Language Learning Research Research Articles

A Comparative Study of Teaching L2 Vocabulary with and without Illustrations to Virtual EFL Learners

Second language learning research suggests that visual aids and illustrations have the potential to enhance proficiency and retention of vocabulary terms in a foreign language. This study builds off of this literature by studying Native English speakers learning of Polish words using images versus no images. This quantitative study compares the effectiveness of 2 learning methods within groups that studied 10 vocabulary terms in Polish: (1) participants studying with virtual flashcards with illustrations, and (2) participants studying with virtual flashcards without illustrations. After a 10-minute virtual tutorial, participants were asked to fill out a Google form that measured their vocabulary retention. They were then asked to fill out the same Google form after 5 days.
 Keywords: Audio-aided flashcards, Flashcards, L2 vocabulary learning, Pandemic, Proficiency, Retainment, Virtual learning conditions, Visual aid

Toward Blended Language Learning Frameworks

Over the past decades, but particularly as a response to the global pandemic, online language technologies have made blended approaches increasingly practical for the language learning classroom. Despite the growing interest in blended learning generally, research has shown an overemphasis on comparative studies (Goertler, 2019), and left the field with a lack of summative research in blended language learning (BLL). For this article, therefore, we reviewed 208 peer-reviewed studies on BLL to identify predominant scholarly trends, including gaps in the literature, and to encourage further investigation in targeted areas. We specifically advocate for scholarship that addresses language proficiency outcomes, connects the domains of language learning theory and blended instruction, and centers on design-based aims. We invite educators within blended education, foreign language acquisition, and other relevant fields to work collaboratively across disciplines, using our review as a springboard to develop a more complete BLL design framework to better use the affordances of technology to advance BLL.

Overcoming Challenges to Open Research Practices – A Perspective From the Global South: A Commentary on “(Why) Are Open Research Practices the Future for the Study of Language Learning?”

Overcoming Challenges to Open Research Practices – A Perspective From the Global South: A Commentary on “(Why) Are Open Research Practices the Future for the Study of Language Learning?”

MEASURING LANGUAGE ANXIETY OF EFL STUDENTS IN PUBLIC SPEAKING

Research on speaking anxiety has often been the focus of research in language learning to date. This research topic is important to provide information about the level of anxiety they experience when speaking English and to what extent it impacts the quality of students' speaking. Therefore, implementing research is important for developing strategies for learning English according to the habits and challenges they experience. This study examines students' anxiety levels, especially during public speaking. Data was collected using the Public Speaking Class Anxiety Scale (PSCAS) questionnaire and then analyzed separately based on anxiety, communication apprehension, comfort in speaking English, and fear of negative evaluation. The results showed that 50% of students were at the medium level, 35% at the high level, and 15% at the low anxiety level. Anxiety arises from internal factors such as a tense and stiff body, a heart beating faster, and the inability to control body movements. External factors such as fear of being laughed at and getting a negative response from the public also cause anxiety. This study also found that the main causes of anxiety are lack of grammar knowledge, lack of vocabulary mastery, and failure to construct good sentences

Optimizing second language pronunciation instruction: Replications of Martin and Sippel (2021), Olson and Offerman (2021), and Thomson (2012)

AbstractAn important shift in language learning research is the understanding that pronunciation instruction is necessary to ensure learners’ balanced development in pronunciation and second language (L2) speech. Research focusing on understanding what types of pronunciation instruction are effective and what makes them most effective has grown dramatically over the past decade. Given the methodological heterogeneity apparent in this body of literature, however, many questions remain to understand the specific effects of pronunciation training paradigms on learners’ L2 development. In this article, we make the case that replication is a productive means of validating findings and assessing the strength of existing evidence in L2 pronunciation research. As prime targets for replication, we review three studies that offer different perspectives on how L2 pronunciation instruction can be optimized. We have chosen each of these studies because they significantly advance the field conceptually, have broken new ground empirically, and point to areas in which replication studies can have a large impact. We describe a series of close and/or approximate replications of each initial study that would add detail to existing knowledge and provide a more comprehensive understanding of how and why L2 pronunciation instruction is effective, for whom, and under what conditions.

Modelling L1 and the artificial language during artificial language learning

Artificial language learning research has become a popular tool to investigate universal mechanisms in language learning. However, often it is unclear whether the found effects are due to learning, or due to artefacts of the native language or the artificial language, and whether findings in only one language will generalise to speakers of other languages. The present study offers a new approach to model the influence of both the L1 and the target artificial language on language learning. The idea is to control for linguistic factors of the artificial and the native language by incorporating measures of wordlikeness into the statistical analysis as covariates. To demonstrate the approach, we extend Linzen and Gallagher (2017)’s study on consonant identity pattern to evaluate whether speakers of German and Mandarin rapidly learn the pattern when influences of L1 and the artificial language are accounted for by incorporating measures assessed by analogical and discriminative learning models over the L1 and artificial lexicon. Results show that nonwords are more likely to be accepted as grammatical if they are more similar to the trained artificial lexicon and more different from the L1 and, crucially, the identity effect is still present. The proposed approach is helpful for designing cross-linguistic studies.

