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RETRACTED: Implementing web applications in the English as a foreign language classroom to develop learners’ productive skills: The case of Kazakhstan
No full textThis article has been retracted according to Castledown's Article Withdrawal and Retraction Policies at the request of the editors.
The authors have, without permission or acknowledging the original source, published the work of a student of one of the authors that was submitted in fulfilment of the student's master's degree. One of the conditions of submission of a paper for publication is that authors declare explicitly that their work is original and has not appeared in a publication elsewhere. Re-use of any data should be appropriately cited. As such this article represents a severe abuse of the scientific publishing system. The scientific community takes a very strong view on this matter and apologies are offered to readers of the journal that this was not detected during the submission process
Connecting in-class and out-of-class learning: Integrating online resources and blog writing for EFL proficiency enhancement
No full textThe paper presents a study that addresses common issues in the EFL context, specifically the lack of student engagement and limited exposure to the language. The study implemented a flipped classroom approach to enhance learner engagement and improve language learning outcomes. This study involved 32 non-English majors and utilized 6 Minute English Podcasts and TED Talks as core materials, supplemented by blog writing assignments to connect in-class and out-of-class learning. Students engaged with online course materials before attending in-class discussions and worked on their blog assignments after class. Research tools included pre- and post-language proficiency tests, an end-of-semester questionnaire, student blog writings, and their reflection papers.
The results of the Wilcoxon signed-rank test indicated a significant improvement in students' listening skills (z=-4.099, p<0.001). Regarding their performance in speaking and writing, the results of the paired t-tests showed that students demonstrated varying levels of improvement, with the most significant improvements in the writing test (p<0.001) with a large effect size (d=1.94). The findings highlight significant progress in listening, writing, and listen-to-write skills, resulting from the synergistic integration of high-quality online audio and video resources, blog writing assignments, and the flipped teaching approach. This research offers valuable insights for practitioners seeking to enhance language acquisition, particularly within the EFL context
Review of Intercultural Communication and Language Pedagogy: From Theory to Practice
No full textIn second or foreign language (L2) research and education, learners’ development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) is of prime importance. In practice, more attention is devoted to language-culture reciprocity, in the sense that language puts cultural reality into words and is dynamically shaped by culture (Mirzaei and Forouzandeh, 2013). This has in turn led to increased emphasis being put on teaching language for ICC. Responding to Byram and Masuhara’s (2013) call to make the language-intercultural communication link explicit, the volume under review aims to provide a sound theoretical background and a thorough review of research on intercultural communication, while also presenting the application of theory to L2 pedagogical practice
The role of corpora in enhancing translation accuracy and fluency feasibility of using corpora as a tool in translation practice
No full textTranslators employ an array of tools to streamline the translation process, ensuring precision and coherence. The necessity of these tools is particularly pronounced when tackling authentic materials, such as texts from the United Nations (UN). Among these tools, corpora stand out as a pivotal resource. In light of this, this study undertook a comprehensive qualitative and quantitative exploration into the impact of UN parallel corpora on novice translators. The research sought to address two fundamental questions: Does the utilization of parallel corpora significantly enhance translation performance? Furthermore, what specific areas of improvement, if any, are facilitated by the incorporation of parallel corpora? To address these questions, a cohort of 30 students undertook two translation tasks of equal complexity. The initial task was conducted without the support of UN corpora, while the subsequent task integrated the use of these corpora. Employing a t-test, the study scrutinized the statistical significance of divergence among the participants. The outcomes illuminate that the integration of corpora within translation pedagogy, particularly for UN texts, plays an indispensable role. This integration furnishes students with authentic source materials, facilitating comprehension of intricate terminologies inherent in these documents. Furthermore, corpora enable students to discern underlying linguistic patterns, encompassing syntax, collocations, and discourse structures. This linguistic insight equips translators to faithfully convey intended meanings and registers in their translations. Notably, the T-test outcomes establish a substantial positive influence of corpora utilization on the achievement of students
Data-driven learning and young learners: Perceptions and attitudes of Japanese elementary school students towards EFL corpus-based activities
No full textThere is an increasing amount of research into corpus-based study as a pedagogical approach in language learning (Boulton & Vyatkina, 2021). This is most commonly known as data-driven learning (DDL) and can refer to both direct corpus use and corpus-informed, paper-based activities. Despite this growing interest, the vast majority of published research into DDL investigates university students (Boulton & Cobb, 2017; Pérez-Paredes, 2022) and there is a serious lack of enquiry into children and adolescents (Crosthwaite, 2020). This paper seeks to add to the limited knowledge that currently exists on pre-adolescent learners. An exploratory, small-scale mixed-methods study was designed to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of Japanese sixth-grade elementary school students towards EFL corpus-based activities. Five participants took part in a month-long course of four one-hour online sessions with data collected via a pre-study survey, post-class questionnaires, and post-study interviews. Results show that students display a very favourable attitude towards DDL activities, with a clear preference for paper-based activities over computer-based activities. The findings also highlight the importance of ‘scaffolding’ in young learner education and the potential obstacles that must be overcome to ensure that DDL activities can be successfully implemented in the EFL young learner classroom
Unveiling learning regulations through reflective notes
