ESL Setting Research Articles

Impact of a Thematic Writing and Communication Course on Students’ Perception of World Englishes

A study conducted at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) assessed the impact of a Writing and Communication (WnC) course titled Genesis of World Englishes on first-year students' perceptions of World Englishes, specifically focusing on comprehensibility, intelligibility, and accentedness. The sample consisted of 48 students and it examined changes in their attitudes before and after the course to gauge the effectiveness of the intervention, with a particular emphasis on gender differences in perceptions. It delves into the significance of comprehensibility, intelligibility, and accentedness, considering accentedness as a hindering factor for Non-Native Speakers (NNS). The findings revealed significant improvements in students' acceptance of diverse English accents following the course, supported by statistical analyses demonstrating positive changes. Initial gender-based disparities in perceptions were also observed to diminish post-intervention, highlighting the course's role in promoting equality. The study suggests that targeted educational interventions can play a crucial role in fostering inclusive attitudes toward linguistic diversity, urging policymakers to consider curriculum reforms that integrate such courses to create more accepting educational environments. These insights advocate for embracing diverse accents, aiming to reduce biases and enhance communication among speakers of different English varieties in academic settings. It also encourages communication among interlocutors of various accents in ESL and EFL academic settings to occur without the perception of reducing students’ accentedness to achieve a native like accent. Instead, ESL and EFL students should improve only those segments of their pronunciation which decrease their intelligibility and comprehensibility. The findings emphasize the significance of developing gender-sensitive approaches to ensure equitable learning outcomes. Future studies should expand sample sizes and diversify participants to explore the long-term impacts of these educational strategies further, refining language education policies and teaching pedagogy to better support diversity and inclusivity.

Impact of a Thematic Writing and Communication Course on Students Perception of World Englishes

A study conducted at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) assessed the impact of a Writing and Communication (WnC) course titled Genesis of World Englishes on first-year students perceptions of World Englishes, specifically focusing on comprehensibility, intelligibility, and accentedness. The sample consisted of 48 students and the study examined changes in their attitudes before and after the course to gauge the effectiveness of the intervention, with a particular emphasis on gender differences in perceptions. It delves into the significance of comprehensibility, intelligibility, and accentedness, considering accentedness as a hindering factor for Non-Native Speakers (NNS). The findings revealed significant improvements in students' acceptance of diverse English accents following the course, supported by statistical analyses demonstrating positive changes. Initial gender-based disparities in perceptions were also observed to diminish post-intervention, highlighting the role of the course in promoting equality. The study suggests that targeted educational interventions can play a crucial role in fostering inclusive attitudes toward linguistic diversity, urging policymakers to consider curriculum reforms that integrate such courses to create more accepting educational environments. These insights advocate for embracing diverse accents, aiming to reduce biases and enhance communication among speakers of different English varieties in academic settings. It also encourages communication among interlocutors of various accents in ESL and EFL academic settings to occur without the perception of reducing students' accentedness to achieve a native-like accent. Instead, ESL and EFL students should improve only those segments of their pronunciation which decrease their intelligibility and comprehensibility. The findings emphasize the significance of developing gender-sensitive approaches to ensure equitable learning outcomes. Future studies should expand sample sizes and diversify participants to explore the long-term impacts of these educational strategies further, refining language education policies and teaching pedagogy to better support diversity and inclusivity.

Examining the criterion validity of curriculum-based measurement of writing (CBM-W) with young EFL learners

This study examines the criterion validity of curriculum-based measurement of writing (CBM-W) for assessing the writing of young language learners in an EFL context. CBM-W has been found to have criterion validity with a variety of tests and student populations, including learners in ESL settings taking standardized tests. However, evidence of CBM-W's validity for use with young learners in EFL settings is limited. This study seeks to address this gap by investigating the criterion validity argument for the following CBM-W scoring procedures: words written (WW), words spelled correctly (WSC), correct word sequences (CWS), and correct minus incorrect word sequences (CIWS). The data set included classroom-administered narrative prompt writing samples and official test scores from the Cambridge Assessment English Young Learners exam reading and writing test collected from 51 Taiwanese English learners aged seven to eight. A Bayesian correlation data analysis found a greater probability favoring the criterion validity argument for CWS and WSC, with strong evidence for CWS and moderate evidence for WSC. This study sets the foundation for future research examining the validity argument of CBM-W for evaluating young EFL learners’ writing in research and classroom settings.

