracurricular involvement, particularly in university clubs, can significantly enhance their language skills through practice. A quantitative research method was employed using a questionnaire distributed to a university's English and Chinese language majors. The findings emphasized the importance of language clubs in supporting students' development in speaking English and Chinese. Informed by relevant theory and survey data, the research team observed that these clubs operate effectively, offering many benefits such as improved reaction time for language learners, increased motivation for studying the language, opportunities for practical application, and a boost in both initiative and confidence during communication. Utilizing student feedback, the authors delve into a discussion on the role and effectiveness of language clubs for participants. This discussion then paves the way for recommendations to further enhance the effectiveness of these clubs in the future.

Factors Contributing to Academic Boredom among English-Major Students at Nong Lam University Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Academic boredom can detrimentally impact students' motivation, engagement, and academic performance. Recognizing the challenges faced by English-major students at Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh city, the authors of this paper conducted a study to investigate the underlying factors contributing to academic boredom within this specific academic context. A quantitative research method was employed in the current study to investigate the antecedents of academic boredom among the English-majored students. The population of this study consists of 427 English language majors at Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A convenience sampling method was utilized. Correlation and regression analyses were used to explore the relationships between the antecedent factors and academic boredom among students. The findings reveal a combination of internal and external factors contributing to boredom. It was also found that the most common causes of boredom are the students’ attitude toward their learning and the university’s environment while no significant correlation was observed between the level of boredom and teaching contents, teaching methods and pedagogical style. Some implications concerning how to reduce EFL classroom boredom are also presented in this paper.

Research on Optimization Algorithms for Educational Development of Foreign Language Teachers in Colleges and Universities under the Perspective of Digital Intelligence Empowerment

Abstract The concept of digitalization and intelligence is constantly emerging with the rapid development of information technology, and the in-depth integration of digital intelligence empowerment and teacher education development has garnered significant attention. In this paper, we first examine the stage of teacher development under digital empowerment, tracing the path of teacher education development. We then construct the digital and intelligent TPACK model, as well as the model of teacher education development ability. Subsequently, we adopt a BP neural network to evaluate teacher education development and optimize it using a genetic algorithm. After testing the model, we develop a teacher education development evaluation system based on the GA-BP algorithm, which we then apply and analyze. This paper’s optimized model reduced absolute and relative errors by 418.281 and 3.53%, respectively, compared to the traditional model, and improved the overall goodness of fit by 0.0144. Following the implementation of the system in this paper, the teacher assessment analysis revealed an average teaching ability score of 89.75 for teachers majoring in Japanese foreign language, and 90.26 for those majoring in English foreign language. Notably, the average level of English foreign language majors and their various dimension levels were both higher. Secondly, foreign language teachers with two years of training have an average teaching ability score of 91.32, which is 5.07 points higher than those with only one year of training. It proves the effectiveness of the practical application of this system, and this paper also provides suggestions for the development of teacher education by both teachers and schools, which is of practical significance for the optimization and improvement of foreign language teachers’ education in colleges and universities.

Evaluating social media platforms as predictors for vocabulary attrition

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of various predictors on foreign language vocabulary attrition. Uniquely, it introduces social media platforms as a new predictor to vocabulary attrition. The study examined a population of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) Saudi English major learners from two different universities in Saudi Arabia over three distinct periods, spanning both during and after the cessation of formal education. The participants were initially taught using traditional teaching methods in a reading course. Upon completing their formal education, they were included in WhatsApp and Telegram groups, where they were engaged in bimonthly language activities, with special focus on vocabulary, for eighteen months to enhance their exposure to the vocabulary they had studied during their undergraduate studies as English language majors. The findings revealed that participants reported six opportunities to use English vocabulary (in online games, while browsing the internet, in WhatsApp and Telegram groups, in watching movies, in private courses, and in college courses) with varying levels of interaction. The levels declined at a relatively slow rate, especially after graduation. Notably, the use of social media platforms demonstrated a more effective retention of productive vocabulary, underscoring these platforms as potent predictors of language attrition.

