Taiwanese EFL Research Articles

Utilizing robot-tutoring approach in oral reading to improve Taiwanese EFL students’ English pronunciation

Utilizing robot-tutoring approach in oral reading to improve Taiwanese EFL students’ English pronunciation

Lend Me Your Ears: A Study on Taking the Role of Podcasters by Taiwanese EFL Learners

Podcasting has become a popular medium for people to express themselves and share their knowledge with a global audience. However, there is still a lack of research on how podcasting can be used as a tool for education and personal development. The current study, framed in Jenkins’ participatory culture where artistic expression and civic engagement are valued, aimed to fill this gap in research. Ten Taiwanese undergraduate English majors were invited to take the role of podcasters to create their original podcast programs and upload them to popular podcast platforms. A podcaster diary was also kept by each participant to document his/her experience as a podcaster. It was found that the participants generally enjoyed the experience of creating their first podcast programs. Their various podcast topics largely reflected their current lifestyles and interests. Multiple learning opportunities were afforded by this experience as the participants learned to use their voices to share their lives and display their knowledge. These results highlighted the potential of podcasting as a tool for personal and professional growth in the digital age. It is hoped that these results will offer important insights on how to help students open up windows of opportunities for personal learning and career enhancement.

Are More Proficient Readers More Strategic? A Case Study of Four Taiwanese EFL University Students

The article presents the results, interpretations, and potential pedagogical implications of an experimental case study that explored the beliefs and actual use of reading strategies of four Taiwanese EFL university students. The emphasis of the qualitative analysis is put on what the participants effectively do rather than what they believe they do, something that many studies in the field overlook. In addition, the study investigated the interplay between reading strategy use and reading proficiency. The research triangulates the introspective data with the products of participants’ task activity. The participants were asked to fill out a self-reporting questionnaire. After a few days, they performed a reading task accompanied by the think-aloud protocol, took a comprehension test, and were interviewed. The study revealed that participants’ perceptions of their reading strategy use and the actual use were not always aligned. More importantly, the study findings indicate that the variety, frequency, and appropriateness of the actual use of reading strategies positively correlated with the participants' reading and general linguistic proficiency levels. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research are discussed, as well as the current study's limitations.

Dynamic fluctuations in foreign language enjoyment during cognitively simple and complex interactive speaking tasks

Despite evidence on the interaction between cognitive individual differences (IDs) and task complexity, our knowledge of how affective IDs, such as foreign language enjoyment (FLE), interact with task complexity and other factors is limited. Since tasks and activities were found by Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014) to be most relevant to FLE, and since task complexity might interact with learners’ perceptions of task difficulty, it is important to investigate how task complexity impacts FLE changes. Informed by the complex dynamic systems theory, this study employed a mixed-methods multiple case study design to study patterns and causes of high and low FLE arousals. The participants were four pairs of Taiwanese high-intermediate EFL university students who were engaged in simple or complex storytelling tasks with speech acts of refusals. The speakers’ interactions were triangulated with an individual learner’s rating of FLE on a per-second scale and stimulated recalls. Results revealed idiosyncratic patterns of FLE fluctuations of peer interlocutors and a high degree of overlap in sources of low and high FLE in both groups. Speakers reported high FLE as a result of interesting storylines inherent in task design and created by peers, the use of picture prompts, peer collaboration, and task performance. Performance problems, failure to retrieve appropriate vocabulary, task design, and lack of ideas led to low FLE arousals. The findings suggest that task complexity combined with other task-induced, social, and individual factors to affect the fluctuations of FLE. Implications for task design and oral communication instruction to promote FLE are discussed.

The effectiveness of combining the keyword mnemonic with retrieval practice on L2 vocabulary learning in Taiwanese EFL classes

Previous research suggests that combining the keyword mnemonic and retrieval practice produces significant benefits for L2 vocabulary learning, but only for the receptive aspect. This study examines the effectiveness of combining the two methods for productive L2 vocabulary learning. Forty-two 8th-grade Taiwanese EFL learners participated in a four-week instructional treatment. They were divided into three groups with a similar spread of English vocabulary sizes. The learning materials consisted of 21 English words unknown to the participants and equally divided into three sets of equivalent difficulty. Three learning conditions (combined method, retrieval practice, and control) were rotated for each group so that each condition was applied to each set of words one time by one of the three groups. A productive vocabulary test was designed to measure the retention of the words at three different time points after the treatment. Repeated measures ANOVAs revealed that the combined method performed similarly to retrieval practice in the immediate and the one-week delayed posttests but significantly outperformed retrieval practice in the four-week delayed posttest. The predicted superiority of using the combined method over retrieval practice alone in the productive aspect of EFL vocabulary learning over the longer term was confirmed in the present study.

