Groups Of English As A Foreign Language Learners Research Articles

THE USE OF METACOGNITIVE LISTENING STRATEGIES BY ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS

The aim of this study is to determine the use of metacognitive listening strategies by EFL (English as a foreign language) learners in the Republic of North Macedonia. The participants in the study were two groups of EFL learners at two stages of language development: intermediate and advanced, in order to determine if the use of listening strategies changes with the development of language proficiency. The instrument used in the study is the MALQ questionnaire that investigates five groups of strategies: problem-solving, planning and evaluation, mental translation, person knowledge and directed attention. The results of the study showed that the students reported having a moderate amount of metacognition with an overall mean of 4.18 for high school students and 4.26 for university students. The Directed Attention, Person knowledge and Problem-solving strategies had higher scores and indicated a high level of awareness of these strategies for both groups, while Mental translation and Planning and evaluation showed an average level of awareness. The results provide valuable information to language teachers about the types of metacognitive listening strategies used by language learners so that they can make the necessary adjustments in their teaching methodology and strategy training of their students.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0225/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Understanding EFL reading anxiety in relation to learning motivation, attitudes and strategies for Chinese and Spanish undergraduates

The present study explored the relationships between English as a foreign language (EFL) reading anxiety and learning motivation, attitudes, and strategies in two groups of EFL learners with different first language (L1) backgrounds. Thirty-five Chinese EFL undergraduates and thirty-seven Spanish EFL undergraduates participated in this study via a questionnaire. Quantitative analyses indicated different types of relationships between EFL reading anxiety and the abovementioned factors between these two groups of learners. While learning attitudes had a predictive effect on EFL reading anxiety for both Chinese and Spanish EFL undergraduates, the predictive effect of learning motivation and strategies were significant only among Spanish undergraduates. In addition, with learning attitudes as a mediator, learning motivation had an indirect effect on Chinese undergraduates’ reading anxiety. These findings expand previous studies by exploring the relationships between EFL reading anxiety and these correlates among EFL learners with different L1 backgrounds and provide reference and basis for the intervention of FLRA throughout the language learning process.

Use of a Graphic Organiser as a Pedagogical Instrument for the Sustainable Development of EFL Learners’ English Reading Comprehension

As a visual teaching tool, a Graphic Organiser aids students by constructing and displaying a graphic of the text’s structure, improving students’ sustainable development in English reading comprehension. However, few studies have investigated sustainable development in English reading comprehension using Graphic Organisers, although they might play a critical role in this. Thus, by adopting the methods of quasi-experimentation, observation and interview, this paper aims to address the following two questions from the perspectives of Schema Theory and Dual Coding Theory: (1) What is the effect of Graphic Organisers implemented in English reading on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ sustainable development in English reading comprehension? Is it positive? (2) How do Graphic Organisers affect various groups of EFL learners’ sustainable development in English reading comprehension? One hundred students in an EFL school were chosen as research participants for this experiment, and the whole treatment lasted for three months. The results revealed that the application of Graphic Organisers improved EFL learners’ sustainable development in English reading comprehension overall. In addition, Graphic Organisers benefited EFL learners with a medium reading ability most in their sustainable development of English reading comprehension; Graphic Organisers also made a certain difference for students with low and high reading abilities.

Investigating Syntactic Complexity in EFL Learners' Writing across Common European Framework of Reference Levels A1, A2, and B1

Abstract The study investigates the linguistic basis of Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) levels in English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ writing. Specifically, it examines whether CEFR levels can be distinguished with reference to syntactic complexity (SC) and whether the results differ between two groups of EFL learners with different first languages (Sindhi and Finnish). This sheds light on the linguistic comparability of the CEFR levels across L1 groups. Informants were teenagers from Pakistan (N = 868) and Finland (N = 287) who wrote the same argumentative essay that was rated on a CEFR-based scale. The essays were analysed for 28 SC indices with the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer and Coh-Metrix. Most indices were found to distinguish CEFR levels A1, A2, and B1 in both language groups: the clearest separators were the length of production units, subordination, and phrasal density indices. The learner groups differed most in the length measures and phrasal density when their CEFR level was controlled for. However, some indices remained the same, and the A1 level was more similar than A2 and B2 in terms of SC across the two groups.

