Self-perceived English Proficiency Research Articles

The associations between EFL learners’ L2 class belongingness, emotion regulation strategies, and perceived L2 proficiency in an online learning context

ABSTRACT Although the sense of belongingness plays a major influence in fostering intrinsic motivation and psychological well-being, scant research attention has been given to English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ belongingness in relation to peers and teachers and its outcomes in L2 learning contexts. Additionally, despite the importance of emotion regulation in L2 education, little is known about its role in mediating the impact of L2 belongingness on self-assessment of L2 proficiency in online L2 learning environments. Therefore, the present study used survey data to examine the associations between learners’ sense of class belongingness, their preferred emotional regulation strategies (reappraisal vs. suppression) and self-perceived English proficiency, in a sample of 191 Turkish EFL university students. Path analysis results indicated significant direct paths between social belongingness with peers and academic belongingness with teachers, respectively, and the emotional regulation strategy of reappraisal. Further analysis indicated a significant indirect association between social belongingness with peers and perceived L2 proficiency through the measure of reappraisal emotional regulation. There was also a significant indirect relationship via reappraisal between academic belongingness with teachers and perceived L2 proficiency. The results are discussed in connection with self-determination theory and social identity theory, and implications are drawn for teaching.

Colombian University Students’ Experiences as Users of the English Language During International Mobility

This exploratory case study analyzes Colombian university students’ experiences as English users during international mobility. Data collected through surveys and interviews were examined based on content analysis and principles of grounded theory. The students’ self-perceived English proficiency and communicative performance before and during international mobility were analyzed, while challenging areas were identified. The results evidence that mobility students have insufficient levels of English proficiency to engage in academic and social activities due to inadequate production skills and a lack of practice. The students also perceive university academic English opportunities for practice as basic, and they underutilize practice spaces. Nonetheless, they highlight that active engagement in autonomous language exposure and developed interpersonal skills positively impact their perception of language performance.

Enhancing University Students’ Self-Perceived English Proficiency and Affective Factors through Co-Curricular English Program

Enhancing University Students’ Self-Perceived English Proficiency and Affective Factors through Co-Curricular English Program

Reading anxiety in online classroom among Malaysian university learners: Lessons from pandemic to post pandemic era

Reading anxiety is a situational phobia with physical and cognitive reactions. This anxiety can be facilitative or debilitative and can result in negative impact on reading comprehension, reading competence, and reading strategies. Most previous studies on reading anxiety were carried out in traditional classrooms., but with the sudden transition to online and distance learning (ODL) due to COVID-19, the extent of reading anxiety in ODL among Malaysian university learners and its contributing factors are largely unknown. Therefore, this study was carried out to measure reading anxiety among university learners engaged in ODL as well as to find out its primary contributing factors. The objectives were achieved via a questionnaire administered on 96 learners at a Malaysian university. The participants were found to experience high degree of reading anxiety in ODL. The requirement of attending classes via ODL mode is the main cause for reading anxiety, while self-perceived English proficiency also influences reading anxiety significantly. Therefore, clear and constant instructor feedback is necessary as learners may easily divert from the purpose of ODL reading classes. The outcome of this study helps instructors in knowing the conditions of reading anxiety in ODL and may assist them in post pandemic physical classrooms.

Multiculturalism and multilingualism in higher education: intercultural activity participation and opportunities for language learning

ABSTRACT Against the backdrop of internationalisation and growing attention to intercultural experiences in tertiary education, this mixed-methods study examined, in part I, language learning benefits reaped by active participants in intercultural activities. As English is widely used for communication among multilinguals, part II of the study focused specifically on English. We set out to investigate the relationship between individuals’ language background (actual and self-perceived English proficiency) and intercultural participation, as well as their views of the formal English language education they received prior to entering universities. The participants (n = 518) recruited from two universities in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire and 11 of them also attended individual semi-structured interviews. Overall, five categories of benefits emerged from the interview findings, namely psychological benefits, proficiency enhancement, identification of problems, communicative strategies for accommodation, and communicative strategies for expression. A weak positive correlation was found between self-rated English speaking proficiency and participation. The interviewees also commented on the formal English education they received from curricular and environmental perspectives.

