Exploring EFL Learners Research Articles

On EFL Learners' Awareness of their Writing Abilities and Preferences

This study explores EFL learners' self-awareness of their writing abilities and preferences in writing genres in foundation year writing course. It was conducted at the University of Business and Technology (UBT), in Saudi Arabia. A sample of 73 female intermediate level learners participated in the study, the aim of which was to highlight learners' self-awareness of their writing abilities and preferences in writing. The study used a survey as a data instrument. The writing preferences survey acted as a vote for the preferred writing genre, and a visual representation of the learners' self-awareness of their writing strength and weakness points. The results showed that the majority of the learners preferred the narrative and opinion genres of writing. The results also showed the significance of highlighting the learners' self-awareness in their writing abilities to make them become self-regulated learners.

Exploring EFL Learners’ Use of Formulaic Sequences in Pragmatically Focused Role-play Tasks

Communicative language use largely entails regular patterns consisting of pre-constructed phrases or sequences. These sequences have been examined by many researchers to find the situation-based formulas which may help L2 learners follow a possibly more target-like speaking system. This study, therefore, explored two categories of formulaic expressions including speech formulas and situation-bound utterances used by EFL learners. The randomly selective participants included 30 intermediate and 30 advanced learners, who performed a total number of 120 role-play tasks focused on the situations which required the use of thanking, requesting, offering, and apology speech acts. Audio-recorded data from role-plays were transcribed and analyzed based on existing lists of speech formulas. Results showed that the participants produced more than 102 types of formulaic sequences that could be called “a list of pragmatic routines for thanking, requesting, offering, and apologizing speech acts in the EFL context”. This list includes 44 and 58 speech formulas and situation-bound utterances, respectively. Results further indicated that advanced language learners used more diverse situation-bound utterances in terms of its internal and contextual complexity than their counterparts in the intermediate group due to expert judgments. Because these formulas can increase coherence in speaking, and enhance effective and natural communication, their instruction could be part of the language teaching curriculum.

Exploring EFL Learners’ Self-Efficacy in Academic Writing Based on Process-Genre Approach

This study explores the change of EFL learners’ level of self-efficacy in process-genre academic writing instruction. The teaching experiment was conducted for 14 weeks. A total of 59 graduate students participated in the experiment. Before the experiment, the results showed that the general level of EFL graduates’ self-efficacy in academic writing was relatively low. After 14 weeks of academic writing instruction conducted by the process-genre approach, participants’ self-efficacy improved significantly. In the interview, participants also reported an increasing level of confidence in academic writing. Based on the findings, implications of academic writing instruction to improve students’ self-efficacy are discussed in the paper.

The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners’ Use and Preferences of Language Learning Strategies and Their Meta-Knowledge and Tasks of Pragmatic Competence

The present study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners’ use and preferences of language learning strategies and their meta-knowledge and the tasks of pragmatic competence. Quick Oxford Placement Test, version 2 (2004) was administered and 120 upper-intermediate EFL university students majoring in English translation and TEFL were recruited from the available branches of the Islamic Azad University, Fars province. Likewise, a questionnaire entitled Iranian EFL learners’ meta-knowledge and pragmatic tasks (2016) was used to explore EFL learners’ meta-knowledge and tasks of pragmatic competence and the mean score was calculated. Then, Oxford Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (1990) was used to analyze EFL learners’ use and preferences of language learning strategies and the mean score was calculated. Also, to examine any possible relationship between EFL learners’ use and preferences of language learning strategies and their meta-knowledge and pragmatic tasks, some correlations were run. The results of data analyses showed that Iranian EFL learners were moderate in meta-knowledge and tasks of pragmatic competence and in their use of language learning strategies in general. More detailed analyses of the data ranked the order of the applications of the strategies as: social strategies, meta-cognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, memory strategies, compensation strategies and affective strategies from the most to the least frequent strategies applied by the participants of the study. There was a significant medium positive relationship between meta-knowledge and tasks of pragmatic competence and meta-cognitive strategy. However, there were slight but significant positive relationships between meta-knowledge and tasks of pragmatic competence and compensation and affective strategies and no relationships between meta-knowledge and tasks of pragmatic competence and social, affective and compensation strategies.