The Effect of Error Correction on Taiwanese EFL Students’ Writing Accuracy

This paper aims to investigate the effect of teacher’s error correction feedback on EFL students’ ability to correct their own writing errors for better accuracy. It intends to find out whether the instructor’s explicit error feedback followed by students’ extensive revisions, has any effect on students’ ability in revising their errors with their own writing pieces. A group of nineteen EFL Taiwanese college students, with low to intermediate English level proficiency, participated in this study. The results indicated that the effect of teachers’ error feedback on students’ ability to self-correct was not significant. Most of the errors, after given extensive feedback and revision, were not significantly revised after a three-month interval. The result of this case study tends to support the claim that teachers’ error feedback does not help much with EFL students improving their writing accuracy. Other findings regarding students’ interpretation towards their writing errors and unsatisfactory self-correction results and teacher’s perspective and observation are discussed.

The Case Study of the Relationship Between Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and Cultural Awareness in Teacher Education

This study aims to examine how and in what ways pre-service teachers’ identities are constructed and developed in student-teaching experiences. In this study, two Taiwanese EFL university pre-service teachers participated in a year-long 2019-2020 case study at Southern University. Data consisted of pre-service teacher multicultural attitudes, the transcriptions of course documents, and open-ended interviews. The study suggests that the pre-service teachers’ beliefs play a significant role in shaping their understanding of language learning and teaching. Additionally, the experiences pre-service teachers have in diverse cultural settings shape their identities and inform their future teaching practices as they develop the ability to connect with their students and offer valuable insights. The results suggest that future pre-service teacher education programs should nurture pre-service teachers’ multicultural awareness and cultural teaching strategies before and during teaching the students.

Structural relationship of EFL learners’ psychological needs and capital, and their willingness to take EMI courses: perceived value of English as a moderator

ABSTRACT Given the fact that English is the global academic lingua franca, the implementation of English-mediated instruction (EMI) has inevitably gained momentum in higher-education institutes (HEI) in Taiwan. However, before the full-scale implementation of EMI education, it is imperative to gain an insightful understanding of Taiwanese EFL learners’ perspectives on EMI courses. An online survey of 467 Taiwanese EFL learners who had never taken EMI courses before was conducted. Two independent variables of psychological properties (basic psychological needs, BPNs; psychological capital, PsyCap), one dependent variable (willingness to take EMI courses, WtT), and a moderator (perceived value of English, PVE) form the proposed research model. The results show that all five hypotheses were supported; specifically, EFL learners’ BPNs influence on their WtT was significant but negative. A positive indirect effect was discovered with the mediation of PsyCap, which significantly and positively affected WtT. PVE was a significant moderator in the relationship of both BPNs and PsyCap with WtT; however, the moderating effect was negative in the former and positive in the latter. The novelty of this study is that it is the very first research to explore EFL learners’ willingness to take EMI courses from the perspectives of two important psychological properties.

Influence of corpus tools on Taiwanese EFL writers' learning, reception and production of academic clusters

Influence of corpus tools on Taiwanese EFL writers' learning, reception and production of academic clusters

Elevator pitch as project-based learning for developing Taiwanese EFL pre-service teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge in pronunciation

Elevator pitch as project-based learning for developing Taiwanese EFL pre-service teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge in pronunciation

Influence of Corpus Tools on Taiwanese EFL Writers’ Learning, Reception and Production of Academic Clusters

Influence of Corpus Tools on Taiwanese EFL Writers’ Learning, Reception and Production of Academic Clusters

Elevator Pitch as Project-Based Learning for Developing Taiwanese EFL Pre-service Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Pronunciation

Elevator Pitch as Project-Based Learning for Developing Taiwanese EFL Pre-service Teachers’ Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Pronunciation

A corpus-based study of native speakers’ and Taiwanese EFL learners’ use of the adverb just