Sustaining Education with Digital Storytelling in the English Language Teaching and Learning: A Systematic Review

Digital storytelling has always been emphasised as a revolutionary approach as it sustains the education in the modern era. It is a trending educational approach which are being researched in many current studies. However, despite its importance in sustaining the education, the review of digital storytelling in the teaching and learning of English, specifically on the four main language skills, is sparse. Hence, this review systematically focuses on the state-of-practice of digital storytelling in English language teaching and learning of the four skills. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) review methodology, a total of 20 articles related to the use of digital storytelling in the English language classroom were identified from the ERIC, Web of Science, and SCOPUS databases. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were taken into consideration and all authors of the articles provided empirical proof which supports the implementation of digital storytelling in the English language teaching and learning of the four skills. First, the major findings revealed that digital storytelling is commonly utilised through project-based learning tasks. Second, writing skills are more emphasised through digital storytelling in the English language teaching and learning. These two findings implied that there are gaps in research on digital storytelling in the English language teaching and learning. In general, this review is important for practitioners to know which tasks to be used in using digital storytelling to teach the four language skills and in identifying gaps for research in digital storytelling and English language teaching and learning, to sustain the education in the future.

Objective measurement of Spanish emotion vocabulary.

Current research on emotion knowledge and competence emphasises the role of language. Emotion vocabulary is one of the indicators of emotion knowledge that can be objectively measured; however, the metric properties of the scores obtained in tests and tasks to measure it have seldom been adequate. In this study we designed and validated a Spanish emotion vocabulary test (MOVE) employing a corpus approach to construct cloze multiple-choice items, administered the test to a Spanish-speaking sample from two countries, Spain and Argentina, and analysed structural validity of the test items with the Rasch model measurement approach. Eighty-eight items showed adequate fit. Overall, a substantial percentage of variance was explained by a latent variable. Reliability indexes at the test, item, and person level were also adequate. As a vocabulary test, the MOVE can be used in psychological and neurological investigation, as well as in language learning research.

Review of Mackey, A. (2020). Interaction, feedback and task research in second language learning: Methods and design. Cambridge University Press.

Review of Mackey, A. (2020). Interaction, feedback and task research in second language learning: Methods and design. Cambridge University Press.

Digital Language Learning: A Sociocultural Theory Perspective

AbstractThe article reviews Digital Language Learning (DLL) research that has used principles and concepts of Sociocultural Theory (SCT) to support the research. We explain several key principles of the theory and shows how they have been misused or used in a superficial way in the DLL research. These include the assumption that SCT is a social rather than a psychological theory as well as misinterpretation of the central concepts of imitation and the Zone of Proximal Development. The article argues that the assumption that Virtual Reality pedagogy—which claims it is a means to avoid a parasitic relationship between L1 and L2—is problematic and not supported by an SCT perspective because the theory assigns a central role to L1 in all aspects of psychological development. It also argues that DLL pedagogy that seeks to avoid explicit instruction in favor of implicit learning through comprehensible input may well hinder full development of a new language. Finally, the article suggests ways in which DLL and SCT‐based language pedagogy can be integrated into a coherent instructional program.

Developing Pleasure Reading among Secondary Students: Critical Analysis of Approaches and Challenges

Pleasure reading is defined as reading that is freely chosen by readers and that they enjoy reading (Rumbold 2006). According to Rumbold (ibid) pleasure reading has many benefits one of which is language acquisition. The world over, teachers of languages, whether first or second, are faced with the task of ensuring that students have a good mastery of the language they are learning. Research in language learning has shown that pleasure reading contributes immensely in mastering a language (Garside 1991, Barasa 2005 and Rumbold 2006). Therefore, language teachers should use pleasure reading as one of the approaches that should be used in the teaching and learning process. It is, therefore, important that a critical analysis of the development of pleasure reading is done. This article gives suggestions on the development of pleasure reading.

Affective Support for Self-Regulation in Mobile-Assisted Language Learning

Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) research includes examination and development of second language learners' cognitive and metacognitive self-regulated learning skills, but the affective learning component of self-regulation in this context remains largely unexplored. Support for affective learning, which is defined by learners' beliefs, attitudes, and emotions, has been shown to influence learners' cognitive processes, performance, and engagement considerably, and is therefore critical to promote and foster throughout the learning process. This paper defines the importance of supporting affect in MALL, sets out a theoretical perspective on supporting affective self-regulation in MALL, and elaborates on what designers and teachers can do to facilitate affective development through the use of mobile technology, learning analytics, and artificial intelligence. It examines and further delineates the role of affective computing and the role of the teacher in fully harnessing the affective affordances of MALL.

