Foreign Language Students Research Articles

A study of college students' perceptions of utilizing automatic speech recognition technology to assist English oral proficiency.

For English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology is the most potential assistant tool to help them improve their spoken English ability. The primary purpose of this study is to investigate learners' perceptions towards ASR technology after it is applied to traditional classrooms. This study selected 249 English majors from a university in Northeastern China as samples and divided them into a control group consisting of 124 students and an experimental group including 125 students. The participants of two groups used ASR technology in the process of oral practice, and the experimental group also added teacher's guidance compared with the control group. The teacher gives more detailed instruction in speaking based on the scores provided by ASR technology. Participants needed to complete relevant questionnaires and learning reflective journals during the experiment. The results of the study showed that both participants and instructors held positive and satisfactory attitudes towards the potential of ASR in oral training and believed that the technology could meet many of their needs such as the scoring system to help them more intuitively understand the real speaking level. The findings of this paper will give some implications to oral English teaching in the future.

NHỮNG THÁCH THỨC NGƯỜI HỌC TIẾNG ANH GẶP PHẢI KHI HỌC QUA NỀN TẢNG TRỰC TUYẾN MICROSOFT TEAMS

The Covid-19 pandemic and its negative impacts forced most educational institutions worldwide to move face-to-face traditional classrooms to online platforms. Online learning has shown significant growth over the last years, yet a limited number of teachers and students are familiar with online learning platforms. This study employs a mixed methods approach to investigate the challenges in studying online via Microsoft Teams encountered by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at a public university in Vietnam. The findings show that students faced a number of difficulties when studying on Microsoft Teams, which as a result, affected their learning progress. On that basis, the study offers some pedagogical and research implications for online learning.

Covid-19-Prompted Emergency Distance English Language Education from EFL Students' Perspective: A Scoping Review on Challenges and Responses

The profound and permanent impact of the Covid-19 pandemic caused a global closure of universities and schools by transforming physical classrooms into online/distance settings. Such a sudden shift resulted in uncertainty in the educational context. During the pandemic, the only way to sustain education was to benefit from distance education, which is defined as Emergency Distance Education. Specifically focusing on English language education in these emergency circumstances, such a distance education might be defined as Emergency Distance English Language Education (EDELE). In such a rush, both challenges and opportunities have been experienced in EDELE. Therefore, recent studies focus on how to respond to those challenges to improve the conditions of EDELE. Thus, this scoping review study aims to first identify (a) challenges experienced during EDELE, and then (b) responses for those challenges during EDELE from the perspectives of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. Via NVivo 11 Plus, the scoped studies focusing on EFL students were inductively and thematically analysed. The results revealed the challenges during EDELE centred around five main actions: changed, caused, revealed, increased, and decreased. Additionally, thematic analyses of the responses were organized around the implementations or recommendations by three stakeholders: teachers, students, and institutions. The current study contributes to EFL settings in improving distance education circumstances.

Investigation of the effect of flipped listening instruction on the listening performance and listening anxiety of Chinese EFL students.

Given the fact that flipped instruction especially with the aid of technology has gained momentum in second language (L2) instruction, numerous L2 researchers have explored the usefulness of flipped classroom for L2 learning. As an attempt to further this research area, the current research examined the effect of flipped listening instruction on the Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) students' listening performance and listening anxiety using a quasi-experimental research design. To this end, a total number of 44 EFL learners from two intact classes in a Chinese language school were selected as the participants of the research and they were randomly assigned as the control group (N = 21) and an experimental group (N = 23). Within a course of one semester, the control group was instructed employing traditional listening instruction, while the experimental group were taught based on the flipped mode of instruction. The data collection was carried out by administering the listening section of IELTS and Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS). The results of ANCOVA revealed that the flipped listening instruction significantly enhanced listening performance of the participants. Also, the flipped classroom substantially reduced listening anxiety of the EFL learners. The outcomes of this research might provide notable implications for EFL practitioners.

