English Learning Experience Research Articles

Shifting motivational discourses among mainland Chinese students in an English medium tertiary institution in Hong Kong: a longitudinal inquiry

This article draws on a longitudinal study of a group of mainland Chinese students’ English learning experiences in an English medium university in Hong Kong, and explores the dynamic nature of their language learning motivation prior to and after their arrival in Hong Kong. The study identified context‐mediated and self‐determined elements in the participants’ learning motivational discourses. The context‐mediated motivational discourses echoed the societal discourses of learning, and were shaped by the contextual conditions on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong, including the roles of English, academic competition and medium of instruction. Through an extended socialization process, mediated by various social agents, some of these context‐mediated motivational discourses became internalized and transformed into self‐determined ones among many participants in later stages of their learning. The article argues for an integrated perspective, viewing learner motivation as a dynamic construct emerging from learners’ interaction with contextual conditions.

Are there any relations between young children‘s English proficiency and their Korean proficiency and experience of learning English?

Are there any relations between young children‘s English proficiency and their Korean proficiency and experience of learning English?

Integrating alternative learning and assessment in a course of English for law students

Alternative approaches to learning and assessment have become common practice in higher education today. While these approaches have several learning, instructional and assessment advantages for students and teachers, a need exists for a better understanding of their consequential evidence. The purpose of this study was to examine students’ perceptions of, and satisfaction with, the experience of learning English for Law in the environment of a comprehensive learning and assessment system integrating the project component and academic writing portfolio component into the framework of traditional learning. A sample of 58 law majors from Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania participated in the study. The main findings of the study indicate that the integrated approach to learning English for Law was very well accepted by the students due to the following benefits it presented: (i) this approach is effective and useful in promoting students’ productive and receptive language skills; (ii) it enhances students’ satisfaction with their results; (iii) it fosters one’s motivation to learn a foreign language; (iv) it promotes students’ development as independent learners. It is recommended that this study be extended to the investigation of the impact of such an approach on the students’ final results in ESP in comparable groups.

English Learning Experiences of the Korean Students in American Classrooms

English Learning Experiences of the Korean Students in American Classrooms

A survey into the use of English learning experience zone in primary schools.

A survey into the use of English learning experience zone in primary schools.

Strategies Used by Chinese Parents to Support English Language Learning

The paper reports on parental involvement in Chinese students’ language learning which has emerged as a major finding from an interpretative enquiry into their English-learning experiences. The data confirm that Chinese parents and other family members are closely involved in the study participants’ language learning, in particular, their development as competent English learners. They are indirectly involved the participants’ development as English learners as language learning advocates, language learning facilitators, and language teachers’ collaborators. Furthermore, they are directly involved in their children’s development as language learning advisors, language learning coercers, and language learning nurturers. The findings suggest language teachers to be more proactive in establishing a school-family/teacher-parent partnership in learner development programs. Further research is also needed to support such a partnership.

A Comparative Perspective of Intercultural Sensitivity Between College Students and Multinational Employees in China

Using the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale formulated by G. M. Chen and Starosta, the intercultural sensitivity of English major students, non-English major students, and multinational employees in China were investigated. In this study, intercultural sensitivity was defined as consisting of interaction engagement, interaction confidence, respect for cultural differences, interaction enjoyment, and interaction attentiveness. The focus of this research was to explore how intercultural sensitivity was structured among subjects of different English learning and intercultural communication experience. A series of results generated by multiple regressions showed different weightings of the 5 elements of intercultural sensitivity of the 3 subsamples. For example, respect for cultural differences for English major students was affected by interaction engagement and enjoyment, whereas for multinational employees it was only affected by interaction enjoyment. The study also found that English major students felt interaction enjoyment more easily than non-English major students and multinational employees.

What's in a Name? Chinese Learners and the Practice of Adopting ‘English’ Names

This paper examines the widespread practice of Chinese learners choosing (and sometimes refusing) to adopt English and Anglicised names. Data collected from questionnaires and interviews with both students and teachers are analysed in order to arrive at an understanding of why such a practice has arisen and continues to be perpetuated throughout institutions of higher education. Evidence will suggest that this practice cannot be divorced from Chinese learners' perceptions of themselves, their own culture, and their experience of learning English. It will highlight strategies of both compliance and resistance employed by students when they adopt and exchange names: strategies which say much about their attitudes to British culture and learning English in particular. At the same time, teachers' attitudes to students' names will be seen to highlight, at a basic level, some of the difficulties encountered when East meets West in the classroom. The paper concludes by suggesting that China's unique relationship to ELT is fundamental to Chinese learners adopting ‘English’ names.

