Volume 11 Issue 2
Analysis of Communication Strategies used by Freshman Active English Students using YackPack for Homework-based Speaking Tasks
This paper analyzes the progress of Active English (AE) students’ speaking at Saga University over a five-week period in Fall 2007. The researcher was interested in both quantity (speech rate, lexical density, etc.) and quality (lexical and grammatical accuracy) of speech, as well as the implementation of communication strategies.
Teacher-Student Relationship and the Conceptualization of the Good Language Teacher: Does Culture Matter?
This study examines the dimensions in teacher-student relationship in the language classroom. It also explores the most and the least desirable qualities of the language teacher as perceived by a cohort of Malaysian university students, and the hierarchy of these qualities.
Improving School English in Malaysia Through Participation in Online Threaded Discussion Groups
In the digital and contemporary world, online communication is part of the daily lives of many Malaysian adolescents. Net chat, weblogs and threaded discussion groups are some of the channels through which these young people interact not only among themselves but also with those outside their circle.
Promoting Self-assessment Strategies: An Electronic Portfolio Approach
Creating electronic portfolios is proposed as an effective means to facilitate language learning and writing in particular because it enables learners to monitor their own writing process and to put into practice a multitude of writing strategies. Among the strategies practiced, self-assessment, a key learning strategy for autonomous language learning, is the less explored one.
The Effect of Rhetorical and Cognitive Structure of Texts on Reading Comprehension
This paper examines the comprehension of different text types by readers at different proficiency levels. 170 EFL undergraduates read narrative, expository, and argumentative text types. Significant comprehension differences were found among readers of these text types.
Plagiarism by Turkish Students: Causes and Solutions
Much has been written about plagiarism but mostly about the definition, detection, and deterrence (Austin and Brown 1999; “Avoiding Plagiarism†2005; Barry 2006; Block 2001; Coulthard 2006; Park 2003). Few researchers have surveyed or interviewed second/foreign language students to find about the causes that they plagiarize.
Diagnosing the Process, Text, and Intrusion Problems Responsible for L2 Listeners Decoding Errors
This paper reports on a study which examined the nature of L2 listeners’ decoding problems as they strived to comprehend authentic input. Rather than employing psycholinguistic laboratory methods to investigate decoding issues, this study utilized a procedure pertinent for teachers operating within a L2 classroom environment.
Listening Strategy Instruction: Exploring Taiwanese College Students Strategy Development
This study reports on the implementation of strategy instruction (SI) in the regular EFL listening curriculum in the context of a Taiwanese technological college. Rather than examining a cause-effect relationship, this study focused in particular on exploring learners’ listening strategy development over the course of SI.
Engineering Lectures in a Second Language: What Factors Facilitate Students Listening Comprehension?
This paper presents data from a large-scale ethnographic study into the perceptions, concerns, and preferred lecturer strategies of one group of Hong Kong second-language (L2) engineering students who were attending lectures given in English.
