Learning English as a foreign language is very challenging for both teachers and students in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara of Indonesia. The challenges are primarily caused by their lack of exposure to ...the authentic environment of English. In dealing with this phenomenon, the appropriate listening practices expect to help the learners to obtain and construct their knowledge of English as well as to acquire more comprehensible input. This article reports an investigation on the EFL learners attitudes toward the extensive listening practices. It applied mixed-method research procedures involving 55 students of the English language and education program of Universitas Katolik Indonesia Santu Paulus Ruteng. The data were collected through a survey coupled with Focus Group Discussions with 15 participants. This research revealed that the learners' attitudes are identified into two main categories called positive and negative attitudes. In this case, 38 % of the participants have positive attitudes toward extensive listening practices and 62% of the participant reflected the negative attitude toward the extensive listening practices. Learners with a positive attitude had a very strong awareness of the significance of listening skills in L2 learning. To improve their listening skills, they develop their listening practices outside the classroom consistently. Meanwhile, learners with negative attitudes were categorized as dependent learners who practiced their listening skills during the listening course only. This group of learners was less aware of the significance of listening skills in L2 learning and their listening practices were highly dependent on the teachers' instruction. It showcased that both of the learners internal and external factors were strongly contributed to this poor extensive listening practices. The EFL teachers are then strongly suggested to strengthen the learners awareness on the significance of Listening Skills in L2 learning as well as design more instructed extensive listening practices outside the classroom.
The study centres around the idea that English is a global lingua franca for intercultural communication among multilingual speakers. Drawing on relevant literature in the field, the paper will ...highlight the intercultural and transcultural nature of English used as a multilingua franca (EMF). In particular, the study will explore learners’ attitudes with the purpose to identify how learners perceive the complex relation between culture and language and the factors which may affect intercultural communication through English. The study will analyse two sample groups. The first group is composed of students belonging to different first language backgrounds, mainly non-native speakers of English studying in an Italian university. The second group is composed of both native and non-native English speakers studying in the US and Canada. An online link to a questionnaire was sent via email to all participants and was used as a research instrument to collect quantitative data.
It is highlighted that English used in multilingual settings cannot be analysed as a static and bounded entity with precise boundaries. On the contrary, English has transcended boundaries, in a fluid, dynamic and flexible process where borders are fuzzy and blurred and languages do not reflect well-defined national cultures. Therefore, it is suggested that language teaching practices should incorporate intercultural/transcultural oriented issues to provide learners with a more comprehensive knowledge of the multifaceted global English world and encourage a richer cultural and linguistic experience.
Although the concept of ubiquitous technologies has been introduced to many parts of society, there have been limited applications, and little is known about learners' behavior toward ubiquitous ...technologies, particularly in the context of English learning. This study considers a sample of Korean students to identify the key factors that influence English-language learners' (ELLs') satisfaction with ubiquitous learning (u-learning). The proposed model incorporates ubiquitous characteristics (omnipresence, context customization, interactivity, self-directed learning, and perceived enjoyment) as well as learner characteristics (innovation, learning motivation, and computer self-efficacy) and their impact on ELLs' satisfaction. In addition, the study assesses the effects of satisfaction on expectation in the context of English learning and employs structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the hypotheses. The results were based on a sample of 376 students using u-learning to study English and indicate that all the variables for ubiquitous characteristics and two variables for learner characteristics (innovation and computer self-efficacy) had significant effects on satisfaction with u-learning and that this satisfaction had a positive effect on expectation.
This study explores the effects of Data-Driven Learning (DDL) of German lexico-grammatical constructions (verb-preposition collocations) by North-American college students with intermediate foreign ...language proficiency. The study compares the effects of computer-based and paper-based DDL activities as evidenced in learners' immediate and delayed performance gains, and explores changes in learners' proficiency and DDL perceptions as well as the influence of these factors on performance. The results show that both DDL types were equally effective for all learners, independent of their proficiency and perceptions, although gains measured by a more controlled production test (gap-filling) were superior to and longer lasting than gains measured by a less controlled production test (sentence-writing). Furthermore, immediate performance gains on different tasks were differently affected by learner proficiency and perceptions, while delayed gains showed no such effects. Finally, the study found that overall learner proficiency increased and that DDL was well received by learners and they expressed an intention to use it for independent learning in the future. This study fills gaps existing in DDL research by focusing on a second language other than English, comparing different DDL types, measuring delayed learning gains, and combining different outcomes measures in a multilevel modeling design.