Student Perception towards the Importance of Cultural Knowledge in Intercultural Communication

A trend that is unavoidable in an era of widespread international integration across numerous professions is intercultural communication. Cultural understanding is crucial for assessing the success of communication efforts when interacting with people from different cultures. The purpose of this study, which was carried out at a university in Hanoi, was to ascertain the degree to which students recognised the value of cultural knowledge in cross-cultural communication. To gather information, a Google Form questionnaire was created and given to first- and second-year English language majors. The findings indicate that even though the students who responded to the survey believed they were competent in cross-cultural communication, their proficiency was still quite low. Although they grasp the significance of language, they fail to recognise the extralinguistic components of communication, such as social norms and nonverbal cues. In order to better prepare students for their interactions with the outside world, the author of the article suggests that cultural knowledge content be integrated into instructional programmes and that learners’ understanding of the importance of cultural knowledge be further enhanced.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE ASSOCIATIVE NETWORKS OF RECENT NOMINAL ANGLICISMS OF SERBIAN AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJORS

The aim of this paper is to compare the associative networks of Serbian and English majors to determine possible links between the advanced study of EFL in an academic setting and the conceptualization of select monosemic recent nominal Anglicisms in Serbian. The study included an online questionnaire consisting of 80 stimuli, being 40 pairs of recent nominal Anglicisms and their Serbian equivalents, which were distributed to 100 respondents. The questionnaire required free and discrete associations. The results indicated a strong tendency of English language majors towards synonyms as responses to the Anglicisms, confirming existing claims that EFL proficiency leads to their more frequent occurrence. The English majors also showed a prevalence of hyponyms as lexemes with a more specific meaning as responses to the Anglicisms, as opposed to the Serbian majors, who opted for hypernyms. A diverse range of encyclopedic responses and hapax legomena were noted for the English majors, while an increased occurrence of no responses was noted for the Serbian majors. These findings support the existing claim that fewer responses are usually provided for L2 cues when compared to L1 cues. They further tie in with the conclusion that EFL proficiency is a key component in Word Association Tasks (WATs). Our analysis of prototypes and Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMs) as stable and abstract representations of our non-linguistic knowledge, identified among the associative responses, also proved that the types of responses of the English majors differ from those of the Serbian majors, in that the former opted for more specific and precise meanings in their descriptions of the select Anglicisms

Mixing paper and digital: 2020 online summer English drama kamishibai workshop

This paper discusses the results of an intervarsity picture kamishibai1-storytelling workshop that integrated communication skills and art via the online real-time conference system, Zoom©. As in previous years, the goal of the annual summer drama workshop was to support the participants’ communication and leadership skills. In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic however, the chief purpose of the 2020 Online Summer English Drama Kamishibai Workshop was to support the mental well-being of students. Thirteen low-to-intermediate level English language students, both English language majors and non-majors from three different universities in Japan worked together for the workshop project in three 90-minute online slots over two days in August 2020. After learning the basic theory and techniques of the storytelling art, students were divided into groups to create their original English kamishibai story to perform online. In the preparation stage, each student created their own work using simple A4 paper sheets and pens, and these were amalgamated with other members of their group to form a coherent narrative. At the end of the third session, each group presented their work on Zoom©, and these performances demonstrated the students’ creativity through unique plots and characters. Their feedback indicated that they developed stress-tolerance and resilience, both features of negative capability.

Kitartás és érdeklődés a nyelvtanulásban

The aim of this paper is to investigate English majors’ grit-related dispositions and their relationships to motivation and language learning emotions. The importance of this study lies in the fact that general motivation-related investigations could not explain some of the problems of language education in Hungary (Csizér, 2020) and we think that a more specific view on long-term issues pertaining to motivation, such as students’ levels of grit, might be beneficial to teachers and researchers alike. We used a standardized questionnaire to answer our research questions and employed a sample of English language majors (N = 331). The main results of our study show that participants’ motivation and grit were of medium strength, which is somewhat surprising given the sample of our study. In terms of correlations, grit correlated with emotions significantly but only at medium level. Based on our results, it seems that grit, especially, language-domain specific grit should be an important component of future studies and more care should be taken to investigate long-term motivation and its effects. Future studies could map this issue qualitatively and explore other populations as well.

Peter Adkins. The Modernist Anthropocene: Nonhuman Life and Planetary Change in James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Djuna Barnes

1922 is widely regarded as an annus mirabilis of modernism: the year of Ulysses, The Waste Land, Jacob’s Room, and a host of other texts, literary and otherwise, hoisted up by modernist scholars for the purpose of centennial reckonings. One book that seems to have remained in the dusty shadows during the 2022 commemorations, though, is R. L. Sherlock’s Man as a Geological Agent. Sherlock, a geographer at Cambridge University, presciently recognized that ‘Man’s action on Nature has two aspects: a geological and a biological one’. Nearly 80 years before Paul Crutzen declared to a conference room full of earth systems scientists that ‘we’re in the… the… the Anthropocene!’, Sherlock knew that human industry had already made a measurable impact on the planet’s ecosystems, climates, and geological features. The human signature was written in the ‘mines, quarries, civic infrastructure, roads, railways, waterways, coastal developments, agriculture and forestry’ that changed more than just the surface of the earth. I first learned of Sherlock’s work while reading Peter Adkins’ The Modernist Anthropocene. Adkins’ book is a critical study of how three major English language novelists registered the kinds of environmental changes that Sherlock understood to be an anthropogenic re-engineering of nature itself. James Joyce, Djuna Barnes, and Virginia Woolf ‘intuited the idea of the Anthropocene,’ argues Adkins, just as much as Sherlock and a few other discerning scientists did. Their experiments in novel form mediated ‘new structures of subjectivity’ that were not just modern—they were Anthropocenic.

