Native English Speaking Countries Research Articles

Comparative analysis of Cochrane and non-Cochrane reviews over three decades

BackgroundSystematic reviews are viewed as the best study design to guide clinical decision-making as they are the least biased publications assuming they are well-conducted and include well-designed studies. Cochrane was initiated in 1993 with an aim of conducting high-quality systematic reviews. We aimed to examine the publication rates of non-Cochrane systematic reviews (henceforth referred to simply as “systematic reviews”) and Cochrane reviews produced throughout Cochrane’s existence and characterize changes throughout the period.MethodsThis observational study collected data on systematic reviews published between 1993 and 2022 in PubMed. Identified Cochrane reviews were linked to data from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews via their Digital Object Identifier. Systematic reviews and Cochrane reviews were analyzed separately. Two authors screened a random sample of records to validate the overall sample, providing a precision of 98%.ResultsWe identified 231,602 (94%) systematic reviews and 15,038 (6%) Cochrane reviews. Publication of systematic reviews has continuously increased with a median yearly increase rate of 26%, while publication of Cochrane reviews has decreased since 2015. From 1993 to 2002, Cochrane reviews constituted 35% of all systematic reviews in PubMed compared with 3.5% in 2013–2022. Systematic reviews consistently had fewer authors than Cochrane reviews, but the number of authors increased over time for both. Chinese first authors conducted 15% and 4% of systematic reviews published from 2013–2022 and 2003–2012, respectively. Most Cochrane reviews had first authors from the UK (36%). The native English-speaking countries the USA, the UK, Canada, and Australia produced a large share of systematic reviews (42%) and Cochrane reviews (62%). The largest publishers of systematic reviews in the last 10 years were gold open access journals.ConclusionsPublication of systematic reviews is increasing rapidly, while fewer Cochrane reviews have been published through the last decade. Native English-speaking countries produced a large proportion of both types of systematic reviews. Gold open access journals and Chinese first authors dominated the publication of systematic reviews for the past 10 years. More research is warranted examining why fewer Cochrane reviews are being published. Additionally, examining these systematic reviews for research waste metrics may provide a clearer picture of their utility.

A Journey through language and diversity in the English-speaking community: from its origins to the Colombian case

This article is meant to be a journey through the English community and its diversity, depicted by a variety of people, accents and dialects existing in several native English-speaking countries. It is a brief but meaningful historical background, which starts from the Anglo-Saxon invasion of the British Isles, in the fifth century of our era, and it continues until the spread of English as an international language. A fairly relevant part is also dedicated to the first dispersal of ‘Englishes’, people who migrated from the south-east of England mostly to North America and Australia, giving birth to new and meaningful linguistic varieties.
 The impact of English on higher education will be extensively analysed and discussed; this includes the brand-new role of twentieth-century English teachers, as well as the history of English in Colombia and its influence in culture, education and language policies, from its origins to its current handling.

Compiling a corpus of South Asian online Englishes: A report, some reflections and a pilot study

Abstract In this research article we introduce the South Asian Online Englishes (SAOnE) corpus representing four South Asian countries, i.e. Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and two native English-speaking countries, i.e. the UK and the USA. We have used semi-automatic and manual methods to collect data from three internet registers, i.e. newspaper comments, web forums and tweets, and a collection of internet sub-registers which we label as blogs and websites. Additionally, we have collected text messages using online freelance hiring platforms from each of the South Asian countries mentioned above. Each register category in the corpus consists of approximately 1 million words per register per country, except text messages, which contains around 500,000 words per country and only includes the four South Asian countries. We have verified the origin of website and blog links, authors of Twitter, and where possible of commenters and web forum users to make sure that only local content of each country is included. The corpus features some indigenous language content, which is tagged. In addition to the description of this dataset, we also present a pilot study analysing three discourse particles, namely na, neh, and yaar. The discourse particles na and yaar are native to Hindi/Urdu, while neh is based on a Sinhala negation marker. Our analysis indicates that na and neh have similarities in terms of their position in the clause/utterance. However, neh is confined to Sri Lanka while the Hindi/Urdu based discourse particles are also used in our Twitter data from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The use of these discourse particles in Bangladeshi tweets shows the influence of Indian culture through Bollywood celebrities. Of the Hindi/Urdu discourse particles yaar and na, yaar is preferred in Pakistan while na is preferred in India; additionally, yaar is used at the start of the clause more often in our Pakistani data. Lastly, we discuss the implications of the pilot study, the advantages of the type of data used for the pilot study, and future research directions.

