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Review of Higher Education 4.0: The Digital Transformation of Classroom Lectures to Blended Learning
No full textReview of Higher Education 4.0: The Digital Transformation of Classroom Lectures to Blended Learning, by K. A. Jones & R. S. Sharma, Springer Nature, 2021. 296pp., $126.00 (Hardcover). ISBN 9789813366824.
YouTube for second language learning: What does the research tell us?
No full textSince its inception in 2005, YouTube has grown to become one of the most trafficked online platforms in the world. Accordingly, second language (L2) research interest on the topic has also increased, with studies investigating its use in formal and informal settings. Given this, the goal of this conceptual paper is to identify patterns within L2 research concerning YouTube in order to develop a better understanding of the benefits and limitations of the video streaming service for language learning purposes. This conceptual article is divided into four primary sections. First, the author justifies the use of YouTube for L2 learning using two theoretical frameworks. Secondly, studies pertaining to YouTube in formal and informal L2 environments are reviewed. The reviewed studies are then analyzed in order to highlight relevant benefits and limitations of the platform for L2 learning. To conclude, L2 research and pedagogical implications are discussed
Vocabulary networks workshop 1: Introduction
No full textThe idea that a vocabulary is a network of words is one that has become a common theme of the second language (L2) vocabulary research literature. However, not many people have considered the wider implications of this powerful metaphor. This paper is the first in a series of workshops that examines some of these implications. In this first workshop, we introduce some very simple computational models which illustrate some basic properties of network structures. The workshop consists of a set of interactive programs that model a vocabulary as a Cellular Automaton–a minimally organized network where each word is linked to a small number of other words, and words change their activity status depending on the inputs they receive from other words. These networks exhibit some surprising emergent properties which have important implications for the way we understand and think about real vocabulary networks
The effects of corpus use on L2 collocation learning
No full textIn data-driven learning (DDL) settings, few studies have examined the specific effects of corpus use on language learning, especially in the study of collocations. This study examined the effects of corpus use on L2 collocation learning. It remains unclear how corpora can contribute to learning collocations and what types of information learners can access and process from these corpora. This study aimed to investigate the effects of corpus use on learning L2 collocations, specifically how information extracted from corpus data assisted learners in retaining and producing collocations. The effects of corpus use were examined by comparison with the effects of dictionary use. Fifty-five intermediate English as a foreign language (EFL) learners from a university in Tokyo looked up verbnoun collocations by consulting either the corpus or the dictionaries, noted related information, and wrote short essays on the topics related to the collocations. Pre- and post-tests were conducted to assess learning. It was found that corpus use promoted a greater collocation output than dictionary use because of the many example sentences and frequency of co-occurrence words. The corpus users focused on word combinations and looked up high-frequency collocations, while the dictionary users focused on meaning, then looked up and memorized the collocations. Findings suggest that teachers need to consider the information that learners access and process when using corpora and the specific effects of corpus use on L2 learning for more effective vocabulary teaching in DDL settings
EFL teachers’ perceptions of online community projects in secondary school education
No full textEnglish as a Foreign Language (EFL) is crucial in most secondary schools within the EU and many other schools worldwide. Some teachers are integrating Online Community Projects (OCPs) into their curricula to provide a means of communication that motivates learning and incites learner-centred methods. This collaborative Action Research study reports on the perspectives and experiences of EFL teachers teaching in secondary schools in three European countries: the north and south of Italy, the east of Norway and the west of Sweden. Data were collected from six EFL teachers: four were users of OCPs, while the other two had chosen not to use them. Methods used to gather data were individual faceto-face interviews and open-question questionnaires. The results showed that all teachers perceived that working on OCPs could benefit professional development and their students’ language skills. The choice not to use OCPs was related to the lack of time and difficulties in assessment. This research provides a lens through which to examine the advantages and disadvantages of integrating OCPs into the EFL curricula. It has implications for teachers wishing to include OCPs in their curriculum
Role of expert judgement in language test validation
No full textThe calibration of test materials generally involves the interaction between empirical anlysis and expert judgement. This paper explores the extent to which scale familiarity might affect expert judgement as a component of test validation in the calibration process. It forms part of a larger study that investigates the alignment of the LanguageCert suite of tests, Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), the China Standards of English (CSE) and China’s College English Test (CET).