Investigating The Perceived Effects of Starting a Second FL on Hungarian EFL Learners

Learning a foreign language (FL) in itself is emotionally challenging for learners demanding substantial motivation on their behalf. Learning two FLs in parallel might only increase the number of obstacles to overcome. The present qualitative research aims at discovering the possible effects of starting a new FL on 18-19-year-old Hungarian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. The data analysis revealed that the introduction of a second foreign language (FL2) did have an impact on students’ EFL learning in most cases and resulted in changes in their language learning motivation and emotions towards their FLs. Based on students’ attitudes these changes were identified as four different emerging themes. Overall, it may be stated that students’ language learning motivation and emotions seemingly depended on their previous EFL learning experiences and on their reception of the FL2. It can be concluded that none of the students mentioned that they had managed to acquire both FLs at a desired level before the data collection, and none of them described the same positive attitude towards learning the two FLs.

The Level of Arabic Language Anxiety based on Student’s Academic Background in Learning Arabic Language

This research aims to investigate the level of language anxiety among Arabic as a Foreign Language students at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), focusing on the following variables: the level of anxiety for the students in general and the differences in anxiety levels between students with an academic background in learning Arabic Language and students with no prior experience learning Arabic Language. The study sample includes 149 students, including 73 from the Faculty of Business and Management, 38 from the Faculty of Health Sciences, and 38 from the Faculty of Accountancy. They were given a questionnaire on the phenomenon of language anxiety, the Modified Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (MFLCAS), which was then analysed using SPSS IBM Statistics. The findings indicate that the average level of language anxiety among students is moderate. In addition, students with no academic background in the Arabic Language have a higher level of language anxiety than those with an academic background in the Arabic Language.

Exploring EFL Students’ Experience in Developing Daily Lesson Plan for Teaching English for Toddler

Planning English for Toddler lesson is a sophisticated process faced by English as Foreign Language (EFL) students. The lesson plan should be available before implementation to increase the effective teaching process. By having a different lesson plan template to a regular lesson plan, this study explores EFL student experience in developing daily lesson plans for teaching English to toddlers. A narrative approach was employed in this study. The subjects of this study were 6th semester EFL students who took English for Toddler course. Drawing on semi-structured interview data, we found that students face several challenges in developing daily lesson plans for teaching English to toddlers. Participants experienced challenges in preparing content in a lesson plan, learning media, model, teaching method, and assessment. This study emphasizes the importance of training of developing a lesson plan for teaching English for toddler. Further studies will facilitate EFL students' skills to develop a lesson plan for teaching English for Toddler.

Teaching English by Using Canva: Students’ and Lecturers’ Voice

This research discovers students’ and lecturers’ voice on using Canva in English language teaching. This research employed quantitative descriptive method with 31 English Foreign Language (EFL) students and 5 lecturers. The data are gained from 31 students and 5 lecturers of English Department at IAIN Fattahul Muluk Papua. The students’ and lecturers are given a set of questionnaires to obtain their response on using Canva. After gaining the data, the researcher analysed the students’ and lecturers’ response by counting its frequency and percentage. The findings of this research Indicated that the majority of students and lecturers have positive voice on using Canva in English language teaching based on three indicators that is provided by researcher, those are: usefulness, ease to use, and easy access. This research revealed that Canva is usefulness tool for English language teaching. Canva is also ease of use tool for English language teaching which easy to use, effective, improve teaching and learning process, and easy to distribute. At the end, Canva has easy access because Canva provides everything for teaching and learning process such as video, images, colourful. Besides, Canva becomes an interesting App, and good choice for learning and teaching process.

