ESL Setting Research Articles

Why are Some Students Reluctant to Use L2 in EFL Speaking Classes? An Action Research at Tertiary Level

Abstract The focus in ESL/EFL contexts had been on grammar translation for a long time until the modern communicative approaches claiming good communication skills stepped in. Nevertheless, one of the complaints that teachers nowadays make about English oral communication classes is that students are reluctant to speak English. While the students may participate in the class in other skills such as reading, writing and listening, they behave much more unwillingly when it comes to speaking in second language (L2). As Ali (2007) suggests “willing learners in an ESL setting who are unwilling to speak English within and beyond the boundaries of the classroom is not a trivial matter” as it is believed. The level of the students is not an affective factor and the problem exists among ESL/EFL learners from beginning to more advanced levels. Considering that students do not adopt active speech roles in EFL classrooms, an action research was conducted among 22 young adults studying at an English-medium university in an Turkish EFL setting. Data were gathered through likert scale questionnaires and one-to-one semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that several factors such as anxiety, fear of being despised, teacher strategy, and culture were found to influence the reluctance problem among speakers. The present paper brings forth the reasons for reluctance in EFL oral communication classes, learners’ perspective on this issue and provides solutions to the field of second language learning on how to make students willing to participate.

Tracing Developmental Changes Through Conversation Analysis: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis

The descriptive focus of conversation analysis (CA) has not been considered optimal for second language (L2) acquisition research. Recently, however, some CA researchers have addressed the developmental agenda by examining longitudinal data (e.g., Brouwer & Wagner, 2004; Ishida, 2009; Markee, 2008; Pekarek-Doehler, 2010). The present article offers conceptual rationale and analytic demonstrations as to how CA's descriptive analyses contribute to L2 acquisition research with particular focus on English spoken discourse. While a great deal of prior L2 acquisition studies center on changes in L2 forms and functions, CA's emphasis on the sequential organization of spoken language can specify the process by which such developmental changes are occasioned in situated context of L2 use. What matters here is not just the presence of linguistic changes, but the contingent methods L2 speakers deploy in contextually occasioned language use. We present two sets of analyses in order to illustrate the case in point: cross-sectional data for story-prefacing work in an ESL setting, and longitudinal data on topic-shift in an EFL setting.

Contextualizing teacher identity of non-native-English speakers in U.S. secondary ESL classrooms: A Bakhtinian perspective

Research on teacher identity has become increasingly vital to understanding language teachers and their professional practice. While teacher identity has been highlighted as situated, multiple and dynamic, the image of non-native teachers of English seems rigid and polarized. A gap has not been filled in is to examine the diversity of non-native teachers of English rather than solidifying them into a single group. This qualitative study aims to contextualize teacher identity of non-native speakers of English as both an individual and a social matter at an under-explored U.S. secondary ESL setting. Drawing on Bakhtin's dialogism, the study illustrates how non-native teachers of English make sense of themselves is formed through past histories and present environments. Their understanding of self is also interwoven with the perceptions of administrators and their relationships with students. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

Lexico-Semantic ‘Intraference’ in Educated Nigerian English (ENE)

This paper examines the concept and features of lexico-semantic ‘intraference’ in Educated Nigerian English (ENE). The tendency of nonnative speakers in a(n) ESL setting, like Nigeria, to redeploy the lexico-semantic rules of English to ‘kill,’ weaken, strengthen and reverse the SBE and native English meanings of words is termed lexico-semantic intraference in this paper. Questionnaires, interviews, library research, empirical studies, the Internet and recording of live linguistic events were used to gather data from 2004 to 2013. It was discovered that educated Nigerians regularly impose meanings on some words, extend the meanings of words, weaken or reverse word meanings and also redeploy the lexico-semantic dynamics of the language to fabricate lexical items with new meanings or meanings already in some well established SBE words. These habits generate words and meanings that distinguish ENE lexico-semantics from the lexico-semantics of SBE and some other international varieties of English.

