Abstract:

The student-teacher conference has been established as a pedagogical tool in composition courses, and teachers and students typically view the student-teacher writing conference as an effective way of providing feedback. However, most previous research on conferencing has been carried out with first language (L1) writers or advanced multilingual writers, and little attention has been given to student-teacher conferences with multilingual (L2) writers at various stages of language development. Though little research has been conducted, recent studies on student-teacher conferencing with multilingual writers offer important insights that provide direction for conducting effective conferences with multilingual writers. Earlier studies on conferencing with L2 students tended to measure the success of the conference on whether the conference effectively employed certain policy-as-pedagogy principles of conferencing, principles that had been initially developed with L1 speakers. Two of the prominent principles which should be called into question were insisting that the student-teacher conference be non-directive, and that higher-order concerns (HOCs) should be dealt with before lower-order concerns (LOCs). Rather than simply applying a structure of conferencing theory originated in conferences with L1 student writers to student-teacher conferences with multilingual writers, it is important to first closely examine these practices and reflect on whether they are applicable for working effectively with multilingual writers. This paper provides an overview of the student-teacher writing conference and multilingual students, and then addresses common practices and principles of conferencing and argues for the importance of flexibility when conferring with multilingual writers.



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This study explored ESL students’ comments on teacher’s written corrective feedback in a freshman composition class to find out whether they thought positively about the feedback and how they perceived the power relationship with the teacher. The study followed a qualitative design. Thirteen ESL students were asked to comment on the teacher’s written corrective feedback on their essays. Findings indicated that students thought highly of the effectiveness of the teacher’s feedback, and most of them viewed the teacher as a person of great power. They appreciated the feedback tremendously and many of them intended to make changes based on the received feedback. Suggestions and limitations of the study are shared to guide future research.



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Grice’s conversational maxims have been one of the most influential pragmatic theories up to now. The primary purpose of this study was to measure the comprehension of Iranian intermediate EFL learners in terms of English humor based on Grice’s non-observed conversational maxims. Moreover, this study intended to find which of Grice’s non-observed conversational maxims make it difficult for EFL learners to comprehend the discourse of English humor. Using a mixed-methods design, 300 participants were selected from different age groups. The selected participants were 129 females and 171 males whose ages varied from 19 to 37. In the final phase of the study, four students were selected based upon their willingness and availability to take part in a qualitative phase. Results showed that among the four Grice’s non-observed conversational maxims, the quantity maxim (.75) had had the highest mean score, resulting as the easiest maxim and the quality maxim (.41), which had the lowest mean score, was the most challenging maxim. The results of the qualitative data confirmed the quantitative results. Quantity was found to be the easiest maxim in the English Humor Comprehension Test (EHCT), and Quality was the most challenging maxim.



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Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) has received extensive theoretical and empirical attention across most of its sub-areas. However, several claims have been raised as to the limited scope of research on LSP teachers. The present study is a review of the studies conducted on LSP teacher education from 2000 to 2019 in order to track the scope of the state-of-the-art and peer-reviewed works done in this area. The search for LSP teacher education research yielded 60 studies representing similar foci from which ten categories emerged. The categories included: action research, cognitions, practices, cognitions and practices, content and language teachers, professional development, genre, critical incidents, identity, and language change. It was found that the line of inquiry features a dispersed, intermittent empirical attention to teachers, with a wide array of topics existing within the nomenclature of teacher education being untouched in LSP. Additionally, in comparison to general language teacher education, LSP teacher education has received much less attention, which in turn calls for further attention from researchers to build the associated scholarship in more depth. The study raises implications for LSP teacher education situated within the current understandings of (language) teacher education and highlights the relevant potential research directions.



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Studies on learner identity and studies on meaningful literacy seem to have gone on parallel tracks with little intersection between the two, leading to a lack of understanding regarding the impact of meaningful literacy on learners’ identities, particularly as writers in a foreign language environment. In this context, this article reports on a study in which the teacher examines how meaningful literacy in the form of life writing shapes his English as a foreign language (EFL) writers’ identity. The study used students’ writing samples and written reflections as the primary data and through the lens of a poststructuralist theory of learner and writer identity. The author found that extensive investment in life writing in a supportive social milieu, including both story writing outside class and free writing in class enabled EFL learners to achieve agentive writer identities, i.e., forming a new habit of writing, gaining confidence as a writer, and taking life writing as a craft. This positively and actively invested relationship with writing in a foreign language suggests that life writing should be made an option in English literacy education to promote L2 writers’ identity development.