Blended Language Learning Strategies used among Religious School Leavers in an English Language Course

Although much research has been done on university students' language learning strategies in EFL and ESL settings, little has been written and said about 21st-century university students and the strategies they use to improve their second language skills. The importance of English in today's world is undeniable suggesting a need to conduct study on the learning strategies used by today's learners, particularly university students, to improve their English language skills. Therefore, the goal of this study is to discover the learning strategies that a group of undergraduates used to learn the language through a blended learning approach. One-to-one semi-structured interviews, focus group interviews, students' reflective journals and documentation were used to collect data, which were then analyzed thematically using Nvivo12 software. A total of 12 first-year undergraduate students from a public university participated in this study. Three themes emerged from the data analysis which are the categories of Blended Language Learning Strategies (BLLS) namely, in-class strategies, out-of-class strategies and online strategies. The findings revealed that when using a blended learning approach to learn English, participants employed a combination of strategies in both contexts - inside the classroom and online settings. Implications and suggestions are offered for instructors or language practitioners, specifically in tertiary education settings.

The pronunciation constraints of syllable stress-coloration in Pakistani English

Pakistani English speakers struggle with pronunciation issues due to unfamiliarity with the morphological and phonological aspects of the English language. The challenging aspect of teaching English pronunciation in an ESL environment in Pakistan is pronunciation. The study looks at Pakistani ESL students' pronunciation problems and aims to pinpoint Pakistani English speakers’ pronunciation issues in an ESL setting. This is a descriptive study, and information from ten ESL students is acquired through recording. The study uses the PRAAT as a framework for data analysis and points to the syllable break and stress marking in PE. Based on L1, the speakers were chosen, and only Kashmiri speakers of Pakistani English were included. The study concludes that studying English helps ESL students speak effectively with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, promoting intercultural understanding and fostering international collaboration. The lack of excitement, self-doubt, willingness, shyness, and language proficiency are the main causes of pronunciation problems. L1 also affects English pronunciation. According to the study, students’ L1 influences lead them to struggle with stress marking, syllabification, and transcription of English words. Additionally, epenthesis, the insertion of a short vowel at the beginning, and improper stress marking were prevalent issues.

Investigating Teachers’ Oral Corrective Feedback and Students’ Uptake in Grade 6 Bhutanese Primary Classrooms

Oral corrective feedback (OCF) plays an important role in language teaching and learning, but little research has examined Bhutanese teachers’ practices of OCF on students’ speaking performance and uptake. This paper reports on a mixed-method approach to investigate the rate of students' uptake on teachers' OCF within an ESL setting in Bhutanese grade six primary classrooms. Convenience sampling was applied to gather data from observations of two teachers and fifty-seven students in a primary school. The results of content analysis from classroom observations indicate that the teachers used four types of OCF: explicit correction, recast, metalinguistic feedback, and repetition, with recast being the highest used. The results showed a high degree of student participation, which resulted in error correction following the teachers' OCF. It is suggested that different classes be studied to see if there are differences in the effects of OCF on students.

Integrating Critical Thinking by P4Cs Into EFL Classes Through Integrated Language Skills

This research aims to provide empirical evidence on the impact of integrating Philosophy for Children (P4C) strategies with English language teaching for EFL learners. While existing studies have extensively outlined the educational benefits of P4C across various educational contexts, limited research focuses on its application in ESL or EFL settings. Therefore, this study investigates the positive effects of integrating P4C into EFL classrooms, specifically in conjunction with integrated language skills activities. A total of 12 students, evenly divided between Istanbul and Muğla, participated in the study. The P4C group engaged in language skills activities integrated with P4C in their classrooms for four weeks, and the impact of these lessons was assessed using questionnaires. The study’s results demonstrate that P4C interventions significantly reduced students’ levels of English speaking anxiety, enhanced their motivation to learn English post-intervention, and improved both their receptive and productive language skills. These findings underscore the potential of P4C integration in EFL instruction, offering promising implications for language pedagogy and learner outcomes.

Does repeated pre-task planning have an impact on form-focused LREs?

