Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: expresión escrita

Resumen:

This study investigated the effect of consistent freewriting practice on written fluency development. Thirty-nine first-year university students completed 70 10-minute freewriting activities over the course of an academic semester. Written fluency, measured as words produced per minute (wpm), increased from a mean of 19.5 wpm to 30.1 wpm over a period of 15 weeks. Further analysis revealed statistically significant gains over two-week intervals. The participants also wrote three timed TOEFL-style essays at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester to see whether fluency gains transferred to more structured contexts. The results showed a statistically significant increase in written output on the timed essays, along with an increase in holistic scores. Findings indicate that consistent freewriting can result in rapid and...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de lenguas

Resumen:

This study investigated the influence of using machine translation (MT) for second language (L2) writing on the subsequent L2 writing produced without the use of MT. A total of 130 Korean university learners of L2 English at three proficiency levels generated English essays without utilizing MT during the first and last classes of a general English course. Between these two occasions of writing, they wrote in English employing MT on four occasions. The first and final essays were compared via syntactic complexity, accuracy, lexical complexity, and fluency (CALF) measures. The learners were also asked about their attitudes toward and use of MT. The results indicated that MT use affected L2 writing differently according to proficiency levels. The advanced learners and the low-intermediate learners, who represented the lowest-level...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: motivación

Resumen:

Future second language (L2) self-images have proven integral to L2 motivation, prompting several attempts to purposefully develop learners’ ideal L2 selves over the past decade through the use of vision-building techniques. Some of these ‘vision interventions’ have reported successfully enhancing learners’ L2 self-images and motivation; other studies, however, diverge from an unqualified success narrative, citing for example a lack of increase in learner effort despite stronger future vision. Data collection has also been typically restricted to the period of the intervention itself, and so insight into the long-term take-up of the introduced techniques, or how potential outcomes develop over time, remains limited. To gain further understanding into such issues, we have charted the evolving nature of the L2 vision intervention over...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: motivación

Resumen:

Self-efficacy, the belief in one’s own capability, is an important element in students’ academic success and positive functioning in school settings. However, self-efficacy, like motivation, is easily frustrated by the social environment in school. Although studies have investigated the cross-theoretical relationship between self-efficacy and autonomy support in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms in a university and a secondary school setting, it has not been examined in the primary school context. To address the research gap, the present study explored the relationship that might exist between self-efficacy and perceived autonomy support in primary EFL classrooms. The participants were 454 fifth-grade students from three primary schools in Japan and Taiwan. They responded to scales measuring academic self-efficacy and...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: interacción

Resumen:

Cumulative research has explored willingness to communicate (WTC) in English as a second language and English as a foreign language contexts, but few have looked at the interface between WTC and learner talk from a Chinese learning perspective. This study investigates how six multilingual and multicultural students’ WTC translates into talk in a Chinese as a foreign language classroom in a highly internationalised Scottish University. Specifically, it examines what factors play a part in translating WTC into talk and how such factors enable or impede the process. It adopts a qualitative multiple-case study approach comprising high-density monthly triangulations of classroom observations, learner journals, video-stimulated recall interviews and semi-structured interviews conducted over one academic year. Findings revealed 13 learner-...

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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: evaluación

Resumen:

Grounded in sociocultural theory, this study examines how the formative assessment teacher cognition (FATC) of a pre-service English as a foreign language teacher developed within a teacher education context. Adopting a longitudinal single-case design, the study traces the trajectory of one focal participant, Ela, across a 10-month teaching practicum. Multiple qualitative data sources were triangulated, including interviews, reflective journals, lesson plans, classroom observations, and pre- and post-observation conferences. Data were analyzed through a hybrid approach combining reflexive thematic analysis and sociocultural discourse analysis to capture both the content and interactional dynamics of cognition-in-action. Findings indicate that Ela’s FATC evolved through two key shifts: (a) reconceptualizing corrective feedback from an...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: feedback/retroalimentación

Resumen:

Despite the recognized importance of supervisors’ feedback in enhancing students’ academic development, research on novice supervisors’ perspectives, especially concerning undergraduate thesis supervision in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, remains scarce. In an attempt to address this gap, this qualitative case study explored the written feedback beliefs and practices of two novice supervisors in the department of English of two universities in mainland China. It examined how their beliefs were shaped and translated into practice during their supervision of EFL undergraduate students. Data were collected longitudinally over an 8-month period, including semi-structured interviews, written feedback samples, and voice messages, to capture the full thesis supervision process. Findings revealed that supervisors held varying...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: feedback/retroalimentación

Resumen:

Although numerous studies have attested to the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (WCF) in promoting second language (L2) accuracy, the extent to which WCF contributes to acquisition is still debatable. This study thus aimed to investigate the effects of WCF on the development of Thai EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ implicit and explicit knowledge of English plurals, and the extent to which learner differences in working memory capacity (WMC) moderated the efficacy of WCF. This experimental study adopted a pre–post–delayed-posttest design and was carried out over the course of a 9-month period. Seventy-five low intermediate learners were randomly assigned to the direct focused, direct unfocused and the control group. All groups completed a metalinguistic knowledge, untimed grammatical judgement, timed writing,...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: aprendizaje colaborativo

Resumen:

Collaborative writing is a pedagogical activity increasingly used in second language education. Despite the increased research on L2 students’ participation in collaborative writing, scant attention has been paid to student engagement in project-based collaborative writing and the possible engagement changes. This article reports on a longitudinal case study investigating the changes in student engagement of a group of five Chinese EFL undergraduates in project-based collaborative writing. The analysis of the data gathered by observations of group interactions, interviews, and student texts reveals three patterns of engagement changes: from active collaborators to ‘team escapers’, from a supporter to a ‘free rider’, and unchanged dedicated writers. The findings are discussed concerning the factors that could account for the engagement...

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