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The current study sought to examine whether explicit instruction affects teacher evaluators in terms of a six-factor Teacher Evaluation (TE) model encompassing Perception, Method, System, Content, Purpose, and Outcome. Moreover, it explored how training of the evaluators affects their practices in actual evaluation. To this end, twenty EFL teacher-evaluators selected as the participants of the study filled out a TE questionnaire (developed by the researchers) and participated in a semi-structured interview. In addition, the evaluators’ actual practice was examined through recording of post-observation debriefing sessions between the evaluators and the teachers they supervised. Subsequently, a four-session training course on various aspects of teacher evaluation was held. After four weeks, the interviews, questionnaires, and debriefing sessions were repeated. To analyze the data, a two-way repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was run and the comparison of the results showed that the training course had positively affected many aspects of evaluators’ perceptions and practices. Likewise, the content analysis of the interviews and debriefing sessions identified the features of the training course that the evaluators found most valuable such as the methods of observation, the strategies required for overcoming the evaluators’ communication problems with teachers, and managing the debriefing sessions. The results also revealed that the TE factor outcome was not affected by the training instruction course.



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An in-depth investigation of analytic relations by lexical researchers plays a prominent role in language learning and teaching. The primary objective of the present study was to investigate the extent to which prediction regarding different aspects of analytic relations impacts reading comprehension. The current research employed a quantitative approach using standard multiple regression analysis. The study compared two language proficiency tests, namely an analytic relations test and an academic reading comprehension test, among a total of 91 participants with a Bachelor of Business Administration background and a total of 64 students with a Bachelor of Engineering background. The results of the study showed that for both the business and Engineering School students, the component-integral analytic relations facet of vocabulary depth knowledge was not only the most statistically significant contributing predictor of academic reading comprehension, but it also had the largest effect (i.e., statistically significant) in explaining the outcome variable: Academic reading comprehension. By providing insights into the research gap, the present study suggests that the analytic relations dimension of vocabulary knowledge has practical use for English language learners and English teachers at the tertiary level, and it offers further implications for lexical researchers.



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This study examined the impact of process-based listening strategy instruction on Iraqi EFL learners' listening comprehension and their metacognitive awareness of listening strategies. The study also investigated the differences in all of the five factors of the Metacognitive Awareness of Listening Questionnaire (MALQ) offered by Vandergrift et al. (2006). The study was a quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design using intact classes. The participants were 60 sophomore EFL learners in Iraq came from two intact classes. One intact class was assigned as the intervention (n=30) and the other as the control group (n=30). The intervention group received a process-based listening strategy instruction based on Siegel’s (2015) model. The control group received the conventional teaching of listening without any strategy training. Both groups completed the listening section of the Preliminary English Test (PET) and the (MALQ) at the beginning and the end of the study. Results indicated that listening strategy instruction had generally a positive impact on learners’ listening comprehension and metacognitive awareness of strategy use. More specifically, the intervention group outperformed the control group on the listening proficiency post-test and the MALQ. The examination of the MALQ factors showed significant increases in problem-solving, mental translation, and planning-evaluation strategies but decreases in directed attention and person knowledge for the intervention group. The findings suggest a positive effect of explicit instruction of listening strategies on listening comprehension.



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Delving into the linguistic performance of EFL learners with varying linguistic backgrounds and potentials appears to be of huge significance, particularly in EFL classrooms. The knowledge of the potential variations between monolingual and bilingual EFL learners might help teachers better meet the needs of these learners, for instance through differentiated instruction for them. Accordingly, through a ten-session intervention on discourse markers (DMs), and providing sixty upper-intermediate Iranian monolingual and bilingual EFL learners with equal DM knowledge, the present study aimed to discover if bilingualism could lead to variations in DM usage, accuracy and recall between the two groups. Initially, to examine DM usage, the study explored the frequency of DM types and tokens, and to study DM usage accuracy, it examined the hurdles to DM employment (i.e., overuse, underuse, and misuse) in the participants’ 180 paragraphs. To examine DM recall, we aimed at discovering whether the learners significantly varied in their performance on a DM multiple-choice test after attending the same ten-session intervention. With respect to DM usage, we observed minimal variation, with the monolinguals and bilinguals differing only in their use of exemplifier and conclusive markers, while indicating a similar pattern and range of DM tokens. Similarly, concerning DM usage accuracy, the groups mainly manifested a similar pattern but varied only due to the bilinguals’ extreme overuse of DMs. However, the results concerning DM recall disclosed bilinguals as outperforming monolinguals significantly. The findings offer suggestions for the importance of understanding monolingual and bilingual EFL learners’ linguistic performance.