Editorial board interlocking across the social sciences: Modelling the geographic, gender, and institutional representation within and between six academic fields.

Editorial boards play a key role in the production, dissemination, and promotion of scientific knowledge. The cross-presence of scholars in different journals, known as editorial board interlocking, maps the connections between such bodies of governance. Former research on this topic is typically restricted to individual disciplines and has failed to consider the relevance of potential interlocking between related, but different academic fields. Further, although existing studies note a significant lack of diversity in editorial board representation, they mainly focus on a single dimension, such as gender or geography. This study addressed these knowledge gaps by offering a complex cross-disciplinary approach to the geographical, gender, and institutional compositions of editorial boards, with a specific emphasis on within- and between-fields editorial board interlocking. We used graph and social network analysis to examine editorial board connections between 281 top journals (13,084 members and 17,092 connections) of six disciplines: communication, psychology, political science, sociology, economics, and management. We found substantial differences in terms of field connections, ranging from sociology with 42% interlocking with other fields, to management with only 11%. Psychology is significantly less connected to the other five disciplines. The results also show a clear overrepresentation of American institutions and native English-speaking countries in all fields, with Harvard, Columbia, Cornell, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and New York University forming a well-connected central cluster. Although female scholars are underrepresented, there are no significant differences in terms of positioning in the network. Female scholars are even employed in more central positions than male scholars in psychology, sociology, and management. Our findings extend the literature on editorial board diversity by evidencing a significant imbalance in their gender, geographical, institutional representation, and interlocking editorship both within and between fields.

Studies of Teaching and Learning English-Speaking Skills: A Review and Bibliometric Analysis

This study conducted a comprehensive historical review and bibliometric analysis of the literature on English-speaking (ES) education and mapped the current state of the field, trends, and emerging topics, as well as identified gaps where further research is needed. We retrieved 361 sample documents on ES teaching and learning in Scopus (2010–2021) under certain conditions and analyzed the extracted data using Excel and VOSviewer 1.6.17 from the perspectives of the number of yearly publications, countries, authors, citation numbers, and keywords. The findings show that the number of publications on ES education increased from 2010 to 2021, but there was a lack of sustained engagement with this topic by researchers. Countries with an ESL or EFL context focused more on the subject of ES, although studies from native ES countries were more influential. The research topics showed a multidimensional trend, covering communicative skills, language knowledge, assessment, teaching or learning methods, ICT-related applications, and cognitive factors, of which ICT-related applications (such as flipped classrooms, blended learning, and e-learning) and cognitive factors (such as motivation, anxiety, and affect) were the areas of focus. Students in higher institutions, rather than children, became the main research subject of ES education over the period studied.

Effectiveness of Using Animated Videos via Google Sites in Enhancing Socio-culture of Native English-Speaking Countries

This research aimed at 1) studying the second-year university students’ achievement after using animated videos through Google Sites to enhance socio-culture of native English-speaking countries, 2) examining the efficiency of animated videos with an efficiency criterion of 75/75, and 3) exploring the students' level of satisfaction after using animated videos. The samples of the study selected purposively were 48 third-year students majoring in English for Communication program at a university in the southern part of Thailand. 15 aminated videos on Socio-culture of native English-speaking countries, pre-test, post-test, and a questionnaire asking for the users’ satisfaction were used to collect data which were analyzed by means of average value ( ), standard deviation (S.D), T-test, and E1/E2. The results were as follows: 1) pre-test scores averaged to 13.81 ( = 13.81) while post-tests averaged to 22.52 ( = 22.52). This revealed a statistically significant different level of .00, 2) the efficiency of the created animated videos on Socio-culture of native English-speaking countries was at 75.09/75.06 which was higher than the set efficiency criterion of 75/75, and 3) the students had a positive satisfaction towards the animated video at the highest level with the overall mean scores of 4.55 ( = 4.55). The results pointed out that using animated videos to enhance Socio-culture of native English-speaking countries can effectively help the students increase their knowledge and understanding.

