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Feedback precision and learners’ responses: A study into ETS Criterion automated corrective feedback in EFL writing classrooms
No full textThis study examines the implementation of Criterion, an automated writing evaluation system developed by ETS, as a source of diagnostic feedback on learners’ linguistic performance in a Vietnamese EFL writing classroom. Thirty-eight second-year English majors had access to Criterion for a five-month period. Data include Criterion error tags on students’ essays from multiple practice sessions, recorded think-aloud protocols as students engaged with the feedback for revisions, and first and revised drafts students submitted to Criterion. The main findings indicate Criterion’s satisfactory precision and capacity to trigger various engagement strategies among learners, but reservations remain due to students’ modest response accuracy and lack of substantive revisions to their texts. Important implications for formative feedback practices in EFL writing classrooms and the adaptation of Criterion’s technical capacities are accordingly presented
Captions and learnability factors in learning grammar from audio-visual input
No full textThis study explores the effects of extensive audio-visual input with three captioning modes – unenhanced captions, textually enhanced captions, and no captions – on learning a variety of L2 grammatical constructions and examines the effects of three learnability factors: construction type, frequency, and recency. A total of 112 participants watched ten full-length TV series episodes over a period of five weeks. The study targeted 27 frequently occurring grammatical constructions categorized as fully-schematic, partially-filled, and fully-filled. The design included a pretest, an immediate posttest to measure the effects of recency, and a delayed posttest. The results indicated mixed effects of captioning: textually enhanced captions – a more salient condition – led to immediate learning outcomes while unenhanced captions resulted in higher long-term effects. A limit to the amount of different textually enhanced constructions presented in the input for effective learning is suggested. In general, unenhanced captions appear sufficient for successful grammar construction learning
Challenges and responses: A complex dynamic systems approach to exploring language teacher agency in a blended classroom
No full textThis is a qualitative examination of how a Chinese language teacher responded to challenges and developed her agency in a unique teaching and learning environment, termed as the blended classroom. The uniqueness of this classroom lies in its attendance by two cohorts of students at the same time – a face-toface and an online group. The online group joined the face-to-face group and the teacher via a synchronous online classroom called Blackboard Collaborate. Through analysing data from the teacher’s reflection, face-to-face and email interviews and the recordings of her blended class, this research unfolds a semester-long trajectory of her agency development in the blended classroom. Guided by the Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), we conclude that teacher agency is a system composed of multi-layers of subsystems and it is a product of the constant interaction amongst these interconnected and interdependent subsystems, with certain subsystems playing a more dominant role than others at a given stage of one’s agency development. This finding led to our proposal of a framework of teacher agency system. This research advances our understanding of teacher agency as a system in the context of online and blended learning
Peer feedback among learners of English and Arabic as a foreign language in a telecollaborative language learning program
No full textAdvancement in online collaboration between community members enables new forms of feedback in language learning settings. This exploratory study presents an analysis of peer feedback on writing tasks. Participants included learners of English and Arabic as foreign languages, at the college/university level, in two learning contexts (Saudi Arabia and the United States), throughout a 12-week telecollaborative project. Four different tasks, related to giving feedback on each other’s writing, were given to participants in the two contexts. These activities were designed to investigate the impact of this approach at enhancing foreign language learning with telecollaboration. The objective was to create a digital environment for language learners, in which cultural elements could be discussed among people from diverse backgrounds. The study applied qualitative methods, using codes and thematic analysis. The data analysis was conducted with qualitative methodology, classifying speech acts and language functions based on Leng’s framework (2014). The findings confirmed the positive contribution of this approach for language learning, specifically increasing intercultural understanding. Participants, regardless of their linguistic or cultural feedback, easily maintained reciprocal communication through shared feedback. Social interaction regarding the cultural encounter culture served as an active agent for the learning process of each target language. Pedagogical implications of this research include the value of situating peer feedback within telecollaboration to help students create their own intercultural stances by negotiating linguistic, social, and cultural inputs
Technology and the private sector: Language teachers’ perspectives toward technology and the role of CALL training in professional development