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This study explores emerging trends of student theses in English language teaching master degree programs in Colombia. In this study, we categorized 156 abstracts into their research context, research areas, and research method, adding to the tapestry of ELT novice research worldwide. The results demonstrate that the majority of the theses reviewed were practical in scope and smaller-scaled projects, focusing on language skills and subskills, teacher-related aspects such as methodology, beliefs, etc., and curriculum. A small percentage delved into more complex or broader aspects of education inside the language classroom. They also were mainly qualitative, case studies or action research using a variety of data collection techniques that corresponded with the main research design. As a conclusion, an increased balance in research topics and methods is suggested to strengthen novice research and encourage more participation in the worldwide conversation on English language teaching and learning.



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Profiling students’ reading comprehension ability provides essential data to educators to identify students struggling with reading. However, tertiary-level test-takers and test-givers are not always aware of the makeup and design of profiles, which creates real challenges in the use of profiling of test results to diagnose problematic areas in reading. This research hoped to unveil the English reading comprehension ability (ERCA) of first-year undergraduate engineers by employing the Thai Reading Evaluation and Decoding System (T-READS). The sample consisted of 751 first-year undergraduate engineers at a Thai public university. Researchers analysed data using descriptive statistics (i.e., T-READS results) and inferential statistics (i.e., one-way ANOVA). Data analysis led to two major findings. First, the data revealed that 74% of undergraduate engineers were at Band 3 and above, which was the minimum university requirement of ERCA. Second, statistically significant differences in the T-READS scores among four groups of performers (Above Standard, Meet Standard, Below Standard and Academic Warning) (F [3, 747] = 1476.66, p = 0.00) were found. Major findings hold pedagogical implications that provide English programme planners at the tertiary level with insights into the reading comprehension difficulties faced by undergraduate engineers and the



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Abstract:

This study explores L2 learners’ perceptions of different dimensions of current commercial video games as a medium to foster English learning. Moreover, it looks into L2 learners’ attitudes toward the integration of gaming into the English curriculum. To that end, a quantitative approach to data collection and analysis was employed. Responses were elicited using an online questionnaire that consisted of 29 items from 101 Arabic speaking students enrolled in an English and Translation bachelor program at a Saudi public university. The findings of the descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations) indicate that the participants positively perceive English learning through the medium of video games. According to students’ views, several factors and elements conducive to English learning are recognized in commercial video games. These include knowledge of some aspects of English that are not taught in educational settings, predisposition to use English, more opportunities for practicing English, long-term retention of encountered-then-learned language points, independent learning, as well as a motivation to learn and deal with English, a comfortable environment for using English, and familiarity with vernacular Englishes. Meanwhile, the findings reveal that learners have positive attitudes toward the integration of gaming into the English curriculum, and they sanction the place of gaming in formal education, provided that current commercial video games need modifications to render optimal L2 learning outcomes.



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Cognition plays an important role in language teacher decision-making. A number of sources, including schooling, influence the cognition of language teachers. The concept of schooling is identified as the history of teachers' own personal education influences on the teachers’ knowledge, also referred to as apprenticeship of observation (AO). Through further conceptualization of schooling/AO involving the notion of history-in-person, the current multiple case study explored the prior learning experience of two Bangladeshi novice teachers of English: Kamrul and Monabbir (pseudonym), and how these experiences influenced their cognition of language. The findings suggest that the prior learning experience of English teachers has influenced their cognition and has taken on distinctive trajectories. Both AO and anti-apprenticeship of observation (anti-AO) were documented on the basis of the positive and negative English learning experiences of Kamrul and Monabbir at school. The article concludes with the implication of schooling in shaping the knowledge of language teachers and developing a context-based teacher education program.



