English-major Learners Research Articles

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.

The Implementation of Telegram in Reading Class to Improve Students’ Skimming and Scanning Skills

Skimming and scanning are important reading strategies that allow individuals to quickly gather information from written materials. With the advance of digital communication platforms, like Telegram improving students' scanning and skimming skills has become increasingly relevant. While the utilization of technological resources in reading and teaching English has been examined in different settings, there is a need to investigate the potential of Telegram as a specific tool for enhancing skimming and scanning abilities. This research uses both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. The respondents in the research are 40 English major learners. The protocols to gather the data were questionnaires and interviews. The study suggests that utilizing Telegram can help students to improve their motivation and engagement, which can further enhance the learning process. Exploring the future implications of employing Telegram requires more investigation, especially for skimming as well as scanning development, as well as its incorporation across different age groups and academic contexts. Nonetheless, the results of the research offer insightful information into the integration of digital communication platforms as effective tools for improving reading strategies, paving the way for innovative approaches to enhance literacy skills in the digital era.

Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by Saudi Female EFL Learners

The present study aimed at investigating vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) applied by ten adult female EFL learners at Taif University, Saudi Arabia. In addition, it explored how the current widespread of internet-assisted tools have influenced vocabulary learning strategies and how participants treat new words after encountering them. The data of this study consists of a mixed-methods approach. First, introspective and retrospective verbal reports of ten English-major learners who met new vocabulary while reading a passage. Secondly, in the interview stage, participants were asked about how the internet and mobile resources affect how they approach new words and their lexical knowledge/size. Furthermore, they were asked if they follow specific strategies to commit new vocabulary to memory. The findings of this research showed that the participants used similar vocabulary learning strategies. During the reading task, the most preferred strategy was guessing the meaning of the words from the context. Consulting a monolingual or bilingual dictionary was the second most used strategy, while the least used strategy was asking the teacher to discover the meaning of the unknown words. Participants in this study reported that they prefer memory strategies over cognitive strategies. Moreover, they said that the accessibility of internet learning tools has contributed to increasing their vocabulary size and lexical knowledge.

Language teachers’ interpersonal learner-directed emotion-regulation strategies

The regulation of language learners’ emotions by affective, or emotion-regulation strategies has received limited research attention. This gap is being filled among others by researchers who have developed and are applying a new research tool called Managing Your Emotions for Language Learning (MYE). It is based on the vignette methodology to investigate both positive and negative language learner emotions, emotion-regulation strategies that language learners employ, and language teachers’ interpersonal learner-directed emotion-regulation strategies used in a range of familiar language learning situations. In this study teachers’ interpersonal emotion-regulation strategies and their learner- and teacher-perceived effectiveness were investigated by means of MYE ( n = 64: English-major learners) and semi-structured interviews with learners ( n = 16) and teachers ( n = 9). The results revealed a rich context- and participant-dependent list of language teachers’ interpersonal emotion-regulation strategies, the frequency of which was perceived differently by language learners and teachers, who, however, agreed on their good effectiveness. The strategies belonging to the categories of ‘cognitive change’, ‘situation modification’ and ‘competence enhancement’ were used the most often, but some gaps in teachers’ strategic repertoires were also identified. Pedagogy-wise, MYE seemed to be suitable for closing the gap between learners’ and teachers’ perspectives on teachers’ learner-directed emotion-regulation strategy use. Teachers and their pedagogical practice would benefit from training in the area of emotion-regulation strategies and support of educational authorities.

The Effect of Listening Strategy Instruction on Second Language Listening Anxiety and Self-Efficacy of Iranian EFL Learners

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of listening strategy instruction on second language (L2) listening comprehension ability, listening anxiety, and listening self-efficacy of Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. To this end, a sample of 52 English major learners of two intact classes from a university in Iran was employed as the participants of the study. The intact groups were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group ( N = 27) received the listening strategy instruction based on the framework proposed by Yeldham and Gruba, whereas the participants in the control group ( N = 25) were instructed traditionally without receiving any strategy instruction. To collect the required data, the listening section of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS), and Second Language Listening Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (SLLSQ) were administered to assess the listening comprehension, listening anxiety, and listening self-efficacy of the learners before and after the intervention. The findings of the study indicated that listening strategy instruction significantly improved learners’ listening comprehension ability and reduced learners’ L2 listening anxiety. However, it was revealed that listening strategy intervention failed to significantly improve L2 listening self-efficacy of the learners. In light of the gained results, the implications of this study are discussed with respect to L2 teachers, learners, and curriculum developers.