Perceived Barriers to Critical Thinking Development: The Student’s View

Recent research in language learning and teaching has prompted revived attention to developing learners’ critical thinking skills. Training learners to think critically serves as a significant opportunity to improve their knowledge and skills, yet it is still a key issue in need of enormous research in terms of its application. Despite its evident importance, the way to enhance students’ thinking skills is challenging and impeded by numerous barriers. This survey study sets out learners’ perceived barriers to critical thinking in two state Moroccan universities. Surveying 110 EFL students, the respondents were invited to openly comment on the obstacles that hindered their reflection. By way of qualitative content analysis, the results displayed that enhancing critical thinking skills is governed by factors related to teaching, learning and the education system. Amongst the nine challenges the Moroccan students face, lecturing and student content knowledge were reported to be the two major obstacles that significantly influenced the development of critical thinking.

Relationships between Chinese university EFL learners’ academic emotions and self-regulated learning strategies: A structural equation model

Emotional research in foreign language learning has bloomed recently, and yet there has been a call for attention to a broader spectrum of emotions experienced by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Whilst emotions and self-regulated learning (SRL) are both believed to play important roles in EFL learning, little is known about their interplay. To fill the void, the study intends to map out an overall status quo of Chinese university EFL students’ academic emotions and SRL strategy use and sophisticated interrelationships between them using structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings showed that the Chinese participants demonstrated a medium level of positive emotions, a low level of anger, a medium level of shame and anxiety, and a low to medium frequency use of SRL strategies in English learning. ANOVA results detected gender differences in SRL strategy use, with females outperforming males in using self-evaluation and persistence strategy types, together with grade level influences in anxiety level with seniors feeling less anxious than juniors and sophomores. Furthermore, SEM results suggested that enjoyment had positive relationships with SRL strategy use; anger and shame had negative relationships while anxiety had ambivalent relationships with SRL strategy use. Important implications are discussed.

Exploring the relationships between learners’ engagement, autonomy, and academic performance in an English language MOOC

Language learner engagement, which is receiving increased attention, has predominantly focused on offline classroom contexts, while learner engagement in language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs) remains under-explored. This study was conducted on a College English MOOC with the purpose of examining learner engagement and its relations with autonomy and academic performance in the LMOOC. In the first phase, the learning analytics (LA) approach was adopted. This involved collecting tracking data of 3673 learners from the learning management system (LMS) of the LMOOC platform. The data included three types of activities (videos watched, assignments submitted, and posts written) as indicators of learners’ online task engagement and scores on the final examination as a measure of their academic performance. In the second phase, 115 learners of the focal LMOOC responded to a survey that measured autonomy and three dimensions of engagement (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement) typically explored in second language (L2) learning research. The results of the LA approach showed that all three indicators of online task engagement significantly predicted academic performance. The survey results indicated that only cognitive engagement among the three dimensions of engagement significantly predicted academic performance. While autonomy did not predict academic performance, cognitive engagement significantly mediated the relationship between autonomy and academic performance. Implications for LMOOC instructors, designers, and researchers are then addressed.

Online and Face-to-Face English as a Foreign Language Proficiency in Morocco: The Case of the Moroccan Baccalaureate Students during the Covid

Due to the outbreak and alarming spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a recognized need for alternative ICT-based methods like online and blended methods of teaching school topics, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in particular. It seems that this sudden transition to emergency remote teaching has presented a number of challenges and constraints for EFL practitioners, as well as opportunities throughout all the cycles of the Moroccan education system. In Morocco, EFL learning specifically has become of vital importance. Research on the status of English proficiency and input from an online or distance learning perspective, nonetheless, is scarce and focuses mainly on face-to-face learning and hardly on the impact of online and blended learning on language proficiency in EFL. However, the effectiveness of learning EFL in the Moroccan context - such as English as a foreign language fully online in the Moroccan education system has yet to be uncovered. The principal objective of this paper was to investigate whether learning EFL fully online can be as effective as learning it fully face-to-face. A quantitative methodological approach was adopted. Independent sample t-tests were carried out to compare online and face-to-face learners’ performance in Moroccan secondary schools in a Baccalaureate-level EFL course in the Regional Academies of Casablanca-Settat and Beni-Mellal-Khenifra, Morocco. The key variables ‘age’, ‘gender’, ‘learning outcomes’, ‘the residential environment’, ‘access to Internet’, ‘Net connection availability’ & ‘digital device used’ are controlled. The main findings, wherein the t-value of the seven subtests represented a mean difference of 31,380 in the fully face-to-face group and -17,582 in the fully online group, indicated that online EFL learning in Baccalaureate education cannot be at least as effective as face-to-face EFL learning. This study should, therefore, be of value to language course providers wishing to implement flexible EFL learning and to, broadly speaking, course designers and practitioners and computer-assisted language learning researchers.

