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Prospective methodological considerations in L2 written feedback research
Get PDFThe current study draws on the findings in L2 written feedback research to propose some key empirical and methodological issues which can be considered in new feedback studies. It delineates the characteristics of feedback literate L2 writers to underline the pivotal role of student feedback literacy within a writing-to-learn framework, within which it then calls for empirical tolerance toward attaining L2 development. Rejecting a rigorous prescription for selecting a focused, semi-focused or unfocused WCF scope for a wide range of writing contexts, it introduces a proportional WCF scope arguing that the selection of target structures for feedback processing is a dynamic and context-specific decision-making process mediated by learner-specific and contextual affordances and constraints. In the same vein, it argues against the inclusion of a no-WCF group in future quantitative studies as research findings to date suggest little contribution for practice effect alone unless the inclusion is empirically justified for specific purposes. The study also calls for conducting equal-weight mixed-methods studies in L2 written feedback research and for employing well-defined interview protocols and open-ended questionnaires to gain clearer perspectives about the learners' writing experience and to better substantiate quantitative findings
Parents’ Attitudes about Spending Free Time and Reading Habits of their Children
Get PDFNowadays, a child's free time is more often structured after he has completed his duties in kindergarten and school. This structuring is most often organized by the parents themselves, taking into account their own children's preferences and possible shortcomings in compulsory education. Thus, children most often go to sports activities, attend music schools and foreign language schools. On the other hand, parents less often include their children in programs for the development of language abilities in their mother tongue and in the development of reading competences, even though the understanding of the content of many subjects depends on them. This is precisely why the aim of this work is to examine the attitudes of parents regarding the implementation of their children's free time and the reading habits of their family and children. One hundred and twenty parents of primary school-aged children participated in the research, filling out an online questionnaire, and the data were then processed in the SPSS program for statistics. It has been shown that more educated parents structure their children's free time more often and enroll them in foreign language schools and sports programs more often. It was also shown that the choice of leisure activities will depend more on the offer of the environment in which the child grows up than on the preferences of the child himself. It has also been shown that parents do not encourage their children to read books, except for mandatory readings, and that parents who read more will take more care of their children's reading skills
Floating Exchange Rate Regimes and Macroeconomic Indicators: Evidence from Mena Region and Outlook for the Moroccan Case
Get PDFMany emerging economies have significantly changed their economic policies by adopting floating exchange rate regimes. In this sense, we examine their effect on the Middle East North African (MENA) region, and based on similarities and differences in macroeconomic structure and fundamentals, the potential effect on the Moroccan economy would be projected. The study provides an overview of the MENA region's experience with exchange rate regimes, looking at their historical development and effects on regional economic stability and growth. If the adoption of floating exchange rate regimes for the emerging economies in the MENA region has benefits including enhanced flexibility, decreased vulnerability to external shocks, and increased competitiveness; however, the considered countries recognize difficulties in setting them up and running them, as well as the requirement for supportive policy measures. This paper underlines the significance of additional research to examine the effects of floating exchange rate regimes on other MENA economies, mainly Morocco, and to determine the most efficient policy measures to maximize the advantages of this regime
Efficacy of concordance on the acquisition of polysemous words
Get PDFAcquisition of polysemous words is a prevalent and difficult process. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of concordance on the acquisition of polysemous words, compared with the traditional teaching method. Participants were 127 Chinese EFL learners in senior high school. They were randomly assigned into Experimental Group (EG) to be treated with paper-based corpus and Comparison Group (CG) to be instructed with the traditional method. The test instrument and teaching material was developed based on Corpus Concordance English. Acceptability judgement was used to test learners’ performance. Data was analyzed according to independent- and paired- sample t-test via SPSS (version 20.0). Results from independent sample t-test of posttest scores of both groups indicated that concordance and traditional teaching method was equally effective in terms of polysemous words learning. However, paired sample t-test of pre- and post-test scores of each group suggested when compared with the traditional method, concordance is more efficient to fulfil greater enhancement. Therefore, this study provides empirical evidence of the positive impact of concordance on the acquisition of polysemous words. Limitations and implications were discussed
Language Teaching in the ‘Third Space’: Identity Trajectories and Professional Development Needs
Get PDFAs Pennington and Richards (2016) observe, a teacher’s sense of what it means to be a teacher is created interactively with the knowledge base and identity of the larger field. Technological developments and unprecedented societal change have recently, however, rendered the teaching profession more complex and diverse. This is particularly evident in higher education settings, where clear divisions between professional and academic areas are increasingly blurred. The breaking down of strict boundaries between professional domains gives rise to a “third space” (Whitchurch, 2008), which staff, including language teachers, must learn to navigate. Reconstructing their identities in highly dynamic third spaces can place language teachers in liminal states of in-between-ness and ambiguity (Beech, 2011), where negotiating stable identities becomes especially demanding. While language teacher identity in the context of higher education has been widely discussed, the implications of transitioning into ‘third space’ settings for language teachers’ identities have received less attention. Adopting a theorising from practice approach (Richards, 2016), in this reflective autoethnographic article, we examine our shifting language teacher identities as we seek to successfully navigate ‘third space’ work environments in New Zealand and Switzerland. We use critical reflection to explore how our professional identities have evolved as we switched from relatively ‘bounded’ language teaching roles to more fluid and dynamic ‘third space’ positions. Further, we discuss the role of professional development as enablers (or inhibitors) of our evolving language teacher identities as we moved into roles that diverged from what we had initially trained for. Lastly, we relate these reflections to suggestions for professional development that could help language teachers better respond to the demands of an increasingly diversified and complex profession
