This study was intended to explore the relationship of gender, perceived language ability with communication strategy use by tourism-oriented EFL learners studying at the universities in the Southwest China to improve and maintain their oral communication in English. The Communication Strategy Questionnaire was used for data collection, and the…

This paper reports on an innovative and action research project which focused on the use of the dictionary and the prior knowledge of Colombian high school students to improve their reading comprehension of short scientific texts. Data collection instruments included students' work gathered during two workshops, field notes, and a questionnaire.…

The present article reports on a study that explores the effects of the emotional experiences of Mexican language learners on their motivation to learn English. In this qualitative research we present how emotions impact the motivation of university language learners in south Mexico. Results suggest that emotions, both negative and positive,…

The framework of linguistic register and case study research on Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) learning statistics informed the construction of a quantitative instrument, the Communication, Language, And Statistics Survey (CLASS). CLASS aims to assess whether ELLs and non-ELLs approach the learning of statistics differently with…

Based on sociocultural and contextual perspectives, this study examines how Japanese language learners perceive a conflict between their beliefs and actions when speaking the target language in the classroom context, and how these learners change their beliefs or actions to overcome the conflict. Data were collected during a second-year level…

It is often asserted that UK school-leavers know less grammatical terminology than in earlier years. However, objective data on this supposed phenomenon are somewhat scarce. The study reported in this paper aimed to see whether and to what extent knowledge about language (KaL) has declined over three decades, and how this might relate to…

This paper reports the results of an action research-based study that adapted a mobile-supported cooperative reading system into regular English as a foreign language (EFL) classes at one Taiwanese elementary school. The current study was comprised of two stages: adaptation and evaluation. During the adaptation stage, a mobile-supported…

This study examines the effects of processing instruction (PI) alone versus PI and output (O) on the acquisition of three conjunctional and infinitival phrases in Spanish. Seventy intermediate and advanced-intermediate high school participants received: 1) PI on three consecutive days (PI + PI + PI); 2) PI for two days and meaning-based output…

Foreign language teacher education requires microteaching practices carried out by teacher trainees for learning and assessment purposes. During microteachings, teacher trainees operate many teaching skills concurrently. Interlanguage compatible teacher-talk in the target language is essential for the production of student talk at elementary and…

Motivated by the scarcity of research that examines the impact of teacher beliefs on their actual practices in Vietnam, this study investigated the relationship between teachers' beliefs about quality questions and their questioning behaviours in terms of questioning purposes, content focus, students' cognitive level, wording and syntax. Thirteen…

Among several factors affecting the performance of testees on a test is the sequence of the test items. The present study served as an attempt to shed light on the effect of test item sequence on Iranian EFL learners' performance on a test of grammar. To achieve such a purpose, 70 language learners of English at Pooyesh Institute in Shiraz (the…

This paper was written to clarify misconceptions that East Asian students are somehow less autonomous than learners from other cultural backgrounds. Specifically, based on motivational levels, it examines Japanese university students' perceptions of their responsibility and ability of autonomous English learning and what they can do inside and…

This article reports a case study that examined English as a Second Language students' peer response stances from an activity theory perspective. More specifically, the study was guided by the constructs of activity and motive/object in Leont'ev's theory. Multiple sources of data were collected from two native Spanish-speaking students enrolled in…

The framework of perspective transformation (Mezirow, 1994) provides a rich context for the conceptualization of technology use in language and culture learning. Although others have focused on the processes of becoming interculturally competent (Taylor, 1994) and changing language structures (Foster, 1997), more exploration of how technology aids…

International students, who study a foreign language abroad, experience more adversities than their domestic peers. The social challenges they face include problems with immigration status, isolation, difficulty speaking a new language, and learning unfamiliar customs. There is limited research focused on the coping strategies of these…