Volume 5, Number 2, December 2008
Kenneth E. Williams & Melvin R. Andrade
(pp. 181–191)
The effect of anxiety on foreign language learning has been the subject of a growing body of research, which has focused mostly on students studying foreign languages in the United States and Canada. The present study, in contrast, examined anxiety in Japanese university EFL classes in regard to the type of situations that provoked the anxiety, the perceived cause of the anxiety, and the ability to cope with the anxiety. Based on questions used in a cross-cultural study of emotion responses (Matsumoto, Kudoh, Scherer, & Wallbott, 1988), a survey was conducted among 243 Japanese learners in 31 conversational English classes at four-year universities in Japan. Findings indicated that anxiety was most often associated with the output and processing (in the sense of mental planning) stages of the learning process and that students attributed the cause of anxiety to the teacher or other people. Other findings were that the effect of and response to anxiety were associated with gender and perceived ability level.
Larisa Nikitina & Fumitaka Furuoka
“A Language Teacher is Like…”: Examining Malaysian Students’ Perceptions of Language Teachers through Metaphor Analysis (pp. 192–205)
This article examines metaphors about language teachers created by a group of 23 Malaysian university students. The aims of the study are (1) to determine whether metaphors produced by language learners in the Asian educational context can fit into the four philosophical perspectives on education outlined by Oxford et al. (1998), and (2) to explore whether students’ gender influences their metaphor production. This study employs both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. The results of the content analysis of 27 metaphors produced by the participants show that Oxford et al.’s (1998) typology of metaphors is applicable in the Malaysian educational context. In addition, the qualitative analysis reveals that the imagery used in the metaphors is, to some extent, gender-related. However, the results of statistical analysis indicate that there are no statistically significant differences in the perceptions of the teacher’s role between the students of different genders. Pedagogical implications of the research findings are discussed.
Andrew Finch
An Attitudinal Profile of EFL Learners in Korea (pp. 206–219)
Research into attitudes and learning preferences of Korean second-language learners has, until recently, been carried out mostly in ESL environments, and has yielded a particular profile of the Korean learner abroad. For learners who remain in their mother country, however, such profiles are inadequate descriptors of what and how Asian EFL students learn. This study therefore set out to make a longitudinal learning profile of a particular group of EFL students in Korea. While the results were not intended as general statements about Korean students, it was hypothesized that culture-dependent, localized characteristics would become apparent, and that these would be more indicative of intrinsic attitudes and learning styles than out-of-country research. Results collected over three semesters showed evidence of a high level of awareness in the students, regarding active learning styles and strategies. This awareness reflects recent research in Asia, and raises the “nature/nurture” question with respect to learning styles and preferences. Finally, it is suggested that more attention might be given to the learning environment as a determiner of learning outcomes.
Vahid Parvaresh & Majid Nemati
Metadiscourse and Reading Comprehension: The Effects of Language and Proficiency (pp. 220–239)
The present study tries to investigate the effects of metadiscourse markers on the comprehension of English and Persian texts. This study, moreover, attempts to measure the participants’ awareness of those markers and their interaction with those texts in both languages by using a follow-up questionnaire. Based on an original English text, a set of 11 True/False questions was developed and used once with that text and once with its doctored version in which metadiscourse markers had been removed. The texts and questions were also translated into Persian and used for a Persian reading comprehension test. The analyses show that the participants performed significantly better on the un-doctored texts although they had read them first, regardless of whether the texts were in their L1 or in their L2. The results reveal that for L2 it was the lower proficiency learners who benefited more from the presence of metadiscourse markers. The results of the follow-up questionnaire also reveal that the difficulty of a text in its general sense had nothing to do with the presence or absence of markers, but the difficulty, in the sense of being able to comprehend the major points of the texts, was closely related to the presence or absence of those markers, with the un-doctored texts felt to be understood more. It was also found that higher proficiency EFL learners’ awareness of markers was nearly comparable with their awareness in their L1.
Lina Hsu & Chuen-Maan Sheu
A Study of Low English Proficiency Students’ Attitude toward Online Learning (pp. 220–233)
Students’ English proficiency in technical colleges in Taiwan is lagging behind their education level. How these students can be helped has become a great concern for teachers and the education authorities. This study gauged students’ attitude toward the use of CALL to supplement their learning in Freshman English class. The researchers created a website at the National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, which contained six types of exercises based on the contents of the Freshman English textbook. Six classes of Level-I students, a total of 373 students, were encouraged to use the website for three months and then answered a questionnaire. The results showed that (1) 66% of the students (N=247) had used the website; (2) 31.58 % of the users (N=78) visited the website for over two hours a week; (3) among the users, more than 70 % responded that the website helped them learn English more effectively; up to 90 % of those visiting the website for over two hours a week showed a positive attitude toward it; (4) around 40 % of the users and 90 % of those visiting for
over two hours a week said that the website could boost their confidence and interest in learning English; and (5) a correlation analysis shows that the more frequently the users visited the website, the more favorable the attitude they held toward it. The results indicate that teachers can design textbook-related exercises to reinforce students’ learning outside the classroom. Through repetitive training, students may get better test results and have a higher self-efficacy. This will increase their interest and confidence in learning English.