Using Webtoon Comic as Media to Improve Cultural Understanding of Advanced Indonesian as Foreign Language (IFL) Students

In Indonesia as a Foreign Language (IFL) learning, it is necessary to have strategies and media that support the understanding of the Indonesian language and culture for foreign students from various cultural backgrounds. This study aims to develop and determine the effectiveness of culture-based webtoon comics as a learning media to increase advanced IFL students' cultural understanding. The research method used in this study is the ADDIE method (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) and used one group pre-test-post-test design on IFL academic class at Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia. This research used the Wilcoxon test with a 5% significance level and N-gain score to analyse the data. The validation results from IFL material and learning media experts indicate that "Belajar Budaya bersama Joko dan Fred" webtoon is a feasible product to use. The results showed the Wilcoxon Asymp test. Sig. (2-tailed) is 0.026 < 0.05 and the N-gain score is 71.67%. From these results, it can be concluded that there was a significant difference between IFL students' average results before and after using this webtoon. The use of culture-based webtoons as a IFL learning medium is quite effective to improve the cultural understanding of advanced IFL students compared to the use of conventional texts with illustrations.

Using Webtoon Comic as Media to Improve Cultural Understanding of Advanced Indonesian as Foreign Language (IFL) Students

Using Webtoon Comic as Media to Improve Cultural Understanding of Advanced Indonesian as Foreign Language (IFL) Students

Exploring Students’ Perception on using Live worksheet as Self-directed Learning of Listening Skills in Online Education

Research on the use of digital technology in promoting English Foreign Language (EFL) students’ self-directed learning of listening skills has been widely acknowledged in the literature. However, few empirical studies have been conducted on interactive worksheets as mediated instruction in the teaching of listening. This study used a qualitative method, and seventy-seven students were selected from the Education Department at State University of Makassar. This research instrument is used in interviews. Grounded in a web-based learning approach, the researchers investigated the students’ perceived experiences in conducting the “liveworksheet” website and its potential to promote their self-learning, activeness, and autonomy in listening practices. As a result, the study highlights several significant findings: students’ self-directed learning, automatic scoring, accessing the website, students’ vocabulary mastery, students’ learning autonomy, and students’ technology skills. Moreover, this study suggests employing web-based “liveworksheet” activities in a technology-mediated EFL learning environment, thus increasing their self-directed learning and ease to make distance learning happen through the website. Therefore, this study highlighted the advantages of in-making live worksheets for teachers and students in answering live worksheets which are very important to support, provide interesting learning, and get their learning outcomes

EFL Students’ Perception Towards Online Learning: What to Consider?

The outbreak of the deadly coronavirus at the end of 2019 (Covid-19) has pushed many education institutions to do a radical transformation by moving all forms of their services, particularly teaching from traditional face-to-face mode to completely online foreign language teaching. This research aims to investigate Indonesian students’ perception of online learning and the three most challenging problems they encountered when enrolling in it under the context of English as Foreign Language students. Based on a review of the literature on online learning and students’ perception, a questionnaire was constructed and distributed to 57 students that had enrolled in an online course via google form along with a question asking the three most challenging problems they encountered during the course. Analysis of the responses demonstrated that most of the students had a positive perception of online learning. The three most challenging problems the students encountered were signal (internet connection), money (financial ability), and comprehension (comprehending the course) respectively. The result indicates that online learning can be a reliable solution for the teaching and learning process during a pandemic. However, in applying it, the campus must consider an alternative solution for the students who live in the bad internet connection area. Supporting them with subsidies, or free internet packages can help them to keep studying during a hard time. Lastly, teachers must work hard to ensure that their teachings are understandable so that their students will not get lost during the learning process.

Investigating the reliability of foreign language classroom anxiety scale (FLCAS): An application of generalizability theory