In the larger study, Year 1 students at a prestigious university in China were administered two tests – one with items based on China’s College English Test (CET), and the other a CEFR-aligned test developed by LanguageCert. Comparable sections of the CET and the LTE involved sets of discrete items targeting lexico-grammatical competence.
In order to ascertain whether expert judges were equally comfortable placing test items on either scale (CET or CEFR), a group of professors from the university in China who set the CET-based test, were asked to expert judge the CET items against the nine CSE levels with which they were very familiar. They were then asked to judge the LTE items against the six CEFR levels, with which they were less familiar. Both sets of expert ratings and the test taker responses on both tests were then calibrated within a single frame of reference and located on the LanguageCert scale
In the analysis of the expert ratings, the CSE-familiar raters exhibited higher levels of agreement with the empirically-derived score levels for the CET items than they did with the equivalent LTE items. This supports the proposition that expert judgement may be used in the calibration process where the experts in question have a strong knowledge of both the test material and the standards against which the test material is to be judged
The processes of rating L2 speaking performance using an analytic rating scale - A qualitative exploration
No full textIn language performance tests, raters are important as their scoring decisions determine which aspects of performance the scores represent; however, raters are considered as one of the potential sources contributing to unwanted variability in scores (Davis, 2012). Although a great number of studies have been conducted to unpack how rater variability impacts on rating decisions, much still remains unclear about what raters actually do when they assess speaking performances. This paper aimed to extend our understanding of the rating process by analysing think-aloud protocols provided by 13 VSTEP speaking raters while they used an analytic rating scale to assess 15 recorded performances with varying proficiency levels. The data suggested that although all the raters seemed to experience similar stages in the rating process, differences in rating behaviour between novice raters and experienced raters exist. To finalise the scores, the raters used five different ways of deciding the scores
Exploring advanced EFL learners’ awareness of communication strategies
No full textThe present study explores communication strategies used by Iranian advanced EFL learners to overcome communication problems. This study aims to explore EFL learners’ awareness of communication strategies. To this end, 17 advanced EFL learners who were willing to participate in the study were selected through snowball sampling. Their awareness of communication strategies was then explored through open-ended interviews and analyzed in line with the coding schemes of grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1991). Iterative data collection and analysis yielded four main categories including explicit, reciprocal, implicit, and reduction strategies. Each of these strategies covers some subcategories. To visualize the findings and explore the degree to which the abstracted strategies reflect the participants’ perspective, the transcribed data, along with the emerged strategies were fed to MAXQDA. This study can contribute to effective oral communication by elaborating on the notion of communication strategies and reaching communicative goals. The findings have implications for language learners, language teachers, and materials developers
Orthographic processing of proper Names: A proposal to investigate the orthographic cue for second language readers
No full textA standard treatment of proper names in second language (L2) vocabulary analyses is to categorize them as known items. This treatment is often supported by the assumption that the form of the proper name (i.e., the initial capital letter) and the context will indicate to the L2 reader that the item is a proper name. The aim of this work-in-progress report is to propose a methodological approach for investigating the claim that form facilitates proper name recognition for L2 readers, in particular for those whose first language (L1) employs a different orthography and writing system than English. While previous research has looked at the orthographic processing of proper names for L1 users, a gap exists in the literature for L2 readers. The assumption that L2 readers are skilled at identifying proper names from the initial capital warrants investigation as there are implications for the processing load in both pedagogical and testing situations. A proposed method to investigate the initial capital letter as a cue for L2 English proper name recognition is a name decision task, a variation on a lexical decision task, using English proper names and common nouns that are familiar to Japanese participants. Reaction times and error percentages to proper names with case type as a factor (i.e., initial capital letter or all lowercase) will be submitted to a linear mixed effects analysis
Research syntheses in L2 vocabulary research: A scoping review
No full textIn this brief report, we present a scoping review of 31 second language (L2) vocabulary research syntheses published in the Web of Science from January 1990 to May 2022. The purpose of this undertaking was to understand what L2 vocabulary research synthesizers have aggregated and the investigative foci they intended to address. It was observed that most of the cataloged reports were experimental design meta-analyses, and thus there was room for future research syntheses in the vocabulary space to consider correlational research questions and hypotheses. Because systematic reviews were relatively scarce, there is also a need for these types of syntheses to be conducted in the future, especially those focused upon the observed quality of aggregated L2 vocabulary research