Implications For Foreign Language Teaching Research Articles

How teacher characteristics shape Chinese undergraduate EFL learners’ enjoyment and anxiety

ABSTRACT Emotion research in second language acquisition has flourished under the growing influence of Positive Psychology in recent years. This mixed-method study explored the effects of teacher characteristics on learners’ foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) in the Chinese educational context. A total of 347 EFL (English as a foreign language) learners from a provincial key university filled out an online questionnaire. Results showed that participants with male teachers reported more FLE than those with female teachers. Multiple regression analyses revealed that teacher characteristics predicted much more variance in FLE than in FLCA. Teachers’ happiness was the strongest predictor of learners’ enjoyment, while teachers’ strictness was the most significant predictor of anxiety. Qualitative data on students’ enjoyable and anxiety-provoking experiences regarding teachers also indicated that participants experienced more FLE with humorous, patient, supportive, happy, encouraging, and friendly teachers, yet teachers who were strict, frequently practiced random calls, and only spoke English in class would evoke participants’ FLCA. Based on these findings, pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching at the collegiate level are provided.

The Enlightenment of Monitoring Theory on Japanese Language Teaching

Krashen's monitoring theory is the most influential one in the study of second language acquisition, and the core part of it is the language input hypothesis, which provides many valuable teaching implications for foreign language teaching and has been applied to the 21st century. At present, Japanese Teaching in China is facing some challenges. This paper will explore the problems existing in Japanese teaching and put forward some effective strategies to promote the development of Japanese Teaching in China. I hope these suggestions can bring some new thinking and improvement to Japanese teaching.

Pleonasm in English – Polish – German. Translation and Implications for Foreign Language Teaching

The following article elaborates on the problem of pleonasms. These are expressions that occur in every language where one element repeats the meaning of the whole phrase and is thus redundant. The aim of the planned study is to ascertain how students of English and German deal with pleonasms and whether they retain them in translation. A second important aspect for examination is the extent of students’ translation experience and language awareness, measured in this study by how conscious their approach to pleonasms in translation work is. Two groups of students will be tested – those in their 2nd (without translation experience) and those in the 3rd year of study for a bachelor’s degree in Applied Linguistics. The results will be compared on the students’ completion of three translation tasks: translation from Polish into German and English, translation from German into Polish and from English into Polish. Based on the results of the translation tasks, several didactic implications are suggested to promote language awareness regarding, in particular, redundancy and pleonasms.

Applied Linguistics and Its Implications for Foreign Language Teaching

Language is the cornerstone of human civilization, and foreign languages are the key to cultural exchange. While traditional foreign language teaching models need to be reformed gradually by relying on scientific theories, the emergence of applied linguistics has given foreign language teaching a new breakthrough. Therefore, this paper is based on the characteristics of applied linguistics and explores its role and innovation in foreign language teaching through the use of literature analysis and case study methods. This paper will give inspiration to foreign language teaching and achieve the purpose of improving teaching dilemmas and promoting teaching quality. This paper finds that combining foreign language teaching with practical applications can create an excellent language learning environment and maximize learners' language skills and interests.

Enjoyment, anxiety, and out-of-class foreign language use among Spanish foreign language learners

ABSTRACT This study investigated the relationship between Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE), Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA), Out-of-Class Foreign Language Use (OCFLU) and learner factors (FL and FL proficiency level). Participants were 611 foreign language (FL) learners aged 16–72 at Spanish Official Language Schools. An online questionnaire was used to collect the study data. Results revealed that the informants scored high in FLE, moderately in FLCA and quite low in OCFLU; FLE was positively related to OCFLU, while FLCA was negatively associated with it; these two associations held in FL proficiency levels below higher-intermediate (B2) for all foreign languages considered. This study confirms previous research, adds new evidence concerning the relationship between FLE and FLCA and OCFLU, and considers the implications for FL teaching and learning in formal situations, with particular attention to autonomous learning in an increasingly digitalised world.