The Impact of Implicit Instruction upon the Use of English Discourse Markers in Written Tasks at the Advanced Beginners’ Level of EFL Proficiency

This article aims at examining the impact of implicit instruction upon the use of English discourse markers (further – DMs) in written tasks at the advanced beginners’ level of proficiency in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The theoretical premises of the present research are based upon the role of implicit instruction associated with pragmatic competence, conceptualised as a fundamental dimension of language ability (Laughlin et al., 2015). The research further described in the article involves a quantitative computer-assisted metho­do­logy of computing the frequency of DMs in the written tasks by a group of EFL learners at the advanced beginners’ level of EFL proficiency (further referred to as participants). The frequency of DMs calculated by the computer program WordSmith (Scott, 2012) revealed that implicit instruction in EFL settings had no positive effects on the participants’ use of English DMs in the written tasks. These findings are further discussed in the article.

Developing English learners' transcultural skills through content- and task-based lessons

Abstract This article discusses the use of content- and task-based work in English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classroom contexts with a view to nurturing transcultural understanding between speakers of English from different cultural backgrounds. Three groups of EFL learners, one in Spain and two in Poland, aged 14 to 16, worked on a task-based unit of work about the African continent in their EFL class, which they subsequently discussed with their peers in the other two participating schools on a blog specifically set up to that end. By providing learners with the opportunity to voice their concerns on the topics discussed, the task-work sought to encourage their co-construction of new shared knowledge and the critical re-evaluation of their preconceived worldviews. Results suggest that the content- and task-based activities, along with a novel use of a virtual third space as a zone for transcultural learning and collaboration, fostered participants’ transcultural competence and their ability to communicate effectively in the international arena through English as an International Language (EIL).

Interactional metadiscourse in young EFL learner writing

This study investigates how young English as a foreign language (EFL) learners from Chinese, Spanish, and Polish mother tongue backgrounds use interactional metadiscourse in descriptive and argumentative English essays by drawing data from the ICCI corpus. The quantitative and qualitative analyses show that (i) there are significant differences among the three groups of EFL learners in the use of boosters, attitude markers, self-mentions, and engagement markers; and (ii) there are significant differences between the descriptive essays and the argumentative essays in the use of hedges and self-mentions. Discussion of the results is related to intergroup homogeneity and heterogeneity in the use of metadiscourse and the influences of essay types as well as topics/prompts. Pedagogical implications are provided for teaching interactional metadiscursive resources to young EFL learners from different mother tongue backgrounds and in relation to descriptive and argumentative writing.

Transfer of Pragmatic Competences: A Bi‐Directional Perspective

This study investigated the bi‐directionality of language transfer (first language [L1] to second language [L2] and L2 to L1) at the pragmatic level with a focus on the speech act of request. The L2 participants were Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners at the intermediate and advanced levels. Data were collected via discourse completion tests and coded according to the Cross‐Cultural Speech Act Realization Project coding scheme (Blum‐Kulka, House, & Kasper, 1989). The results indicated that EFL learners at both levels used conventionally indirect strategies significantly less often than English native speakers in making English requests but more often than Chinese native speakers did when requesting in Chinese. Moreover, within‐group comparisons indicated that both groups of EFL learners, especially the advanced learners, exhibited a differentiated pattern of requesting behavior in their 2 languages; they adopted conventionally indirect strategies significantly more often in English than in Chinese, and the advanced learners also used more supportive moves in English than in Chinese. Taken together, this study showed that bi‐directional transfer can occur at the pragmatic level in foreign language learners.