Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: pragmática

Resumen:

This study investigated the differential effects of implicit and explicit instruction of refusal strategies in English and whether and how the impacts of instruction methods interact with learners’ working memory capacity (WMC). 78 learners of English were assigned to three groups (explicit, implicit, and control). Implicit instruction was operationalized through input enhancement and provision of recast. In the explicit instruction group, participants received description and exemplification of refusal strategies and were provided with explicit corrective feedback. Prior to the treatment, all participants took WMC test, Discourse Completion Test (DCT) and completed a pragmatics comprehension questionnaire (CQ). Results revealed that explicit instruction was more effective than implicit instruction for both production and...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enfoques y métodos

Resumen:

Traditional English teaching in China is predominantly teacher-centered, which limits student engagement and reflective learning. Transformative learning theory (TLT) advocates a student-centered approach that fosters critical reflection and active participation, potentially enhancing English listening and speaking skills. This study examines the effectiveness of a TLT-based curriculum intervention in improving Chinese college students’ English proficiency. Using a quasi-experimental design, 135 freshmen at a comprehensive university in China participated in the study. The experimental group (EG) received a 10-week TLT-based curriculum, while the control group (CG) underwent traditional instruction. Language proficiency was assessed using the Cambridge English Language Assessment’s Preliminary English Test (PET), and multivariate...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de lenguas

Resumen:

The significance of reflective practice (RP) has been widely recognized in both general education and language education. The past years have witnessed an exponential growth of studies in examining how technology can be utilized to promote teachers’ RP and video-based RP has been extensively reported as a powerful tool for teacher learning in many educational contexts. While existing literature has documented the potential benefits that student teachers may reap from video-based RP, there is a lack of attention to the complex interplay between the process of their RP and the contextual factors in their situated learning environment. This article reports on a study which aims to promote video-based RP among student teachers in a pre-service language teacher education course in Hong Kong. Drawing on data from post-course interviews with...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: aprendizaje colaborativo

Resumen:

This study investigated the conflict dynamisms during peer interaction at a key university in South Central China. A total of 27 students from an intact class taking an integrated English course formed small groups of 3 and wrote 3 essays collaboratively. This qualitative inquiry focused on three case groups. With data triangulation from observation notes, screen recording transcripts, retrospective interviews, and students’ reflection papers, the study revealed that during the three collaborative writing tasks, the small groups displayed distinct and dynamic conflict patterns. Students’ second language writing improvements after the three collaborative writing tasks were closely related with the conflict patterns that they experienced. The four distinct conflict patterns identified in this study, distinguishable in terms of cognitive...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: uso de la L1 en el aula

Resumen:

Macaro has stated that the choice between a monolingual, immersive, target language-only pedagogy versus a non-immersive, multilingual pedagogy is ‘probably the most fundamental question facing second language acquisition (SLA) researchers, language teachers, and policymakers’. Recognizing that prior empirical work on monolingual versus multilingual approaches has primarily been (1) descriptive, (2) in the context of English as a second or foreign language, and (3) very short term, often with one brief treatment, this intervention study examines the effectiveness of use of the L1/non-target language in the L2 classroom in a quasi-experimental, 10-week study examining French, a commonly learned foreign language, and Arabic, a less commonly learned foreign language, at beginning levels of proficiency in a community-based setting with 25...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de lenguas

Resumen:

Transferring collaborative writing (CW) activities from in-class paper-based to online cloud-mediated collaboration, this study examined the comparative effects of these two CW contexts on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ macro- and micro-writing skills and motivation. For this purpose, a cohort ( N = 54) of senior EFL college students was selected (using criterion-based purposive sampling) and then randomly assigned to two groups: paper-based collaboration (PC, n = 27) and cloud-based collaboration (CC, n = 27). Using a mixed-method design, the study employed both quantitative (expository and argumentative writing tests, and a motivation questionnaire) and qualitative (group and self-evaluation forms and reflection sheets) methods for data collection and analysis. Consequently, one-way multivariate analysis of variance (...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: telecolaboración e intercambios virtuales

Resumen:

In this article we argue, in the context of the current dominance of the performative and instrumental drives characterizing the accountable university, that language and intercultural communication education in universities should also be humanistic, addressing ‘discomforting themes’ to sensitize students to issues of human suffering and engage them in constructive and creative responses to that suffering. We suggest that arts-based methods can be used and illustrate this with an intercultural telecollaboration project created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. In this way language and intercultural communication education can become a site of personal and social transformation albeit modest and piecemeal as part of a longer process. Through arts-based methodologies and pedagogies of discomfort, Argentinian and US...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: factores afectivos

Resumen:

Effective learning strategies have been proven to be advantageous to lower learners’ foreign language anxiety (FLA) and improve their language proficiency. However, many studies have devoted to students’ learning strategies but ignored the important role of teachers in reducing FLA. In addition, the effectiveness of the FLA-reducing strategies proposed by these studies has rarely been verified in natural classroom environment. The present study was conducted to explore the systematic effects of the teaching strategies on FLA after constructing a 34-item observation instrument Teaching Strategies Intervention Scale (TSIS), and investigated the changes of 306 English as a foreign language (EFL) graduate students’ English learning anxiety levels influenced by the anxiety-reducing teaching strategies in China. Results showed that the...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: formación de profesores

Resumen:

This article reports a classroom-based inquiry in which a group of pre-service language teachers were guided to engage in a lesson study project focusing on the incorporation of the framework of big ideas into language teaching. Specifically, the study zooms in on the student teachers’ exercise and development of critical thinking (CT) through the lesson study process. Relying on data from semi-structured interviews and classroom artifacts, the findings reveal that the introduction of big ideas in lesson study served as a crucial knowledge base for the participants’ pedagogical sense-making, thus contributing to their CT. The process of lesson study, characterized by a progressive structure, tailored scaffolding, and constructive feedback, also facilitated their development of CT skills and dispositions, which in turn contributed to...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: factores afectivos

Resumen:

Although research into emotions has flourished in second language (L2) / foreign language (FL) learning in recent decades, few attempts have been made to examine learners as clusters based on their emotional profiles. The current study set out to first investigate the nature of 98 Grade-4-to-5 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ emotional profiles, as represented by classroom anxiety, boredom, and enjoyment. The hierarchical clustering analysis revealed three distinct profiles: Negative Emotion (NE; 21.43%), High Enjoyment (HE; 46.93%), and high in both Enjoyment and Anxiety (EA; 31.63%). We then analysed FL motivation and family background (household income and parental education) between the three groups. We also compared the FL proficiency levels (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) between the three groups from...

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