Stimulated Recall Interviews Research Articles

Investigating ELL Teachers’ Knowledge and Practice in Vocabulary Instruction

The purpose of this study was to investigate EFL teachers’ knowledge and practice in vocabulary instruction. The study involved thirty six secondary school English teachers from three randomly selected schools. Simple random, purposive and available sampling techniques were employed for the study undertaken. Data was collected from the participant teachers through questionnaire, semi-structured interview, classroom observation and stimulated-recall interview. The findings show that, teachers’ knowledge was generally consistent with their classroom practices and this marked their knowledge guides their pedagogical practices. However, a few inconsistencies were also noticed. At the same time, the finding exhibited factors which could contribute to the mismatches between teachers’ knowledge and practices in vocabulary instruction. These factors include: Students’ lack of ability, their lack of motivation, lack of resources, large class size and others. The discussion of these findings suggests implications for practices and recommendations for future research to improve vocabulary instruction in secondary school context.

Effects of Task Complexity on EFL Learners’ Writing Behaviors and Performance

This study explored how task complexity, writing behaviors (i.e., pausing and revision behaviors), and writing performance (i.e., task completion, coherence and cohesion, language use, and expression and tone) influence and relate to each other. Thirty advanced-level Korean EFL undergraduates completed writing tasks differing in complexity. A combination of keystroke logging and stimulated recall interview was employed. It was found that the simple task group showed a greater number of pauses and revisions related to lower-order writing processes, whereas the complex task group showed longer pauses related to higher-order writing processes. While task complexity had no influence on writing performance, writing behaviors revealed significant relationships with text quality. In the simple task group, pause length and revision were negatively related to writing scores, whereas pause frequency revealed mixed results. In the complex task group, consistent negative relations were found between pausing behaviors and text quality, and fewer revisions were related to better scores in expression and tone.

A Comparative Analysis of Classroom Discourse in Microteaching and Practice School Contexts

The rise of the Sociocultural Theory has featured individuals as members of a social group. It primarily asserts that individuals learn best in relation to other people, and language learning is not an exception. A great number of research studies have been conducted to investigate the role of interaction in language learning, nature of talk in interaction, and different aspects of conversations in diverse settings. Subsequent to the discovery of the power of interaction; teachers’ use of language, and skills in managing the interaction in the classroom have also gained importance. Many studies solely focused on the interactions and classroom discourse of in-service teachers in real classroom settings. However, the number of studies comparatively analyzing the classroom discourse managed by pre-service teachers (PSTs) in the microteaching and real classroom settings has remained scarce. The present research emerges out of this need to explore PSTs’ classroom discourse in microteaching and practice school contexts in a comparative manner. Three PSTs’ teaching implementations in two different settings were recorded, the interactions were transcribed, and committed to an in-depth analysis. In addition, one PST was invited to a stimulated-recall interview. The results of the current study demonstrated certain differences between microteaching and practice school contexts in terms of the classroom discourse. Inequalities in the amount of teacher talk in two contexts, difference in the rate of students’ participation, the organization of the interaction were among the major differences while the co-construction of classroom discourse and its effects on the learning process were among the commonalities.

English Primary School Teachers' Perceptions of Green Screens in Teaching English

This study explored the use of the green screen in teaching and learning in a primary school. Despite the rising research on green screens in education, limited studies have focused on teachers' perceptions. This study focused on understanding English teachers' perceptions of green screens in teaching English. It drew on a qualitative approach to explore how and why English teachers used green screens in their teaching, the challenges teachers faced while using the green screen, and how their use of green screens impacted their professional development. Participants included five English teachers in a primary school in Malaysia. Data were collected from classroom observations and Stimulated Recall Interviews (SRI). The findings showed that most teachers used green screens to make video content for English lessons. Additionally, the green screen was an effective tool, facilitating teaching and enhancing students' learning. However, the data suggested that using green screens presented challenges, for example, time-consuming, technical issues, cost, inadequate equipment and lack of training. The findings also demonstrated that teachers' professional development was positively and negatively impacted when employing green screens in teaching. Based on these results, it can be concluded that it is important to highlight English teachers’ perceptions to examine the effectiveness of green screen technology in teaching English.