Preservice Teachers’ Experiences with E-service Learning for Middle School Students in South Korea
Get PDFElectronic service (e-service) learning has considerable potential to promote engagement and interactions between people by liberating spatial constraints. Due to the pandemic situation, ordinary face-to-face service learning was impossible, but there was an urgent need to support adolescent English learners in communities. In accordance with the community needs, this phenomenological study explored Korean EFL preservice teachers’ experiences and perceptions of e-service learning, focusing on the collaborative nature of learning. Based on this, we collected data from multiple sources (i.e., interviews, reflective reports, and artifacts) from 23 Korean preservice teachers majoring in English language education and conducted interviews with six teachers. The qualitative analysis of these data reveals that the Korean EFL preservice teachers seem to see four essential benefits and strengths of e-service learning: (1) the construction of their teacher identity, (2) the development of teaching-related skills, (3) the fulfillment of EFL learner needs, and (4) a social impact. They also addressed several challenges of e-service learning. Findings provide EFL teacher educators and researchers with valuable insights into e-service learning as part of teacher education
“I Keep Forgetting You’re Still Alive”: Unmasking Impoliteness in the Xsphere
Get PDFPragmatic competence entails awareness-raising of impoliteness. This paper delves into the pragmatics of impoliteness in online communication, focusing on X (Twitter) interactions, with a particular emphasis on 126 replies to Elon Musk's controversial tweet. Utilizing Culpeper's (2011) model of impoliteness formulae and implicational impoliteness, the study analyzes responses to this tweet, exploring the multifaceted dimensions of impoliteness. The research also investigates the moral order expectations expressed by the repliers, shedding light on the factors influencing their reactions and responses. By employing qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis, the study reveals the nuanced forms of impoliteness and the underlying moral order themes inherent in these online exchanges. Responsible wealth behavior, appropriate and non-offensive language, respect and decency, refraining from political narratives, engaging in social responsibility, and showingtransparency, accountability, and ethics were the identified moral order expectations. The findings underscore the relevance of examining impoliteness in the digital age, where public figures’ tweets can have far-reaching consequences and provoke diverse reactions from the online community. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of impoliteness in online discourse and its implications for social media interactions by language learners, which are currently lacking in language classrooms
The NEST/NNEST Binary and Translingual Identity of U.S.-Educated EFL Instructors in Saudi Arabia: A Study on Linguistic and Cultural Navigation in the Classroom
Get PDFThis study contributes to the Global Southern epistemological debates on the professional identity negotiations of Global-North-educated English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instructors. Using semi-structured interviews, the study analyses how two Saudi Arabian EFL instructors, during their PhD studies in the United States, and upon their return home, coped with the phenomenon of native-speakerism and navigated their way through the binary of Native English-Speaking Teachers (NEST) and Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers (NNEST) in their teaching. They appreciated their Western education not due to the traditional privileged-Global-North-and-underprivileged-Global-South binary but because of the many ways in which it helped them negotiate their translingual identity. They saw themselves as better placed to give constructive feedback to learners but critiqued the NESTs’ inability to base themselves in the local culture and positioned themselves above NESTs due to their knowledge of indigenous Saudi culture. Thus, they dismantled the traditional privilege associated with native-speakerism but did not hail one category over the other. Instead, they picked from both categories the materials, ways, means and attitudes that best served their purpose. They strove for hybridity. Through their negotiation of their foreign education and local challenges, they developed a unique translingual identity
Management of Crowdsourcing in Language Teaching and Learning: The State-of-the-art and Future Directions
Get PDFThe new environment of technological development has led to a transformation of teaching and learning methodologies, especially in the field of language teaching. In this field, the so-called Crowdsourcing, applied in other fields, is an essential element to be considered. This paper tries to identify the applications of Crowdsourcing for teaching and learning. The aim is to observe the state of the art and its trends in order to improve efficiency in learning processes. The paper analyses 192 documents on crowdsourcing and language teaching and learning, extracted from the Web of Science in the period 2012 to 2023. The article carries out a literature review and performs a bibliometric and visualisation analysis essentially on journals, authors and keywords. The results show the importance of crowdsourcing in language teaching and learning, and the particularities of aspects such as Crowdteaching and Crowdlearning associated with new methodologies and technological developments. New trends indicate the relevance of including aspects such as, apart from language and linguistic considerations technological developments such as machine learning, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, or classification models. The results offer guidance to researchers and teachers to plan their research and to improve language teaching and learning processes
Editorial: Expanding the horizon of feedback research in second language
Get PDFOn behalf of the editorial board, we welcome readers, researchers, and potential authors to the inaugural issue of the new journal Feedback Research in Second Language. The journal aims to fill gaps in research on corrective feedback by publishing a variety of studies to contribute to the scholarly community. While feedback has long been recognized as critical in composition studies and second language writing, Feedback Research in Second Language will push to include studies that explore the intricate characteristics of both oral and written corrective feedback. The journal emphasizes the importance of feedback as a form of assessment in language education, highlighting its role in promoting language accuracy, individualized learning, and motivation, and its position as a powerful form of self-assessment when reflected upon by the writer.