The polysemous adverb just is frequently used by efl learners, but many learners are still unaware of how just should be used. The aim of this study is to examine how frequently different meanings of the adverb just are employed by native speakers and Taiwanese efl learners in their essays and to identify the differences in the lexico-grammatical patterns. Drawing data from one native-speaker corpus and two Taiwanese efl learner corpora, we investigated ( i) the overall frequencies of just, ( ii) the frequencies of just by meaning categories, and ( iii) the lexico-grammatical patterns of the different meanings of just, as well as their semantic and syntactic features. Results showed that the overall frequencies of just were similar in the native speaker and learner corpora, but there was a smaller variety of the use of adverbial just in the learner corpora. By examining the lexico-grammatical patterns, we found that the meanings of the adverbial just were induced in the following patterns: first, when it modified different syntactic structures; secondly, when it co-occurred with specific contextual clues; and, thirdly, when it interacted with particular tense/aspect of a verb. In addition, semantic features and lexical choices had a pivotal role in determining whether the use of a particular sense of just was acceptable in a sentence. By providing corpus-based teaching material for the uses of adverbial just, it is hoped that our study will shed light on the perplexing issue of adverb acquisition.

An exploratory study on the accuracy of three speech recognition software programs for young Taiwanese EFL learners

ABSTRACT Automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology affords language learners the ability to evaluate their pronunciation accuracy by comparing their intended spoken output with the transcribed text produced by ASR-based dictation applications. However, earlier dictation tools were criticized for producing low level recognition rates for non-native speech. Further investigation on the transcription accuracy of new ASR dictation tools for non-native speech is therefore necessary. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of three modern ASR dictation software programs with young Taiwanese learners of English. Capabilities of these ASR applications were also explored by assessing whether the transcription accuracy of high and low proficiency learners’ can be differentiated. Thirty junior high school students dictated the same 60 sentences used in Derwing et al.’s (2000) original dictation study, and their outputs were further analyzed. The results indicated that the transcription accuracy rates of high proficiency learners were comparable to the accuracy rates of native English speakers in previous studies, suggesting that current dictation programs have become more accurate in transcribing non-native speech. Results also show that low proficiency learners’ accuracy rates were significantly lower compared to high proficiency learners, indicating that the programs were able to differentiate proficient and less proficient learners.

Analysis of 31 Taiwanese EFL undergraduates’ designs and implementations of contextualized language instruction as service learning: A case study

ABSTRACT Service learning can enhance prospective teachers’ instructional practice through designing English lessons and tasks for real purposes based on the local context. This study analysed 31 Taiwanese EFL undergraduates’ lesson designs and implementations of contextualized language instruction as service learning in a language teacher education programme in Taiwan. Based on the thematic analysis of lesson plans, self-evaluations, peer-evaluations, stakeholders’ feedback, teaching videos, and interviews, this study reached the following major findings. First, through the investigation of the textbooks and local features, undergraduates designed topic-based lessons with contextualized dialogues as the features of contextualized language instruction. Secondly, the TESOL method course, instructor’s modelling, and collaborative lesson planning purposefully prepared 31 English majors for the lesson designs and implementation as service learning. Thirdly, the undergraduates’ knowledge was constructed, particularly knowledge of learners, teaching contexts, educational ends as well as content and curriculum knowledge of contextualized language instruction. Finally, participants, their peers, and stakeholders (learners and tourists) regarded these lessons relevant to their lives. Suggestions on effective integration of lesson designs and implementations of contextualized language instruction into service learning for prospective language teachers were provided.

Examining the Effect of Digital Storytelling on English Speaking Proficiency, Willingness to Communicate, and Group Cohesion

AbstractThis study focused on digital storytelling (DST) as a task in technology‐mediated task‐based language teaching and examined its effects on English speaking proficiency, willingness to communicate in English (WTCE), and group cohesion (GC). Two intact classes of Taiwanese EFL students, either as the DST group or as the comparison group, first responded to the WTCE scale, the GC scale, and a standardized English speaking test. Next, the DST group completed two DST tasks, each of which entailed locating information, generating the story script, obtaining visual and aural support, rehearsing and recording the oral reading, combining the visual and aural support with the audio recording to create the digital story, and playing the digital story and then telling the story again with the muted digital story in class. During the weeks when the DST group presented digital stories, the comparison group watched and discussed movies and composed a reflective report in English. Finally, both groups responded to the WTCE scale and GC scale again and took another set of the standardized English speaking test. Data analyses disclosed that DST tasks significantly increased English speaking proficiency and GC but affected WTCE in a positive yet nonsignificant manner.

