University English As A Foreign Language Research Articles

The effects of a metacognitive intervention on lower-proficiency EFL learners’ listening comprehension and listening self-efficacy

Focusing on the teaching of listening strategies to second language (L2) learners, this study sought to revisit Renandya and Farrell’s (2011) claims that explicit listening strategy instruction for lower-proficiency learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) is a fruitless endeavor. As such, we implemented a quasi-experimental study to measure the effectiveness of a metacognitive intervention for a convenience sample of lower-proficiency (CEFR A2) Japanese university EFL learners ( n = 129). The training program focused on an explicit process-based approach, involving integrated experiential learning tasks and guided reflections, to develop learners’ L2 listening skills. Data collection consisted of TOEIC® test scores, listening comprehension tests, cloze tests, a listening self-efficacy questionnaire, and a post-treatment survey. While the training program was received favorably by students, and students displayed a slightly more confident stance towards listening in their L2, we were unable to find any strong empirical evidence that our lower-proficiency EFL learners’ listening performance improved. As such, these results provide evidence of a potential proficiency threshold for EFL learners to start to benefit from a strategy-focused metacognitive intervention.

Students’ Negotiations Of Meaning In Their Speaking Performances In An Indonesian University EFL Classroom

This article reveals how students negotiate meanings in their speaking performances in an Indonesian university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom and effects of the students’ negotiations of meaning on their speaking performances in the EFL classroom. Employing a single-case study design, the research leading to the findings was conducted in an EFL classroom at a state university in Makassar, Indonesia. The data were obtained through classroom observation. The findings disclose that in their speaking performances in the EFL classroom, the students performed negotiations of meaning through request for message clarification, repetition, confirmation, elaboration and simplification and the negotiations of meaning used by the students mostly interacted with each other as adjacency pairs. Indisputably, those findings suggest that negotiations of meaning are essentially communicative tools that enable EFL students, particularly those with still low level of English, to build and maintain interactive communications among them.

A Study of the Implicit Reading Beliefs of a Cohort of College EFL Readers and Their Responses to Narrative Text

This study investigates the implicit reading beliefs (RBs) of a cohort of diverse English-as-a foreign language (EFL) undergraduate university students and their responses to a narrative text. Sixty-two (n = 62) students enrolled in an introductory reading education course participated in the study. The participants completed a demographic questionnaire and a modified version of the Schraw and Bruning Reader Belief Inventory (RBI). In addition, they read and responded to a narrative text. Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations, frequencies, percentages, mean rank order) were computed as well as theme coding analysis and a Factorial Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) test was conducted to address the study questions. Results indicate that the study participants hold dichotomous as well as less contrasting transmission and transaction RB beliefs. Likewise, they tend to read in a balanced way that reflects combination of text-based, critical evaluation, and personal reaction responses to narrative reading. Conceptual, and pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research into the formation of reading implicit beliefs and their interplay with the comprehension of texts of various types and difficulty levels are discussed.

Blended learning to foster EFL college students’ global literacy

Few studies on higher education focus on how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) college students may enhance their global literacy through cross-cultural communication. This mixed methods research reports on a blended learning program with cross-cultural communication to foster EFL college students’ global literacy. A sample of 97 EFL college students volunteered to participate in a large-sized onsite English course with one-on-one online discussions between college students and teachers from different countries. Scores of the pre- and post-tests on English listening and reading proficiency were collected and analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), while the students’ reflective journals and open-ended questionnaires were collected and analyzed by content analysis. The results revealed that the blended learning activities prompted the EFL college students to develop global literacy as they were engaged in cross-cultural communication by establishing online social connections with English teachers who were from different cultural backgrounds. These students might construct new knowledge in aspects of intellectual skills/knowledge, social/cultural competencies, and ethical disposition. Based on these, the students further provided both critical (reasoning and analysis) and creative feedback (giving suggestions) on global issues (global literacy). The pre- and post-test results verified their self-reported statements from the reflective journals that their English listening and reading proficiency improved. This blended learning program opens a door for EFL college students to the world where they may build, use, and share new knowledge with global literacy, leading to learners’ autonomy and English skills improvement.

