Tertiary Level EFL Learners Research Articles

The Effects of Dynamic Assessment on Reading Skill Performance: A Study of Indonesian EFL Learners

<p>This research article aimed to analyze the effects of Dynamic Assessment (DA) on EFL learners' reading comprehension. The participants in this case study were five Indonesian tertiary-level EFL learners. It investigated whether mediation in DA improve the learners reading comprehension performances and analyzed the extent to which mediation in DA benefit learning. The research methods used were pre-test, mediation, and post-test. The findings revealed two main points. First, the result of the post-test showed an overall improvement for all five students. As indicated by the effect size (0.96) and the result of paired samples t-test (<em>p</em>-value = 0.0028), it can be concluded that the effect of DA on the participants’ reading skill performance was highly significant. Second, mediation in DA appeared to benefit learning with different characteristics in each student. The implications of this study were to provide practical insight to EFL teachers into how mediation can be developed to improve learners' reading skills and to inform EFL teachers with some suggestions to carry out mediations to benefit learning.</p>

Correlation and Prediction of Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Relations to Academic Reading Comprehension Among Tertiary Level EFL Learners

An in-depth investigation of vocabulary depth knowledge by lexical researchers plays an important role in language teaching and learning. However, little is known of empirical research related to the correlation and prediction of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations, which represent vocabulary depth knowledge to reading comprehension in an EFL context like Bangladesh. Therefore, this study examined the correlation and prediction of syntagmatic and paradigmatic relations to academic reading comprehension, employing standard multiple regression analysis under a quantitative approach amongst 175 Bangladeshi undergraduate EFL students. The results of this study showed that a significant and strong correlation existed between paradigmatic relations and reading comprehension. In addition, paradigmatic relations made a statistically more significant unique prediction to reading comprehension than syntagmatic relations, and it had a larger effect on reading comprehension than syntagmatic relations. Providing an insight into the research gap, the present study suggests that paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations’ knowledge of vocabulary depth knowledge would have practical use for EFL students, English teachers at the tertiary level, and further implications for lexical researchers.

EXAMINING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EFL STUDENTS' LEARNING STYLE, WRITING PROFICIENCY, AND SELF-ASSESSMENT

This research article aimed to explore the relationship between students’ learning styles, writing proficiency, and self-assessment. The participants in this case study were forty Indonesian tertiary-level EFL learners. This study investigated language learning styles preferences of the participants, analyzed preferred language learning styles of the most proficient writers, and explored how the partcipants assess their writing ability. Multiple sources of data were collected, including questionnaires, self-assessment checklist, and students’ writings. The findings revealed three main points. First, based on the mean value and standard deviation, Communicative was the most popular learning styles among the students, followed by three others styles, called Concrete, Analytical, and Authority-Oriented. Second, based on the students’ writing scores, eight students were considered the most proficient writers, and most of them had applied Communicative learning style to help them organize their writings. Third, the most proficient writers, compared to the self-assessment performance of the least proficient writers, appeared to underestimate their writing ability. The pedagogical implications of this study were to provide insight to EFL teachers into how students’ learning styles can help them to make the necessary adaptation and changes in the instruction, and to inform EFL learners with some suggestions to carry out self-assessments to help them improve their writing performance.

Exploring EFL Teacher's Interventions on Peer Feedback: a Case Study in a Writing Classroom

This research article aimed to investigate the effect of interventions deployed by teachers in peer feedback in the context of Indonesian EFL writing classrooms. The participants in this case study were 16 Indonesian tertiary-level EFL learners. It explored types of teacher’s interventions on peer feedback, analyzed whether the learners use peer feedback to improve their writing, and explored how the learners appreciate peer feedback. The research methods used were questionnaire, teacher interventions, and interviews. The findings revealed three main points; (1) the teacher’s interventions were mostly on grammatical errors, inappropriate vocabularies, and content structures, (2) facilitated by the teacher’s interventions, more than 50% of the peer feedbacks were integrated by the students in their revision, (3) the students generally confirmed the usefulness of interventions deployed by the teacher on peer feedback. The implications of this study were to provide practical insight to EFL teachers into how peer feedback, supported by teacher interventions, can be develop to benefit learning, and to inform EFL teachers with some suggestions to carry out peer feedback to improve learners’ skill of writings.

An Investigation of Out-of-Class Language Activities of Tertiary-Level EFL Learners

The area of language teaching and learning is constantly changing due to emerging educational, technological and social trends or innovations all around the world, so there is no universally correct way to learn a language for everyone. That’s why it is not possible for a classroom context to address everyone’s needs sufficiently during the class hour, so learners must carry on their learning beyond the classroom as well. The present study seeks to explore language activities that EFL learners are engaged outside the class in order to support their language learning process and their attitude towards out-of-class language learning. A total of 109 students who had different proficiency levels and who were studying at the School of Foreign Languages, Pamukkale University participated in the study. Data was collected through a questionnaire. The results of the analysis revealed that learners were mostly engaged in listening and watching activities which were considered as the most helpful activities as well. While no significant differences with respect to gender were found in learners’ out-of-class language learning attitudes, the type of language education (compulsory or elective) and language proficiency level were determined to be effective. In conclusion, it can be recommended that out-of-class language activities carried out most frequently and considered most helpful by learners are incorporated into curriculums of language teaching institutions.

