General English Course Research Articles

Examining English Ability-Grouping Practices by Aligning CEFR Levels with University-Level General English Courses in Taiwan

In higher education in Taiwan, mandatory general English courses like Freshman English adopt ability-grouping practices to assign students to classes of different proficiency levels. However, little research has explored the efficacy of ability-grouping criteria and standardized the language-proficiency description for general English courses of different proficiency levels. Thus, this study recruited 806 Taiwanese undergraduates from Freshman English classes of advanced, intermediate, and basic proficiency levels to take the Oxford Online Placement Test (OOPT), and compared their scores on the Joint College Entrance Examination English subject (namely the General Scholastic Ability Test, GSAT) with OOPT. The findings indicated that the ability-grouping criterion was effective to classify students into three groups of different proficiency levels. A positive relationship between the GSAT and OOPT scores was identified. A clear trend, but with some overlapping correspondence, was displayed between the class levels and Common European Framework of Reference levels derived from the OOPT scoring report. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future studies are provided.

General English Part-time Instructors' Micropolitical Strategies and Interests

<p>台灣一般大學及技職校院通識英文課程多仰賴兼任教師授課，而教師回應課程管理制度要求呈現質量化教學成果，所採取之教學因應策略是否能維持專業取向仍少有論述。研究用建制俗民誌設計大綱，訪談六位在十三所大學語言中心任教通識英文兼任教師，藉微觀政治視角分析其回應管理之策略。發現：(1)面對各校差異要求，兼任教師採取「配合」或「力求表現」策略，力求表現指教師利用話術或利益交換，說服學生呈現更多成果。(2)相對專任，兼任教師多保持沉默，不讓管理單位感到困擾。(3)採取力求表現策略之動機，來自文化認同利益與自我專業認同利益：文化認同利益改變師生溝通、班級經營及輔導方式，而自我專業認同利益讓其在多變教學環境中自我強化。</p> <p> </p><p>Teaching of General English courses at universities and at universities of science and technology in Taiwan relies heavily on part-time instructors. The strategies undertaken by part-time instructors of General English in response to course management regulations affect their teaching practice. The study participants were six part-time General English instructors teaching at 13 university language centers. This study applied the institutional ethnography approach to designing interview guidelines and analyzed the interaction strategies applied by the instructors in response to the language centers’ requirements from the micropolitics perspective. The following was discovered: 1) Most of the educators “went along” with distinct requirements, whereas some chose to “be noticed” and used strategies, such as sales talk or quid pro quo negotiation, to improve student outcomes. (2) The part-time instructors tended to “keep silent” and were careful to “not cause any trouble” even when they found the requirements to be unrealistic. 3) The “being noticed” strategy was associated with cultural-ideological and professional identity interests. Cultural-ideological interests influence the instructor–student interactions, class management, and tutoring strategies. Professional identity interests enable them to think positively and help students in alternative ways when they encounter a frequent change in the teaching context.</p> <p> </p>

Design and Development of an English as a Global Language MOOC to Increase Global Englishes Awareness: Evaluation in a Thai University

The Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) framework has been proposed as a practical guidance for researchers and practitioners to reconsider and revise their current teaching practices to recognize a global status of English in multilingual communities (Galloway & Rose, 2018). However, the GELT framework still requires extensive evidence from stakeholders in the field of English language teaching. This study aims to design and evaluate an ‘English as a global language’ massive open online course or EGL-MOOC to increase awareness of Global Englishes among first-year students enroled in a general English course of a Thai university. To design and develop the EGL-MOOC, contents and instructional materials (i.e., Infographics, motion graphics, video clips, reading passages, online discussion tasks, module tests) were produced based on the GELT framework. To identify the students’ Global Englishes awareness, a set of pre-and post-teaching questionnaires and student reflections were employed, together with MOOC evaluation questionnaire for determining quality of the EGL-MOOC. The findings demonstrate practical suggestions on MOOC design and implementation for Thai university students to raise their knowledge of Global Englishes after MOOC implementation in a general English course. This study also highlights innovative MOOC design and development to promote the sociolinguistic realities of English, as well as respectful attitudes towards the English diversity. Keywords: Global Englishes; Massive open online course (MOOC); design and development; evaluation; ELT

Personalising EFL Courses for Online Learning

Over the recent decades, we have witnessed a considerable shift in an EFL (English as a foreign language) lesson from a teacher-centered to a student-centered one. This change can be attributed to the concept of personalised learning and teaching, which led to the relevancy of the study. The paper aims to describe the main principles of the course development and analyse how a personalised approach is realised in the new General English course from Skyeng online school. The author describes some general principles applied to the course modelling: the type of the syllabus, main andragogical principles, and principles of effective language learning. The paper analyses what personalised learning is from the point of view of both: a teacher and a learner. In the results and discussion section, a description is provided of how the personalised approach works on the level of the whole course (the system of obligatory and optional lessons, 3 different studying tracks, the choice of the homework volume, the choice of the tests and exams for the student) and on the level of the lesson modelling (various lesson patterns, extra slides for additional practice). The author also analyses her research, which shows that teachers do not tend to be flexible when choosing the lesson materials and prefer the linear lesson track without changing the combination of lesson slides. This proved the need for such lesson models in Skyeng online school which would be designed to be quite flexible in their structure. The represented approach to modelling a language course can be viewed as quite innovative and up-to-date and has proved to be effective.