Metapragmatic Expressions as Relation-oriented Strategies in Peer Feedback: A Case Study of Business English Writing

This paper explores the interpersonal functions of metapragmatic expressions (MPEs) in peer feedback, where students were assigned a business English writing task, and examines the metapragmatic awareness revealed in this context from the metapragmatics perspective. It is shown in the data that the use of MPEs in peer feedback not only helps students to deliver information by creating common ground but also reflects their concern for their interpersonal relations. Data analysis indicates that students in peer feedback use MPEs as relation-oriented strategies such as hedging, complementing, repairing, inducing, and transferring strategies to manage and regulate their relations so that effective feedback can be achieved, which reflects their consideration of relational factors, including face work and emotion management on both sides of feedback. The present study deepens our understanding of the mechanisms of MPEs in peer feedback and advances our knowledge of metapragmatic awareness in classroom discourse, providing some implications for foreign language teaching.

Machine Translation in Foreign Language Writing: Student Use to Guide Pedagogical Practice

The recent advent of more powerful machine translation (MT) tools has significant implications for foreign language teaching and learning. While current research and pedagogical guidelines on MT in the foreign and second language classroom have focused primarily on survey data, less is known about how students actually use MT tools. The current article chronicles a computer tracking study of novice learners of French as a Foreign Language (n=26) as a way to inform this field of research. Drawing on diverse data sources (screen-recorded observations, retrospective recalls, post-interviews) and a Critical Incident Technique analytical approach, the article showcases the actions and cognitive processes related to MT that both supported and hindered student participants in their foreign language writing. Supportive behaviors and mindsets centered on a specific awareness of MT tool limitations paired with appropriate action while detrimental behaviors and mindsets centered on inappropriate input, lack of output analysis, and time. Suggestions for how these use-based findings might inform how MT is discussed in the language classroom conclude the article.

One norm to rule them all? Corpus-derived norms in learner corpus research and foreign language teaching

AbstractThis paper considers the issue of the norm in the context of learner corpus research and its implications for foreign language teaching. It seeks to answer three main questions: Does learner corpus research require a native norm? What corpus-derived norms are available and how do we choose? What do we do with these norms in the classroom? The first two questions are more research-oriented, reviewing the types of reference corpora that can be used in the analysis of learner corpora, whereas the third one looks into the pedagogical use of corpus-derived norms. It is shown that, while studies in learner corpus research can dispense with a native norm, they usually rely on one, and that a wide range of native and non-native norms are available, from which choosing the most appropriate one(s) is of crucial importance. This large repertoire of corpus-derived norms is then reconsidered in view of the reality of the foreign language classroom.

The Causes of Pragmatic Failure from the Perspective of Bilingualism and its Implications for Foreign Language Teaching

The Causes of Pragmatic Failure from the Perspective of Bilingualism and its Implications for Foreign Language Teaching

The Causes of Pragmatic Failure from the Perspective of Bilingualism and its Implications for Foreign Language Teaching

The Causes of Pragmatic Failure from the Perspective of Bilingualism and its Implications for Foreign Language Teaching

Culture as Non-Consensus: Exploring Coherence Among Native Speakers’ Perceptions of German Expressions of Affection

From early in their learning experience, foreign language (FL) learners at American universities explore socio-cultural connotations that, it is argued, are signified by FL words. Textbook authors and teachers follow an implicit canon of difference, a list of iconic words that over time—and without the benefit of empirical evidence—have come to represent essential differences in outlook between their native and the FL culture (Kubota, 2004). Despite the fast progression of the theory of teaching culture in FL learning (Kramsch, 2015; Risager, 2015), large empirical gaps remain. Todate, there is little evidence that native speakers (NSs) of the FL perceive their cultural practices, including the cultural contexts in which language is used, homogenously enough to warrant their status as cultural traits. Using the example of expressions of affection, this exploratory study drew on qualitative and quantitative questionnaire data to investigate whether German NSs’ (N=52) accounts of their own and of most fellow Germans’ language behavior converged enough to derive a comprehensive and reliable cultural norm. Results indicated a lack of consensus among German NSs’ self-reported views, eluding the assumption of a pertinent community-specific norm. Implications for FL teaching and learning, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.