The effectiveness of incorporating metacognitive prompts in collaborative writing on academic English writing skills

AbstractResearch shows that acquisition of writing skills can be supported by metacognitive strategy training. However, research on incorporating metacognitive guidance for collaborative writing is scarce. The current study explores the potential effectiveness of incorporating metacognitive prompts, that is, a form of metacognitive guidance, into collaborative writing on academic English writing skills. This study involves four instructional methods, that is, collaborative writing combined with embedded metacognitive guidance (COLL+META), metacognitive training without collaborative writing (META), collaborative writing without metacognitive training (COLL), and individual learning (CG). The dependent variables were students' four academic writing skills, that is, reproduction of text structure knowledge, application of text structure knowledge, reduction of text content, and abstract writing. Participants included 160 students who were learning English as a foreign language (EFL) at a university in mainland China. The participants in each condition received 16 weeks of treatment sessions. The results revealed the improvement from pre‐test to post‐test, supporting the main effects of each learning condition on the four academic writing skills. The results also showed that the COLL+META students demonstrated significantly higher scores in the four academic writing skills than students in the other conditions. This study underlines the importance of incorporating metacognitive strategies for collaborative writing in developing academic writing skills for university EFL students. This study also highlights the potential in applying educational psychology theories for English education.

Do social regulation strategies predict learning engagement and learning outcomes? A study of English language learners in wiki-supported literature circles activities

Combining wiki technology with the literature circles could be powerful and beneficial for promoting the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL). However, little research has been conducted to investigate the role of EFL students’ social forms of regulatory strategies in their learning performance in the context of wiki-supported literature activities. This research explored how students’ social regulation strategies relate to learning engagement and learning outcomes. Ninety-five college EFL students participated in wiki-supported literature circles activities. The results showed that “socially shared regulation” acted as a predictor for students’ engagement, while “co-regulation” acted as a predictor for students’ learning outcomes. The results also highlighted the roles of “monitoring,” “time management,” and “task understanding” in predicting students’ learning performance. In addition, this study also revealed that the students’ social regulation strategies focused more on “planning,” “time management,” and “task understanding”, with few regulatory strategies in “evaluation” and “content monitoring.” The results are discussed, and suggestions for teachers, tool developers and researchers are also proposed.

EFL Learners’ Perspectives on the use of Smartphones in Higher Education Settings in Slovakia

MALL (Mobile assisted language learning) affords new opportunities for EFL (English as a foreign language) learners and teachers. Research on MALL is still in its infancy in Slovakia, and this paper attempts to fill in this gap by examining students’ perception and attitudes towards the use of smartphones for the purposes of learning and practicing English. The target population of this study constituted of the Slovak university EFL learners whose major was Teacher Training of English Language and Literature (n = 77) at a Slovak university. The research method employed to achieve the objectives of this study was a 5‑point Likert scale questionnaire, comprising of two sets of statements: general and out‑of‑the‑classroom statements with a total of 29 items. The research results for both sets of statements imply that the participants display moderately positive attitudes towards smartphones in the context of EFL learning. However, the findings also reveal some issues surrounding the perception and potential use of smartphones such as the inability to plan students’ language learning appropriately and effectively, general underuse of smartphone apps, or problems related to practicing speaking skills. The results further suggest the immediate need to develop and enhance the awareness of smartphones and their potential in the process of teaching and learning English so that the EFL learners can utilize considerable opportunities these smart devices offer. Finally, the limitations of this study are recognized, and it is emphasized that conducting further research in this area is urgently needed.

The favored language learning strategies of Islamic university EFL learners

Despite the existence of many studies about language learning strategies (LLS) around the world, little work has been reported on the LLS use of Islamic university students from a qualitative perspective. Thus, to fill this empirical gap, this study is aimed to explore the LLS use and choice by learners studying at an Islamic university in Indonesia. This study employed a qualitative approach by interviewing 18 learners who would become teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). They have been interviewed about the ways or strategies when they are learning English. The data gained from the interviews were analyzed by thematic analysis. The findings demonstrated that learners reported using the strategies which are classified into six LLS categories (memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective, and social strategies) in learning English. However, most strategies reported by the learners were categorized into metacognitive strategies. Another significant finding is that several strategies such as practicing strategies (practicing four language skills; listening, speaking, reading, and writing), watching TV/ English Movies, memorizing, and using the internet were mostly reported by learners in improving their English skills. This study is beneficial for the classroom practice of teachers in enhancing their teaching methodology by knowing learners’ learning strategies to make it easier for the teachers to design the learning activities. Furthermore, this study is also beneficial for novice EFL learners in which the strategies in this study could be models for them.