Perceived Efficacy of Google Classroom Usage in Varied English Courses

This study assessed students’ perceptions on efficacy of Google Classroom when it was used as a learning support for big-size classes with a number of students in English courses. The online application as a teaching assistance was implemented to offer students more opportunities to review and get engaged with the course materials and contents in order to increase their practice, performance, motivation, and confidence in learning. The questionnaire survey was distributed to collect feedback from 211 students, and the interview was also conducted to twenty students to get more detail on the use of Google Classroom. The findings revealed that the students had good perceptions on the use of Google Classroom as a tool to support English learning. When factors were analyzed to find out whether they had any impacts on perceptions, it was found that students with prior experience of using Google Classroom had better perceptions than first-time users while male and female students did not differ in their perceptions. The result also showed that the students’ perceptions of Google Classroom efficacy were not significantly different in general English course and English for specific purposes course.

Online education at Saigon University during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey on non-English major college students’ attitudes towards learning English

The outbreak of Covid-19 has forced educational institutions to initiate online teaching to maintain the process of student learning at all levels. This paper focuses on online education at Saigon University, during which the local government has been mandating social distancing in most of the regions. This paper aims to investigate the students' attitudes towards using online learning tools, which are comprised of learning management systems (Moodle and digital support for core materials) via virtual classrooms (Google meet). A survey questionnaire was designed to evaluate attitudes towards using the above online teaching and learning package from 222 non-English major undergraduates who took part in General English courses at Saigon University in July 2021. The results indicate that a majority of students show favorable attitudes towards online education; in the meantime, health and social issues also concern their learning process. Some recommendations are also offered for improving the efficiency of the online education process at Saigon University. Since the study focused on non-English major college students, it is hoped to have particular relevance to other institutions of higher education.

The Impact of Student Teachers’ Pre-Existing Conceptions of Assessment on the Development of Language Assessment Literacy within an LTA Course

The paper proposes the preparation of a new generation of assessment literate teachers. The issues of student assessment literacy and, more specifically, prospective language teacher assessment literacy have not been sufficiently investigated as of yet, although research into the topic seems to have gained momentum. Recent studies state that the assessment literacy of teachers is essentially affected by their pre-existing conceptions of assessments), and teacher education should integrate shaping such conceptions into courses; the process of shaping conceptions is quite long and, because it is time-consuming, it may deter assessment literacy building. The current study explores the conceptions of the assessments shaped by prospective teachers within a general English course. The two major conceptions of assessment, relevant for the framework of teaching general English to second-year student teachers of English, are the understanding of feedback and knowledge of assessment construct and criteria. The findings of the study in this cohort of students of the particular course in language assessment shows that the students’ progress was considerably higher than that of a comparison group in the previous 2020 study. The author suggests two types of AL, i.e., student and prospective teacher assessment literacy.

Presenting a Causal Model of Factors Affecting Metacognitive Awareness: The Mediating Role of Goal Orientation and Self-efficacy with Seamless Flipped Learning among Medical Sciences Students in General English Course

Presenting a Causal Model of Factors Affecting Metacognitive Awareness: The Mediating Role of Goal Orientation and Self-efficacy with Seamless Flipped Learning among Medical Sciences Students in General English Course

A Qualitative Study on Teaching Visual Texts by Using Reciprocal Teaching Approach in a Virtual General English Course During the Covid-19 Pandemic

A Qualitative Study on Teaching Visual Texts by Using Reciprocal Teaching Approach in a Virtual General English Course During the Covid-19 Pandemic