Investigating the dynamics of change in second language willingness to communicate

For years, researchers have viewed willingness to communicate (WTC) as a personality-based, trait-like tendency and employed quantitative measures, seemingly overlooking the WTC changes during communications. A new line of inquiry, however, has taken a dynamic approach to investigating the WTC changes and the factors triggering them during communications. The present mixed-methods study incorporated an idiodynamic method with 20 Farsi-speaking English as a Second Language participants who performed three-minute speaking tasks, rated their WTC changes, and attended stimulated recall interviews. A between-subjects repeated measures analysis of variance showed a statistically significant difference in the participants’ WTC from task to task. The WTC variation patterns were also clustered into seven categories that visualized the dynamics of WTC changes. In vivo coding of the stimulated recall interviews produced seven different categories of factors including possession of supporting ideas, individual, contextual, organizational, lexis-related, and grammar-related factors as well as the participants’ perceptions of their performance.

What can eye movements tell about students’ interpretations of contextual graphs? A methodological study on the use of the eye-mind hypothesis in the domain of functions

IntroductionThe use of eye tracking (ET) in mathematics education research has increased in recent years. Eye tracking is a promising research tool in the domain of functions, especially in graph interpretation. It promises to gain insights into learners’ approaches and ways of thinking. However, for the domain of functions and graph interpretation, it has not yet been investigated how eye-tracking data can be interpreted. In particular, it is not clear how eye movements may reflect students’ cognitive processes. Thus, in this study, we investigate in how far the eye-mind hypothesis (EMH), which states broadly that what the eye fixates is currently being processed, can be applied to this subdomain. This is particularly true for contextual graphs, whose data originate from real-world situations, and which are of central importance for the development of mathematical literacy. The aim of our research is to investigate how eye movements can be interpreted in the domain of functions, particularly in students’ interpretations of contextual graphs.MethodsWe conducted an exploratory case study with two university students: The students’ eye movements were recorded while they worked on graph interpretation tasks in three situational contexts at different question levels. Additionally, we conducted subsequent stimulated recall interviews (SRIs), in which the students recalled and reported their original thoughts while interpreting the graphs.ResultsWe found that the students’ eye movements were often related to students’ cognitive processes, even if indirectly at times, and there was only limited ambiguity in the interpretation of eye movements. However, we also found domain-specific as well as domain-general challenges in interpreting eye movements.DiscussionOur results suggest that ET has a high potential to gain insights into students’ graph interpretation processes. Furthermore, they point out what aspects, such as ambiguity and peripheral vision, need to be taken into consideration when investigating eye movements in the domain of functions.

Exploring Movement Composition in the transition from physical education teacher education to school PE

ABSTRACT Background Scholars have suggested that students’ views of what is important for them to know as Physical Education (PE) teachers are a result of what is assessed in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). Thus, there is a risk that students will reproduce content areas such as sports and assess sport-techniques without much critical consideration. In this study, however, the risk of reproducing what is prioritised in PETE is seen as an opportunity regarding the potential reproduction of other content areas than sports. Based on the regulative principles of PE and PETE that privilege sport skills and hinder creative movement learning, we focus on a content area in PETE that provides opportunities for students to engage in creative collaboration and examine how this content area is realised in school PE. Hence, we have chosen to explore ‘Movement Composition’, a content area which has a long tradition at one of the PETE universities in Sweden. Based on an overarching interest in whether and how PETE matters, this exploratory study focuses on the potential transferability of Movement Composition as a particular content area in the transition from PETE to PE. Purpose and research question The purpose of this study is to explore Movement Composition as a content area undergoing the transition from PETE to school PE. The research question is: How is the pedagogic discourse of Movement Composition constructed, recontextualised and realised in the transition from PETE to school PE? Methods Data was generated through an interview with one of the initiators of Movement Composition. Stimulated Recall interviews and Zoom interviews were also conducted with a group of five PETE students and three experienced PE teachers. In addition, documents such as the study guide, course literature, and written assignments associated with Movement Composition in the PETE programme were included in the empirical material. In the analysis, the combination of Bernstein’s pedagogic device and the Swedish didactics of PE research tradition was used to identify the pedagogic discourse of Movement Composition in the transition from PETE to school PE. Findings The findings show how the pedagogic discourse of Movement Composition as a content area is constructed, recontextualised and realised in the transition from PETE to school PE. The construction of Movement Composition as a pedagogic discourse in PETE is about how the content area (the what) is selected and organised for pedagogical purposes. The recontextualisation of Movement Composition is about how the pedagogic discourse is interpreted and translated in relation to the PE syllabus. The realisation of Movement Composition involves how the content area in PETE is implemented in PE practice. Conclusions This exploratory study has shown that what is articulated as a relevant content area and the way it is taught, learned, and assessed in PETE in many regards survives the transition to school PE. The transition from PETE to school PE does not only involve reproduction of sports and sport-techniques from one context to another. PETE also contributes to the use of creative, collaborative, and student-centred learning tasks in school PE.