Abstract Pre-task planning has been shown to improve fluency and complexity in adult learners’ speech in monologic tasks. Previous work considered pre-task planning in interactive tasks with young children in an ESL setting and reported that, in general, it had an impact on the amount of talk. However, no study so far has considered the impact of planning on the production of language-related episodes (LREs) by young children. This study examined the relationship between planning time and the accurate production of three target form-focused LREs (FFLREs) by thirty-three dyads of 11–12-year-old EFL learners who took part in a longitudinal experiment in which they narrated picture-prompted stories four times under one of three conditions: unguided planning (12 dyads), guided planning (12 dyads), or no-planning (9 dyads). Results showed that no significant improvement in target feature production was observed across weeks or conditions. Regarding accuracy, a notable difference emerged between the pre-test and delayed post-test in the unguided planning condition. Regarding between-group comparisons, although the guided planning group initially demonstrated higher accuracy than their counterparts, this distinction was not maintained. Thus, planning had limited benefits when considering FFLREs. Methodological and pedagogical implications will be discussed.

A Study on the Effectiveness of Learning Strategies in English

This article is concerned with ''learning strategies of English in English Foreign Language setting in Iran. The role of language strategy is to reach or complete a language learning process or language teaching process in target language. It is worth mentioning strategies of learning can be considered as the important factor in learning and teaching target language in order to help determine how language learners learn their target language in EFL or ESL settings. Subjects for this research project were eighty EFL students in the age range of 18 to 24 at under-graduate level in Bushehr Persian Gulf University. The two types of questionnaires were designed to reach the purpose of this study: the first test included age, gender, language attitude and subjects etc. and a learning strategies questionnaire has included a twenty-nine-test adapted from the original willing (1994) survey. However, the Effectiveness of Learning Strategies was revealed in this study.

The Relationship Between Informal and Incidental Learning of Volunteers in Adult ESL and Their Intercultural Maturity

Adult ESL is a high-turnover field, and volunteers are a critical component of the adult ESL workforce. Existing research focuses on learners’ experience in the classroom. There is limited attention to how teachers might change as a result of encountering immigrant learners in adult ESL. The purpose of this study was to understand the informal and incidental learning activities experienced by teachers in adult ESL settings and the impact of the learning on their intercultural maturity development. This study is based on survey data from 212 adult ESL teachers. The results demonstrated that adult ESL presented opportunities for informal and incidental learning for teachers. Both volunteers and paid instructors identified learning from teaching as the most important source of learning. Participation in informal and incidental learning activities was positively correlated with intercultural maturity. Further, organizational support promoted informal and incidental learning.

Comparison of Translanguaging Practices and Ideologies in Secondary and Tertiary ESL Settings in Malaysia: Teachers' Perspective

Prior studies on translanguaging have only focused on either preschool, primary, secondary, or tertiary education levels separately. There is very little research that compares the use of translanguaging across two or more educational levels. To address this paucity, this preliminary study is carried out to explore and compare translanguaging practices and ideologies in Malaysian tertiary and secondary education settings. The study investigated (a) teachers' practices of translanguaging in secondary and tertiary ESL classrooms; and (b) their perspectives on translanguaging in these two different contexts. The pilot study employed a qualitative approach in which two participants consisting of a teacher from a secondary school and a teacher from a public university in Malaysia were interviewed in semi-structured interview sessions. The data were then thematically analysed using Romanowski's (2019) translanguaging strategy framework. Three additional sub-strategies were discovered from the findings and hence added to the framework for analysis. Results show that teachers from both educational settings use translanguaging in all three categories of translanguaging strategies proposed by Romanowski (2019), namely the explanatory, managerial, and interpersonal strategies. Nevertheless, there are differences in the usage of the sub-strategies under each category in secondary and tertiary ESL classrooms. Besides that, while translanguaging is generally accepted as an effective pedagogical tool, to some degree, teachers are still restricted by the monolingual approach in ESL classrooms. The study recommends that teachers in different educational contexts should select the most appropriate translanguaging strategies for their learners and be mindful with their implementation. Keywords: Translanguaging Practices; Teachers’ Perspectives; ESL/EFL Classroom; Secondary and Tertiary Education

PROMOTING METACOGNITION OF READING STRATEGIES IN A HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT IN PAKISTAN

To develop reading skills of students, teachers have been advised to provide metacognitive reading strategy instruction by researchers. However, previous research has provided limited understanding of how teachers could foster metacognition of reading strategies in a ‘real’ classroom setting. Moreover, previous research pre-supposed an a priori list of teaching practices in the lessons and did not take into account the needs of the students and the context during metacognitive reading strategy instruction. Studies facilitating metacognitive reading strategy instruction in an ESL setting are also rare. This paper reports on an action research that provides a detailed data-led understanding of how metacognition of reading strategies could be promoted in an ecologically valid university level ESL classroom setting. The study participants of this study were eight undergraduate university students. Data for the study was collected through learner diaries, interviews, think aloud protocols, note-taking, researcher journal and end of class feedback in two action research cycles over an academic year. The findings revealed that providing explicit instruction and opportunities for collaborative discussion about strategy use as well as promoting students’ interest in reading helped raise students’ awareness, use and regulation of reading strategies. Implications of the study are discussed.