EFFECTIVENESS OF ONLINE TESTING IN GENERAL ENGLISH UNIVERSITY COURSE FROM TEACHER AND STUDENT PERSPECTIVES

With most switching to distance education due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19, the efficacity of assessment is a major concern. The research was aimed to analyze how Moodle learning management system (LMS) can be applied to online language testing, study the effectiveness of online testing and compare the students’ and teachers’ attitude towards online testing in General English university course. Online tests were administrated as a synchronous component of the distance learning to 857 first-year bachelor’s degree students of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine) by 20 teachers during the 2020-2021 academic year. A mixed research design was employed, which involved collecting data using an online questionnaire completed by students and teachers anonymously as Microsoft Forms; Excel spreadsheets were used for the analysis afterward. A quantitative descriptive study was conducted to evaluate the students’ and teachers’ satisfaction with online testing. The expert evaluation method was prioritized to define the expediency of the effectiveness of the online test by the specified criteria and indicators based on the judgments expressed by 7 experienced teachers who are competent in test design. In addition, Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated to compare the results of an online test and oral exam. The qualitative research method allowed to analyse and interpret data of the experimental learning. Based on the results of our study, we can conclude that different types of Moodle LMS questions can be successfully applied to online language testing as part of course assessment at the university level. The paper argues that online language testing can be effective and relevant to course objectives from both students’ and teachers’ perspectives with positive washback on education. The results of the study can be employed by university teachers for language course design both for distance and blended learning.

Effects of EFL Learners’ Perspectives on Online English Classes: Gender, Major, and Proficiency

This study explores the association between gender, major, language proficiency, and student perspectives toward an online educational setting. Participants included 366 university freshmen who attended ten general English courses in the spring semester of 2020. They took online courses featuring pre-recorded video lessons and synchronous classes via Zoom. They were divided by gender, by major into four groups, and by proficiency level totaling three groups to investigate whether there were significant differences between variables. The questionnaire was comprised of four different categories (closed-ended) and three open-ended items (benefits, drawbacks, and suggestions). According to the results of the questionnaire, gender and major had no effect on student perspectives toward online learning. However, statistically significant differences were found between the proficiency levels. Specifically, intermediate students are inclined to be more positive about online learning compared to beginners and advanced students. In conclusion, it can be noted that proficiency levels play an important part in student engagement and in attitudes toward online learning. Lastly, students mentioned that one of the advantages of online learning is students can repeatedly review online materials at their convenience, but identified non-immediate feedback, technical problems, and fewer opportunities for communication as disadvantages. Pedagogical implications and related future studies are suggested.

DESAIN PEMBELAJARAN MODEL ASSURE UNTUK MATA KULIAH BAHASA INGGRIS DI UNIVERSITAS

Instructional design has a strong influence on the success of university-level learning. Learning in higher education is effective if it is designed properly by the course unit tutor because the instructional design helps the preparation of a good lesson plan that contains objectives, materials, methods, media, class activities, evaluations, and so on. There are various instructional design models and one of the popular designs for media application is ASSURE. Some experts use the acronym ASSURE differently. In this article, ASSURE consists of Analyze learners, State objectives, Select method-media-materials, Utilize media-materials, Require learner participation, Evaluate and revise. The ASSURE model can be applied to various fields of study and levels, but has never been published in English language learning at university. Therefore, this article will explain the application of the ASSURE model in general English courses in universities.

EFL Students’ Attitudes Towards the English Online Assessments

Technology has been used for many years to enhance the quality of language learning and instruction. However, the introduction of technology into many contexts for language acquisition was hastened by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Education professionals encountered a variety of new issues as a result of the abrupt change to online learning (Ghanbari and Nowroozi,2021). This study investigated students’ opinions of an English online assessment in terms of affective, cognitive, and behavioral factors. It aims to gauge students’ perspectives of the English online assessment currently employed at their institution and to find out their difficulties when taking online exams so that practical solutions can be recommended to the institution. The study recruited 110 students who have been attending General English courses at a public university in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The participants responded to a questionnaire including 28 items asking mainly about the advantages and disadvantages of the English online assessment that they experienced in their last course. The results revealed that most of the students had positive attitudes toward the online assessment mode although they also experienced several shortcomings when taking the English online exams.

Effect of Backward Summary Technique on Reading Comprehension Enhancement among Non-English Majors

This study aimed to probe whether using the backward summary technique led to reading comprehension enhancement among non-English major university students at the Islamic Azad University of Babol, located in Babol city, in the North of Iran. 120 B.S. level nursing and microbiology students were randomly selected from a population of non-English majors enrolled for the General English course, divided into four groups of 30, and were randomly assigned to two experimental and two control groups. A pre-test of reading comprehension was administered to all groups, and then, they were taught passages t read for eight sessions but with different methods. A one-way ANCOVA was run to investigate the impact of the intervention, while controlling for the pre-test. The results indicated statistically significant effects for the experimental groups on the post-test, regarding comprehension, retention, and organization of the key concepts.

In-house CBI materials and English language education

This study aimed to investigate and compare the effects of in-house content-based instruction (CBI) materials and general English course materials on student attitudes toward English language learning together with their impact on student English language development and mastery of academic content. It also focused on the attitudes of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and departmental faculty members towards CBI materials. Using a mixed-methods research design data were collected from 175 university freshman EFL students, 17 EFL teachers, and seven departmental faculty members from different faculties. The EFL teachers developed their own CBI materials for each academic program. The results indicated that the students viewed the in-house CBI materials more positively than general English course materials. Moreover, the CBI materials also contributed to the students’ English development and mastery of academic content. Finally, both the EFL teachers and lecturers expressed positive attitudes towards the CBI materials.