Gender- and Sexuality-Inclusive Curriculum in an Intensive Language Program

Queer pedagogy is an application of Queer Theory to utilize inquiry, interrogate identity and employ pedagogical practices that interrupt heteronormativity. EFL (English as a Foreign Language) curriculum and materials have long neglected gender- and sexuality inclusive teaching practices and investigations. Furthermore, identity needs to be considered by ELT (English Language Teaching) professionals as a non-static, relational and complex construct that may have implications to second language acquisition. In asking how EFL university instructors can practice Queer Theory and pedagogy that proposes active deconstruction and disruption of heteronormativity, the authors made learning a site of inquiry, by implementing a classroom pedagogical strategy to examine classroom materials from an in-house textbook, center student perspectives, encourage self-reflexivity and to unpack unexamined normative discourses. Through literature review, content analysis, the study of reading practices, and classroom research, this paper explores the implications of challenging reading practices and heteronormative thinking and constructions of identities that may be present in an EFL university curriculum. The research findings illustrate how internalized heteronormativity surfaces in the assumptions made while reading a text, acts onto queerness and overrides judgment, blocking accessibility to diversity. The authors propose reading strategies that encourage critical thinking to excavate and obliterate heteronormativity and to unearth the queerness in curricula materials as an approach to integrating a gender- and sexuality-inclusive curriculum.

Academic Summarization via “Twitter” in a College EFL Context

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the effect of the limitation of 140-character in Twitter versus the free writing on the skill of the summary of senior level female students of the Department of English at Jouf University. The participants of the study consisted of 60 female students who were enrolled in writing skills course (ENGL122) the participants were distributed into two groups, each of 30 students according to their scores in TOEIC, test of English for International Communication. After that, the pre-test was administered to the two groups. Both groups had the same instructor but each group was instructed in a separate class. The study was conducted in eight sessions (experimental semester). Pre-test and post-test were administered over the study sample to evaluate the significant effect on participants’ summary writing in both groups. The study results indicated that participants in both experimental and control groups achieved higher mean scores in their performance of summary writing in terms of content comparing to their mean scores in terms of coherence. Also, the results show that the performance of Twitter group in summary writing score higher results in favor of coherence compared to the control group. Therefore, new technology and social media means such as twitter contributes to solve many of the problems EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners could face. This study aims to increase the motivation of Institutions of higher education to integrate Twitter with the educational process.

ICT Availability and Uses among Yemeni University EFL Students

This research is an in-depth study to explore the availability and use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the departments of English, Yemen. This study aimed to compare public and private universities of Yemen in using ICT tools in the process of studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Two questions were used to formulate the study questionnaire and to collect data from 240 students from three public universities and 163 students from private universities. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS. The findings showed a disparity in the usages of ICT by students of Public and Private Universities due to a lack of adequate equipment and good infrastructure. However, the findings of the present study also showed that there is no difference in using computers by students of public and private universities in Yemen which highlights that the education system in Yemen seems to be the same in using ICT tools in learning English. In the case of internet connection, it is found that the availability of internet connection is better in public universities than in private universities.

The Impact of Out-of-Class Language Activities on English as a Foreign Language Proficiency of Private University Students - (A Case of Erbil)

Abstract
 The present study aims at revealing the impact of engagement in out-of-class learning on foreign language students’ language proficiency. Accordingly, the relationship of private university EFL students’ involvement in English language activities outside the classroom with their language proficiency is investigated. The researcher designed a study based on descriptive quantitative research method utilizing a questionnaire comprising 25 items and administered it to the freshmen from English language teaching, biology education, physics education, and mathematics education departments at the education faculty of a private university in Erbil. 87 participants responded to the questionnaire. The statistical analysis of data was performed through SPSS 25 data editor. The results show that the most frequent activities in which English is practiced are entertaining activities like watching movies, videos, and surfing on the Internet, and that the level of the students’ involvement in English language activities outside the classroom is positively associated with their language proficiency. This research could be beneficial for language teachers to show how to encourage their students to start practice outside the classroom, for students to offer some ways to augment their language proficiency with the application of English in authentic environments, and for educational administrators to give some ideas for curriculum design including out-of-class learning.
 Keywords: English as a foreign language (EFL), English language activities outside the classroom, language proficiency, out-of-class learning, second language acquisition (SLA)

