Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: factores afectivos

Resumen:

This qualitative study explores learners’ perceptions of the sources of language anxiety in Chinese as a second language (L2) learning in online environments, and how they cope with it. Nine participants, all of whom experienced high levels of L2 anxiety, were selected from a group enrolled in synchronous online Chinese classes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that learning languages online presents a unique anxiety-provoking situation, resulting in several distinctive sources of L2 anxiety, such as a lack of self-discipline, difficulty adjusting to the transition, fear of online exposure, unnatural online environment for interaction, etc. In response, learners employed a variety of strategies, such as snacking, reviewing...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: factores afectivos

Resumen:

The present study examines the direct and indirect relationships between classroom environment (CE), L2 (second/foreign language) learner emotions (i.e. enjoyment, anxiety and boredom), and their willingness to communicate (WTC) in classes for English as a foreign language (EFL). Participants were 2,268 university students in China. Pearson correlation analyses showed significant correlations between CE, L2 emotions, and WTC, with effect sizes ranging from small to large. In addition, the three L2 emotions were found to mediate the relationship between CE and WTC in parallel, with enjoyment having the largest mediating effect, followed by anxiety and boredom. The findings offer insights into how to improve students’ WTC in an L2.

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de vocabulario

Resumen:

The current study examined the impact of teacher’s facial expressions in instructional videos on students’ learning process and outcomes for English vocabulary with positive and negative valence. Participants, Chinese learners studying English as a foreign language (EFL) in China, learned 32 words from an instructional video in which a teacher displayed either positive or negative facial expressions. Our findings suggest that learners dwelled longer and fixated more on slides presenting negative vocabulary than on those with positive one. Additionally, learners dwelled longer and fixated more on the teacher when they displayed positive facial expressions compared to negative ones. It was also observed that students’ motivation to learn increased when the teacher displayed positive emotions, irrespective of the emotional valence of...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: factores afectivos

Resumen:

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English writing proficiency is crucial for undergraduate students in tertiary education; however, many second-language (L2) writers experience significant anxiety that impedes their ability to write effectively in English. This study explored the role of mindfulness and its components including novelty producing, novelty seeking, engagement, and flexibility in reducing writing anxiety among 200 English as a foreign language (EFL) Bangladeshi students, selected via convenience sampling. Participants completed the Langer Mindfulness Scale, and the Second Language Writing Anxiety Inventory through online platforms. Quantitative findings revealed a moderate negative correlation between overall...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: factores afectivos

Resumen:

Learners’ anxiety has drawn widespread attention in the field of second language / foreign language (L2/FL) teaching and learning (e.g. classroom anxiety, communication (with foreigners) anxiety, and anxiety associated with the four macro-skills, namely listening, reading, speaking, and writing). However, this topic is under-explored in L2/FL public speaking (e.g. oral presentations in academic studies), in which anxiety is especially prominent. This study investigated the relationships between EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ anxiety in public speaking, self-perceived pronunciation competence, and actual speaking proficiency. 176 tertiary-level EFL students in Hong Kong participated in this mixed-methods study using questionnaires and interviews. Overall, different aspects of self-perceived pronunciation were negatively...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: multimodalidad

Resumen:

Despite the increasing prevalence of multimodal approaches and multimodal composing (MC) in Chinese as a second language (CSL) instruction, whether MC can positively impact the writing performance of CSL learners remains to be further explored. This study focuses on advanced-level CSL learners and investigates the impact of MC on their writing performance through a quasi-experimental study involving three writing tasks. Learners’ attitudes and evaluations towards MC are examined via a reflection survey and a semi-structured interview, and their writing performance is evaluated using three criteria, namely language, structure, and content. The results indicated that the experimental group engaged in MC demonstrated greater syntactic complexity, structure, and content compared to the control group. However, while the experimental group...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: expresión oral

Resumen:

Language learning activities involving time-pressured repetition of similar content have been shown to facilitate improvements in fluency. However, concerns have been voiced about whether these gains might be offset by reduced levels of grammatical accuracy. This descriptive study tracked the oral proficiency of 32 Japanese university students enrolled in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes over one academic semester during which they regularly completed 3/2/1 fluency development activities. Measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) were analysed to investigate whether any developmental patterns could be identified. The results indicated that over the semester, the students made small, but significant gains in two fluency measures, the mean length of pause and the phonation/time ratio. Despite the relatively small...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: formación de profesores

Resumen:

Exploratory practice (EP) is a form of practitioner research that has made inroads in second language learning and teaching since the special issue of Language Teaching Research (2003) in which Allwright et al. proposed its reconceptualization in language teaching. Two decades later, this article reports on the influence that EP has accomplished by having its principled framework integrated in the pre-service language teacher education (LTE) programmes of two Brazilian Universities. A British Council funded project (2018–19) enabled a group of Brazilian teacher educators to carry out a qualitative investigation to identify how 44 of their former teacher-learners who undertook these programmes between 2008 and 2018 perceive the value of EP in their professional lives. The thematic analysis of the discourse generated through face-to-...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: factores afectivos

Resumen:

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Second and foreign language (L2) learning boredom has triggered a spate of studies in recent years. Researchers have also developed instruments that tap into this emotion. However, such tools contain many items, may be culture-specific, or have a disputed factor structure. To address these shortcomings, we aimed to develop and validate a short version of the 23-item Boredom in Practical English Classes-Revised (BPELC-R) Scale. A dataset from 1,254 students in degree programs in English from different countries (i.e., Hungary, Iran, Iraq, Poland) was used. Data were split into two groups, and the first sample was used to develop the short-form measure, with principal component analysis (PCA)...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: análisis de materiales y manuales

Resumen:

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Este artículo analiza las representaciones culturales y de género en un manual de ELE de amplia difusión, mediante un enfoque cualitativo multimodal (texto–imagen–audio). Se operacionaliza un codebook original que integra competencia intercultural, coherencia intermodal y coherencia intermodal, con pista de auditoría y casos frontera. Los resultados muestran desajustes sistemáticos entre modos y asimetrías de agencia por género. La contribución de frontera radica en traducir este diagnóstico en principios didácticos verificables (equilibrio cultural, coherencia multimodal, redistribución de roles y lenguaje inclusivo claro), sin actividades cerradas y con criterios de evaluación formativa. Es un...

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