Exploring EFL Learners' Preferences, Perceived Needs, and Perceptions about Language Learning Strategies

This study was to investigate the impact of language experience and academic level on the perceived needs of Iranian undergraduate EFL learners. Two groups of Iranian TEFL female students (freshmen and senior) were compared regarding their preferences, perceived needs and perceptions of different activity types about language learning. To collect data, Sihong's (2007) needs analysis questionnaire for English language needs was utilized. Thirty two freshman and twenty nine senior MA students with the age range of 25-35 were considered as the subject of this study. They were asked to fill out the questionnaire through email and they were given the confidence that the collected data would remain anonymous. Results revealed that there was a significant difference between freshman and senior EFL learners in their preferences, needs and opinions about various types of activities, and various aspects of language education. The findings also revealed that freshmen students required more practice in grammar and pronunciation than vocabulary for them. The most difficult components of language were pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar respectively; however, the senior students reported that vocabulary and grammar were the most difficult component of language skill and pronunciation was the least one.

Exploring EFL Learners’ Attitudes toward the Application of a Model of Writing E-portfolio

This study aimed to explore the attitudes of two groups of EFL learners toward the application of a model of writing e-portfolio in developing their writing skill. It was a follow-up study to an experiment on the effectiveness of this model on the writing performance of Iranian EFL learners. One group had used certain strategies based on the analytic traits of writing, while the other group had not used such strategies in the writing process. Four class members from each writing e-portfolio group were selected purposively for conducting the semi-structured interviews in this research. The findings showed that members of the group that used strategies based on analytic traits of writing had acquired a sort of awareness towards the different qualities of writing, claiming that knowing about the analytic traits of writing caused them to understand the necessity of paying attention to all aspects of writing and not just the usage and mechanical correctness of it. They referred to the role of Peer Checklist in reminding them of the writing qualities to be considered in their self- and peer-assessment. The results of the learners’ feedback in both e-portfolio groups further revealed that the electronic environment of e-portfolios can play a significant role in facilitating the writing task performance of the learners and consequently improving their writing skill in both e-portfolio groups. On the whole, the student self-reports indicated that the use of strategies based on analytical traits was able to heighten awareness regarding important aspects of writing.

Exploring EFL Learners’ Perceived Self-efficacy and Beliefs on English Language Learning

Learners' perceived self-efficacy and beliefs on English language learning are important in education. Taking into consideration the important impact of individual variables on language learning, t...

Lexical richness in academic papers: a comparison between students’ and lecturers’ essays

In the area of writing, research has yet to explore EFL learners’ ability to use varied vocabulary. Although vocabulary teaching has enriched learners’ knowledge of lexical items, whether they can use the words they have learned remains to be seen. It is important, therefore, to investigate their lexical richness in their academic writing. Lexical richness, defined as the presence of different words in a text, is commonly measured through type-token ratio (TTR). The present study set out to identify the lexical richness of senior students by comparing them to academic papers written by their lecturers. There are four objectives: (1) to determine the difference between the type-token ratio (TTR) in students’ essays and that in their lecturers’ essays; (2) to determine the difference between the use of 2000-word level (henceforth K2) in students’ essays and that in their lecturers’ essays; (3) to determine the difference between the use of academic words in students’ essays and that in their lecturers’ essays; (4) to determine the difference between the students’ essays and their lecturers’ in terms of the use of words other than the 2000-word level and the academic words (designated “off-list words”). The essays written by the respondents were submitted to a website for vocabulary profiling (http://www.lextutor/ca/vp). This analysis shows that the lecturers fare better in terms of TTR and academic words, but write slightly fewer 2000-word level and off-list words than their students. While the differences in TTR and academic words are significant, the differences in the use of 2000-word level and off-list are not significant. The subsequent discussion addresses possible causes of these differences, and offers some implications for the teaching of vocabulary and writing.