The purpose of this triangulated mixed-method study was twofold. Firstly, to examine whether the use of wikis as a collaborative tool affected EFL learners' writing fluency. Secondly, to explore ...their attitudes toward using wikis. To this end, 72 EFL learners from a language institute in Gachsaran, Iran were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned into two groups of conventional and wiki-based writing classes. Whereas the traditional group submitted their writing assignments to the teacher for feedback in class, the wiki group uploaded their writing assignments in the teacher-created wiki site where the learners themselves edited and corrected their writings and sometimes discussed writing topics further. To explore the participants' attitudes on the use of wiki-based writing, we administered a post-task attitude questionnaire entailing 18 five-point Likert scale items and four open-ended questions. Observational notes were also taken into account for data triangulation. The statistical results indicated that the participants in the wiki group significantly outperformed the traditional group in terms of writing fluency. The results of the qualitative phase of the study involving thematic analysis of the answers to the four open-ended questions as well as the field notes supported the quantitative findings in that the learners generally held positive attitudes toward using wikis. The implications of the results are also discussed in the paper.
Digital storytelling has been shown to be an effective tool in achieving learner autonomy during language learning. Studies have focused on providing students with multimedia authoring tools for ...unbinding their imagination when developing stories, but the complexity of digital story construction still presents a number of challenges to students. Anxiety about speaking a foreign language can have a debilitating effect on students' autonomous behavior and learning performance. This study therefore introduced group work to relieve anxiety about exposing individual work to an entire class. An experiment was conducted with 55 sixth-grade students involved in a digital storytelling learning task, where 28 students worked individually and 27 cooperatively. The aim was to examine the effect of learner grouping pattern on learning outcomes, such as knowledge achievement, autonomy in language learning, and emotional experience. The students working cooperatively were discovered to outperform those working individually in all outcomes.
The concept of successful participation is context-dependent. Learners have different definitions, which are subject to potential tension in the manner of participation that affects other aspects of ...the interaction. Drawing on activity theory (Vygotsky, 1987), the present study analyzes tensions that emerged during a six-week telecollaborative project between American learners of Japanese (AMU students) and Japanese learners of English (JPU students) through their understandings of successful participation. Transpacific dyads engaged in online discussions regarding assigned topics and a series of reflective tasks. Using a three-stage grounded theory data coding strategy, major contradictions are identified and analyzed. The findings suggest emergent contradictions in two dyads deriving from differences in the definition of participation. In one dyad, the JPU participant negotiated the imbalanced division of labor due to her passiveness by intentionally changing her participatory behavior. In the other dyad, the AMU participant displayed frustration and disappointment by his JPU partner whose definition of successful participation comprised prompt responses instead of proactive engagement in the discussion. These two cases illustrate how learners' understandings of successful participation informed their actions and how local definitions affected their overall evaluation of the interaction.
This study focuses on the use of wikis in collaborative writing projects in foreign language learning classrooms. A total of 34 intermediate level university students learning English as a foreign ...language (EFL) were asked to accomplish three different wiki-based collaborative writing tasks, (argumentative, informative and decision-making) working in groups of four. Student wiki pages were then analyzed to investigate the role of task type in the number of self and peer-corrections as well as form-related and meaning-related changes. In addition, focus-group interviews and questionnaires were conducted to find out how students would describe their overall experience with the integration of a wiki-based collaborative writing project in their foreign language learning process. The results revealed that the argumentative task promoted more peer-corrections than the informative and decision-making tasks. In addition, the informative task yielded more self-corrections than the argumentative and decision-making tasks. Furthermore, the use of wiki-based collaborative writing tasks led to the accurate use of grammatical structures 94% of the time. The results of the study also suggest that students paid more attention to meaning rather than form regardless of the task type. Finally, students had positive experiences using wikis in foreign language writing, and they believed that their writing performance had improved.
PDF