The effects of early English learning on auditory perception of English minimal pairs by Taiwan university students.

Auditory perception of English minimal pairs was tested with or without noise background. Each subject was interviewed after the test to collect information regarding their early experience on learning English as a foreign language. This study was designed to examine the differential effects of learning English at three age-starting points and two learning durations. This study hopes to determine how childhood experience of English learning (which is not mandatory in public elementary schools) has affected the auditory competence of university students in distinguishing English minimal pairs. Results showed that age effects were salient only under condition of noise background. Without the interference of background noise, most subjects performed well enough to obliterate any potential differences.

An academic writing needs assessment of English-as-a-second-language clinical investigators

Academic writing for publication is competitive and demanding for researchers. For the novice English-as-a-second-language (ESL) researcher, the pressure to publish compounds the difficulties of mastering the English language. Very few studies have used ESL graduate and post-graduate students as academic writing research subjects. The purpose of this project was to assess the learning needs of ESL clinical investigators regarding academic writing for English scholarly publication. A qualitative evaluation approach was used to examine the gap between the current and desired proficiency level for the academic writing of ESL clinical investigators. We considered the perspectives of seven ESL clinical investigators plus three mentors and three writing instructors. Semi-structured questions were asked. Field notes were organized using a field-work recording system. They were analyzed using the constant comparative method. ESL clinical investigators do not accurately perceive their writing deficiencies. They have little knowledge of criteria for academic writing and they are influenced by their prior English learning experiences in their home culture, which engender passive attitudes toward seeking appropriate writing resources. Adequate time is especially needed to develop successful writing skills. Four basic steps are recommended to guide program planners in developing ESL writing activities for professional learning: (1) recognize discrepancies, (2) establish clear standards and performance criteria for scholarly writing, (3) develop individual plans, and (4) organize long-term writing assistance.

Effect of background noise on perception of English speech for Japanese listeners

Objectives: To avoid the accidents induced by confusions of non-native speech perception in the presence of noise at work, this study examined the effect of background noise on the discrimination of English speech for Japanese listeners. Methods: Normal hearing Japanese subjects, who have English learning experience to the level of college graduates, were tested with the CID W-22 word list in quiet settings and in the presence of white, low-frequency weighted (pink noise), or aircraft noise. Results: The discrimination scores were reduced as S/N ratio decreased, and more adversely affected by background white noise than pink or aircraft noise. The individual variability of English word discrimination scores for Japanese listeners was much larger as the S/N ratio decreased. The typical confusions among phoneme were /m/, /n/, and /s/. Conclusions: The results of this study suggested that ineffective use of speech cues and difference in composition of English phonemes from Japanese could be responsible for degraded speech discrimination of non-native speech in noise. Moreover, it was expected that Japanese workers with age related hearing loss at higher frequencies might have great difficulty in perceiving English speech sounds in the presence of noise.

From résumé searching on the internet to résumé writing on the IUT intranet : Turning a teacher-led group project into a professional english learning experience

Information technology (IT) is revolutionizing all facets of business including human resources. The job-hunter can now browse dozens of websides for job openings and post his/her electronic résumé. But how does s/he write one ? Are there any new rules to be applied ? The setting-up of an Intranet at IUT Paris as part of a teamwork project was an ideal opportunity to capitalize on this new development. Step one of the student learning process consisted of gathering information on CV e-formats and contents ; step two of familiarizing students with Internet job searching so as to collect key words in their field of studies (accounting) ; finally step three of putting learning into true-to-life action : writing résumés in the Internet way on the IUT Intranet.

From Sign to Word

As the bilingual education movement receives greater attention within deaf education settings, a theoretical framework for organizing and implementing the American Sign Language (ASL) and English learning experiences among deaf students has not been fully articulated in the literature to date. In this article, the traditional notion of ASL/English bilingualism is critically examined. This model is then contrasted with the “ASL/English as a spoken language” bilingual model in which the modality constraints facing the deaf child are presented as the fundamental issue for ASL/English bilingualism. Empirical and applied research supporting this modalityconstrained bilingual model is also discussed.