Advanced EFL Learners’ Beliefs about Pronunciation Teaching

<p class="apa">This paper explores EFL learners’ beliefs about English pronunciation teaching and aims to provide insights into current teaching practices of English pronunciation at both college and university levels. To this end, the study sought to elicit the beliefs of a group of 71 third- and fourth-year EFL learners majoring in English at a university college in Saudi Arabia about crucial aspects of pronunciation teaching. The study utilized a survey containing five-point Likert scale items as well as multiple-choice questions. Open-ended questions were also included in order to gain fuller understanding of students’ views. Data were thematically analyzed and consequently categorized into five major areas: course design, language of instruction, learning and teaching style, types of feedback, and nativeness of teachers. It was found that students in this study context are cognizant of the value of learning English pronunciation, and of what they find useful and less useful. Students also proved willing to help improve pronunciation instruction by providing helpful perspectives on the proper way, at least in their views, to present this sub-skill.</p>

Exploring EFL Learners’ Perceptions of Integrated Skills Approach: A Grounded Theory

This qualitative study aims at exploring EFL learners’ perceptions of the integrated skills approach to language teaching. To this end, the researchers presented the integrated skills approach to a group of 30 participants and interviewed those who were willing to share their views and experience with the researchers. The researchers used grounded theory to collect and analyze interview data. Iterative data collection and analysis continued until theoretical saturation was reached. To establish credibility, transient and final categories were verified through member-checking. The results clearly show that the participants positively perceive this approach. The findings have implications for all stakeholders including policy makers, syllabus designers, practitioners and learners.

Learning English as an International Language: EFL Learners' Perceptions of Cultural Knowledge Acquisition in the English Classroom

Culture is an important element in the foreign language classroom. Some scholars believe that culture is the fifth language skill along with the four traditional skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) of English. Traditionally, learning English required learners to acquire some target language cultural knowledge (e.g. British culture and/or American culture) especially in the context of English as a foreign language. However, with the increasingly important status of English as an international language, the ownership of English has been extensively discussed. Scholars have argued that English is no longer in the custody of any particular country or community. Therefore, whether we should address target language culture in the English classroom or not has become a matter of debate. The study aims to explore EFL learners’ perceptions of the ownership of English and acquiring cultural knowledge in the classroom through in-depth interviews. In total, twenty undergraduates, including both English-major and non-English-major students, from three different universities in Central Taiwan participated in the study. The results show that the majority of the participants reject the notion that English belongs to particular countries in today’s world. In terms of acquiring cultural knowledge, they believe that it is necessary to have some target language cultural knowledge (e.g. British culture and/or American culture) in the English classroom. However, apart from the target language cultural knowledge, they would also like to explore various cultures worldwide, using English as a communication tool to become global citizens. Therefore, rather than debate whether to teach a specific culture or language model in the English classroom, it is perhaps more meaningful and important to develop a language learner’s intercultural communicative competence. These findings provide some insightful implications for English language teaching professionals and educators in terms of teaching culture in the English classroom.

English Language Teaching (ELT) and Integration of Media Technology

The most innovative endeavor the teachers of English have undertaken so far is to integrate media technology in ELT classroom, in order to improve learners’ motivation, integrated language skills and self-learning environment. The aim of this study is to statistically explore EFL learners’ response towards media technology in general and its impact in improving accentual patterns of individual English words in particular. It also explores the impact of internet and teacher's role in improving learners’ writing skill. Three statistical surveys were undertaken at JCC, King Abdul Aziz University, KSA and the result of using electronic devices was found marvelous and interesting.

Exploring EFL learners’ responses through literature within a transactional framework

Exploring EFL learners’ responses through literature within a transactional framework