Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education

Telecollaboration has been considered to have great potential for the development of L2 learners’ intercultural communicative competence (ICC), so an examination of what benefits L2 learners receive through telecollaboration is necessary. Also, L2 learners’ use of culturally specific expressions, such as proverbs, has not been adequately investigated. The present study investigated the effects of telecollaboration on L2 learners’ perceptions of their ICC knowledge and skills in relation to one type of verbal communication (proverbs) in Japanese. Nineteen L2 novice learners of Japanese were involved in the study, and they telecollaborated with 23 native speakers of Japanese using Facebook. They learned Japanese proverbs through Facebook videos introduced by their Japanese peers, followed by in-class follow up sessions and a reflection log activity, and they then performed skits in Japanese. Their perceptions of their ICC knowledge and skills were compared using the pre- and the post-questionnaires, and their language production was analyzed. The study found that students gained a sense of accomplishment in learning the target element of verbal communication; however, they did not always execute the expressions in appropriate situations.

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) designed according to the First Principles of Instruction (FPI). A 15-h Japanese CLIL course was implemented. A total of 16 university students attended the course and data were collected from multiple sources, including learning tests, questionnaire feedback, and dialogues in group discussions, were collected and examined. Analysis showed that students’ learning outcomes, including basic Japanese proficiency, intercultural communication content, and writing skills, were statistically significantly improved. Students had a high level of awareness of the elements of FPI designed in the course. In addition, all the FPI elements had a positive impact on basic Japanese proficiency except for the application element: the problem-centered, application, and integration elements positively impacted intercultural communication content and writing skills. The results show that students displayed individual differences in using the worksheet to summarize their writing ideas. Students spent most of the time in the group discussions in their native language. Even when Japanese was used, individual Japanese words were used rather than whole sentences in most cases. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analyses showed that the use of problem-centered theory FPI had a positive impact on the design of the CLIL. However, attention is needed to students’ individual differences and the guidance of students in applying basic language knowledge in problem-centered learning activities. Finally, it notes points that should be considered when designing CLIL in the future.

In this research study, unlike previous studies that have examined the advantages of peer review for low proficiency students, uses a longitudinal action mixed methods design is used to explore the impact of peer review on the academic writing of students with low English proficiency. The format was a longitudinal action study, which analyzed the written peer review feedback, essays, and reflections of 40 learners. Results showed that at the beginning of the study, the students experienced challenges in identifying problems with rhetorical content of their peers and by the end of 11 weeks, they were able to provide succinct peer feedback that included examples and explanations of classmates’ grammatical and rhetorical errors. Results also showed improvement in their own writing skills. Implications for implementing peer review in foriegn language writing contexts are discussed.

Explicit pronunciation instruction has been shown to be effective in improving language learners’ pronunciation, yet it is not clear whether the same can be said about implicit pronunciation instruction. In addition, the role of orthography in improving language learners’ pronunciation is yet to be fully understood. Thus, this research examined the contribution of extensive listening combined with orthography to the improvement of language learners’ pronunciation. Ninety Saudi learners of English were randomly allocated to three groups and offered different types of instructions: (A) extensive listening only; (B) extensive listening with orthography; and (C) a control group. Similar utterances were collected from the three groups before and after the instructions. The utterances were then presented randomly to a group of native English listeners for global foreign accent rating. Small, though non-significant, improvement was observed for both experimental groups. This may be attributed to the relatively short duration of exposing the learners to the aural input. Semi-structed interviews, with a sample of the learners from the experimental groups, showed that they had positive opinions regarding extensive listening with orthography for the improvement of their pronunciation. Further research may use longer period to examine whether extensive listening along with orthography can result in significant improvement of language learners’ pronunciation.

The present study sought the differences between more and less proficient EFL (English as a Foreign Language) writers regarding their metacognitive awareness of writing (MAW). We also examined the relationship between MAW and EFL writing success. We used a validated MAW questionnaire for a comprehensive evaluation of the writers’ metacognitive awareness. The results demonstrated that skillful EFL writers benefit from higher metacognitive awareness. Furthermore, we found that metacognitive awareness (and its sub-categories) is positively correlated with writing proficiency, except for avoidance strategy which showed a negative correlation. The mixed design of this study which is a part of a larger project would help researchers to gain new insights into the role of metacognitive awareness in EFL writing success.