Critical Race Theory in English Language Education

Racism is still exercised in various social, political and academic spheres and remains to be deconstructed by constituting new discourses. One of these deconstructive discourses has been critical race theory which can be regarded as a productive realm where the oppressed individuals or communities have found the opportunity to address socio-political issues and take collective action where necessary. This study aims to incorporate critical race theory, critical antiracist pedagogy, radical pedagogy, critical consciousness and critical resistance into ELT, EFL and ESL settings and curricula since whiteness and white supremacy have been the dominant discourses in the west perceiving whiteness as Self and blackness as Other. A civil society organization, The Critical Resistance Organization, shown as an example of collective action, was introduced to emphasize how the black movement could produce meaningful changes in a given society. ELT departments in Turkey can adopt an inclusive educational policy and radical pedagogy by taking the issue of racism into consideration to open room for a more liberal, equal and just society. The normalizing discourses regarding whiteness ought to be criticized and displaced by adopting the tenets of critical race theory.

A Study on Teacher’s Questioning Practice in an ESL Learning Context in Hong Kong

This empirical study intends to explore the questioning behaviors of an English as a second language (hereinafter referred to as ESL) teacher in Hong Kong by quantitatively looking at the distribution of the two types of questions, namely display questions and referential questions, as well as by qualitatively evaluating the universally accepted functions of the questions and the effectiveness of the modification techniques used to enhance the factual value of the questions. Data-based explorations challenging the traditional views toward questions are critically presented, and new findings are excavated and advocated. Pedagogical implications are considerably raised as they serve as a theoretical framework to be applied and further analyzed in future real-life EFL and ESL settings, so as to realize better assessment for learning.

Alliance Formation During Disagreement in Group Discussion Among ESL Learners

The study examines how disagreement is managed by 32 intermediate level Malay ESL students in a Malaysian higher education setting in group discussion in terms of alliance formation. The group discussions in a group of four on a controversial topic were video-recorded to capture how they manage disagreements through the way they formed alliances among themselves throughout the discussion when they expressed opinions using English. The data analysis involved pragmatics as the approach to analyse speech acts and discourse strategies utilised by the participants when they manage disagreements in the discussion. The findings indicate that the participants draw themselves into alliance with one another using various discourse strategies. They managed disagreement in multiple ways using indirect speech acts, and various discourse strategies that are evident in the alliance-making process. The findings could have implications for future studies researching disagreement discourse. Apart from that, implications are also highlighted in terms of pedagogical approaches, and practices, especially in ESL settings. This encompasses the teaching content (e.g.: the importance of pragmatic competence), methodology (e.g.: useful expressions and strategies), and possible activities (e.g.: group discussion) that are effective in assisting teachers to get students to communicate in ESL classrooms.

The Implementation of Literature Teaching Approaches in the ESL Classroom: A Systematic Review

According to Widowson (1984), teachers are having dilemmas in choosing the right teaching method for the non-native learners. Thus, the methods to teaching literature are constantly changing to suit learners’ needs and differences (Padurean, 2015). This paper aims to highlight on two main objectives. Firstly, it aims to describe the literature teaching approaches applied by teachers in the ESL classroom. Secondly, it intends to elaborate on the challenges in applying appropriate literature teaching approaches in the lesson. This research employs thematic analysis of 22 journal articles related to the teaching and learning of literature in the ESL settings through the use of systematic review approach. Specific samples’ inclusion and exclusion criteria are applied during the screening process of article search and the main platform for sample collection are Scopus and Google Scholar. The distribution of year for the article sampling is set between the years of 2003 to 2021. Important keywords such as ESL teaching strategies, literature teaching approaches, challenges in teaching literature, ESL teaching and learning, and second language pedagogy were used to search for relevant samples. The findings show that there are six approaches to teaching literature that may be applied by the ESL teachers in their classroom, which are the information-based, paraphrastic, stylistic, language-based, reader response and moral philosophical approach. Meanwhile, previous research shows that the challenges to implement appropriate literature teaching approaches are the examination-oriented system, large class size, time constraint, learners’ attitude, poor language competence, and inappropriate texts selection.