Causes of reticence: Engendering willingness to speak in language classrooms

A common problem faced by many language teachers, both in EFL and ESL settings, is the students’ unwillingness to speak and participate in classroom activities. The present study delves into this issue by reviewing studies concerning this issue to figure out how different researchers have attempted to identify the causes of students’ reticence and lack of participation. The study aims to come up with some practical techniques and strategies teachers can employ in order to discover causes of reticence among language learners and thus make them more willing to speak in language classrooms.

Effect of synthetic phonics instruction on literacy skills in an ESL setting

In the present study, the effectiveness of a synthetic phonics approach to teaching 10year old Kannada-speaking children to read English was compared with a modified approach whereby the English letter sounds were also represented by the symbols used in Kannada, thus tapping into pre-existing graphophonological awareness skills. After 5-weeks of instruction, participants taught by the Kannada-mediated synthetic phonics approach performed significantly better on the reading, spelling, and graphophonological tasks than the group taught by synthetic phonics using only English letter–sound correspondences, who in turn performed better than the comparison group taught by the standard non-phonic classroom method. Applying the metalinguistic knowledge of the first language seems to have been beneficial in developing literacy skills in English.

A Critique of Undergraduate Students’ Writing Skill in an ESL Setting: Samples from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria

The importance of writing cuts across all levels of education. Its effectiveness hinges on the ability to use thegrammar of language appropriately especially in a second language (SL) situation. This paper compares the writingskill in English Language of eighty 100 level students and forty of those in 500 level core Agriculture colleges whowere randomly selected for grammatical assessment in a Nigerian University. The research was carried out after bothgroups had gone through English and Communication Skills courses. The results show that students have problemswith almost all aspects of grammar – tense, punctuation, spelling, concord, abbreviation, preposition, and wordamalgamation. At the 100 level, tense and spelling errors were the most frequent while punctuation and tense errorswere most prominent in 500 level scripts. Tense errors were common to both groups as a result of negative transferfrom the first language (L1), though the environment in which they occurred differ. The study also reveals animportant relationship between a mastery of the speaking skill and effective writing. The implications of the findingson the teaching and learning processes were discussed and suggestions were made on how to improve students’writing capability.

Language Anxiety among Gifted Learners in Malaysia

Language anxiety has significantly sparked great concern in the second and foreign language learning world. Researches have found negative correlation between language anxiety and academic achievement of English language learners; and, most of the studies focus on average school students and tertiary level students. This paper, however, explores gifted learners’ English language anxiety in ESL setting, by surveying 119 gifted learners of PERMATApintar National Gifted Center (PpNGC), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia. The result shows that gifted learners have certain level of language anxiety in English language setting; that language anxiety negatively correlates withgifted learnes’ English language performance; and that female gifted learners indicate higher language anxiety than males. Finally, this paper provides some insights towards minimizing gifted learners’ language anxiety in English language environment.

The forbidden fruit: using the mother tongue in a Bogota university EFL programme

The current debate on the use of the mother tongue in the foreign language classroom has led to a wide array of literature being written onthe subject. While this can be enlightening, it can also cause confusion and anxiety among teachers when faced with the question of whetheror not it is acceptable to use the L1 in class. This paper analyses current perceptions and practices in terms of L1 use among teachers andstudents in the EFL and ESL settings, based on the hypothesis that the use of the L1 to some degree could be beneficial to EFL learners.Teacher and student activity and opinions are analysed through surveys and interviews before being compared and contrasted with classroomreality through live observation. The findings confirm that L1 use could indeed be beneficial to EFL learners, particularly at the lower levels oflanguage proficiency, but that teachers may need to revisit their reasons for using the L1, as well as their repertoire of pro-L2-use strategies.

Complexity of L2 motivation in an asian ESL setting.