A major source of concern across a number of English-speaking countries is the loss of language teachers from the profession. In a global era where the ability to engage across languages and cultures is seen as vital for international engagement, this poses a significant problem as teacher shortages continue to challenge the efficacy of language education programs. And yet, there are very few large-scale studies which investigate the career attrition of foreign language teachers. The Australian mixed methods study reported here investigated the relationship between social capital and the career retention of 227 foreign language teachers. The findings expand our understanding of language teacher attrition, by showing that teachers who felt professionally valued and who had strong relationships with their colleagues and administrative leaders were less likely to leave language teaching. It was also found that social bonds with other foreign language teachers were an important form of social capital proactively sought by many language teachers, to help them overcome their professional isolation and thus maintain their professional standards. However, these strong social bonds were found to play a role in promoting language teacher attrition, as they provide teachers with a ladder to other career opportunities. This study concludes that some language teachers are lacking in social capital, and that this lack of social capital is a key driver in career attrition. Therefore, there is a need to develop policies, and engage in practices, which facilitate and encourage the further development of language teachers' social capital. The conclusion of this paper explores ways to move forward to improve the retention of language teachers.

The quality of the physical language signals to which learners are exposed and which result in neurobiological activity leading to perception constitutes a variable that is rarely, if ever, considered in the context of language learning. It deserves some attention. The current study identifies an optimal audio language input signal for Chinese EFL/ESL learners generated by modifying the physical features of language-bearing audio signals. This is achieved by applying the principles of verbotonalism in a dichotic listening context. Low-pass filtered (320 Hz cut-off) and unfiltered speech signals were dichotically and diotically directed to each hemisphere of the brain through the contralateral ear. Temporal and spatial neural signatures for the processing of the signals were detected in a combined event-related potential (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment. Results showed that the filtered stimuli in the left ear and unfiltered in the right ear (FL-R) configuration provided optimal auditory language input by actively exploiting left-hemispheric dominance for language processing and right-hemispheric dominance for melodic processing, i.e., each hemisphere was fed the signals that it should be best equipped to process—and it actually did so effectively. In addition, the filtered stimuli in the right ear and unfiltered in the left ear (L-FR) configuration was identified as entirely non-optimal for language learners. Other outcomes included significant load reduction through exposure to both-ear-filtered FL-FR signals as well as the confirmation that non-language signals were recognized by the brain as irrelevant to language and did not trigger any language processing. These various outcomes will necessarily entail further research.

The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions and their instructional practices. The mediatory role of the teachers’ occupational characteristics such as their disciplines was also examined. For this purpose, a total of 70 teachers from the soft science, hard science and English language teaching (ELT) disciplines were compared. This study was situated within a mixed-methods design in which questionnaires as well as observation and semi-structured interviews were used to measure the efficacy-teaching practice. Results of Pearson correlation coefficients revealed that the self-efficacy of soft science and hard science teachers was significantly correlated with their teaching practice, with the ELT teachers’ efficacy-teaching relation not reaching a statistical significance. Results obtained from the observation and interviews further explained the teachers’ practices and the challenges that they faced in their classroom practices. Findings are discussed in light of both individual and societal perspective, offering important implications for the classrooms.

Bài báo này báo cáo một nghiên cứu điều tra vai trò của việc học âm vị và âm học trong ngôn ngữ mẹ đẻ hoặc ngôn ngữ đầu tiên (L1) đối với việc tích hợp các đặc điểm chất lượng nguyên âm trong sản xuất nguyên âm ngôn ngữ thứ hai (L2) bằng cách kiểm tra sản xuất nguyên âm đơn của tiếng Việt bởi người học L2 Hàn Quốc trưởng thành trong các bài tập bắt chước và đọc to. Ba nhóm tham gia vào nghiên cứu (11 người Việt kiểm soát, 11 người Hàn Quốc học tiếng Việt, và 10 người Hàn Quốc kiểm soát). Các kích thích bao gồm 9 nguyên âm đơn tiếng Việt /i, e, ɛ, a, ɔ, o, u, ɤ, ɯ/ và 8 nguyên âm chuẩn tiếng Hàn / i, ɛ, e, a, o, u, ʌ, ɨ /. Các kết quả cho thấy rằng nguyên âm tiếng Việt /ɛ/ và /e/ do người học Hàn Quốc sản xuất đã hòa nhập vào không gian nguyên âm, cho thấy cách mà sự hợp nhất âm vị trong L1 có thể ảnh hưởng đến nhận thức và sản xuất nguyên âm không phải bản địa của người nói. Hơn nữa, ba nguyên âm tiếng Việt /ɔ/, /o/ và /ɤ/ do người học Hàn Quốc sản xuất trong cả hai nhiệm vụ có xu hướng tập trung lại với nhau. Nhìn chung, các phát hiện của nghiên cứu này cho thấy rằng người học Hàn Quốc chuyển giao các đặc điểm chất lượng nguyên âm L1 của họ vào sản xuất nguyên âm tiếng Việt.