Ever since it was developed in the mid-1980s by Horwitz et al. (1986), the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) has served as a pivotal instrument that aids research into individual differences that might have a bearing on second and foreign language learning outcomes. Much research has been carried out as to the factorial structure of the scale, providing validity evidence about a construct of substantial interest to second and foreign language practitioners and researchers alike: Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). However, there exist only limited amounts of information about the reliability of the scale, with much of the extant research reporting Cronbach's alpha as an index of internal consistency. Considering that the FLCAS is a self-report instrument, examination of scoring reliability ought to consider not only the internal consistency of the scale items, but also the extent to which responses remain consistent over time. To address this question, we adopted generalizability theory (G theory) to estimate the reliability of the FLCAS. Data were collected from 314 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students enrolled in a Chinese higher education institution by administering the FLCAS two times with a 12-day interval between administrations. Results from the univariate G theory analysis suggested that, when the occasion facet was taken into consideration, the reliability coefficients were much lower than Cronbach's alpha values. Next, findings from the multivariate G theory analysis indicated that the composite generalizability and dependability coefficients were satisfactory. However, one of the latent traits hypothesized to be part of the scale, test anxiety, comprising of three items, went far below an acceptable range of reliability. Implications are discussed.

THE EXPECTATIONS OF ENGLISH AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN SLA THEORIES COURSES

This study investigated the expectations of English as foreign language students in second language acquisition (SLA) theories courses. Foreign language learners expected that all second language acquisition courses would assist them in their foreign language learning or acquisition process. This research attempts to reveal the application of these SLA theories in real-life situations when learning and acquiring English as a foreign language. This qualitative and quantitative study included 40 participants studying Languages and translation at the University of Tabuk in Saudi Arabia. This study used Brown’s (2000) framework and principles of language learning. The researcher used three research instruments; questionnaires, an observation checklist, and a semi-structured interview. The findings of the study showed that Many learners were interested and concerned with the relevance of the SLA theories course to their foreign language learning process within the classroom setting and in real-life situations (natural and unnatural settings). In addition, they expected these theories to be supportive and helpful in assisting them to learn the English language as a foreign or second language, which is almost not possible in reality and is not merely practical but rather theoretical. The study recommends that educationists and decision-makers be concerned with developing and designing materials relevant to the application of SLA theories in teaching and learning English as a foreign language.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0279/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Модель проектировочной деятельности в рамках учебного курса по иностранному языку в современной высшей школе

The study aims to systematise the models of design activities existing in pedagogical scientific knowledge. The paper determines the relationship between the notions of “pedagogical design”, “construction”, “instructional design”, sheds light on the types of design for language courses in modern Russian linguodidactics. Scientific novelty of the study consists in developing the author’s own model of design activities for a foreign language course in tertiary education. As a result, the role of pedagogical design for a tertiary education teacher and foreign language students has been determined.

Promoting Korean learners’ conceptual development of honorifics through concept-based language instruction

Grounded in Vygotskian sociocultural theory (SCT), this study examines Korean as a foreign language (KFL) students’ emerging conceptual development of honorifics through their participation in concept-based language instruction (C-BLI). Seven participants were recruited from a second-semester elementary Korean class at a U.S. college, and various data were collected to trace the students’ unfolding development-in-activity of three interrelated subconcepts of Korean honorifics; namely, power, distance, and formality. Qualitative findings suggest that, overall, students gained a deeper conceptual understanding and sociopragmatic awareness of using Korean honorifics through the development of these interrelated subconcepts and their participation in the goal-directed activities of C-BLI. In particular, the qualitative findings reveal that students’ prior rules-of-thumb-based conceptualizations of honorifics transformed into more semantic, systematic, coherent, and complete understandings as students are in the process of becoming more self-regulated in planning and monitoring their mental and physical activity and their linguistic choices. This study points to the crucial importance of not only the quality of materials design but also how intentional and explicit instruction can be applied to second language teaching–learning processes.

On a path to becoming more self-regulated: Reflective journals' impact on Chinese English as a foreign language students' self-regulated writing strategy use.