The Perceptions of Arabic-Speaking Jordanian EFL Learners about Multiculturalism and Multilingualism

This study presents quantitative research on the opinions of Jordanian EFL learners regarding multiculturalism and multilingualism. It evaluates how learning English is linked with the cultural association of these learners. The communicative competence model, which explains multilingualism and multiculturalism as being associated with the different competencies of students in acquiring a language, is applied. It applies a survey methodology to investigate the perceptions of Jordanian EFL students regarding their multilingualism and multiculturalism. A sample of 426 undergraduate students was used in the analysis. The main findings showed that the students prefer collaborative learning strategies. It also showed that the students are more interested in standard English and have a relatively low cultural affiliation with native English-speaking countries such as the United States and Britain. Jordanian students seem to have relatively low levels of multiculturalism, although they consider themselves citizens of the world in seeking to learn English as the language of globalization. Multilingualism for Jordanian EFL students seems to focus mostly on standard English.

Linguistic errors and investment decisions: the case of ICO white papers

Drawing on language expectancy theory, we predict that linguistic errors in ICO white papers negatively impact investors’ willingness to financially contribute to ICO projects. We manually annotate a sample of 546 ICO white papers according to 13 different error subcategories related to spelling and grammar. The error-annotated data are subsequently submitted to regression analyses which confirm that linguistic errors discourage potential investments in ICOs. Specifically, our analyses reveal the presence of ‘high penalty’ vs. ‘low penalty’ errors which result in higher vs. lower financial investment losses for the ICOs. The negative impact of language errors is stronger when ICO white papers are (1) written in native English-speaking countries and (2) from countries without cryptocurrency regulation. Results from an experiment confirm that this relationship is not driven by the entrepreneur- or investor-specific characteristics. Overall, we highlight that the reader identifies linguistic errors as a major ‘red flag’ that ultimately affects financial decision-making.

A STORY OF SOUTH-EAST ASIAN TESOL WHY TEACH ABROAD: ITS OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

This study aimed to investigate a story from a South-East Asian TESOL teacher. The purpose of this study is to inspire and guide in-service and pre-service English teachers to teach EFL/ESL overseas either to native English-speaking or non-native English-speaking countries. The participant of the study is a BA TESOL Teacher from the Philippines teaching English in the Kingdom Saudi of Arabia. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview and analyzed through Braun & Clarke’s thematic analysis. The data then will be coded, read multiple times, and themes were assigned and generated. The findings describe that teaching abroad provides better prosperity and additive and transformative development for the teachers. However, teachers that aim to teach abroad should be globally accepted and possess proper identity and agency to overcome culture shock, language differences, homesickness as the common challenges of teaching abroad. Overall, teaching abroad should be considered greatly by teachers who are interested to receive a higher salary and involved various teachers’ development experience.

China English, Not a Legitimate Variety of English

China has a long history in its contact with English. With the increasingly influence of China expands in the worldwide stage, ‘China English’ has emerged correspondingly to satisfy her need to communicate its stories to the audiences around the world. And the situation has developed to the extent that some scholars and English learners are so confident in ‘China English’ as to conclude that it is a member of the ‘World Englishes’, varieties of English that developed in other parts of the globe outside native English-speaking countries. This conclusion goes too far when it is testified against different factors both at home and abroad. This article firstly introduces the background of the proposal of the concept “China English”, and then discusses the validity of the concept against Butler’s criteria, what standard English is from the Chinese English learners’ eye, the situation of China English in China, other elements preventing the popularity of China English, and in the end, by referring to relevant figures, the authors point out that standard English is a necessity for Chinese English learners and it is suggested that Standard English, instead of China English, still has its place in English teaching and learning in China.

Cross Culture Understanding in EFL Teaching: An Analysis for Indonesia Context

This study attempts to elaborate on the importance of cultural understanding of English foreign learners’ communicative competence. In the English language teaching in Indonesia, the role of culture is a crucial thing which needs to be combined with the teaching material to assist teachers and students for reaching the learning objective. Based on the findings of some studies, English learners in Indonesia face several obstacles when they find some terms which are unable to get its point in the literal meaning. Understanding the background culture in learning English is expected to minimize students' misunderstanding and lead them to use proper English in real communication. Integrated teaching material which contains cultural contents and its backgrounds is one way to introduce English to the learners, not only as a language but as a culture as well. Providing topics of learning based on authentic sources from native English speaking countries such as fable, short story, conversation role-play, songs, and movie. Arranging integrated teaching material that covers listening, speaking, reading, and writing with included cultural or arts contents of English native speakers. The teacher should not only teach students in linguistic competence but should teach them communicative competence as well because mastering linguistic competence is insufficient to use English in natural discourse. The appropriateness of English in use toward communication context is the objective of understanding the culture and language.

