Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: influencia de la L1

Resumen:

This study investigates the impact of learners’ first language on their detection of indirect positive evidence presented in their second language while learning the plural morphology of an additional foreign language. The goal is to explore an alternative approach to learning foreign language grammars. The participants were 43 native Thai-speaking and 42 native Spanish-speaking learners of Mandarin who had advanced proficiency in second language English. They were divided into experimental and control groups and learned 12 Mandarin nouns in their singular form over 2 consecutive days. Only the experimental group was exposed to indirect positive evidence that provided evidence of the unmarked plural feature in Mandarin. After the learning phase, participants’ knowledge of the learned words was tested using singular and plural prompts...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enfoque por tareas

Resumen:

This study set out to test the theoretical premise of the SSARC model of pedagogic task sequencing, which postulates that tasks should be sequenced for learners from cognitively simple to complex. This experiment compared the performance of three tasks differing in cognitive complexity in a simple–complex sequence versus in the absence of any other tasks. There were two groups in the study: (1) participants who performed the three tasks in the simple–complex sequence, and (2) participants who performed either the simple, the complex, or the most complex task. The participants’ speech was analysed using fluency, accuracy, and complexity measures. The results indicate that simple–complex sequencing led to a higher speech rate, greater dysfluency, enhanced accuracy, and greater structural complexity, as compared to individual task...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de vocabulario

Resumen:

The purpose of this study is to examine which teaching methodology – context provision or imagination elicitation – is more efficient to learn emotional vocabulary in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. A pre-test / post-test design was used to test the benefit of the two types of instruction, compared to a traditional teaching method. A total of 60 EFL students at a B2 level (Council of Europe, 2001, 2018) participated in the research. A set of 40 emotional words was selected according to the following criteria: to be emotional and mid-frequency vocabulary in English, and rather unknown words by B2-level students in order to allow room for learning. Statistical analyses showed that the instruction phase was successful, since the groups significantly differed in the post-test. Although the two experimental treatments...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: motivación

Resumen:

This quasi-experimental study examines the impact of the production-oriented approach (POA) on the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) of Chinese college students and their English achievement. Conducted over 8 weeks in four classes ( N = 108) at a public university in Shandong Province, the study compares two experimental groups exposed to POA-based instruction with two control groups following traditional teaching methods. Data were collected via a validated 40-item L2MSS questionnaire and three English achievement tests administered in Weeks 1, 4, and 8. Statistical analyses, including independent t -tests, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), revealed that POA significantly enhanced students’ overall second-language (L2) motivation and English achievement, with the most consistent...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de lenguas

Resumen:

Recently, there has been a shift in the perception of tasks. Tasks are no longer viewed as ‘one-off’ activities, and the importance of studying the role of task repetition has been increasingly addressed (Bygate, 2018). However, the way task repetition effects are mediated by other instructional conditions such as corrective feedback has not been widely researched. The current study examined the effects of task repetition and indirect synchronous written corrective feedback (WCF) during collaborative writing on the quality of students’ written task performance and the learning of Korean grammar. Fifty-four Korean as a foreign language learners completed a pretest, two collaborative writing tasks, and two posttests over 10 weeks. Their task performance was analysed in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency, and the pretest and...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: andamiaje/scaffolding

Resumen:

Regarding the three main features of scaffolding, namely, contingency, fading, and the transfer of responsibility, contingency entails the assistance adjusted to a learner’s existing level of understanding. The present study investigated the effect of the model of contingent teaching on improving Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ overall writing performance (opinion essays), and in terms of writing components; namely, task response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy. Moreover, the study aimed at investigating which component was mostly affected by the model. Based on convenience sampling, 60 female EFL learners of English in a language school between the ages of 20 and 30 were chosen from four intact classes. After conducting the Oxford placement test to ensure the...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: inteligencia artificial

Resumen:

This mixed-methods study examined the impact of integrating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into English as a foreign language (EFL) writing classes on students’ writing performance and affective responses. Nearly 100 Chinese students from four parallel International English Language Testing System (IELTS) writing classes in a university foundation program participated in a 9-week trial, with half assigned to an experimental group and half to a control group. Both groups received theme-based instructions on IELTS Writing Task 2 through a three-stage writing process, while the experimental group also engaged with Kimi , a widely used GenAI chatbot in China, during and after class. Unlike previous studies, this research targeted lower-intermediate learners and aimed to offer a more nuanced understanding of GenAI’s role by...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: adquisición de segundas lenguas

Resumen:

Prior research showed that interleaved practice (studying multiple skills at once) is more effective than blocked practice (studying only one skill at a time). This study aims to replicate the benefits of interleaved practice on the proceduralization of second language (L2) syntax and further examines the role of working memory (WM) in different practice schedules. Sixty English learners studied five types of relative-clause constructions under either blocked- or interleaved-practice conditions. The blocked-practice group engaged in systematic form-focused speaking practice with exemplars blocked by syntactic category, while the interleaved-practice group received mixed exemplars from the different categories. The proceduralization of grammatical knowledge was measured by analysing the accuracy and speed indices from a picture...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: andamiaje/scaffolding

Resumen:

Studies have documented the significance of scaffolding as a sociocultural theory driven type of assistance for the development of English as foreign language (EFL) learners’ language skills in general; however, the comparative efficacy of various cognitive and/or metacognitive scaffolding procedures for EFL learners’ listening comprehension development and progress has received scant attention. As a partial attempt in this regard, this study investigated the comparative efficacy of cognitive and metacognitive scaffolding strategies for EFL learners’ listening comprehension development. For this purpose, 90 intermediate level EFL learners aged 15 to 20 were selected to participate in this study. The participants’ actual proficiency level was assessed using a sample TOEFL Junior Standard test and relatively homogeneous classes of...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enfoque por tareas

Resumen:

Ensuring learner agency and potential for creativity in task design are likely to elicit different flow experiences among learners, either facilitating or impeding their task engagement and oral or written performance in foreign language learning contexts. However, so far little attention has been paid to the role of these factors in learners’ flow experiences in task-based second language (L2) writing. This study aimed to investigate the relationships between different task conditions operationalized as a teacher-generated content task (TGT), a learner-generated content task (LGT), and a creative task (CT), and learners’ flow experiences by utilizing Czimmermann and Piniel’s adaptation of Egbert’s flow questionnaire. Moreover, the study also examined the possible role that study contexts might play in students’ flow experiences in...

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