Season of Migration to Remote Language Learning Platforms: Voices from EFL University Learners

The abrupt disruption of the traditional face-to-face language instruction due to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has forced many schools and higher learning institutions in Oman and around the globe to establish a virtual learning environment. This crisis-prompted remote learning has been a new experience for most teachers and students alike, a variable that may affect students' learning. Thus, it is significant to understand the students' experience with online teaching and learning. This study explicitly examines online teaching and learning as perceived by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students of a higher learning institution in Oman. A total number of (112) undergraduate students in Oman acted as a data source by responding to a computer-assisted survey questionnaire. The survey focused on the following themes: overall first-time online language learning experience; online courses; online learning mode and attainment of graduate attributes; effectiveness of online teaching and delivery; utilization and usefulness of electronic learning devices; and e-learning language skills. The findings highlight the significance of exploring learners' online learning experience and its implications for planning, implementing, teaching, and assessing online language education.

Unravelling Vietnamese Students' Critical Thinking and Its Relationship with Argumentative Writing

Critical thinking has been recognized as a key academic skill due to its role in the learning process, especially in higher education, and particularly in second and foreign language teaching and learning of writing. This thinking pattern is crucial in Vietnamese tertiary education since in the globalized world of information. There has been increased demand for students to gain greater depth of subject-specific knowledge and develop their ability to synthesize, process, and evaluate different sources of texts for the sake of meeting the needs of their own academia and future studies. However, it is quite a new concept in Vietnamese educational system and few studies have been conducted to examine critical thinking in relation to argumentative writing. This paper, henceforth, reports a descriptive study that investigates the critical thinking ability of Vietnamese EFL (English as a foreign language) university students and its relationship with their writing argumentative essays. Data collected in this study include a questionnaire and an essay writing test. Participants were 126 EFL students at three universities in the Mekong delta, Vietnam. The findings reveal that Vietnamese EFL university students’ critical thinking is at high level while it was statistically insignificant that a relationship between their critical thinking and their argumentative writing existed. The obtained results indicate that instructional methods and activities employed by Vietnamese EFL teachers in universities of the Mekong region may well promote cognitive development of their students. It also suggests urgent actions from EFL teachers and stake-holders to seek for feasible solutions to foster students’ implementation of their cognitive skills into their writing and other language skills.

College English Language Teaching Reform and Key Factors Determining EFL Teachers’ Professional Development

<p style="text-align:justify">Owing to the rapid expansion and development of newly upgraded undergraduate colleges and universities in China, the Ministry of Education implemented the College English Language Teaching Reform (CELTR) to improve College English language teaching and learning at higher institutions. This reform aims to improve the quality of teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The present study aims to identify potential factors influencing the EFL teachers’ professional development in the context of the College English language curriculum reform in mainland China. In total, 92 EFL college teachers from a newly upgraded university located in Nanyang City, Central China participated in this study, and data were collected using a survey questionnaire. Overall, the findings indicate that the EFL teachers’ professional development improved during the implementation process of CELTR and the potential factors that contributed to their professional development were teachers’ understanding, self-reflection, and teaching practice.</p>

Effects of Adding Subtitles to Video via Apps on Developing EFL Students’ Listening Comprehension

It is unclear if using videos and education apps in learning adds additional value to students’ listening comprehension. This study assesses the impact of adding text to videos on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ listening comprehension. The participants were 76 prep college EFL students from Taibah University, divided into two groups. The semi-experimental measure was employed to compare the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group watched an English learning video and then wrote text subtitles relating to the video using apps, and later took a listening test to evaluate their ability in acquiring information through the videos. The control group watched videos during live lectures but did not add subtitles on the content they viewed. A paired samples t-test was used to assess the extent of listening comprehension achievement and posttest results were compared. Results revealed statistically significant increases in posttest listening comprehension scores. The result indicated superior performance and a significant positive impact through teaching/learning via video watching and adding text apps.