A Review of Self-efficacy of Learners through Online Learning

E‐learning has been adopted as the alternative learning mode across the board during COVID‐ 19 pandemic to persist academic activities due to nationwide closures. Self-efficacy plays a mediated role in and is positively correlated with academic achievements of distance education. Objective factors (online connection, online learning experience and knowledge, online classroom environment, and others) and subjective factors (learning attitudes of students, interaction among students, online teaching capability of teachers, emotion and psychological states and others), influence by and large self-efficacy of learners who conduct online education. Additionally, different measurements of self-efficacy are discussed, with the result that Questionnaire of English Self-Efficacy (QESE) is a professional and valid tool to measure self-efficacy of English-major learners. There is such a paucity of studying learners’ self-efficacy via e-learning that this paper fills the gap to study the topic.

The Impact of Discourse Marker Instruction on Fluency, Accuracy, and Complexity Improvement of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of discourse marker (DM) instruction on fluency, accuracy, and complexity improvement of Iranian intermediate EFL learner’s writing. To this aim, among the two hundred forth year English major learners in Dezful university, Iran, fifty of them who were in the intermediate level, based on the scoring system of the university, were recruited. They were given a topic to write before intervention. Then, the fifty participants passed through twenty-hour instruction on micro and macro DMs, based on Belles-Furtuno’s (2004) classification of discourse markers. The mentioned classification included both sentential and supra sentential markers. In the process of explicit instruction (EI) of DMs, they were given various exercises and activities to apply DMs and learn the function and usage of these units and input flood (IF) was performed along with corrective feedback (CF) with the help of the teacher with their mistakes and misunderstandings of DMs. After intervention, they were given another topic to write to examine if EI+IF of DMs could help them improve fluency, accuracy, and complexity of their writing. To quantify the results the Wolfe-Quintero (1998) method was used and it was unveiled that all the three components of writing improved after intervention, which practically means instruction of DMs could enhance learner’s writing in the three aspects. The findings can be used by teachers and syllabus designers to consider DMs as one of the most crucial components in writing courses.

Learning English as a Second Language: Bangladeshi English-major Learners within intra-cultural Power Relationship

Deficiencies in English-major learners’ academic participation lead to question whether intra-cultural power relationship is responsible for learning English as a second language. Here different kinds of influences within an English L2 society like Bangladesh have been investigated which was previously analysed by researchers from inter-cultural perspective. This paper aims at explaining the possible connection of power relations and influence of society by analysing the position of English language among Bangladeshi English-major learners as a program of higher education and its interrelation with the idea of knowledge. This process will show how an individual is bound to think about English language positively in the process of their growing up within intra-cultural power relationship. As learners are interviewed individually to express and share their views and experiences, classroom practitioners for tertiary level learners will get an internal reinforcement of learners in learning English as second language, and, as a part of reflective practice, they will be able to create situations for increasing learners’ academic participation.

The impact of reflective writing paper on non-English major learners’ autonomy in the context of Vietnam

The article aims to investigate the impact of the reflective writing paper on non- English major learners’ learning autonomy in a Vietnamese context. The data was collected by means of questionnaire, competence tests and interviews. The participants did two reflective writing papers as an intervention during the research. The research results show the possibilities for teachers to modify their teaching methods through analysis of feedback from the subjects. The findings showed that most participants appreciated the role of the reflective writing paper and they were aware of the significance of learning autonomy in their study process. Journal of NELTA, Vol. 17 No. 1-2, December 2012, Page 104-128 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v17i1-2.8102