Teachers’ pedagogical tact in craft-art learning situations

The goal of this research is to explore how teachers’ pedagogical tact occurs in craft-art learning situations, in the context of Finnish Basic Education in the Arts, by using the grounded theory (GT) method. The theoretical concepts—the term pathic, pedagogical tact and self-determination theory (SDT) and the key concepts autonomy, competence and relatedness—have been chosen based on how they supported the data analysis. The data consisted of five stimulated recall interviews with teachers. The GT analysis revealed that teachers’ pedagogical tact manifested itself in pathic perceiving, acting and interacting. The teachers supported students’ autonomy, relatedness and competence in craft-art learning by creating an open atmosphere and caring relationships with the students to support their sense of ownership and personal resources. The results provide conceptual understanding of craft-art pedagogy.

Teachers’ pedagogical tact in craft-art learning situations

The goal of this research is to explore how teachers’ pedagogical tact occurs in craft-art learning situations, in the context of Finnish Basic Education in the Arts, by using the grounded theory (GT) method. The theoretical concepts—the term pathic, pedagogical tact and self-determination theory (SDT) and the key concepts autonomy, competence and relatedness—have been chosen based on how they supported the data analysis. The data consisted of five stimulated recall interviews with teachers. The GT analysis revealed that teachers’ pedagogical tact manifested itself in pathic perceiving, acting and interacting. The teachers supported students’ autonomy, relatedness and competence in craft-art learning by creating an open atmosphere and caring relationships with the students to support their sense of ownership and personal resources. The results provide conceptual understanding of craft-art pedagogy.

Translanguaging as a pedagogy: exploring the use of teachers’ and students’ bilingual repertoires in Chinese language education

Abstract This research offers a post-structuralist multilingual lens to examine translanguaging practice in Chinese as an Additional Language (CAL) teaching and learning. It investigates a cohort of bilingual Chinese teachers who had been trained in a teacher-researcher education programme in an Australian university. This research asks how the Chinese teachers utilised their own and their students’ bilingual repertoires to assist the learning of Chinese in Australian schools. The participant teachers’ theses were collected, and the evidentiary chapters reporting on their classroom teaching were analysed. Informed by the initial results, a follow-up stimulated recall interview was conducted. This research found that the teachers’ translanguaging practices were identified in the form of theirs and their students’ lingual and non-lingual capitals, and these practices showed a strong pedagogical purpose, particularly in motivating and engaging learners. The teachers’ translanguaging practices contributed to CAL pedagogy across three dimensions: teachers’ classroom instruction, teaching and learning resources, and learning activity design. These practices have demonstrated an impact on the students’ engagement, the enrichment of teaching content and improvement in dynamic teaching processes. This research is expected to provide insights into the future development of translanguaging curriculum and pedagogy in CAL education.

To Use or Not to Use humor? A Case Study on Chinese Secondary School EFL Teachers

While there is no lack of studies on the benefits of using humor in English class, why Chinese EFL teachers choose to use humor or not use it remains unclear. Previous studies examined the benefits of the use of humor in language classrooms, but none of them has queried a deep understanding of the role of humor from teachers’ perspectives. It comprised a case study focusing on three English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers from a secondary school in China. The data were collected over a period of six months using semi-structured interviews, observations and stimulated recall interviews. This qualitative case study found five reasons for the Chinese EFL teachers’ use of humor, which are teaching strategy, students’ benefits, atmosphere & relationship, teachers’ benefits and teachers’ ability. The potential explanations behind each reason were also discussed in the study.

Mapping the applicants’ learnability: a discourse analysis of assessors’ talk of admission tests for Swedish specialist music teacher education

ABSTRACT This article concerns assessors’ use of predictions of applicants’ ability to learn when assessing admission tests for specialist music teacher education in Sweden. The data consist of stimulated-recall interviews with video-recorded admission tests as stimuli, and the analyses are based on discourse psychology with a focus on the variations, functions, and effects of the assessors’ statements about learning opportunities. The results highlight several ways of talking about applicants’ learnability, based on the view that learnability is a matter of teacher help, learning time, applicant age, and talent. Based on these results, learnability can be considered a selection tool, legitimised with reference to the assessors as experts able to foresee and make decisions about applicants’ future development opportunities. In this sense, the test contexts can be seen as permeated by educational traditions in which discourses about learnability govern the assessors’/masters’ decisions.

