This paper analyses the learning process of students of a Master's course in Cooperation and Development (C&D) who attend classes in English for Academic Writing at the University of Calabria, and their awareness of competences achieved. The language objectives are to expand students' knowledge of the main elements of spoken and written…

Recent research studies in ESL/EFL contexts worldwide have shown a gap between the findings of pragmatics research and how the English language is actually taught and learnt in EFL classrooms, as well as a paucity of pragmatic information provided in ESL/EFL textbooks. Utilizing content analysis, this study explores the provision of pragmatic…

In this paper, Japanese teachers' experiences under the new communicative course of study guidelines that became fully implemented in April 2016 in the new Japanese high school English Language curriculum, "Communicative Course of Study Guidelines" are examined. The study explored 21 high school teachers from a variety of schools, and…

The study is the second in a series of mixed-methods studies on the integration of The Sims 4, a life-simulation game, into language classrooms. In this study, the researcher explores the effect of game-based language learning (GBLL) on students' English communicative competence from three aspects, interaction, fluency and content, in a Japanese…

In Germanic and Slavic languages, the Verb is the most extensive grammatical item, which causes most of the troubles for second language learners. It has been noticed that Slavic L1 learners of English make mistakes in using verb forms due to the transfer of their L1 grammatical system (grammar concepts) onto the English language. The goal of the…

That 'a picture can stimulate a thousand words' aptly summarises the role of the visual in the field of language learning and teaching. The power of the image to generate language output has been widely acknowledged in the field of second/foreign language acquisition. Posters, diagrams, symbols and pictures are often found in language classrooms;…

The purpose of this mixed-method study was two-fold. The first purpose was to investigate the role of using culturally-based materials on contributing to the advancement of oral communication of five EFL Arab college students through a six-week program. The second purpose was to explore the college students' views and experiences of using…

In order to develop pragmatic competence in a language other than our own (L2), it is important to have enough knowledge of the cultural norms of the target language and enough opportunities to interact with a wide range of speakers to deploy different speech acts, registers, levels of politeness, conversational moves, and the like. The…

This study aimed to compare whether Traditional Grammar Translation Method (henceforward TGTM) or Communicative Language Teaching (henceforward CLT) was more effective in teaching English language grammar and vocabulary. The participants of this study were sixty-eight 9th grade students attending to a high school. Mixed methods research design was…

EFL classroom teaching in China, no matter whether it is traditional one or a flipped one, is a dynamic communicative process by using English with the aim of learning it. The interactive discourse between the teacher and the student has its own pragmatic functions, especially the feedback given by the teachers which may influence the teaching and…

Design thinking (DT) could provide a viable method to develop 21st-century skills in English as Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms; however, its potential is not clearly understood. To explore this potential, two Japanese university teachers developed a DT course in which students built a creativity measure and wrote academic reflections. Student…

L2 test developers often use scripted spoken texts in their L2 listening tests, because it is efficient and practical to create scripted spoken texts that meet predetermined test specifications. But because scripted spoken texts differ in a number of fundamental ways from unscripted spoken language, there are potential threats to validity when…

Speaking and communicating in English language can be a traumatic experience for many Chinese EFL university learners in class and in public. In many situations, they prefer to remain silent and passive listeners. This study aims to detect linguistic, psychological, socio-cultural hindrances and lends a sympathetic ear to Chinese university EFL…

With the continued failure of large numbers of university students to achieve proficiency in English as a foreign language (EFL), a great deal of research has been devoted to issues such as outdated curriculum design, inadequacies of course materials, poor teacher quality, and learner motivation, among other concerns. However, few studies have…

The focal aim of the current paper is to take an in-depth look at the effect of the English culture on foreign language learners. In this regard, the researchers inquire about how intercultural communication affects English as a foreign language (EFL) students during the process of learning English literary texts carrying aspects of the target…