Investigating Tertiary Level EFL Learners’ Willingness to Communicate in English

The present study aimed to investigate Turkish EFL learners’ perceived levels of willingness to communicate (WTC) in English inside and outside the classroom. The study also aimed to explore whether there is a statistically significant difference between their in-class WTC in English and out-of-class WTC in English. The study, which employed a quantitative research design, was conducted with the participation of 701 EFL learners enrolled in the departments of Tourism Guidance and Tourism Management at Balıkesir University Faculty of Tourism located in Balıkesir, Turkey. The data collection instrument included a scale which measures the participants’ perceived levels of WTC in English. The data were analyzed descriptively through IBM SPSS 21. The findings of the study indicated that EFL learners have a moderate level of WTC in English. The findings also showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the participants’ perceived levels of their in-class WTC in English and their out-of-class WTC in English. It was found that they are more willing to communicate in English outside the classroom than they are inside the classroom. In the light of the findings, some practical recommendations were also noted.

ATTRIBUTIONS TO SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING: THE EFFECTS OF GENDER, AGE AND PERCEIVED SUCCESS

The main purpose of this study is to analyze Turkish tertiary level EFL learners’ attributions to success and failure and the effects of gender, age, and perceived success on their attributions. The results indicated that EFL learners respectively attributed interest, ability, task difficulty, effort, luck and the influence of teacher and school as influential factors of their success whereas they respectively rated effort, interest, the effect of teacher and school, ability, task difficulty, and luck as influential factors of their failure. Furthermore, they were more inclined to agree that internal reasons are responsible for their success while blaming external reasons for their failure. In addition, females seemed to attribute external factors more than their male counterparts and unsuccessful learners attributed more importance to effort and internal dimension than successful students. Finally, the study revealed that age was not an important factor in EFL learners’ attribution to success and failure. Article visualizations:

Self-perceived Listening Comprehension Strategies Used by Iranian EFL Students

Numerous studies are available on L2 learners’ strategy use; however, there is no study investigating the Iranian tertiary level EFL learners’ listening strategy use. The present paper reports the findings of a cross-sectional study that explored a group of Iranian EFL learners’ (n = 100) use of listening comprehension strategies. The instrument that was used for collecting the data was called the Listening Strategy Use Questionnaire (LSUQ) by Nowrouzi, Tam, Nimehchisalem, and Zareian (2014). The instrument divides listening strategies into cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective categories. Based on the results, on average the respondents reported low levels of self-perceived use of cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective strategies. The results indicate a serious need to focus more on the students’ listening comprehension skills in general and their listening strategies in particular.

Working with language learner histories from three perspectives: Teachers, learners and researchers

Recent developments in SLA, such as learner-centredness, social constructivism, the postmethod era, and complexity perspectives, have highlighted the need for more localized, situated understandings of teaching and learning and greater recognition of learner individuality and diversity. In this article, I suggest an effective way of meeting these needs is to employ learner histories. This powerful form of writing allows learners to use their L2 to engage in authentic, personally meaningful communication with others about their identities, experiences, perceptions and emotions related to their language learning histories. As a text type, they are able to facilitate a more holistic perspective of the learner’s life and reveal the unique interconnections that an individual makes across various domains. They also enable the situated, contextualised and dynamic nature of their learning experiences to become apparent and provide learners with a genuine, motivating purpose for writing. Exploring data generated in Austria with tertiary-level EFL learners, I seek to illustrate some of the rich potential of these text types from three perspectives, namely, those of the teacher, learner and researcher.

The beliefs of two expert EFL learners

Much of the research into ‘expert’ language learners has focused largely on their learning strategies or styles. Less attention has been paid to other expert learner characteristics, such as learner beliefs. However, the importance of learners' beliefs in guiding their behaviours and how they interpret their experiences is widely recognised. This article examines the situated belief systems of two expert, tertiary-level EFL learners. Qualitative data were generated with the students in a set of two extended interviews and were analysed employing a grounded theory approach. Based on the findings, the article attempts to indicate some of the complexity and interrelatedness of learners’ beliefs, as well as the close connection between a learner's beliefs and their personal language learning history. It concludes by raising questions about understandings of beliefs which categorise them as being fundamentally ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. It suggests that it may be more appropriate for researchers and educators to consider learner beliefs in terms of their appropriacy for a particular individual in their unique sociocultural, educational and personal contexts.