Volume 11, Number 1, June 2014
Several studies have shown positive effects of a speed reading course on students’ reading speed improvement (Chung & Nation, 2006; Macalister, 2008, 2010). Yet, little research has aimed to see if the speed increase transfers to other types of reading and if it has any effects on other language skills. This study set out to answer these questions and examine the relationships between EFL reading speed, reading comprehension, and memory span by looking at the comprehension scores and language memory span results. It was found that the reading speed improvement in the speed reading course transferred to other types of reading and did not necessarily negatively affect comprehension. The results demonstrated that the treatment groups considerably expanded their memory span (p<.05). Strong relationships between speed increases in the speed reading course, speed improvement in other types of reading and memory span development were also found.
Inferencing Behaviour of ESL Readers
(pp. 21–37)
Knowledge about how young English-as-a-second-language (ESL) readers draw inferences is important input for teachers when designing lessons to teach reading strategies. This paper reports on an enquiry into the inferencing behaviour of ESL primary school students, aiming to give directions to the lesson intervention of a larger action research project on explicitly teaching inferencing. Nine male Primary Six (Sixth Grade) students in the author’s class from a school in Hong Kong were selected to take part in the study. To reveal how they made inferences while reading English texts, they were asked to participate in a think-aloud session in which they read a narrative text and an informational text in English. Analyses of their protocols suggested that they had low performance in bridging and global inferencing, and that this situation was even more obvious with the informational article. Implications for the teaching of inferencing to enhance L2 reading comprehension were discussed.
This study is a replication of Sung’s (2012) study. This study investigated most frequently used Chinese-character learning strategies reported by 88 first-year college learners of Chinese, the factors underlying those strategies, and whether there is a relationship between those strategies and the learners’ Chinese-character test performance. The results found 20 most frequently used strategies reported by the learners. Furthermore, the factor analysis extracted three components, which explained 44% of the variance. The results of the multiple regression tests showed that the participants who reported frequently using particular phonological strategies did better on the phonological comprehension part of the test and the ones who reported frequently using orthographic strategies did better on the graphic comprehension, graphic production, and phonological production parts of the test.
This article investigates the experiences of two Mexican English teachers who took part in an international second language (SL) teacher professional development program working for one semester as Spanish language monitors in schools and at a university in Canada. Using a narrative approach, we interpret their experiences of the following: curricular structure of such professional development programs including experiences at work; professional homestay; English language immersion and continuing acquisition; living in Canada and encountering everyday Canadian culture; and professional and personal learning. We inquire how teaching a first language in the SL environment contributes to the development of SL teachers. The article also reviews the five recommendations of a preceding study (Plews, Breckenridge, & Cambre, 2010): professional recognition, individual and institutional goal-setting, personalized language and culture learning outcomes, the role of professional homestay and interaction with education administration, and time and guidance for critical reflection. Our narrative emplotment of the two participants’ experiences echoes the poem “Little Orphant Annie” and the tale of “Goldilocks”: the first tale recounts how someone is left to do menial chores yet inspires others; the second is about a chance initiative-taker who is disappointed by the “big people” but finds her way to right things for herself thanks to the “little people.” These narratives have led us to reemphasize our previous five recommendations for effective SL teacher international professional development and to further recommend including a graduate-level SL course as the focal point of the program and site for relevant networking and future collaboration.
Prospective second language (L2) teachers need to learn how to teach culture along with language skills. With the introduction of the professional standards, culture has become more of a focus in the teaching profession. This study examines how pre-service L2 teacher are prepared to teach culture by examining methods course syllabi. Using constant comparative methodology, ten methods course syllabi were analyzed. This data source was triangulated with course calendars, programs of study, and course and associated websites, to find out how much time and assignments/assessments were devoted to the teaching of culture. Results indicate that an indirect approach to the teaching of culture is prevalent. Changes in the way course instructors approach the methods course are suggested to enable new L2 teachers to be better prepared to teach culture in the L2 classroom.
The current study aimed to investigate the possible relationship between Iranian English for academic purposes (EAP) instructors’ interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences and their self-efficacy beliefs. To this end, 120 language and content English for academic purposes instructors were asked to complete the excerpted items from McKenzie’s (1990) Multiple Intelligences Questionnaire and Tschannen-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy’s (2001) Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale. The results of the Pearson product-moment correlation showed that there was a positive significant correlation between personal intelligences and self-efficacy. Furthermore, using an independent t-test, the researchers found that there was no significant difference among language and content instructors regarding their self-efficacy beliefs in EAP classrooms. Moreover, the results of a paired t-test revealed that language instructors would feel more efficacious in English for general purposes than in EAP classrooms. The conclusions and implications of the current study are discussed in light of the earlier findings.
Learner autonomy has been the recurring theme in language teaching and learning for more than three decades. This study asserts that, in any given context, prior to taking any measures to develop autonomous learning, it is necessary to scrutinize learners’ perceptions concerning their readiness to exercise autonomy. In this study, data were elicited from 405 EFL learners studying English in Kish Institute through a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and non-participant observations. The results reveal that there is a gap between learners’ consciousness of autonomous learning and their actual practice in the classroom. Learners perceived themselves to be motivated, resorted to their teacher as a source of knowledge and believed that teachers should raise their awareness towards practicing autonomy. However, the participants voiced their disagreement regarding constraints they faced when practicing autonomy. Reiterating the significance of studying attitudes and expectations that learners hold, the study concludes with implications for the stakeholders involved in the learning process with regard to learner autonomy and hopes to be a driving force behind further research.
Learning to Speak with ‘Impact’: Japanese Digital Storytelling Project at the Australian National University
Effective communication is more than a one-way expression of a speaker’s message. For communication to occur, the listener must understand and respond to the speaker’s message, and so it is important that the speaker think about the listener’s response and consider the ‘impact’ of their words, and whether or not their story is successfully drawing their listener in. In second language learning, an understanding of these aspects of communication – over and above learning to use expressions and grammar correctly – is important, if learners are to communicate effectively. To raise student awareness of the role impact plays in communication and to develop narrative skills, we have been running an Intermediate Japanese Language Digital Story Telling Project in the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University since 2009. Digital stories are short three to four minute multimedia productions that combine a first-person narrative, with image and background music, and provide a powerful way of developing learner communicative skills. Digital stories also provide a place where textbook language learning combines with more authentic communication, where teacher-centered and student-centered approaches combine and where the storyteller interacts with their audience. While contextualizing our work within the discourse of foreign language teaching and learning, this paper will introduce the project and present an analysis of successful student productions. This will demonstrate how effectively Digital Stories can be used to develop student awareness of the importance of understanding the ‘impact’ of their words, if they are to communicate their message and to achieve more holistic communication goals. The Digital Stories discussed in this paper demonstrate that students have achieved this impact by employing sophisticated features not only in the language they use in the narration, but also in the background sounds and music, and in the images used to create their movies. Some have used humor, irony or suspense to draw their audience into their story, while others varied their tone of voice and speech style to create the desired impact. The more impactful stories successfully employed not only these verbal features but also incorporated visual creativity to harness the full potential of the digital movie form.