SEMANTIC FEATURES OF STANCE TAKING: AN ANALYSIS OF L1 SERBIAN/L2 ENGLISH WRITING AT THE TERTIARY LEVEL

Stance taking is a topic of some interest in the L2 English language teaching and learning com- munity. So far it has been analyzed in a variety of foreign languages. In the Serbian linguistic environment, it has been the focus of studies carried out by Blagojević (2004, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012), and Veličković and Danilović Jeremić (2020, 2021), inter alia. Some of the reasons why it is a topic of interest are the various types of stance that can be assumed and the various types of both syntactic and lexical units that can be used to convey it. It is also a component of L2 writing that needs to be explicitly addressed in the EFL classroom. With that in mind, the aim of this study is to continue with the work previously done on a variety of syntactic units used to convey stance in the L1 Serbian/L2 English environment, by extending it to include lexical/ semantic features associated with stance taking. In particular, the focus will be on adjectival and verbal collexemes (as per Wang et al. 2022), in combination with the introductory it-pattern. The analysis will be carried out on a corpus of expository essays written by fourth-year English language majors attending the University of Niš. The results should shed further light on where proficient L1 Serbian students of English stand on this particular topic, and combined with previous results, will clarify which steps need to be taken further.

L2 ENGLISH ARTICLE SUPPLIANCE AMONG TERTIARY LEVEL STUDENTS: THE IMPACT OF SPECIFICITY

The aim of this paper was to determine the role of specificity in the English article suppliance of L1 Serbian speakers. Its impact on the suppliance of the definite article (the), the indefinite article (a/an), and the zero article (Ɵ) was determined based on a 40-item questionnaire. The items were classified into four groups defined by the combinations of two semantic features: [±specific] and [±definite]. Differences in article suppliance were studied between a group of English and non-English language majors in order to take into account the level of L2 proficiency. The population of L1 Serbian/L2 English speakers was chosen since Serbian is an articleless language and is, unlike English, considered to code specificity. The results indicated statistically significant differences between the participants in terms of correct article suppliance and L2 proficiency in favor of the English language majors. However, no impact of specificity on article suppliance was noted for either group of participants.

Question Types in Lecture Rooms: EFL Setting as an Example

This study aims at exploring the types of questions that English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors and students raised through lecture rooms interaction. The participants of the study consisted of 4 EFL instructors and 60 English Language majors from Ajloun National University / Jordan. Two observation sheets were used to collect data. The Chi-square test (X2) was used to analyze data. The results of this study showed that the total number of questions raised by the instructors was 106, whereas the students raised 73 questions. The instructors used three types of questions: Yes /No questions, closed and display questions and open and referential questions. The results also showed that the number of open and referential questions was low and inadequate. On the other hand, the types of questions raised by students were mainly Yes/No, closed and display. The number of open and referential questions was also low and inadequate similar to the instructors'. There were no statistically significant differences between male and female instructors and students in the number and types of questions raised through classroom interaction due to gender. It was recommended that EFL instructors should raise different types of questions, mainly open and referential ones, to increase lecture room interaction and help students think critically and creatively. Keywords: EFL, Question Types, Classroom questions, Classroom Interaction, Display questions, Open question, Referential questions

Catering for the Audience Needs in English-Arabic Interpreting: The Case Study of Arabicized Words in Conferences

This research sheds light on whether Arab interpreters take into consideration the audience preferences when interpreting Arabicized words in conferences. The researchers selected four groups; three of them are students at Birzeit University majoring in the English language with a minor in translation or English language only, as well as students coming from different majors but not English language majors. Forty contextualized Arabicized words were used in a simulated conference situation, and students were asked to select either the loan words or the loan translations they preferred to hear for the Arabicized words. Five certified interpreters also participated in this study. The results showed that there were clear trends; the English language majors with a minor in translation, as well as the English language majors, opted for the loan translations, while the other students not majoring in English selected the loan words. Finally, the five interpreters supported the loan translation options. Thus, it became clear that those who major in language and or translation tend to prefer loan translation rather than loan words since they think these translations are more formal, more standard, and purer.

