Many institutions around the world use the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to assess test-takers' proficiency in English, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where a given Band score (or its equivalent) is required for direct entry to majors taught in English. However, despite the test's importance and despite being one…

This research investigates impediments to the successful implementation of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in Saudi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. Going beyond typical discussions on teacher training and curriculum development, the study explores entrenched resistance stemming from traditional teaching methods among teachers…

This study considered the social emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic. It utilized quantitative methods to investigate the L2 self-images (i.e., ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and feared L2 self) held by EFL college students in formal online English classes, based on Dörnyei's (2005) L2 Motivational Self System. Meanwhile, this research proved the…

As many students worldwide receive second language (L2) English private tutoring (EPT) that shadows school curricula, examining student perceptions of it is essential to understanding their L2 learning. From the L2 Motivational Self perspective, students' "ideal L2 self," "ought-to L2 self" and "L2 learning…

This study examined how Google Jamboard-based autonomous knowledge-sharing advanced language proficiency and motivation in an online intermediate--high EFL communication course. For one semester, 30 Korean first-year college students shared their learning experiences beyond the classroom, enhancing their English communication competence via a…

Future second language (L2) self-images have proven integral to L2 motivation, prompting several attempts to purposefully develop learners' ideal L2 selves over the past decade through the use of vision-building techniques. Some of these 'vision interventions' have reported successfully enhancing learners' L2 self-images and motivation; other…

This study investigated the role of the L2 motivational self system on L2 willingness to communicate (L2 WTC) by Korean EFL university and secondary students. Drawing on a purposive sampling technique and an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, quantitative data (105 university and 112 high school students) were first collected and…

Washback refers to the influence of tests on learning and teaching. To date, a number of studies have revealed that tests affect teaching content, course design, and classroom practices. However, in Asian higher education contexts, little research has examined the washback of proficiency tests on English learning in comparison with the efforts on…

This study examined the characteristics of male high school English learners' motivation and the relations between their motivation and achievement in English learning. A total of 334 Grade 10 students in a boys' high school participated in this study by completing a questionnaire survey on second language (L2) learning motivation and taking an…

Energy Conservation Theory of Second Language Acquisition (ECT-L2A) (Han, Bao, & Wiita, 2017b), an interdisciplinary theory juxtaposing a physics perspective and an applied linguistics perspective, conceptualizes individuals' ultimate attainment as a function of dynamic transformation of endogenous and exogenous energies throughout the…

Gardener's (1985) socio-cultural model shows that culture is among the variables that can affect learning languages. In addition, a series of studies were prompted by Dörnyie (2005) to gauge the effect of motivation on language learning. This correlational study endeavored to find out any possible interaction between these variables, i.e.,…