Do We Publish What We Present? A Critical Analysis of Abstracts Presented At Three Plastic Surgery Meetings.

Presentation of research at scientific conferences provides an opportunity for researchers to disseminate their work and gain peer-feedback. However, much of the presented work is never published in peer-reviewed journals. We aimed to analyze the conversion rate of abstracts presented at three national plastic surgery meetings. Abstracts presented at the American Association of Plastic Surgeons(AAPS), American Society of Plastic Surgeons(ASPS), and Plastic Surgery Research Council(PSRC) annual meetings in 2014 and 2015 were identified to analyze the rates of successful conversion into full-text publications. Meeting administrators were contacted to obtain the respective acceptance rates of submitted abstracts. A total of 1174 abstracts were analyzed. The overall conversion rate was 65%. AAPS was the meeting with the highest conversion rate(73%) followed by PSRC(66%) and ASPS(61%). Conversely, AAPS had a lower acceptance rate(28%) compared to ASPS(42%) and PSRC(49%). The conversion rate was significantly higher for abstracts from native English-speaking countries while no significant differences were noted between oral and poster presentations. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery(PRS) was the journal with the highest percentage of published manuscripts(34%). Abstracts presented at PSRC had the highest mean impact factor for the journal of publication. First authors changed in 31% and last authors in 18% of publications. The overall median time to publication from the date of presentation was 13 months. Almost two-thirds of abstracts presented at AAPS, ASPS, and PSRC successfully converted into full-text publications. Plastic surgery departments/divisions should follow unpublished work in their institutions to benefit both patients and the scientific community.

English Language Teaching Practice (ELTP) at Primary and Secondary School Levels in some Asian Countries: A Comparison of Afghanistan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia

English language teaching is a significant part of schools’ curriculum in native and non-native English speaking countries in the world. This study aims to present a review on the similarities and differences of ELTP (English Language Teaching Practice) at primary school level in three Asian countries: Afghanistan, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. The paper discusses some of the similarities and differences of ELT practice at primary school level in these three Asian countries, based on teaching English as a foreign or second language ESL/EFL, when English as a subject is introduced in school, Policy towards English, religious and cultural perceptions towards English, methods of instruction, teaching aids and teaching materials, and challenges in ELT. The discussion shows that there are quite a few similarities between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia regarding ELT practice at primary school level while in the case of Malaysia, ELT is more progressive and up to date in terms of policy and implementation. The paper also highlights some of the challenges faced by teachers in the three countries.

Publication outcomes of abstracts presented at an international toxicology conference

Introduction: The timely and formal publication of material presented at national and international meetings is critical to the dissemination of new information to the medical community. The conversion rates for toxicology abstracts to full-text publications at previous North American toxicology meetings were low. No study has assessed the publication rate from the European Association of Poisons Centers and Clinical Toxicologists (EAPCCT).Methods: We reviewed 269 abstracts presented at the 2013 EAPCCTcongress. We searched the PubMed, EMBASE, and Medline databases using the first, second, and last authors’ names and keywords, through November 2018.Results: Forty-seven of 269 abstracts (17%) subsequently appeared in 29 different peer-reviewed journals, led by Clinical Toxicology (13 out of 47, 28%). Leading countries of origin were the USA (8), UK (7) and Italy (6). The proportions of publications from native English-speaking and non-native English-speaking countries were similarly low (16% vs. 19%).Conclusions: Fewer than one in six abstracts reached publication within five years of the 2013 EAPCCT meeting. This rate is lower than in other specialty medical societies.

The content analysis of the English as an international language-targeted coursebooks: English literature or literature in English?