L1-L2 congruency as a criterion to identify collocations based on contrastive analysis

In second language learning research, L1-L2 congruency refers to the similarity in form and meaning of the way a word or phrase is said between two languages. If there is low L1-L2 congruency, the learning burden of a word or phrase can be higher, and thus, such items should be focused on more in teaching to help learners avoid errors. For example, an unacceptable structure could be produced when second language learners use direct or literal translation to formulate multiword units (MWUs) in the target language. This study used L1-L2 congruency as a criterion to identify English MWUs with low congruency with their Persian equivalents to create a resource for Persian-speaking English learners. An L1-L2 contrastive analysis was conducted on a list of approximately 11,000 high-frequency MWUs. This list was translated, and the items were given ratings regarding their congruency in Persian. The results revealed that more than 65% of the items examined were incongruent with their word-for-word translations, demonstrating that L1-L2 congruency is a significant factor in selecting MWUs for Persian-speaking English learners. Since focusing on incongruent items may help learners avoid errors, the results of this study can help improve the efficacy of English acquisition by Persian-speaking learners through its identification of particular MWUs that have low congruency between the two languages.

Effects of mobile-assisted reading materials on children's L1 lexical development.

Despite the wide and extensive use of mobile-assisted devices, the effectiveness of children's L1 learning with these mobile-assisted technologies has been less discussed. This study aims to explore the effects of mobile-assisted reading materials on Chinese children's L1 vocabulary learning. We adopted a longitudinal and quasi-experimental design consisting of an experiment group using the mobile-assisted materials and a control group using the traditional paper materials, and took children's lexical development as indexed by assessing the parameter, lexical diversity, in different testing times. The results showed that (1) children's L1 vocabulary learning effectiveness of using mobile-assisted materials is as similar as that of using conventional paper materials in general, and (2) the changing patterns of children's L1 lexical development using mobile-assisted materials in different testing times are various. Specifically speaking, (a) in the posttest 1 (the first month), compared with the traditional paper reading materials, the mobile-assisted reading materials have a facilitating effect on the primary school students' L1 vocabulary learning; (b) in the posttest 2 (the second month), children's vocabulary learning effectiveness is inhibited by the mobile-assisted reading materials; (c) in the delayed posttest (the fourth month), there is no difference in the learning effectiveness by these two different kinds of learning materials and the lexical diversity increases slowly but steadily. We analyzed the results from research-design factors and learner-related factors, hoping to shed light on children's mobile-assisted language learning research.

Language Learning through Digital Media: Investigating the Strategies among Selected International Students in the Philippines

This study attempts to investigate the language learning strategies used by international students in Manila, Philippines, in five areas: planning and organizing, remembering, thinking and understanding, compensating, and interacting. Using the snowball sampling technique, the researcher identified and interviewed ten (10) international students from different colleges and universities for this descriptive research. The findings revealed that the use of digital media has become common for participants in various areas of language learning strategies. For instance, the usefulness of Google Translate, Dictionary+, YouTube, Netflix, mobile language translators, and other language learning applications such as Mango, Drops, Rosetta Stone, Babbel and Mondly were recognized, alongside writing new words, interacting with people, and conversing using a second language (L2). Given the significance of digital media in L2 learning, the researcher developed the digital media-assisted language learning (DMALL) paradigm to contribute to language learning research. This study will cater to a specific context to address the needs of international students in the Philippines. Hence, determining the difficulties and the strategies will form an integral part of the academic curriculum plan or design that will substantially assist the L2 needs of the growing number of international students in the country.

A Review on the Research of Computer-assisted Language Learning in Language Teaching, Social Attitudes and Some Other Academic Circles

With the continuous innovation of online education and the continuous rise of computer assisted language learning (CALL), it is very critical to apply it to social life, especially classroom teaching. However, for present purposes, few studies have systematically commented on how much it has changed social life and research fields other than education, what benefits or defects it has caused to learners, and what attitudes and views nearly all walks of life have towards it. In order to settle this issue, this paper refers to more than 50 literatures and summarizes the research on computer network education and learning in foreign authoritative journals in the past ten years. The main purpose of this study is to review these authoritative theses in order to comprehend (1) the attitudes of students and parents towards the use of mobile application software (2) the impact of tools developed by network technology on language teaching models and methods (3) the impact of computer-aided development tools on second language acquisition, translation, Chinese, philosophy and other fields. CALL has promoted the development of modern education and some other fields, and has been recognized by the society. Last but not the least, this paper puts forward some suggestions for the future development of CALL.