Teaching Intercultural Communication in an English as a Lingua Franca Context

Developing learners’ intercultural communicative competence is considered to be one of the responsibilities of English language teaching professionals. This responsibility has become ever more challenging in today's globalized world, in which most intercultural communication occurs in English as a lingua franca (ELF) contexts, where a target culture often does not exist. To address this challenge, the current paper showcases an innovation that utilized practitioner-produced materials to teach intercultural communication in ELF settings as part of a General English course at a Taiwanese university. The project sought to achieve the dual purpose of raising the learners’ intercultural and ELF awareness by engaging them in a sequence of activities that involved experienced ELF users from various countries, from video-viewing and online forum discussions to face-to-face interactions. The effectiveness of the innovation was evaluated through questionnaires and participants’ written reflections on the activities, which indicated that the project was generally successful in both cultural and language attitude domains.

Teachers’ Mindsets about L2 Learning: Exploring the Influences on Pedagogical Practices

This qualitative study aimed to examine Iranian language teachers’ mindsets about language learning and teaching, and the ways in which their mindsets influenced their educational practices. The participants of this study were 20 Iranian language teachers who taught general English courses at private language institutes in a city in central Iran. The data were collected through conducting semi-structured interviews with the participants. The qualitative content analysis was conducted, and the main themes and categories were extracted. The results revealed that teachers had categorical (fixed or growth) or mixed mindsets (both fixed and growth mindsets). Moreover, the results showed that teachers’ mindsets influenced teachers’ pedagogical strategies, homework assignment, and their praise type. The findings show that it is important to raise teachers’ awareness about their mindsets and the effects they might have on their teaching strategies and the feedback/praise they give to their students.

Polysemy-related problems in ESP students: A case study

Detected as a problem in foreign language learning, polysemy has been a subject of many various studies and from many various aspects. The problem of polysemy is particularly important in English for Specific Purposes, or in our case English for Police Purposes, since it very often gets unnoticed by learners. Having learnt one meaning in a General English course, learners are usually unaware that the same word can have a new meaning in technical texts. The aim of the case study is to examine to what extent the students can recognize the senses of polysemous words in different contexts and if the level the particular meaning is associated with (according to the CEFR) influences the percentage of correct/incorrect answers. We used a questionnaire and a self-designed vocabulary test to collect the data both about the participants and their practical knowledge of polysemy. The study was conducted with a group of I-year students of Forensic Engineering at the University of Criminal Investigation and Police Studies. The results obtained should help improve the course of English for Police Purposes.

The examination of the learning variables affecting academic achievement of an online general English course in the emergency remote teaching environment

This study examined the learning variables affecting college learners achievement in a general English course under the Emergency Remote Teaching Environment. For the study, six learning variables were selected: checking the bulletin-board, learning progress, access to the LMS, watching video lectures using mobile devices or PCs, and learning time. 133 Korean college students participated in the online general English courses. Their data were collected through the Learning Management System. The data were analyzed to examine the learning variables affecting their academic achievement according to their characteristics using the independent t-test and multiple regression. The research findings are as follows. First, checking the bulletinboard, access to the LMS, and learning progress were correlated highly with their academic achievement. Second, checking the bulletin-board and watching video lectures using mobile devices contributed to the achievement for the male students. However, only the variable of access to the LMS affected the female students. Access to the LMS was the primary variable for the 1st grade students; checking the bulletinboard and watching video lectures using mobile devices affected the achievement in the Engineering college. In the low-level group, access to the bulletin-board was the only effective variable. Some discussions and implications for examining the learning variables affecting academic achievement are illustrated.

Effectiveness of Hybrid English Classes Using Multimedia-based Materials at a College Level: Managing the Post-COVID-19 Crisis

This study aims to identify the effectiveness of hybrid English classes using multimedia based-materials (MBM) on college students’ cognitive domain. In order to accomplish this purpose, this study focused on examining how college students’ achievement has been changed after engaging in hybrid English classes using MBM for a year. Among 80 college students who took a general English course for a year, 40 students in the experimental group engaged in both online classes using MBM and offline classes. The other 40 students in the control group took offline classes. After four times of achievement tests, collected test results were analyzed quantitatively by descriptive statistical analysis and a t-test using SPSS version 24. The results of data analysis revealed that hybrid English classes using MBM have a significant effect on students’ achievement. Based on the results, this study suggests some pedagogical implications for effective college English classes in the post-pandemic context.