Volume 8 Issue 2
Towards Better Grammar Instruction: Bridging the Gap between High School Textbooks and TOEIC
The authors of this study discuss ways to make the instruction of grammar more effective, especially for Japanese beginning level English students. In particular, they discuss what grammatical features and structures students should be aware of in order to both enhance their classroom learning and their ability to understand and respond to practical English expressions such those in the TOEIC test, which measure proficiency in international English communication.
Assessing EAP learners’ beliefs about language learning in the Australian context
This paper reports on a study of beliefs held by 262 English for Academic Purposes (EAP) language learners at an Australian University. The Horwitz’ (1987) BALLI was used to collect data, which was later compared with an American study of 156 EAP learners (Siebert, 2003). Data analysis using frequency statistics shows that beliefs about language learning reported by both study groups were similar in all categories.
EFL Student Teachers’ Learning Autonomy
The present study aims to investigate English language learning autonomy among EFL student teachers in Turkey. Fifty-seven first year student teachers in the English Language Teaching Program of a Turkish University participated in this case study. Qualitative data were gathered through structured and unstructured class observations, structured and unstructured interviews with students, and document analysis.
Age-related Variations in E.F.L Learners’ Attentiveness to Prosodic vs. Syntactic Cues of Sentence Structure
This study has investigated the relationship between the age of Iranian EFL learners and the strategy they seek in their interpretation of sentences. A task was devised to solicit either prosodically or syntactically motivated responses from two groups of participants aged 12-13, and 17 and over, respectively.
Using World Literatures to Promote Intercultural Competence In Asian EFL Learners
The following paper re-examines the place of literature in Asian EFL contexts. Critiquing standard approaches for teaching literature to English learners in Japanese university settings, the author proposes an alternate pedagogical framework for ELT practitioners in Asia based on an interculturalist perspective.
Associating Interference with Strategy Instruction: An Investigation into the Learning of the Present Continuous
Analysing errors committed by second language learners in the acquisition of English tenses, particularly the present continuous, can offer great insights into learners’ difficulties in acquiring target language rules. Focusing on a set of eight rules governing the use of the present continuous, one of the verb forms frequently employed in daily conversations, the researcher employed elicitation procedures aimed at discovering difficulties encountered by learners in second language acquisition.
The Effect Of The Use Of L1 In A Multimedia Tutorial On Grammar Learning: An Error Analysis Of Taiwanese Beginning Efl Learners’ English Essays
The purpose of this study was to examine whether the CAI (computer assisted instruction) tutorial program had an impact on the EFL (English as a Foreign Language) grammar skills of the beginning EFL language learners. A quasi-experimental research design was conducted at a private college located in southern Taiwan.
Cross-cultural Communication: Saudi, Ukrainian, and Russian Students Online
This paper describes a cross-cultural online writing project in which three English-as-a foreign language (EFL) college instructors in Ukraine, Russia and Saudi Arabia and their undergraduate students participated. The aim of the project was to develop students’ writing skills in EFL, to develop their awareness of local and global cultural issues and events, and to develop their ability to communicate and interact with students from other cultures.
An investigation into the task features affecting EFL listening comprehension test performance
The construct validation of a multiple-choice listening test requires some evidence that text and text associated variables play a significant role in predicting item difficulty. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of task features on test performance in EFL listening tests by determining how well item difficulty can be accounted for by text factors, item factors and text-item factors.