Drawing upon the data from 547 ESL learners in Pakistan, this study presents a complex picture of L2 learning motivation by means of descriptive as well as inferential analyses. The results show that no single factor predicts L2 learning motivation for the target population. Language learning experience, international orientation, ideal L2 self and instrumentality all work interconnected to motivate ESL learners. English as an international language has a strong influence on ESL learning for Pakistani learners with their colonial past. This study suggests that teachers have to focus on attitudinal, situational and self-related factors to keep their students motivated for a long time process of L2 learning. Keyword: L2 learning motivation, Dynamic process, Pakistan, EIL

Teacher's Verbal Feedback on Students’ Response: A Malaysian ESL Classroom Discourse Analysis

This paper explores the verbal feedbacks utilized by a group of primary school teacher. Data was gathered through classroom observation. All lessons were audio taped and transcribed. The analysis of the transcripts revealed that there were variations in the feedbacks given among the teachers: some forms of feedback were utilized more frequent than others. These results are important as they provide an awareness of the feedback practices employed in the classroom and the significant effects on classroom interaction and student learning. The results offer implications and suggestions for pedagogica considerations within an ESL setting.

A very important lesson: Respect and the socialization of order(s) in high school ESL

The “stigma” associated with ESL in K-12 public schools is a widely referenced if little explored topic. In this paper, I consider how this “stigma” was produced in a high school ESL class in Hawai‘i, specifically, as it was licensed by and framed in terms of teaching students “respect.” Based on analysis of two extended teacher-fronted interactional displays, I argue that local constructions of respect in this class served as a powerful socializing resource, working to produce “order” in the form of classroom control, as well as “orders,” or hierarchies, along lines of English expertise and “mainstream” status. In particular, I examine the ascription of disrespect, pragmatic incompetence, and moral and intellectual impairment to the category “ESL student,” while the positively valued opposites of these traits were attributed to “mainstream” student. I conclude with an argument for greater empirical attention in applied linguistics to K-12 ESL settings and to the subject of linguicism, or linguistic prejudice.

The acquisition of four nongeneric uses of the article the by Spanish EFL learners

Abstract This paper examines one aspect of article acquisition: the various nongeneric uses of the definite article in English. Previous research (Hawkins, J., 1978. Definiteness and Indefiniteness. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.) identified eight major categories of nongeneric use. More recent work by (Liu, D., Gleason, J.L., 2002. Acquisition of the article the by nonnative speakers of English. An analysis of four nongeneric uses. Studies in Second-Language Acquisition 24, 1–26.) reduced the categories to four (cultural, situation, structural and textual) and proposed a difficulty hierarchy for those four uses. The aim of this paper is to validate their difficulty hierarchy with a different sampling of learner population and overcoming some problems with the proficiency measures used. The participants, 16 elementary, 31 low–intermediate and 22 advanced Spanish EFL learners, read 85 sentences containing 60 deleted obligatory uses of the and 40 distractor items. There was also a control group of 15 native speakers. Our findings indicate that (i) the four nongeneric uses present different levels of difficulty for the EFL learners, (ii) learners underuse of obligatory the decreases significantly from elementary to low–intermediate level but this does not hold for the transition between low–intermediate and advanced levels, (iii) the participants’ performance in the overuse of the is strongly influenced by their L1 and improved significantly with proficiency level, and (iv) the difficulty hierarchy proposed for an ESL setting is validated.

Learning and Teaching from Experience: Perspectives on Nonnative English-Speaking Professionals

The majority teachers of English to speakers of other languages around the world are nonnative speakers of English themselves. and Teaching from Experience presents a wide range of views on NNES (nonnative English speaking) professionals in ESL and EFL settings at various academic levels-including K-12, adult education, community college, and university. This informative volume is divided into the sections focusing on theoretical underpinnings, research, teacher preparation, and classroom application specific to issues facing NNES professionals. Learning and Teaching from Experience is also one of the first volumes to present work by the founding members of the caucus for nonnative English-speakers in the national TESOL professional association, who are rightly considered to be experts in the field. This book will surely interest NNES teachers and researchers, as well as teacher educators and their trainees in the United States and abroad.

The 'Third Place': Investigating an ESL Classroom Interculture

This study focuses on a multicultural ESL classroom with the purpose of exploring the creation of new individual and cultural identities and the formation of interculture. Through on-site observations and interviews with second-language learners and their teacher, the study presents findings about the dynamics, quandaries, complexity, and diversity of classroom interculture. The metaphor of the 'third place' (Kramsch, 1993) aptly captures the nature of this interculture in its fluidity and ambiguity. Perceiving language-learning in this way allows one to look beyond the traditional dichotomous views and approaches to culture and identity in ESL settings and to describe properly the enriching process of creating new identity and new cultural space that is greater than the sum of individual cultures.