Development and Validation of a New Multidimensional Language Class Anxiety Scale

This study reports on the development and assessment of a new 30-item Multidimensional Language Class Anxiety Scale which is designed to assess foreign language learners’ anxiety regarding four language skills (listening, reading, writing, and speaking) and testing. In Study 1, the initial items were piloted with 323 students studying English as a foreign language at three different universities in Turkey. This informed a revised version of the questionnaire which was subsequently administered to 701 students at three different Turkish universities. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that a bifactor model with correlated residual variance yielded a better fit for the data in both studies than the other four models tested. The overall results provided preliminary evidence for the reliability and validity of the data collected using the new scale. Directions for future research and implications for foreign language teaching and learning are discussed.

The effect of ambiguity tolerance on learning English with computer-mediated dictionaries

In foreign language learning, computer-mediated dictionaries are among the most popular tools, and ambiguity tolerance (AT) is a key impact factor. However, few studies have focused on the effects of AT on computer-mediated dictionary-assisted English learning. To fill this gap, the current study explored the differences between two groups (a high AT group with 20 participants, and a low AT group with 21 participants) in learning processes (time spent on learning and dictionary usage) and learning performance (vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension) during computer-mediated dictionary-assisted English learning. The correlation between AT and another important variable in dictionary-assisted learning, vocabulary size, was also explored. The results showed that low AT learners had better performance in reading comprehension, even though low AT learners and high AT learners had similar learning processes and performance in vocabulary acquisition. In addition, there was no correlation between AT during English learning and vocabulary size. This study may be of importance in explaining the unique role AT plays in learning English with computer-mediated dictionary assistance. Finally, the current article proposes suggestions for future studies and discusses implications for foreign language teaching and learning.

Affordances, complexities, and challenges of intercultural citizenship for foreign language teachers

This article explores the intercultural and citizenship dimensions of foreign language teaching and discusses, in particular, the implications for foreign language teaching and teacher education. The work (1) extends the fundamental concepts that were developed by Byram and Wagner () in this journal—that foreign language education has instrumental purposes but also educational aims that constitute the development of the individual and of societies by fostering democratic competences and values and linking the language learning that takes place in classrooms with the community, whether local, regional, or global; and (2) links language education and community engagement in the form of service‐learning, which was also addressed in this journal by Palpacuer Lee, Curtis, and Curran (). An intercultural citizenship project carried out in Argentina serves as illustration. Pedagogical implications are offered.

The effect of positive orientation and perceived social support on foreign language classroom anxiety

The present study reports on the effect of learners’ positive orientation, perceived teacher and student emotional support on their foreign language classroom anxiety. One hundred and forty-four Chinese L1 second-year university-level participants filled out the Positivity Scale, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, and the Teacher/Student Emotional Support Scale. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that positive orientation was a significant negative predictor of FL anxiety. The relationship between perceived student support and anxiety ceased to be significant as positive orientation entered the model. Perceived teacher support did not significantly predict FL classroom anxiety at each step of the analysis. The results are discussed in line with previous findings as well as their practical implications for foreign language teaching and learning in Chinese universities.