The integration of literature and literary works has always played an undeniable role in language education. Despite the existence of a wealth of literature in non-native English-speaking countries, in the majority of the coursebooks, the entire attention is devoted to literary works of the native English-speaking countries. In this study, five coursebooks claiming to be based on English as an international language (EIL) were randomly selected and analysed to investigate to what extent they have incorporated the literatures of native and non-native English-speaking countries. The criteria for the content analysis of the claimed EIL-based coursebooks were based on Kachru’s Tri-Partide Model to categorise the countries, and culture with a small c and Culture with a capital C dichotomy. Results indicated that although the chosen coursebook purports to be based on EIL, less or nearly no attention is given to the literary works of the non-native speakers of English.
  
 Keywords: ELT coursebooks, English as an international language, Kachru’s Tri-Partide model, literature in English

Full publication of results initially presented in abstracts.

Abstracts of presentations at scientific meetings are usually available only in conference proceedings. If subsequent full publication of results reported in these abstracts is based on the magnitude or direction of the results, publication bias may result. Publication bias creates problems for those conducting systematic reviews or relying on the published literature for evidence about health and social care. To systematically review reports of studies that have examined the proportion of meeting abstracts and other summaries that are subsequently published in full, the time between meeting presentation and full publication, and factors associated with full publication. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Science Citation Index, reference lists, and author files. The most recent search was done in February 2016 for this substantial update to our earlier Cochrane Methodology Review (published in 2007). We included reports of methodology research that examined the proportion of biomedical results initially presented as abstracts or in summary form that were subsequently published. Searches for full publications had to be at least two years after meeting presentation. Two review authors extracted data and assessed risk of bias. We calculated the proportion of abstracts published in full using a random-effects model. Dichotomous variables were analyzed using risk ratio (RR), with multivariable models taking into account various characteristics of the reports. We assessed time to publication using Kaplan-Meier survival analyses. Combining data from 425 reports (307,028 abstracts) resulted in an overall full publication proportion of 37.3% (95% confidence interval (CI), 35.3% to 39.3%) with varying lengths of follow-up. This is significantly lower than that found in our 2007 review (44.5%. 95% CI, 43.9% to 45.1%). Using a survival analyses to estimate the proportion of abstracts that would be published in full by 10 years produced proportions of 46.4% for all studies; 68.7% for randomized and controlled trials and 44.9% for other studies. Three hundred and fifty-three reports were at high risk of bias on one or more items, but only 32 reports were considered at high risk of bias overall.Forty-five reports (15,783 abstracts) with 'positive' results (defined as any 'significant' result) showed an association with full publication (RR = 1.31; 95% CI 1.23 to 1.40), as did 'positive' results defined as a result favoring the experimental treatment (RR =1.17; 95% CI 1.07 to 1.28) in 34 reports (8794 abstracts). Results emanating from randomized or controlled trials showed the same pattern for both definitions (RR = 1.21; 95% CI 1.10 to 1.32 (15 reports and 2616 abstracts) and RR = 1.17; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.32 (13 reports and 2307 abstracts), respectively.Other factors associated with full publication include oral presentation (RR = 1.46; 95% CI 1.40 to 1.52; studied in 143 reports with 115,910 abstracts); acceptance for meeting presentation (RR = 1.65; 95% CI 1.48 to 1.85; 22 reports with 22,319 abstracts); randomized trial design (RR = 1.51; 95% CI 1.36 to 1.67; 47 reports with 28,928 abstracts); and basic research (RR = 0.78; 95% CI 0.74 to 0.82; 92 reports with 97,372 abstracts). Abstracts originating at an academic setting were associated with full publication (RR = 1.60; 95% CI 1.34 to 1.92; 34 reports with 16,913 abstracts), as were those considered to be of higher quality (RR = 1.46; 95% CI 1.23 to 1.73; 12 reports with 3364 abstracts), or having high impact (RR = 1.60; 95% CI 1.41 to 1.82; 11 reports with 6982 abstracts). Sensitivity analyses excluding reports that were abstracts themselves or classified as having a high risk of bias did not change these findings in any important way.In considering the reports of the methodology research that we included in this review, we found that reports published in English or from a native English-speaking country found significantly higher proportions of studies published in full, but that there was no association with year of report publication. The findings correspond to a proportion of abstracts published in full of 31.9% for all reports, 40.5% for reports in English, 42.9% for reports from native English-speaking countries, and 52.2% for both these covariates combined. More than half of results from abstracts, and almost a third of randomized trial results initially presented as abstracts fail to be published in full and this problem does not appear to be decreasing over time. Publication bias is present in that 'positive' results were more frequently published than 'not positive' results. Reports of methodology research written in English showed that a higher proportion of abstracts had been published in full, as did those from native English-speaking countries, suggesting that studies from non-native English-speaking countries may be underrepresented in the scientific literature. After the considerable work involved in adding in the more than 300 additional studies found by the February 2016 searches, we chose not to update the search again because additional searches are unlikely to change these overall conclusions in any important way.