The Use of Cooperative Learning in English Writing Teaching

Writing is one of the five major English language skills according to the new English curriculum standards, and writing also reflects the core competence of students in English. English writing ability is a basic skill that students should master in the process of English learning. However, English writing teaching is one of the most difficult and neglected parts of teaching. The current writing teaching model is generally teacher-centered, focusing on results and neglecting process. This teaching method is often time-consuming, and has little effect. Cooperative learning is student-centered, values the learning process of students, and encourages students to help each other, discuss together, and actively participate in writing, thereby inspiring students’ interest in writing. This article analyzes the current researches on cooperative learning abroad and at home, introduces the theory of cooperative learning and its significance in writing teaching, and puts forward suggestions on how to better use cooperative learning in writing teaching.

Using Discourse Based Grammar Teaching to Reduce Grammatical Errors in English Language Majors’ writing

Using Discourse Based Grammar Teaching to Reduce Grammatical Errors in English Language Majors’ writing

A Social Quest for Language and Cultural Capital: Exploring Iranian English Language Majors’ Habitus

This research study was conducted to investigate the most representative characteristics of the habitus developed by academically successful Iranian English majors. Learning a second or foreign language, like many sociocultural practices, from a Bourdieusian perspective, is informed by the interrelation between habitus, field, and cultural capital (CC). Within an exploratory qualitative design, utilizing the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method of both semi-structured and unstructured one-on-one interviews, seven academically successful BA students majoring in English language studies were studied in an attempt to explore their CC and habitus. Each participant was interviewed in 3 separate sessions. The constructivist grounded theory method was adopted to analyze the collected data. Constructed on 75 initial codes, 22 focused codes, 10 categories, and 4 themes, two major themes were most relevantly indicative of theoretical associations with the research problem. The findings suggest that the habitus developed by the English majors in this study was representative of their accumulation of certain forms of CC. Their habitus seemed to have been developed under the influence of their interaction with the mediatory field of learning and majoring in a foreign language. In an exigency-driven social quest for certain forms of cultural capital, the participants’ habitus were majorly characterized and influenced by their strategic accumulation of institutional and social capital, their field-oriented social identities, and their strategic administration of CC in the field. The knowledge developed by the findings of this study can provide useful sociocultural insights into academic achievements of English language majors.

The Sociolinguistic Status Quo of the English Language Departments in Jordan: A Language Planning Perspective

This study aims at investigating the missions and visions of the English departments in Jordan from a language planning perspective. To this end, a questionnaire was developed following Tollefson's model (1989) with a modified version of the instruments used in the previous studies conducted by Al-Abed Al-Haq and Smadi (1996) and Abu Dalbouh (2002). The items of the questionnaire targeted the five main elements of the study: the adequacy of the current objectives of the English departments, the adequacy of the English language courses, the sociolinguistic relation between students and English language, the English department policies, and the potential stakeholders involved in formulating a language planning policy. The questionnaire was distributed to 150 English language majors in three public universities in Jordan. The study concluded that the objectives of the English language departments are theoretical rather than practical, revealing a mismatch between the objectives and plans on the one hand and the outcomes of these departments, on the other. The findings also indicated that the objectives of the English departments are too ambitious and far beyond the needs of the students and the needs of the market; thus, a reconsideration of the policy followed by these departments is urgently needed. Keywords: Language planning and policy, Sociolinguistics, English departments, Missions, Visions, Objectives.

English Language Training Curriculum: An Evaluation from Learner’s Perceptions

This study aimed to investigate EFL students’ perceptions of an English language training curriculum for English language majors at a university in Vietnam. The participants included one hundred attendants of the English language courses in the curriculum. The data were collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The study results reveal that five components of the English language training curriculum for English language majors at the university (including objective, content, material, teaching method, and assessment) have not yet been done at optimum, as perceived by the students. The participants also suggest making certain modifications in the five components of the curriculum to make it more effective and better adjusted to the learners’ needs. Several important implications and recommendations relevant to the field have also been included.

The Effect of Using Web-Quest strategy on Developing Reading Comprehension Performance for EFL Students, October 6 University

Abstract: The main aim of this study is to measure the effect of using web-quest strategy on developing reading comprehension performance for EFL students. The study participants were English majors at the Faculty of Education, October 6 University. The study participants involved only third year English language majors who are expected to be highly aware of reading comprehension performance. To collect the required data, a reading test was designed, validated and administered. The administration of the study instruments happened in their second term of the academic year 2019-2020. The participants of the present study were asked to respond to a reading comprehension test (RCT) through using web-quest strategy. Results showed that 45,5% of the study participants were unable to pass the reading comprehension test (RCT) while, 54.5% were able to pass the reading comprehension test (RCT).Finally, some suggestions and recommendations were proposed to improve reading comprehension performance through using web-quest strategy.