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Departing from Kumaravadivelu’s (2006) post-method principles (PMPs), this study set out to explore the relationships between teachers’ beliefs about PMPs and their teaching practices at the collegiate level in Yemen. Data were collected through a survey of perceptions of 57 university teachers during the academic year 2019-2020. Out of this initial sample, nine informants who claimed to be post-method teachers were singled out for classroom observations. Results show that the majority were less sanguine about the post-method practices, regardless of the magnitude of their teaching experiences. Besides questioning the existing practices, this paper brings to the fore some suggestions to liberate teachers from restrictions of conventional method-based teaching. Teachers are encouraged to shape and reshape their teaching relying on their own experiences to develop useful teaching ideas for their contexts. Instead of searching for a ‘best’ method to follow, they should find effective teaching strategies to enhance their teaching repertoire.



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This study compares the beliefs and practices of Me xican university students with conventions of resume writing in English. Due to the nonexistence of a single definitive source on resume writing and the differences between conventions in English-speaking countries and in Mexico, students may make incorrect assumptions. Forty up-to-date, credible sources were surveyed to establish these conventions. A questionnaire on student beliefs and practices was given, and two student resumes were analyzed, one collected before a presentation of the conventions, and one after.The results show a lack of knowledge as to what constitutes an effective resume in English. The students were taught in school wrong elements and included them on their first resumes. However, these results must be interpreted according to the survey of forty sources, which revealed that English resume conventions are not as straightforward or uniform as one might expect. Students should not only be taught common conventions, but also conflicting viewpoints and the importance of tailoring their resumes to specific job offers. In this way, students can understand that there is no catch-all prescription for a resume, and that their own best judgement should be used for its composition.



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This article explores the efficacy of blended learning in English language classrooms. Many schools all over the world have decided to employ various online and blended courses in their courses, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Corporations that build learning management systems (LMS) for blended learning, as well as “boxed” curricula, have presented their materials as a means of student-centered learning, but what about those students who really need peer-to-peer and student-to-teacher interactions to further develop fluency, and cannot get enough of that interaction in a blended learning environment? Instructors should not only take a more active role in blended learning environments to make sure all students are thriving, but they should also design their own blended learning curricula or modify existing “boxed” curricula to more appropriately help their students succeed.



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En el proceso de aprendizaje del inglés, es frecuente que la acentuación de las palabras en español interfiera en cómo los aprendientes acentúan las palabras en inglés. Tal es el caso de las palabras bisílabas homógrafas cuya acentuación las provee de funciones como sustantivos o verbos. Por ejemplo, /kon’duct/ con acento oxítono posee una función de verbo; /’konduct/ con acento paroxítono, tiene función de sustantivo. El dinamismo en la acentuación de estas palabras causa, en algunas ocasiones, problemas de entendimiento y uso de la acentuación en inglés. Con respecto a esto, el presente artículo propone una serie de actividades cuyo objetivo es fomentar la comprensión y uso de la acentuación oxítona y paroxítona en bisílabos homógrafos del inglés. Las actividades propuestas siguen principios de instrucción explícita, Respuesta Física Total y métodos lúdicos.



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In certain English learning contexts where textbook-driven and standardized curriculum is a predominant approach, content materials and genres situated in native-English-speaking cultures are nevertheless foreign and daunting to English language learners (ELLs). However, the link between ELLs’ learning outcomes and English instruction that capitalizes on their cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1986) is disconnected. To address this issue evident in the aforementioned phenomenon, this synthesis paper presents a critical review of how ELLs’ cultural capital interplays between the dominant (mainstream schooling) and the dominated (cultural capital inherited by ELLs) across diverse sociocultural contexts and discourses in the classroom and beyond. Using Bourdieu’s (1986) cultural capital as a critical lens, ten salient studies surrounding this issue are critically examined across various learning settings: Pop culture, mainstream schooling and instruction, post-secondary education, bilingual program, out-of-school literacy practices and online community—highlighted by the findings and pedagogical implications for English teaching and learning. A call for an inclusive and empathetic approach that can empower ELLs and legitimize their cultural capital is needed.



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The purpose of this case study was to examine the effects of games for working memory training to enhance language learning in low performance students given that a considerable body of research has demonstrated that, among other factors, working memory may account for individual differences in linguistic achievement. The population consisted of nine low performance language students (English as a foreign language) from second, fourth, and sixth semester in the English and French program at Universidad de Nariño, Colombia, who received working memory training games during a six-week period. The results showed general improvement in the subjects’ overall language performance during the sessions and in class, which confirmed the premise that if students are given a set of strategies to exercise and improve their memory, they are likely to use and replicate them when training is not taking place.



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Supplementary file: Biodata

Abstract:

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