Le Pouvoir du Théâtre: Foreign Languages, Higher Education, and Capturing the Notion of Symbolic Competence

The study of foreign languages has historically been a cornerstone in higher education for a variety of very good reasons, one being that it will help students develop a sensitivity to diversity. This rationale is compelling in theory, but requires a practical approach for instruction that actually guides students towards such a learning outcome. Current research (e.g., Byrnes, 2006; Kramsch, 2006; Swaffar, 2006) has argued that the traditional focus on the development of communicative competence often promotes a functional understanding of the target language and dominant cultural values, thereby obscuring examples of linguistic ambiguity, power dynamics, and even cultural diversity. According to Kramsch (2009) these concepts can be highlighted by prioritizing symbolic competence, which is the “...ability to draw on the semiotic diversity afforded by multiple languages to reframe ways of seeing familiar events, create alternative realities, and find an appropriate subject position ‘between languages,’ so to speak” (pp. 200–201). This article discusses why the notion of symbolic competence is so important when teaching foreign language courses at the university level, and explains why theater offers a salient opportunity to engage with semiotic diversity. Specifically, theater allows students to interpret and play with meaning, and in the context of semiotics, students are able to observe, enact, and even dismantle meaning-making devices such as symbolic representation, symbolic action, and symbolic power. This article illustrates classroom activities and examples of student work from an intermediate (200-level) French course, and concludes by discussing the larger implications for foreign language teaching and learning.

Effects of Task-based Academic Listening on High School EFL Students' Listening Comprehension: Does Experiential Learning Style Matter?

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been considered as an effective language teaching methodology. However, its applicability for lower-proficiency learners in EFL contexts has not been adequately justified. Moreover, the possible mediating effect of the experiential learning styles on academic listening TBLT has not been targeted in the literature, a gap that this study attempts to fill. To this end, male pre-intermediate Iranian EFL learners (N=88) in four experiential learning styles (n=22), selected purposefully through the experiential learning style questionnaire, took part in the study. The study utilized a time series design and all participants received the TBLT. To get some insights regarding the learners' attitudes toward the TBLT, the researchers implemented a perception questionnaire at the end of the treatment. The results of a mixed-method ANOVA for within-group difference revealed that the task-based instruction significantly affected pre-intermediate EFL learners’ performance on academic listening tests. A between-group comparison of four experiential learning styles also confirmed that the learners with different learning styles performed similarly on the tests. It was also found that learners had positive attitudes toward such instruction. The results have clear implications for foreign language teaching, teacher training and curriculum design with regard to the selection of appropriate methodology for teaching academic listening.

On Discrimination in Chinese and English Indirect Addressings

One of the fundamental usages of language is to address each other. As a socialized product, language is bound to transfer its users’ intention, the examination of which will have to be based on the absence of either the addressor or the addressee, or even the both. In the process of social development, there exists discrimination between different nations, job-takers, and genders. This essay tries to look into the discrimination in the indirect addressings in people’s communication. The foundings bring home some implications for foreign language teaching and learning.

The Study of Second Language Acquisition Under Socio-Cultural Theory

Socio-Cultural Theory, based on Vygotskian thought, is a theory about the development of human cognitive and higher mental function. The theory specially emphasizes the integration of social, cultural and biological elements in learning processes and stresses the socio-cultural circumstances’ central role in human’s cognitive development. Second Language Acquisition is concerned with the process of how a new language other than the native language is acquired and how much this is affected by other disciplines, among which is Socio-Cultural Theory. This theory facilitates reflection on some of the problems on second language acquisition from a new perspective. In addition, this new perspective provides some pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching. This article makes attempts to elucidate Social-Cultural Theory’s constructs, its influence on second language acquisition and the pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching.

The impact of study abroad on Japanese language learners social networks

Study abroad is commonly believed to be an ideal environment for second language acquisition to take place, due to the increased opportunities for interaction with native speakers that it is considered to offer. However, several studies have challenged these beliefs, finding that study abroad students were disappointed with the degree of out-ofclass interaction they had with native speakers. It is therefore important to gain an understanding of the study abroad context and the factors that promote and constrain opportunities for second language (L2) interaction. This paper examines the complexities behind six Japanese language learners’ interaction and social relationships with native speakers through analysis of their social networks before, during, and after a study abroad period in Japan. It also compares the networks that were formed in an urban and a regional setting in Australia. The paper concludes with a discussion of the benefits of study abroad and offers several implications for foreign language teaching and study abroad program development.