An Empirical Study of College EFL Learners’ Flow and Anti-flow Experiences

Learners’ emotions have long been regarded as an insignificant and irrational factor in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). In recent years, with the “affective turn” transpiring in applied linguistics, learners’ emotions have gained more scholarly attention, among which is language learners’ flow experience. Flow is one concept in psychology, which includes positive flow (e.g., enjoyment) and negative flow (also known as “anti-flow”, such as anxiety, boredom, etc.). At present, the bulk of the SLA research on English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ flow experience has been situated in the traditional teaching settings, while EFL learners’ flow experience in the blended teaching contexts remains under-investigated. In view of this, this study adopts a quantitative research method to probe into the flow and anti-flow experiences of 168 EFL learners in a certain application-oriented university in China. Results show that 1) The enjoyment experienced by learners is at a medium level, while boredom and anxiety are at a low level; 2) There are gender differences in learners’ emotional experience, but no grade difference has been found; 3) Enjoyment is significantly and negatively correlated with boredom and anxiety, and the latter two are significantly and positively correlated; 4) The three emotions can, to a certain degree, predict the self-perceived English proficiency and CET-4 scores. This article ends with the pedagogical implications of the research results for blended teaching and learning, and provides insights into the directions for future studies.

THAI TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

This study used a longitudinal mixed-method design to investigate how attitudes towards English as a lingua franca (ELF) changed over time as English teachers progressed through education and teaching experiences from 2019 to 2022. An online survey was conducted with 50 Thai teachers in their second year of study and after they graduated and taught at schools for one year. An interview was implemented to collect qualitative data after the two surveys were completed. The survey results indicated a congruent attitude change from ‘agree’ (x̄ = 3.90, S.D. = 0.43) to ‘strongly agree’ (x̄ = 4.22, S.D. = 0.58). The increase was statistically significant (p = .003). The findings revealed controversy between the teachers’ attitudes and their practices. The teachers had positive attitudes towards ELF, but they preferred native speakers’ models of English usage and accents. The interview findings indicated that factors influencing their attitude change were personal factors (e.g., self-perceived English proficiency and exposures to English) and contextual factors (e.g., training and teaching experiences). The findings suggest that awareness of the ELF phenomenon may not be sufficient to drive change in English language teaching (ELT), but ELF-aware teacher education is needed to teach an ELF skillset that best suits the objectives and processes of ELT.

An Exploration of Nonnative English Speaking (NNES) EFL Teachers’ Perceived Language Proficiency and Self-efficacy in an off-Campus English Language Training Institutionin in Xiamen

In the realm of education, teachers’ perceptions or beliefs have been one of the main topics that researchers have focused on over the past four decades (Ghasemboland & Hashim, 2013). For nonnative English speaking teachers, level of English proficiency is often a matter of concern and it has close relationship with their beliefs about teaching abilities, which is known as self-efficacy (Faez, Karas & Uchihara, 2021). This study aims to explore the nonnative English speaking (NNES) EFL teachers’ perceived English proficiency and its impact on their self-efficacy of teaching in an off-campus English training institution in Xiamen, a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, China. The institution has an English only policy for both teachers and students to use English at all times, in order to create an English immersion environment for students. Teachers’ special needs for language training were also interviwed as well. Semi-structured face-to-face individual interview is the only method implemented in this study, in which the interview questions were designed drawing on prior research and the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001). The results showed that the teachers’s self-efficacy was positively correlated with their self-perceived English proficiency, which concurs with the previous studies, and that teachers haves strong needs for development in language profiency to improve their slef-efficacy of teaching.