Transnational teacher educators’ critical reflection on multilingualism

ABSTRACT This study explored two teacher educators’ understanding of multilingualism and a change in their perception from monolingual native speakerism to multilingualism. Through exchanging the narrative about learning to be a professional and being a teacher educator in ESL and EFL settings, they deepened their understanding of multilingualism and heightened their critical awareness of monolingualism in their local contexts thereby gaining critical insights into the roles of language ideologies. The findings of the study were twofold. Firstly, native speakerism was still working as a dominant view in teacher education and had a great impact on nonnative English teachers’ identities and their teaching confidence. Secondly, critical reflection through narrative writing allowed the participants to reflect on the hidden sociopolitical influences of native speakerism that shape their perceptions and perspectives and reconstruct their identities as multilingual teacher educators. The findings imply the benefits of collaborative narrative for critical reflection on ideologies about race and language and for building empowered professional identities.

A Review on the Proper Integration of Technology into Pedagogical and Content Knowledge in ESL Setting

A Review on the Proper Integration of Technology into Pedagogical and Content Knowledge in ESL Setting

Make It Happen: A Study of Verbal and Non-Verbal Signs Representing Feminism in an English Language Advertisement in ESL Setting

Advertisements are a powerful medium of communication because they often embed social messages in a few words or visuals. One such advertisement is the focus of the current study: Maybelline’s Make It Happen advertisement which conveys strong feministic values via the use of verbal and nonverbal signs. Being a product of mainly women’s interest, the advertisers bank upon the prevalent geopolitics to convey a dominant ideology: Women are equal competitors to men, and they can achieve this without having to forego all that they identify with their ‘being’. The study set out to (1) identify verbal and nonverbal signs in the Maybelline Make it Happen advertisement and (2) examine how the verbal and nonverbal signs present feminism values. The study uses a qualitative method and two theories in analyzing the data: Semiotic Theory by Saussure as cited by Daniel (2002), and Theory of Feminism by Abramovitz (1996). The finding shows that the verbal signs in this advertisement typically use motivating sentences which represent feminism values, while the nonverbal signs use colors, body language, outfits of the models, and the circumstance around the models, all of which play an important role in portraying feminism values.

Mini Texts: A Fusion of Grammar, Communication and Vocabulary Development in CLT (Communicative Language Teaching)

Rich and adequate input is the first and foremost condition for perfect language learning, other important things come later in order to achieve the goal of developing communicative competence in a language learning process in an EFL or ESL setting. In this context, Communicative Language Learning (CLT) is still the most prevalent approach of English language learning/teaching field both in ESL and EFL settings. In EFL settings CLT is adopted nowadays with some reservations. One solution to the drawbacks of CLT is "mini texts" in order to provide rich and adequate language input as they subsume grammar, communication, and most importantly, adequate vocabulary development. Objectives: The main objective is to critically assess the role of mini texts in order to provide rich and adequate language input for language learning. Method: Collaborative action research design was adopted to assess the outcome of teaching "mini texts" under improved communicative approach. Brief written and oral performance tests of class ten students were used as the tools of evaluation. Purposive sampling was used for the selection of thirty schools in three districts of the Kathmandu Valley whereas random sampling was used to select the respondent students of mixed ability for the written and oral performance test. The test items for the test were easy enough to be answered by average students of even lower classes. The test items were based on fixed criteria: different elements of grammatical competence to write and speak correctly, and also on some essential aspects of informal colloquial English used in fast spoken English. Pre-test and Post test were administered in order to compare the result of the traditional teaching with the outcome of the new method teaching with "mini texts" as the primary teaching material to provide optimal and quality language input to the students. Result: The over-all result of the test shows that the learning outcome, in general, is rather frustrating. Let alone government schools where most of the students belong to lower-class unprivileged families, even in private schools, or rather in so called A grade private schools, the condition of the English proficiency from the viewpoint of grammatical competence is rather frustrating. Surprisingly, not a single school could obtain even pass marks whereas same students secure good marks in their national level SEE exam.Conclusion: The current English teaching practice in Nepalese schools is deficient in (i) optimal quality language input, and (ii) suitable teaching methods to produce desirable outcome of English teaching for better learning outcome or better communicative proficiency. Mini texts have come out as an appropriate teaching material to be experimented on a large scale as they subsume essential, grammar points, essential vocabulary stock and also communication-oriented practice exercises.