Characteristics of Age-Friendly Bus Information

Bus information is an important element to consider when developing and implementing age-friendly bus systems. Little is known regarding the bus information needs and preferences of older people. This study aims to illuminate characteristics of age-friendly bus information. Participant observations with stimulated recall interviews (n=40) were used to identify older peoples’ (age 60 and over) perspectives on bus information. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. A printed information location checklist also was conducted. Categorical analysis identified that older people used a variety of information sources including printed information, telephone, Internet, bus drivers, word of mouth, and experience. Positive and negative characteristics of each source were identified. Older people also required a range of levels of information complexity. Popular locations for sourcing printed information included post offices, news agents, tourist information centers, and libraries. Transport providers and policy makers should consider the needs and preferences of older people when providing bus information. Effective information provision requires a range of media, covering a broad spectrum of information complexity and through a variety of locations.

Teachers’ codeswitching in EFL classrooms: Functions and motivations

Codeswitching, which has become the subject of much debate and controversy among different scholars due to its pros and cons, is commonly employed in English as foreign language (EFL) classrooms. However, scant attention has been given to the functions and reasons of teachers’ codeswitching in the Ethiopian context. In an attempt to fill this gap, this study aimed to determine the functions and motivations of EFL teachers’ codeswitching practices. To this end, three English teachers participated in the study from one secondary school in Ethiopia. The study used audio-assisted observations, field notes and stimulated recall interviews as data collection methods in contrast to studies which relied only on self-reported data. Data were categorized according to Ferguson’s typology of functions of classroom codeswitching. The results indicated that teachers codeswitched for academic, managerial and social functions. Furthermore, this study revealed that students’ limited English proficiency, teachers’ beliefs, the types and the natures of language skills were the major influencing factors for their codeswitching practices. Thus, teachers need to be aware of codeswitching to use it as a valuable instrument for teaching English rather than adhering blindly to English-only rule and ashamed of codeswitching acts. Moreover, as codeswitching is an inseparable part of classroom discourse and something that should not be avoided, teacher training programs should incorporate codeswitching as an effective teaching strategy.

Tracing Chinese international students' psychological and academic adjustments in uncertain times: An exploratory case study in the United Kingdom.

The worldwide spread of COVID-19 has exerted tremendous influences on the wellbeing of international students and the sustainable development of higher education. The current study adopts an 8-month exploratory case study to trace eight Chinese international students’ psychological and academic adjustments in the United Kingdom amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging from the qualitative data constitutive of semi-structured interviews, self-reflection writings, memoing, together with stimulated-recall interviews, findings have demonstrated the three main types of obstruction for such students’ adjustments in the foreign land including COVID-specific challenges (i.e., the threat of infect, reduced access to university facilities and resources); COVID-enhanced challenges (i.e., anxiety exacerbated by parents and social media use, anti-Asian racism and hate incidents); and language barriers and cultural differences as long-standing issues. Students’ previous lockdown experience, individual resilience, development of monocultural friendship patterns, and institutional provision and support are all factors that have contributed to their ability to overcome or at least mitigate the psychological and academic difficulties. The study offers insight into the impacts of COVID-19 on international students, providing implications that could contribute to the sustainable adjustments of international students in times of disruptive events and inform future responses to global health crises from individual and higher education perspectives.

The relationship between anxiety, enjoyment, and breakdown fluency during second language speaking tasks: An idiodynamic investigation.

Research has found that levels of enjoyment and anxiety fluctuate on a moment-to-moment timescale during second language (L2) spoken task performances as learners attempt to cope with various communication challenges. For L2 speakers, surges in these emotions can limit or expand cognitive resources, affecting speech processing capability. However, at an intra-individual level, there is very little empirical evidence on how emotions and fluency are related during L2 spoken task performances. The present study uses the idiodynamic approach to examine the relationship between enjoyment, anxiety, and breakdown fluency (i.e., average length of pauses) during monolog tasks performed by university students who use English as an L2. After watching a video recording of their task performances, participants rated their anxiety and emotion levels on a per-second basis. Immediately after, they were interviewed about their attributions for fluctuations in their ratings. After segmenting task performances into 26 7-s segments of speech, per-person correlations revealed that (1) the (negative) relationship between anxiety and enjoyment varied from strong to very weak, and (2) the (positive) relationship between anxiety and breakdown fluency was much stronger than the (negative) relationship between enjoyment and breakdown fluency. Triangulation of anxiety and enjoyment ratings, stimulated recall interviews, and performance data led to the identification of four categories of factors that influenced the emotion-fluency relationship: task design factors (task structure, task topic), task implementation factors (pre-task planning, task time limits), cognitive-linguistic factors (momentary breakdowns in conceptualization and formulation speech processes), and achievement outcome factors (self-evaluations of appropriate and inappropriate language used).