College Students’ Oral Communication Strategy Use, Self-perceived English Proficiency and Confidence, and Communication Anxiety in Taiwan’s EFL Learning

The English language is widely disseminated globally, where it is the major medium of cross-communication in international/intercultural contexts. The purpose of this study is to assess (1) non-English major college students’ self-perceived overall English proficiency, speaking confidence, and communication anxiety/apprehension (CA) in EFL classes; (2) the most- and least-used types of student EFL communication strategies (CSs); (3) the interrelation between the choice of CSs, self-perceived overall English proficiency, speaking confidence, and CA; and (4) the significant predictors affecting CA. A total of 333 students with non-English majors at a private university in Taiwan participated in this study. Participants filled out two questionnaires that used moderations of the Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI) and the Communication Apprehension Subscale (CAS). Results found that students tend to perceive their English proficiency and speaking confidence as low and their anxiety in speaking English as high. The higher number of CSs used by students included message abandonment, non-verbal, and social effective strategies and the least-used types were “attempt to think in English” and “accuracy” strategies. The OCSI choices were found to have significant positive or negative correlations with the three variables of CA, self-perceived overall English proficiency, and speaking confidence, which is also significantly correlated with each other.

Relations among cultural identity, motivation for language learning, and perceived English language proficiency for international students in the United States

ABSTRACT As the number of international students in the United States increases, many researchers show interest in understanding how international students adapt to the local society and what factors influence this process. Cultural identity and language proficiency, as two important factors for international students in adaptation, cannot be ignored. The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of cultural identity to language learning for international students (n = 77) in the United States. In order to achieve this goal, participants completed measures of cultural identity, motivation for language learning, and self-perceived language proficiency. Using path analysis, two important findings emerged. First, ethnic identification was negatively related to self-perceived English proficiency, but this relation was mediated by motivation in learning English (i.e. high levels of motivation for language learning could buffer the effect of ethnic identification). Second, American identification (i.e. feeling a strong attachment to the United States, seeking to learn more about U.S. culture) promoted English proficiency through motivation in language learning.

The complex relationship between classroom emotions and EFL achievement in China

AbstractThe present study adopted a mixed-method approach combining principles from Complex Dynamic Systems Theory and Positive Psychology to examine the interaction between Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) and Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) of 1,307 Chinese students, the single and combined effects of FLCA and FLE on self-perceived English proficiency and actual English achievement, and finally, the effect of EA on FLE and FLCA. Statistical analyses revealed negative correlations between FLCA and FLE in three groups at different levels of English achievement. Qualitative data from 64 participants threw further light on this complex relationship. Second, FLCA was found to be significantly negatively related to self-rated proficiency at all achievement groups while FLE was positively related. Similar significant relationships were also found between two classroom emotions and actual English achievement except in the low achievement group. Finally, qualitative data allowed us to investigate the possible causes for this relationship.

Foreign language classroom anxiety among English for Specific purposes (ESP) students

This study aims at exploring the degree of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) towards the learning of English that English for Specific Purposes students report experiencing. The participants in this study were 67 undergraduates at the University of the Balearic Islands enrolled in two university degree programs. The Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz et al., 1986) was used to collect data. The findings reveal that most students suffered from average to high anxiety levels. Communication apprehension was found to be the main source of participants’ FLA followed by fear of negative evaluation and test anxiety. The data also showed statistically significant differences across students’ university degree programs related to test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation. No statistically significant gender differences in FLA levels were observed. Finally, correlation analyses revealed significant negative associations between participants’ self-perceived English proficiency and their FLA levels associated with listening and speaking skills.