The use of chat rooms in an ESL setting

This article explores the combination of on-line chat rooms with regular classroom interactions in a personalized English program and its potentials to enhance second language development. Two non-native English speaking university professionals participated in a one-hour on-line chatting session each week with me for 10 weeks in addition to weekly classroom meetings. Printouts of the chat sessions were used in subsequent classroom discussions and were analysed for the present study. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data show that the participants sometimes noticed the errors they made in their on-line chatting and initiated repairs on them. Such noticing of linguistic forms has positive effects on learners and is necessary for language acquisition to occur. These results suggest that the face-to-face interactions may have highlighted the participants’ language problems and enhanced their awareness of such problems whereas the on-line chatting provided the participants a unique opportunity to put their grammatical knowledge to practice through meaningful communication.

Trends and Issues in Content-Based instruction

In the last two decades, content-based instruction (CBI) has grown by leaps and bounds; it appears across educational levels and under various guises. In foreign language education, immersion education and “content-enriched” Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) are popular examples. Sheltered classes and thematic curricula are two variations commonly found in ESL settings. The degree of language and content integration which underlies these various program types is perhaps best captured by means of a continuum.

Let's Start Talking

* Let's Start Talking is a workbook-style textbook that focuses on oral communication. The text provides a variety of topics, useful for teenagers or adults at a high-beginning/low-intermediate level. Its goal is active conversation in class, in both small and large groups. The text incorporates all four skills to achieve the goal of effective conversation. Each of the 20 chapters presents a specific theme to develop conversational skills. The themes, such as budgeting, traveling, and choosing a university, contain skills that are directly applicable for students in an ESL setting in the United States. Conversation focuses on specific tasks related to the theme. Each topic presents informal conversation and insights into U.S. culture. Although the format varies, each chapter consists of six parts: Vocabulary, Read and Consider, Pre-Discussion, Decide and Write, Discussion, and Extend. At the beginning of each chapter, the text presents target vocabulary encapsulating the theme along with a wealth of common expressions useful for student discussion. Read and Consider gives a concise statement of the situation under discussion, easily grasped by the students. The Pre-Discussion phase introduces model phrases and dialogues that lay the groundwork for conversation. This section centers on individual preparation of the task, giving students an opportunity to formulate their thoughts clearly. Ideally, this process leads to focused conversation in small groups. Using the target vocabulary and phrases practiced in the Pre-Discussion phase, the small group forms a response to the situation and shares the result in whole-class discussion. In the Discussion segment, students compare and contrast the decisions of each group, as well as individual choices. Finally, in the Extend section, students relate class material to real-life contexts outside of the classroom. The major strength of the text lies in this section, because it carries classwork to unrehearsed communication beyond the classroom. Interactive activities, such as practicing model dialogues, making decisions, writing letters, formulating conversations, and role playing, understand how g nder and e hnicity inf uence cl ssrooms and

Using wordless picture books to promote second language learning

This article discusses one approach that I have found successful for teachers with little formal ESL training and few ESL text materials to help their primary-aged ESL students to develop wide and varied uses of English. The approach has proved effective in a situation in which almost half of the school population (in Vancouver, British Columbia) consists of ESL students, and in which, naturally, the great majority of teachers are not ESL specialists. The article discusses how wordless picture books can be used for both oral language and literacy development across a wide range of topics, thinking skills, and text-types. These books and the approach to using, them, will, we believe, work well in EFL as well as ESL settings.

Positive and negative potentials of word processing for ESL writers

This paper is an investigation of the positive and negative potentials for ESL student writers of word processing that are derivable from the properties of the medium. It is shown that any potentially beneficial properties of the medium can also be potential drawbacks. Therefore, the degree of success of any application of word processing in an ESL setting will ultimately be determined by the nature of the users and the circumstances of use, rather than directly by the attributes of the medium.