Volume 16, Number 2, December 2019 DOI: 10.56040/e-flt.162
Lakshmana Rao Pinninti
Criteria for Qualitative Evaluation of Strategy Training (pp. 185–195)
Most research on reading strategy instruction has employed quantitative methods to evaluate the impact of strategy instruction. But quantitative evaluation offers only a partial picture, and it must be complemented by qualitative evaluation. The predominant use of quantitative methodology may be attributed to the absence of established qualitative assessment criteria. There is a need for developing qualitative assessment criteria to evaluate the effect of strategy training on reading progress. Therefore, the present study aims to develop potential criteria for qualitative evaluation of the impact of strategy instruction. The study proposes five criteria: conditional knowledge, use of clusters, responsive actions, specificity in strategy description and fluent verbalisation. These five criteria emerged from the evaluative analysis and interpretation of data collected through reflective journals. The journals were maintained by 38 ninth-grade students for reflecting on their reading strategy use and reading process as part of strategy instruction. The five criteria can be useful for designing and evaluating strategy instruction.
Wenwen Tian & Anthony French
Exploring Thai EFL Learners' Learning Outcomes from a Real-World Interview Task: A Sociocultural Perspective (pp. 196–214)
This study explores Thai English as a foreign language students’ reflections on their learning outcomes from doing a real world interview task. From a sociocultural perspective, we adopted adventurous learn-ing as an alternative pedagogical approach to encourage students to learn from social and educational experience in real world situations. Data were collected from an audio-recorded stimulated recall reflec-tion and students’ written reflections on what they believed they had learnt from doing the real world task. Quantitatively, a corpus-based approach was used to generate keywords from students’ spoken and written reflections. Qualitatively, using the keyword list together with the identified learning out-comes in task-based learning literature, themes of students’ perceived learning outcomes were explored from students’ spoken reflections. Findings show that students learnt from conducting a real world interview task with professionals as a real audience outside the classroom to learn and use language skills such as speaking and listening, and wording of questions, to acquire life skills such as communi-cation strategies, problem-solving and decision-making skills and team spirit, as well as to gain knowledge of the real world such as people, places, cultures and themselves. Limitations and implica-tions are discussed.
Osama Ahmed Alwazzan & Hesham Suleiman Alyousef.
Saudi EFL Learners’ Test Anxiety Levels during CBT and PBT (pp. 215–229)
Individuals’ attitudes toward computer-based testing (CBT) can either increase or decrease their test anxiety level. As a result, they may be highly resistant to change or they may have different types of behavior. It is, therefore, pertinent to investigate individual students’ attitudes toward computers before administering CBT. This study investigated the effectiveness of CBT when compared to traditional paper-based testing (PBT) in terms of reducing test anxiety among Saudi learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). The participants were forty undergraduate male students enrolled in a first-year preparatory EFL course at a Saudi university. The students were divided into two groups, a CBT group and a PBT group, and took the same assessment in the two test formats. The participants completed two questionnaires to examine their anxiety levels before and during each test, and to collect information regarding their prior experience with and attitudes toward either testing format. An analysis of variance comparison was used to compare anxiety levels between the CBT and PBT groups. The findings showed that students had a neutral attitude toward both types of tests. Furthermore, the students’ attitudes did not have a significant impact on anxiety levels for either testing format. Rather, anxiety levels experienced in both testing formats were significantly correlated with each other and the attitude factor. Further research is required to delineate factors that may contribute to test anxiety as well as provide further insight into the under-represented student subgroup that participated in the study.
Gamze Erdem Cosgun & Perihan Savaş
Use of Information and Communication Technology by In-Service English Teachers for Self-Directed Professional Development (pp. 230–249)
The present study investigated 184 in-service English teachers’ use of information and communication technology (ICT), especially the Internet, for their self-directed professional development (SDPD). Data were collected via an online questionnaire that consisted of demographic information, Likert type items and open-ended questions. The participants of the study were teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at primary, secondary, high school, and university levels in Turkey. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively through SPSS, while qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed through a six-step coding process. The findings indicate that teachers benefited from ICT resources for overall professional development, practices at the classroom level, and collaboration with colleagues. Results also show that there were both promoting and inhibiting factors affecting teachers’ use of ICT resources. Participants also offered suggestions to both teachers and administrators to make more effective use of ICT resources for teacher professional development.