Qualities of a Good and Effective Teacher: Slovak EFL Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers’ Perspectives

A plethora of researchers have attempted to examine the characteristics of a good and effective teacher in order to enhance the process of teaching foreign languages. In line with those explorations, this study aims at performing a comparison between Slovak pre-service EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers’ and Slovak in-service EFL teachers’ perceptions of a good and effective language teacher. To achieve this objective, a convenient sample of Slovak university EFL students who were pre-service teachers (n = 74) and Slovak lower-secondary and upper-secondary school teachers (n = 63) were employed in the study. Using a 57-item Likert-type questionnaire, independent-samples t-tests were conducted to investigate the potential differences between the perceptions of the pre-service teachers and in-service teachers. Moreover, the 10 highest-mean and 10 lowest-mean items of both groups were analyzed. The research results revealed that statistically significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were detected in only 12 of the 57 items. Furthermore, a closer examination of the differences and the items with the highest and lowest means indicated that the pre-service teacher participants favored traditional teaching more than their in-service teacher counterparts, who preferred CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) to a greater extent. The potential implications of these findings indicate that the fundamental principles of CLT such as employing plenty of pair-work and group-work activities, facilitating learners’ autonomy and responsibility for their own learning, or varying classroom interaction strategies deserve more careful attention during pre-service teacher training.

Formative assessment use in university EFL writing instruction: a survey report from China

ABSTRACT Formative assessment (FA) has been widely adopted in higher education instruction yet university teachers’ use of FA is underexplored. In the Chinese context of teaching English writing to students who learn English as a foreign language (EFL), the use of FA is intriguing because of both the university students’ generally poor English writing proficiency and the testing tradition. This study investigated the use of FA strategies among Chinese university EFL teachers in their writing instruction, with the foci on how they shared standards, elicited learning information, provided feedback, used self-/peer assessment, and how they perceived the purposes of their assessments. Three hundred and sixty-two teachers participated in our survey, and the results reveal that these teachers have used a limited range of FA strategies and that their implementation of these strategies is generally weak. They seldom used such strategies as eliciting information and student self-/peer assessment, but placed a great emphasis on providing feedback. The study profiled three distinct levels of FA use among the respondents: occasional, moderate and frequent. It also identified three, out of five, background variables that most contributed to teachers’ FA use. These findings have implications for teacher professional development, use of FA in higher education, and assessment reform policies.

The Impact of Using Cambly on EFL University Students’ Speaking Proficiency

This study sought to investigate the impact of using Cambly, a computer-mediated communication tool, on the speaking proficiency of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Further, it aimed to explore the participants’ perceptions of using Cambly. The study employed an experimental design featuring a mixed-methods approach to data collection that involved pre- and post-testing of the participants’ speaking proficiency as well as semi-structured face-to-face interviews. The study sample consisted of 28 EFL university students who were divided into the control and experimental groups. The participants in the experimental group used Cambly to conduct audio calls with native speakers of English over a period of 4 weeks. The quantitative analysis of the participants’ speaking proficiency tests revealed no significant differences between the experimental and control groups’ post-test scores. Moreover, no significant differences were found between the experimental group’s pre- and post-test scores. The qualitative analysis of the participants’ interviews revealed that the use of Cambly had a positive influence on their speaking proficiency, motivation, anxiety level, speaking opportunities, autonomy, social relationships, and cultural awareness.

Written Corrective Feedback Strategies Employed by University English Lecturers: A Teacher Cognition Perspective

Examining EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers’ beliefs and cognition has become an essential area of research as teachers are seen as active decision makers. This study addresses teachers’ beliefs as specific to the strategies they employ when providing corrective feedback to students’ writing. Drawing on Ellis’s typology of written corrective feedback and Borg’s teacher cognition theory, this survey study investigated university EFL lecturers’ self-reported strategy use in the provision of feedback to students’ written compositions. A total of 254 respondents completed this survey from universities in Thailand, China, and Vietnam. The findings showed that the teachers provided different types of strategies, namely, high-demand (e.g., students’ response to feedback required), low-demand (e.g., correcting all errors), and no-demand feedback in relation to their students’ proficiency levels. Their choices of high-demand feedback strategies seemed to be associated with their pre- and in-service professional training experiences as well as contextual factors including local cultural influence and limited resources; whereas their uses of no-demand and low-demand feedback strategies seemed to be associated with their prior language learning experiences and classroom teaching practice. This study also revealed an inconsistency between teachers’ cognition about provision of feedback and their reported feedback strategy use. Pedagogical implications and directions for future research were also proposed.