Main Editions
Reluctance to Write Among Students in the Context of an Academic Writing Course in an Ethiopian University
This paper presents an investigation into reluctance to write among university students as observed in an academic writing course. Twenty university students and five of their instructors were involved in the study as research subjects and data generators.
Modal Verbs [1] for Politeness in Email Requests to Professors: The Case of Chinese EFL Learners
This paper is motivated by the premise that not much is known about how English modal verbs are used to express politeness in Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) contexts. Specifically, this study examines and compares the use of modal verbs in email requests between two groups of Chinese EFL learners, namely English majors (EMs) and non-English majors (NEMs), in order to disclose the learners‘ English-proficiency factors for linguistic variation.
Cooperative and Individual Reading: The Effect on Writing Fluency and Accuracy
This study aims to find out the effect of Cooperative Directed Reading on the writing performance of ESL undergraduate students compared to Directed Reading without Cooperation and no treatment. A quasi-experimental research with the non-equivalent pretest-posttest control group design was used.
Integrating Input Enhancement and Processing Instruction in Promoting Acquisition of English Phrasal Verbs
This study discusses how visual input and textual enhancement, combined with processing instruction (VanPatten, 1996, 2004a, 2004b etc.), facilitates the learning of English phrasal verbs for Chinese learners of English. English phrasal verbs have long been a confusing structure for EFL/ESL learners, partly because of their random combination of verb and particle, but also because of their manifestation of polysemy
World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching
Kirkpatrick, Andy. World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. x + 257. Reviewed by Deepti Gupta Panjab University Chandigarh, India As stated in the introduction of World Englishes, this book differs [from other texts] . . . in that it aims to describe selected varieties of […]
Coping with Cultural Obstacles to Speaking English in the Korean Secondary School Context
The Korean Ministry of Education has given priority to communicative competence in this current 7th curriculum, a major shift from previous curriculum methodologies. But the Korean English teachers have expressed their skepticism about the efficiency compared with the amount of time and money being put in, citing various reasons such as large class size, different levels of students’ spoken English, and teachers’ poor spoken English
Students’ Reactions to School Based Oral Assessment: Bridging the Gap in Malaysia
In 2002, the Malaysian School Based Oral English Test (SBOET) was implemented and this was viewed as an initial step towards formative language assessment in the ESL classroom. Since then, it has undergone several transformative changes. To date, there is scant empirical research that has looked at the SBOET from the perspective of the test takers. This paper presents the findings of a study that examined feedback from 2,684 upper secondary ESL students from 45 schools located in 10 states in Malaysia. This descriptive study employed both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis.
English only? inda kali eh! (not likely!) Changing the paradigm
We live in an era of accelerated change and innovation which demands that we adapt and evolve or risk obsolescence and exclusion. This paper traces the path of English language teaching (ELT) since its inception. It examines some of the underlying theories that have guided its policies and practices at classroom level. It also questions whether ELT has kept pace with linguistic and other developments on a wider societal scale.
Shattering the hierarchical education system: The creation of a poststructural feminist English classroom
The study aims to examine the effectiveness of the poststructural feminist pedagogical model developed by the author in 2006 and apply the model to the English classroom to investigate whether it has any potential to increase Taiwanese students’ English learning achievement, critical thinking ability, and satisfaction with their class. The quantitative methods used in the study are an English achievement test, a critical thinking ability test, and a student satisfaction questionnaire. The qualitative methods are a semi-structured questionnaires and interviews. An independent sample t-test was used to determine if there were any statistically significant differences in the means between the students in the traditional classroom and the students in the poststructural feminist classroom.
Input Enhancement, Noticing, and Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition
This study investigated the effect of input enhancement on vocabulary acquisition from reading at 98% known-word coverage. 47 intermediate EFL learners from 11 language backgrounds read a level-appropriate English story containing 12 nonwords under one of two conditions—with or without textual enhancement of the target words. The participants were tested on word noticing, word meaning recognition, and word meaning recall. Both groups showed large gains on all the tests: The enhanced reading group scored 58% correct on noticing, 43% correct on meaning recognition, and 24% correct on meaning recall, whereas the unenhanced reading group scored 65% correct on noticing, 39% correct on meaning recognition, and 25% correct on meaning recall.