A number of studies have confirmed the positive effect of writing reflective journals on L2 learning. However, the relationship between writing reflective journals and the use of self-regulated writing strategies remains unclear. To redress this knowledge gap, we assigned 38 Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) students three journal-writing tasks in which they reflected on their writing processes and explored (1) the types of self-regulated writing strategies and changes to those strategies that the students' reflective journals documented; (2) how students with varied writing-proficiency levels differed in their use of self-regulated writing strategies; and (3) the effects of reflective-journal writing on students' self-perceived use of self-regulated writing strategies in particular, and on their L2 writing in general. Among the 19 kinds of strategies identified in 112 reflective-journal entries, only five (i.e., handling feedback, resource management, text processing, emotion regulation, and idea planning) were demonstrated relatively frequently. The use of seven strategies (i.e., self-monitoring and evaluation, idea planning, perspective change, emotional control, effort regulation, peer learning, and resource management) exhibited significant increases over time, especially during the second-half of the focal semester. In addition, our journal data highlighted individual variation in proficiency levels: with high-proficiency students significantly more likely than others to apply idea planning, feedback handling, and resource management and low-proficiency ones significantly more likely than others to engage in goal-setting. The qualitative results suggest that the practice of journaling raised students' awareness and may have contributed to an increase in their use of self-regulated writing strategies. In particular, the findings reveal how students internalized and reconstructed the various SRL processes taking place via writing reflective journals. For L2 educators using or considering using reflective journals, these findings contain fresh insights that could help them not only to increase their students' SRL levels, but also to provide more individualized SRL guidance.

Interactive Learning Between Chinese Students Learning English and English Students Leaning Chinese on the Platform of Wiki

This research investigates the interaction between English students learning Chinese in the UK and Chinese students learning English in China via a wiki platform. Activity theory and legitimate peripheral participation theory were employed as a theoretical framework; wiki was embedded as an interactive learning tool. The findings revealed that Chinese native speakers assisted English students learning Chinese as foreign language (CFL) by means of reorganizing word orders and restructuring sentence patterns. The usages of clarification and elaboration were more frequent than the usages of added and deleted information. Both CFL and English as foreign language (EFL) students interacted with each other in attending to language forms through the essay correction and revision process, and the interaction consequently enhanced their target language learning. The study suggests that wiki provides a dynamic platform, which encourages further integration into the syllabus to support foreign language learning.

LA INFORMACIÓN SINTÁCTICA EN LOS DICCIONARIOS BILINGÜES Y MONOLINGÜES DE APRENDIZAJE. SYNTACTIC INFORMATION IN BILINGUAL AND LEARNER'S DICTIONARIES

Bilingual and monolingual learner’s dictionaries provide information on the vocabulary a foreign language (FL) student should learn. Moreover, they specify grammatical information related to peculiar words, especially verbs. These dictionaries present, specifically, the syntactic contents in a more explicit way by means of construction indications and in a more implicit way by means of examples, or both. Starting from the English learner’s dictionaries, it is shown what lexicographical solutions the dictionaries analyzed in this paper adopt to transmit the syntactic information to the user. This description can be doubly useful: to teach the FL learner how to find syntactic information in dictionaries (something not everyone is able of) and to prepare new lexicographical works with more explicit indications.

Sustaining Learners’ Writing Development: Effects of Using Self-Assessment on Their Foreign Language Writing Performance and Rating Accuracy

Although the benefits of using self-assessment on student writing performance have received wide recognition over the past two decades, minimal research is available on the effects of using self-assessment of writing on English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ writing performance, especially in the tertiary context of China, where such research is still in its infancy. To fill the abovementioned lacuna, the present study adopted a quasi-experimental approach to implementing a self-assessment-based intervention in Chinese tertiary EFL writing classes. Specifically, students were randomly assigned into either an intervention class that implemented self-assessment or a comparison class that employed peer assessment as classroom practice to promote students’ sustainable development of writing skills. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected, and the research findings indicated that the intervention group experienced a larger increase in their holistic writing performance and rating accuracy when compared with the comparison group. Furthermore, the qualitative findings reveal students’ enhanced rating accuracy after the intervention. This study contributes to research on self-assessment in the EFL writing domain as a basis for further deliberation on self-assessment in higher education, and it also provides much needed empirical evidence for the potential value of student-centred sustainable assessment approaches such as self-assessment. Findings also provide teachers with pedagogical implications for developing sustainable and capable self-assessors of writing.