Andrzej Cirocki, Sandy T. Soto, Maria Asuncion Rojas Encalada & Ketty Vanessa Honores Cuenca
Motivational Strategies in the Secondary School EFL (pp. 250–265)
This contribution reports on a study of the motivational strategies used in the English as a foreign language classroom in Ecuador. The sample consisted of secondary school teachers (N=80) and students (N=350) who were recruited randomly. Using a mixed-methods approach – a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview – the results revealed an interesting picture of motivational strategies. Specifically, the findings disclosed that the teachers used six categories of motivational strategies in their pedagogical practice. The degree of utilisation of each category varied from high to low. The most frequent category was Displaying Appropriate Teacher Behaviours, whereas the least common was Promoting Learner Autonomy. Of the six categories used by the teachers, the three that students found most motivating were Creating a Friendly Classroom Atmosphere and a Cohesive Learner Group, Selecting and Presenting Instructional Activities and Displaying Appropriate Teacher Behaviours. The study also revealed that the students wished to be exposed to more diverse motivational strategies, especially those from the Promoting Learner Autonomy, Encouraging Positive Self-evaluation and Making Learning Stimulating and Attractive categories. The teachers agreed with the students’ choices; yet their preferences for motivational strategy categories were sequenced differently.
Shanthi Nadarajan
Malaysian Undergraduates’ Motivational Profiles: The Ideal L2 Learners and Motivated Learning Behaviour (pp. 266–280)
Drawing on cluster analysis to define and describe L2 adult learners’ motivational profiles, this study uses an L2 motivational construct to analyse and interpret L2 learners’ identities in the language classroom. The study explored seven broad motivational and attitudinal dispositions for learning English. A 60-item survey was used to collect responses from 673 Malaysian undergraduates. Statistical calculations revealed 5 distinct motivational profiles and the ideal L2 learner self as the primary component effecting motivated learning behaviour. Only the highly extrinsic and the intrinsically motivated learner profiles obtained high positive mean scores for the target outcome. Subsequent learner profiles revealed both highly extrinsically and intrinsically motivated learner profiles which are indicative of learners willing to take additional English classes. The combined findings for externally regulated variables revealed that most students took the course to improve their grades, but the highly intrinsic profile group did not see grades and social groups as important. The combined findings for the internally regulated motives revealed that both extrinsically motivated groups, and amotivation profiles did not have a positive learning experience compared to the intrinsic profiles. While the Ideal L2 Self, and Ought To L2 Self were the controlling factors, positive positioning in terms of integrative and intrinsic orientation help learners move towards self-determinism, while negative positioning contribute to resistance, or non-participation within the group. Since different positionings impact how learners exercise agency, instructors may need to treat L2 learners’ first language and multicultural knowledge as valuable resources to promote greater self-confidence, positioning, and investment. L2 learners will continue to invest in the learning process, if they see English as bringing different forms of capital and access to resources. Language instructors must consider the different forms of capital that English language learners possess, and encourage learner participation to help learners construct positive identities, and value the learning process.
Ali Akbar Khomeijani Farahani; Abbas Ali Rezaee & Robabeh Moshtaghi Zonouz
Motivational Trajectories in Language Learning: Evidence from Highly-Motivated English as a Foreign Language Learners (pp. 281–299)
This paper aims to provide a thicker description of the motivational profiles of an archetype associated with successful, highly-motivated English as foreign language (EFL) learners from a more holistic approach in an Iranian context. Once the results from a teacher focus group and a cluster analysis of questionnaire data made a robust identification basis for the typical learners of the archetype (N= 6), the study resorted to a corpus of English language learning histories (ELLH) and presented a description of motivational trajectories gaining insights from an interpretive approach within some conceptual tools of Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST). The findings uncovered the unique complex dynamic nature of language learning motivation for each participant with combinations of cognitive, affective, motivational, and contextual variables that functioned as blended driving forces accounting for motivational evolution, where the state space mostly started with the maintenance of self-esteem and ultimately navigated towards the deep attractor state of great fondness for engagement in English and attaining either integrativeness or an international posture. Given that the last attractor state has been entrenched over the course of the senior secondary school years, it is expected that the motivational system will withstand changes in the future The results might prove beneficial for researchers and teachers in manipulating motivational systems.
Reviews
Radin Honarzad
Review of “Autonomous Language Learning with Technology: Beyond the Classroom” (pp. 300–301)