No full textWhile self-regulated learning (SRL) has been studied in various disciplines, insufficient attentionhas been paid to how formative assessment/assessment for learning (AfL) promotes students’ SRL in learning English as foreign language (EFL) context. The present study attempted to address the gap. Forty four non-English majors in the second year of an undergraduate program at a Chinese university participated in the research. They completed 5 writing tasks, performed peer assessment, and wrote reflections to record their perceptions of the experience. Scoring rubrics was developed based on China’s Standards of English Language Abilities (CSE) for the participants to use in peer assessment and complete a peer assessment report for essay revision. Analysis of the reflections suggests that CSE rubrics referenced peer assessment involved extensive SRL processes of planning, monitoring, regulating, reflecting, and resource management, which were closely related to three contextual artifacts: rubric, peer assessment report, and essay script. These are important factors in support of the participants’ SRL engagement from a social cognitive perspective. Implications are discussed with reference to language teaching and learning with a view to developing EFL learners’ SRL capacity
Online teacher written corrective feedback outside of class time: (In)effectiveness and task engagement
No full textThis study examines a common pedagogical approach whereby students view teacher feedback outside of class time. Facilitated through Moodle, it aimed to investigate not only the effect of written corrective feedback (WCF) on learning outcomes, but importantly, how frequently students review the feedback they receive. The study was conducted at a Japanese Women’s University in Tokyo (age: M = 19.6, SD = 0.6). Over a 15-week semester, students were required to write weekly homework assignments. These were then marked by the researcher and returned via Moodle, with students encouraged to read their feedback before attempting the next assignment. In line with existing research in the field, a no-WCF control group was compared against treatment groups that received indirect WCF with meta-linguistic explanations. Further to this, using an online system such as Moodle allowed the provision of linked grammar resource pages through basic HTML code embedded within the WCF itself. At the end of the semester student texts were analysed to measure improvement. When pre-test and post-tests were compared there were no significant differences within groups or between groups on measures of fluency and accuracy. However, what sets this study apart from others that have investigated student engagement, is the use of online activity logs which in combination with survey data allowed the investigation of actual study habits rather than merely those that are self-reported. The results of which give better insight and valid explanations for the outcomes of the study and call into question the efficacy of take-home feedback
Fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness in L2 speech: Examining the role of visual and acoustic information in listener judgments
No full textThe purpose of the present study was to examine (a) the effects of audio-visual information and (b) the role of temporal measurements associated with the perceptual ratings of fluency, accentedness, comprehensibility, pronunciation, and oral proficiency in second language (L2) speech samples of International Teaching Assistants (ITAs). American undergraduate students randomly assigned to audiovisual and audio-only (without seeing the speaker) conditions rated the two-minute speech samples of five ITAs on a seven-point scale. For acoustic analysis, several temporal measurements were used that were hypothesized to have an association with the ratings. Findings revealed that listeners without visual information judged L2 speech as less fluent and more accented although no significant difference in comprehensibility was found. L2 speakers were also judged to have better pronunciation and higher oral proficiency when the recordings were presented in video mode. The findings further indicated that among the acoustic measures examined, articulation rate was found to be associated with perceptual ratings. Implications for ITA training and language testing and assessment are discussed
Flexibility as a double-edged sword? Language learner autonomy in a blended self-directed learning program beyond the classroom
No full textThis study proposed and implemented a blended self-directed learning program for English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) college students beyond the classroom. Adopting a case study-mixed methods design, the study aimed to investigate (1) learners’ engagement in the program, (2) the effects of the program, and (3) learners’ perceptions of the affective, resource, and capacity supports offered by the program. Thirty-six students voluntarily participated in a 12-week self-directed listening program, which offered both in-person and online learning resources along with mechanisms designed to support students’ self-regulated learning outside of the classroom. Data collection included (1) TOEFL listening pre- and post-test scores, (2) Metacognitive Awareness Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) pre- and post-test scores, (3) an English learning motivation questionnaire, (4) learning diaries, (5) activity participation records, (6) an end-of-program questionnaire, and (7) end-of-program interviews. The findings showed that participants perceived learning flexibility within the program as both a pivotal strength and a notable weakness. The participants, who generally demonstrated reactive autonomy, actually depended on and expected various forms of external regulation to sustain their learning motivation. Also, the highly engaged learners had more growth in metacognitive awareness of listening than did less engaged ones. By engaging in self-directed learning, learners actively exercised their agency to (re)construct their personal language learning ecologies, a process that was found to require teacher guidance
Effects of using corpus-based instruction on students’ critical thinking skills and perceptions in academic writing classes
No full textThis study aimed at examining the effects of corpus-based instruction on students’ critical skills in academic writing classes. It also endeavored to investigate the students’ perceptions towards corpus-based instruction. To conduct the research, a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design was employed. A total of 77 mechanical engineering students who took technical report writing course were selected using multi-stage sampling techniques. The data gathering instruments were academic writing tests, textual analyses, questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. Independent and paired sample t-tests and thematic analyses were employed to analyze the data. Hence, the results indicated that the students who were instructed their academic writing skills through corpus-based instruction improved their critical thinking skills better than their counterparts who were instructed through the conventional instructional approach. Particularly, students who were instructed through corpus-based instruction employed appropriate lexical bundles and metadiscourse devices to express their argument and persuade their readers than the comparison group. Additionally, the data confirmed that students’ reacted positively towards the corpus-based instruction. Consequently, this research calls for EFL instructors to consider authentic linguistic features to enhance their students' critical thinking skills in academic writing skills classes.