From Sign to Word

As the bilingual education movement receives greater attention within deaf education settings, a theoretical framework for organizing and implementing the American Sign Language (ASL) and English learning experiences among deaf students has not been fully articulated in the literature to date. In th

Pupils’ perceptions of the foreign language learning experience

This article presents some of the findings relating to a study on pupils’ perceptions of the in-school foreign language learning experience. This represents one area of a larger, accelerated longitudinal study on the motivational perspectives of secondary school pupils learning German. What are the factors which influence pupils’ views of what goes on in the classroom? What are their likes and dislikes? How do they feel the in-school experience could be enhanced? Can this help identify what it is that leads to the apparent diminution in enthusiasm for learning (languages) between the ages of 11 and 13? The article also has a comparative dimension, as the same questions are asked in relation to the English-learning experience of comprehensive school pupils of the same age in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. What can be learned from these findings which may have a beneficial influence on how languages are taught?

The Role of L1 in the Acquisition of Motion Verbs in English by Chinese and Japanese Learners

Research has demonstrated that cross-linguistic lexical similarities are generally positive for target language lexical acquisition, especially when the two languages in question are related. For example, Palmberg (1985) showed that Swedish-speaking learners with no experience of learning English at school could identify correctly more than half of 40 everyday English words, and that the percentages correct were especially high for words similar or almost similar in pronunciation to their Swedish translation equivalents. He also reported (Palmberg, 1987) that elementarylevel Swedish-speaking learners could successfully recognize and identify the meaning of unfamiliar words in English with the help of inferencing procedures. Ard and Homburg (1983) compared the responses of Spanish- and Arabic-speaking learners on the lexical items of a standardized test of English as a second language. Their study showed that the Spanish-speaking learners did better than their Arabic-speaking counterparts of comparable English proficiency, not only on items similar to their native language (NL), but also on those where there was no overt similarity involved. Ard and Homburg suggested that 'over-all closeness in lexical structuring' (1983, p. 171) between Spanish and English might be responsible for the results of their investigation. The facilitative role of linguistic similarity is succinctly summed up by Ringham (1987): 'Similarities, both cross-linguistic and intra-linguistic, function as pegs on which the learner can hang new information by making use of already existing knowledge, thereby facilitating learning' (p. 134).

Hong Kong Tertiary Students' Attitudes and Proficiency in Spoken English

As a basis for making pedagogical decisions within a learner-based framework, teachers need information about the experiences and perceptions which learners bring to the classroom. This article reports and discusses some of the information gathered by the LEAP Project at the University of Hong Kong about the English learning experiences, proficiency and perceptions of students entering tertiary education in Hong Kong. The article focuses on students' oral English. The investigation reveals that students who enter tertiary education in Hong Kong have grown accustomed to passive speech roles in class and had limited experience of speaking. Lack of practice often leads to low confidence in their own ability and a sense of unease, especially when engaging in unplanned speech. Nonetheless students express strong preferences for active speaking roles in class. A two-folded strategy is needed. In their English classes, students need many more opportunities to activate their language and gain experience in using it for spontaneous communication. At the same time, in all classes, students need to gain experience of active methods of learning, so that they can adopt the active, questioning role which is appropriate for tertiary level learning and required for success in the modem world.

ESL Students Speak Up: Their Stories of How We are Doing.

This study explores the ESL curriculum as experienced by students, casting light on their side of the story. We invited three Japanese secondary-level students to discuss their experience of learning English and analyzed their stories in terms of Schwab's four curriculum commonplaces (learner, subject matter, milieu, and teacher). Our analysis reveals that for the students, learning English has to do with negotiating their identities in a new environment. The current ESL curriculum as it focuses on the development of academic skills may not be providing enough support to help them integrate into the school community. In the absence of such support, some students may run the risk of perpetuating their marginality in the school and prematurely reaching a plateau in their English acquisition. Some practical ideas to promote integration, some of which are already implemented in Canadian schools, are discussed in the light of these findings.

On lexical inferencing and language distance

The paper presents the outline and main results of an experiment requiring two Swedish-speaking children with no experience of learning English at school to try to make sense of an English text that fully exploits formal similarities between the two languages. The experiment demonstrates how selected reading material can be used in order to facilitate comrehension of foreign texts for young learners of a language which is closely related to their mother tongue.