Doctors, Patients, and Interpreters' Views on the Co-Construction of Empathic Communication in Interpreter-Mediated Consultations: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Video Stimulated Recall Interviews.

Doctors and patients rely on verbal and nonverbal resources to co-construct clinical empathy. In language-discordant consultations, interpreters' communicative actions might compromise this process. We aim to explore doctors, patients, and professional interpreters' perspectives on their own and others' actions during their empathic interaction in interpreter-mediated consultations (IMCs). We analyzed 20 video stimulated recall interviews with doctors, patients, and interpreters using qualitative content analysis. Doctors and patients found ways to connect with each other on the level of empathic communication (EC) that is not limited by interpreters' alterations or disengaged demeanor. Some aspects of doctors and interpreters' professional practices might jeopardize the co-construction of EC in IMCs. The co-construction of EC in IMCs is not only subject to participants' communicative (inter)actions, but also to organizational and subjective factors. These results provide evidence of the transactional process between the behavioral, cognitive, and affective components of clinical empathy in the context of IMCs.

Conflicts in peer interaction of collaborative writing – A case study in an EFL context

Despite extensive interest in peer interaction in collaborative writing (CW) research, few studies have focused on conflict during the knowledge co-construction process. This study adopting a CT (complexity theory) perspective investigated the complex and dynamic nature of conflict during peer interaction in collaborative L2 writing. Recruited from a Chinese university, 15 students formed five face-to-face writing groups. With data triangulated with observation notes, stimulated-recall interviews, screen recordings, and tree diagrams, the study identified three types of conflict. One case group was chosen and analyzed in depth to reveal how elements in the conflict system dynamically interacted with the component agents and the context. We also examined the link between conflicts and the writing outcome. The results showed that cognitive conflicts led to better writing outcome in most cases, particularly in the absence of other types of conflict. However, when cognitive conflicts co-existed with other types of conflicts, students tended to perform less well in writing. Pedagogical implications for implementing CW in L2 writing classrooms are examined.

A Per-second Investigation of the Interconnectedness between Linguistic and Cognitive Factors Underlying L2 Willingness to Communicate

Willingness to communicate (WTC) research has recently witnessed a paradigm shift with the more recent studies looking at the shifting and dynamic nature of the variable. A growing body of literature has interpreted such dynamicity from a complex dynamic systems (CDS) perspective. The theory of CDS has four basic properties, one of which, and the focus of this study, is the interconnectedness among subsystems. This property mainly involves the interplay amongst parts of a system, which interact and influence one another, determining the subsequent dynamics in the system. This qualitative, exploratory study employed an idiodynamic method to investigate the interconnectedness of the cognitive and linguistic factors underlying second language (L2) WTC. To this end, 20 participants completed four three-minute monologic speaking tasks while being video-recorded. Immediately after, they viewed their recordings, rated their WTC moment by moment, and explained the WTC changes in stimulated recall interviews. The interviews were coded, and instances where WTC was affected by cognitive and linguistic factors were identified and analysed. Three patterns of interconnectedness emerged: (1) WTC and linguistic factors; (2) WTC and cognitive factors; and (3) WTC, and linguistic and cognitive factors. Findings provide a clearer account of the interconnectedness property in the WTC system, lending support to viewing WTC as a CDS. The article highlights the importance of self-perception and availability of content message, in addition to the above factors, and concludes with a brief discussion of the pedagogical implications for L2 classroom.

ExploringEAPinstructors' evaluation of classroom‐based integrated essays

Due to its authenticity as an academic writing task, integrated writing assessment has become widely used for assessing the writing ability of English for academic purposes (EAP) students (Plakans & Gebril, 2017). However, apart from validation studies focusing on a common set of standardized test rubrics (e.g., Chan, Inoue, & Taylor, 2015), little research has explored the construct of integration or how to assess it effectively in EAP contexts. To provide second language (L2) writing researchers and practitioners with an empirically based model of source integration, this study explored EAP instructors' orientations when assessing integrated essays and investigated the relationship between instructor ratings and textual measures of source use. Six experienced EAP instructors first evaluated two sample argumentative essays written by undergraduate English L2 students and provided comments through a stimulated recall interview. Next, they evaluated 48 additional argumentative essays using an analytic rubric that included dimensions of source use and provided comments for each essay. Finally, the essays were analyzed for linguistic and rhetorical features associated with source integration. Triangulation of data sources revealed that the instructors oriented to three aspects of source integration: using source information to support personal claims, incorporating source‐text language in students' own words, and representing source content accurately. Their ratings were correlated with text‐based measures of students' source use. Implications for teaching and assessing integrated writing in EAP settings are discussed.