The Relationship between Foreign Language Anxiety, Year of Study and Self- perceived language Proficiency among English Major Egyptian Students at Faculty of Education

In an attempt to delve into the issue of affective variables related to language learning, this study aims to: (1) examine whether English major students at faculty of education experience feelings of foreign language anxiety (FLA) and measure its level; (2) investigate the relationship between FLA and the year of study; (3) look into what types of anxiety do the participants experience; and (4) to explore the correlation between the students’ self-evaluation of their English language proficiency and the level of FLA. For assessing the level of FLA, the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) (Horwitz, Howitz & Cope, 1986) was used to collect data. The participants in this study were 194 English major students, from freshmen to seniors; at Banha Faculty of Education, Egypt. A self-evaluation questionnaire was used to get the participants’ self-perception of their English language proficiency. The collected data were analyzed, using SPSS version 22 and one-way ANOVA, to determine if there is a significant difference in the level of anxiety between the students in the four years. The results revealed that senior year students experienced the highest level of anxiety followed by freshmen, then sophomore, and the junior students experienced the least level of anxiety. However, no statistically significant differences were observed across the four years of study in their FLA level. Correlation analyses revealed significant negative associations between participants’ self-perceived English proficiency and their FLA levels associated with all four skills with different degrees. The study concluded that the participants’ self- perception of their language proficiency, might have affected their level of FLA, and vice versa.

Social Factors in Cross-National Adjustment

We examined how social factors (i.e., social connection, social self-efficacy, and comfort with disclosing distress) and English proficiency predicted two subjective well-being trajectories (i.e., negative affect and satisfaction with life). The sample of this four-wave longitudinal study (across pre-arrival and first three semesters) included 411 Chinese international students studying in the United States. Four distinct trajectory classes were identified for negative affect and satisfaction with life. The classes generally included individuals who had (a) consistently high well-being, (b) experienced some degree of culture shock, (c) enhanced well-being, and (d) low well-being. Social connection with mainstream society was a better predictor of satisfaction with life trajectories than social connection with one’s ethnic community. Comfort with disclosing distress and self-perceived English proficiency were significant predictors only for the satisfaction with life trajectories. The important role of social factors and English proficiency in international students’ adjustment and practical implications are also discussed.

Cultural Sensitivity and Related Factors Among Community Health Nurses

Community health nurses are on the frontline of providing healthcare to multiethnic groups. Managing and providing effective, culture-specific healthcare can increase the health quality of Taiwan's recently immigrant women, a significant component of this country's population. This study analyzes the cultural sensitivity of community health nurses and related factors. A cross-sectional survey was applied in this study. Participants were nurses who work at health centers in Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County. A total of 230 valid questionnaires were completed. Structure questionnaires used in this study included (a) scale of nurses' cultural sensitivity, (b) scale of multicultural sources, (c) scale of multicultural competence training programs, and (d) table of personal characteristics. Statistical software SPSS 14.0 was used for statistical analysis. Survey results show an average score of community health nurse cultural sensitivity of 49.41 (SD = 7.48). The index score was 65.88. Thus, survey participants in this study earned a cultural sensitivity score below the index score. "Interaction confidence" earned the lowest item score. "Multicultural resources," "self-perceived English proficiency," "multicultural competence training programs," and "having friends with different cultural backgrounds" were significant predictor variables of cultural sensitivity and, together, explained 34.9% of total variance. Study results may be referenced in designing future in-service and cultural care education programs for community health nurses to improve healthcare quality for new immigrants.

A Cross-cultural Communication Experience at a Higher Education Institution in Taiwan

This paper describes an online cross-cultural communication experience of a group of Taiwanese college students. Overall, students reported having more confidence in communication and gaining cross-cultural communication skills after participating in this project. The acquisition of cross-cultural communication skills was positively related to the motivation to succeed in the project and the sense of community developed within the online collaborative environment. Other positive correlations were found between (1) motivation to succeed and the development of a sense of community; (2) confidence in communication and a development of a sense of community; (3) confidence in communication and the acquisition of cross-cultural communication skills. Students’ confidence in communication was found to be positively related to students’ self-perceived English proficiency. Finally, the acquisition of cross-cultural communication skills was highly related to the acquisition of interpersonal communication skills through participating in the final project. Future strategies will be employed to motivate students in online collaboration and foster a sense of community within the online environment while taking their language barrier into consideration.