No full textEnglish teachers in Vietnam have integrated technology in education for the past several years, particularly those who are working in the private sector. Regardless of the high number of Vietnamese teachers working in this sector, how they perceive technology integration and how important it is to their professional development have not yet been thoroughly studied. Therefore, this study sought to provide evidence to understand Vietnamese teachers’ perspectives toward technology in more detail and shed light on how to support them with technology training so that the training not only improves their teaching skills but also helps facilitate their professional development. The study employed a mixed-methods approach with classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and a questionnaire survey. Data collected were analyzed by using thematic analysis and triangulated to ascertain the final findings. The results have shown that the language teachers in this study expressed enthusiasm toward technology regardless of the insufficient training and the challenges of technology self-education. Interview data also revealed the importance of a community of practice to the participants as it encouraged them to learn and overcome technology-related difficulties. The community in this study has also played a key role in the relationship between technology education and teachers’ professional development in their workplace. Finally, based on Cairns and Malloch’s (2011) concept of workplace learning and the results of data analysis, the study advocates for a comprehensive three-level CALL training scheme which are individual, peer, and institutional that can promote technologies and facilitate support teachers’ professional development
Examining a Northern Sámi-Norwegian dual language picturebook in English language education through a critical translingual-transcultural lens
No full textThe present article explores the affordances of a dual language Northern Sámi – Norwegian picturebook in addressing multilingualism and interculturality in the primary English language classroom. Both notions of interculturality and multilingualism have received increased attention as fundamental components in English language teaching (ELT), yet they have been mostly addressed as separate concepts. Furthermore, because interculturality has traditionally been theorised as communicating across geographical/national borders, local diversities, such as indigenous cultures and languages, have often been overlooked or misrepresented in the language classroom. Similarly, linguistic diversity has mostly been viewed through the monolingual lens. As classrooms around the world have become increasingly diverse, both culturally and linguistically, it is important for teachers to engage with these multiple languages and identities, not as separate entities in faraway lands, but also through an exploration of local indigenous diversities. The dual language picturebook provides a textual-visual space to engage teachers and learners with the multilingual turn in tandem with the transcultural perspective. The chosen picturebook, Ábiid plástihkat – Plasten i havet (2020), by Rita Sørly (author) and Malgorzata Piotrowska (illustrator) opens up the interpretative possibilities of multimodal texts as socially-just, diversity-focused, visually-complex and language-conscious semiotic objects. Embedded in a specific cultural context, the English classroom in northern Norway, this paper positions the dual language picturebook as a potential resource for exploring indigenous languages and cultures in Grades 1-7 and for attending to global-local diversities through a critical translingual-transcultural lens
Review of Digital Games and Language Learning: Theory, Development and Implementation
No full textDigital Games and Language Learning: Theory, Development and Implementation edited by Mark Peterson, Kasumi Yamazaki, Michael Thomas, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021, 288pp., £26.09 (Paperback) £68.40 (eBook). ISBN 9781350133013
The influence of a group of Chinese EFL teachers’ beliefs on lesson planning with video-based synchronous computer-mediated communication: A qualitative multiple case study
No full textIn recent years, Video-based Synchronous Computer-Mediated Communication (VSCMC) has been applied in EFL education for young Chinese learners. VSCMC teaching, as distinctive from face-to-face teaching, brings numerous planning challenges for teachers using technology. Research has shown that teacher beliefs significantly affect lesson planning for technology integration. However, teacher beliefs towards VSCMC specifically have been insufficiently studied in the field of EFL education for young learners. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore how teacher beliefs influence lesson planning regarding VSCMC teaching. Semi structured interviews were conducted with six Chinese teachers of young EFL learners. The results indicated that participants had transitional pedagogical beliefs, strong self-efficacy beliefs, and a complex set of value beliefs towards VSCMC teaching. Accordingly, these beliefs motivated them to teach in VSCMC settings in particular ways and influenced their lesson planning processes in terms of determining learning objectives, designing course content, and choosing teaching methods
A proposed taxonomy of test-taking action and item format in written receptive vocabulary testing
No full textAbstract
The functioning of a vocabulary testing instrument rests in part on the test-taking actions made possible for examinees by item format, an aspect of test development that warrants consideration in second-language vocabulary research. For example, although iterations of the written receptive vocabulary levels test (VLT) have integrated improvements in lexis sampling and distractor-item creation (i.e., Beglar & Hunt, 1999, Nation, 1983, 1990, Schmitt et al., 2001, Webb et al., 2017), its clustered form-meaning matching format has remained fundamentally unchanged. This study qualitatively explores the influence of this test item format on test-taking actions observed when taking the updated vocabulary levels test (UVLT, Webb et al, 2017). Data from a think-aloud protocol and retrospective interviewing indicated the predominant use of test-taking strategies for answering test items on the UVLT, such as bidirectional matching and elimination of cluster options, and that these actions enabled correct responses for clusters of target vocabulary about which the test taker demonstrated partial or even no knowledge. This evidence at the interface of test taker and test draws attention to the interconnection of estimating learners’ vocabulary knowledge and the action possibilities provided by item format on vocabulary tests. Such affordances are hierarchically structured in a proposed Taxonomy of Test-taking Actions Afforded by Receptive Vocabulary Test Format as a heuristic to evaluate the influences of test format on written receptive vocabulary assessment