Exploring the Causes of Listening Comprehension Anxiety from EFL Saudi Learners’ Perspectives: A Pilot Study

Anxiety is an important factor in foreign language learning. Very few studies have been done on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Saudi students in listening classes. Therefore, this pilot study was aimed at exploring the causes of listening comprehension anxiety from EFL Saudi learners’ perspectives at Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia. The pilot study involved two students who were selected based on the following criteria: 1) Only Saudi male undergraduate students who enrolled in Preparatory Year Program (PYP) at Majmaah University would be involved in this study, 2) The students who had studied or lived in native English speaking countries would be excluded. The researcher used pseudonyms to refer to the participants as Mohammad and Ismail. This study employed a qualitative case study research design. The data were collected through Semi-structured interviews with the participants. The interview sessions were audiotaped and transcribed. The results show that the participants experienced a high level of anxiety when doing the listening comprehension tasks. Three main causes of listening comprehension anxiety emerged from this study: 1) the problematic nature of listening comprehension, 2) the classroom atmosphere, and 3) the low English proficiency of the students.

Library anxiety among non-native speakers of English

This paper attempts to highlight the factors causing anxiety among non-native speakers of English when using academic library resources, services and facilities. This is crucial now that academic libraries worldwide are increasingly building up their collections of electronic journals and databases, which are predominantly in the English language. Findings from studies among non-native speakers of English reveal that they are susceptible to anxiety factors, which are rarely reported in studies in the native English-speaking countries. Some of these barriers include: insufficient resources, language, retrieval, lack of library skills, technology, network, environment and services, computer and physical comfort, and emotional barriers. A search was conducted to analyze the literature published in Library and Information Science Abstracts ( LISA) from 1986 until 2014 using the keyword ‘library anxiety’. The sample selected was limited to literature on non-native speakers of English. The distinct anxiety-causing factors typically reported in these studies are recommended to be included in the library anxiety measure for future research.

Crowdsourcing and personality measurement equivalence: A warning about countries whose primary language is not English

In the search to find cheaper, faster approaches for data collection, crowdsourcing methods (i.e., online labor portals that allow independent workers to complete surveys for compensation) have risen in popularity as a tool for personality researchers, despite a lack of evidence regarding the equivalence of crowdsourcing with traditional data collection methods. The purpose of this study was to evaluate crowdsourcing as a data collection tool by examining the measurement equivalence of crowdsourced data (i.e., from Amazon.com’s MTurk) with more traditional samples (i.e., an undergraduate sample and a sample of organizational employees). Our results (using a popular measure of Big Five personality) provided evidence of measurement equivalence across all three samples, with one important exception: crowdsourced data (from MTurk) only exhibited measurement invariance with traditional data collection methods when responses were restricted to participants from native-English speaking countries. Although MTurk appears to be an easy, cost-effective data collection tool, our results suggest that MTurk data are similar to traditionally-collected data only when the MTurk sample is restricted to IP addresses from English-speaking countries.

Pragmatic Comprehension Development through Telecollaboration

Pragmatic comprehension can be ideally developed through contact with target language speakers. This contact can be provided in English as Foreign Language contexts through telecollaboration. To test the actual effect of telecollaboration on the development of pragmatic comprehension, 30 Iranian undergraduates of English as a Foreign Language participated in an experimental study. The participants were divided into two groups of 15 students: control group which merely received pragmatic instructions and experimental group which had the opportunity to interact with target language speakers through internet-mediated communication tools besides receiving pragmatic instructions. The data were collected through a multiple choice pragmatic comprehension test, following a semester-long intervention. The comparison of the performance of the two groups assessed through the independent-samples t-test showed the significant positive effect of telecollaboration on the development of pragmatic comprehension. Pedagogical implications of the findings suggested organizing telecollaborative partnership environments to link English as Foreign Language students with university students in native English speaking countries.