An integrated approach to developing and assessing EFL students' speaking ability and strategy use

Speaking a foreign language is a complicated process that involves linguistic competence, skills, and strategy use. Communicating through English in English for Academic Purposes courses is a basic requirement for EFL learners, but it can be a challenge. To improve the quality of speech, strengthen components of speaking competence, and raise learner awareness of metacognition, Goh and Burns (2012) propose an integrated pedagogical approach featuring a teaching cycle for developing and assessing students’ speaking. The present study accordingly aimed to test how far the teaching-speaking cycle was able to develop intermediate Taiwanese EFL university students’ speaking ability. Sixty university students participated in the study, which employed a quasi-experimental design. The Experimental Group (EG) received Goh and Burns’ integrated pedagogical approach for 18 weeks, whereas the Control Group (CG) simply practiced speaking as regular in-class activities. Speaking tests and questionnaires were used. The results showed that the EG adopted the rehearsal and social strategies more frequently than the CG. In the case of speaking performance, the EG students steadily improved their speaking ability through the semester. The speaking performance of the CG students, however, was limited. A close inspection of the scores revealed marked improvements in particular speaking components for the EG participants.

Enhancing EFL students’ intracultural learning through virtual reality

ABSTRACT Intracultural learning has been neglected in English curricula in Taiwan since textbooks as an important learning resource have been mainly focused on English linguistic content and developing students’ language skills and and target culture to develop students’ language skill. This study investigated how making VR content helped students enhance their intracultural learning. This study engaged 60 advanced Taiwanese EFL college students in VR content making. The results demonstrated that students developed better intracultural awareness through the features of VR technology including panorama, audio, interaction, and structuring. Further discussions were provided to explain how each of these four features enhanced students’ local cultural learning.

Developing and Validating a Computerized Adaptive Testing System for Measuring the English Proficiency of Taiwanese EFL University Students

ABSTRACT Prompted by Taiwanese university students’ increasing demand for English proficiency assessment, the absence of a test designed specifically for this demographic subgroup, and the lack of a localized and freely-accessible proficiency measure, this project set out to develop and validate a computerized adaptive English proficiency testing (E-CAT) system for Taiwanese EFL university students. Drawing on the guidelines posited by L2 testing specialists, we devised and followed a six-stage procedure to develop this E-CAT system: determining the test purpose, defining the construct, developing the test items, designing the administration processes, performing the field testing, and constructing the E-CAT system. Upon its completion, we performed two validation studies on the simulated data and as such offered the backing for the generalization inference and the explanation inference, which combined to lend support for the validity argument for the E-CAT score-based interpretations and uses. This project highlighted the importance of test localization, foregrounded the utility of computerized adaptive testing and item response theory in language test development and validation, and generated a localized, free-of-charge English proficiency test for Taiwanese university students to satisfy the graduation benchmark requirement and/or to demonstrate their English proficiency levels when job hunting.

Potential Vocabulary Growth in EMI Programs: The Cases of Accounting and Civil Engineering in Taiwanese EFL context

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become a nationwide trend in Taiwan’s higher education institutions. Behind this rapid growth is the widespread belief that EMI provides English immersion, which facilitates incidental learning of the target language. However, not all EMI programs in EFL contexts provide the same immersion as those in the Anglosphere. English-medium university textbooks were therefore targeted as a research focus in that they offer non-English subject majors a sustainable channel for exposure to English in the EFL context. The researcher compiled two 4-million-token accounting and civil engineering textbook corpora and measured the vocabulary levels and amounts along the BNC/COCA word-frequency scale. Results show that accounting textbooks reached the 5th 1000-word-family level at 98% text coverage while civil engineering textbooks stretched to the 9th–10th 1000 level. Twelve repetitions were used as a benchmark for incidental learning. Only 1,479 word families beyond the first 3000 occurred 12+ times in the accounting corpus versus 3,397 word families in the civil engineering corpus. For EMI practitioners who are concerned with their students’ vocabulary development, the results may serve as a reference for future investigations into other disciplines.