N-gram use in EFL learners’ retelling and monologic tasks

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaopeng Zhang ◽  
Baoshan Zhao ◽  
Wenwen Li
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Association Strength ◽  
College Level ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
N Gram

Abstract This study examined n-gram use in oral production by Chinese college-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners at four distinct proficiency levels. Thirty indices regarding range, frequency, and association strength of bi- and tri-grams obtained from retelling and monologic samples were analyzed. Results suggest that, i) the four proficiency levels differed in measures for frequency and association strength of bi- and tri-grams, ii) academic bi- and tri-gram proportions and association strength (captured by MI- and t-scores) were predictive of EFL speaking proficiency for both the retelling and monologic samples but the effects were small, and iii) EFL learners used more well-attested bi- and tri-grams in monologues than in retelling, demonstrating that higher rated samples tended to contain more strongly-associated bi- and tri-grams, a greater proportion of frequent attested academic tri-grams, and that EFL n-gram use was task-sensitive. These findings help enrich our understanding on EFL development of multi-word sequences and have potentially useful implications for EFL pedagogy.

An exploration of target L2 morphemes in the oral production of young EFL learners in Croatia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena O'Reilly ◽  
Eva Jakupčević
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Simple Construction ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
The Past ◽  
Base Form ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Efl Students

Although the second language (L2) acquisition of morphology by late L2 learners has been a popular research area over the past decades, comparatively little is known about the acquisition and development of morphology in children who learn English as a foreign language (EFL). Therefore, the current study presents the findings from a longitudinal oral production study with 9/10-year-old L1 Croatian EFL students who were followed up at the age of 11/12. Our results are largely in line with the limited research so far in this area: young EFL learners have few issues using the be copula and, eventually, the irregular past simple forms, but had considerable problems with accurately supplying the 3rd person singular -s at both data collection points. We also observed a be + base form structure, especially at the earlier stage, which appears to be an emergent past simple construction.

Effects of Reading-Listening Integrated Dictation on Chinese EFL Students’ Listening Performance

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 417-429
Author(s):  
Haiyan Miao
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
College Level ◽  
Learning Gains ◽  
Text Difficulty ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Efl Students

Abstract This study examines the effects of reading-listening integrated dictation on Chinese college-level English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ listening. Different from previous research that explored reading while listening for listening development, this study combined the two skills in dictation in which listening was a continuation of reading. Participants were two groups of first-year Chinese EFL learners who were exposed to the target language under two conditions: the traditional dictation (i. e., listening-only) and the reading-listening integrated dictation in a counterbalanced order. Three datasets were collected: listening performance, perception questionnaires and follow-up interviews. Results indicated that the reading-listening integrated dictation was superior in terms of learning gains from listening and that their effect was commensurate with dictation text difficulty. The findings also showed that the reading-listening integrated dictation could enhance EFL students’ confidence and interest and make the use of strategies possible during listening.

scholarly journals Cohesion in the Narrative Writing of Young EFL Learners: Correct and Incorrect Use of Local Cohesive Ties

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-177
Author(s):  
Pedro Antonio Férez Mora ◽  
◽  
Yvette Coyle ◽  
Juan Antonio Solís Becerra
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Narrative Writing ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Old Spanish ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Local Cohesion

This study examines the correct and incorrect use of local cohesive ties and local cohesion errors in the written narratives of eleven- to twelve-year-old Spanish learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at different proficiency levels. The study was carried out with pairs who collaboratively wrote a narrative text in response to a picture prompt. The young learners’ written texts were examined to identify their correct and incorrect use of four categories: lexical, referential, conjunctive and temporal cohesion. The results show that higher and lower proficiency learners are significantly different in their use of the causal conjunction because, personal pronouns and noun phrases containing possessive, definite, indefinite and zero determiners. The two groups also differ in their incorrect use of pronouns, simple verb forms and noun phrases containing definite, indefinite and zero determiners. Attention is drawn to the need to explore the diversity in young learners’ use of cohesion and some pedagogical implications are drawn.

scholarly journals The effect of vocabulary size in oral productions on the speaking proficiency of EFL learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 150-154
Author(s):  
Ehsan Kazemi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Oral Proficiency Interview ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
Freshman Students ◽  
Listening And Speaking ◽  
Experimental Group

This study investigates the effect of using a bigger vocabulary size in oral classroom presentations on the speaking proficiency of students in English as a foreign language. The study was conducted with 30 freshman students doing their listening and speaking course in Semnan University. For the entire course of 12 weeks, the students in the experimental group were asked to present their productions in terms of the vocabulary they employed, which was also the focus of the teacher’s evaluation in each session. At the end of the course, they were interviewed for their proficiency in speaking. The descriptive and inferential calculations were done based on a modified version of an oral proficiency interview scale suggested by Penny Ur. The answers were recorded and their fluency and accuracy were graded. The results suggest that students with a vocabulary-rich production improved their speaking proficiency in English more than other students did.   Keywords: Vocabulary size, speaking proficiency, production, fluency, accuracy, interview.    

Picture or non-picture? The influence of narrative task types on lower- and higher-proficiency EFL learners’ oral production

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuyan Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Task Types

Abstract Picture-based storytelling tasks, i. e. telling a story relying on some pictures, and short speech tasks, i. e. producing a speech with a given topic without pictures, are two types of oral narrative tasks widely adopted in previous studies. However, few have discussed what effects these two types of tasks may exert on second language learners’ speaking performance. In this study, sixty English as a foreign language learners, divided into lower- and higher-proficiency groups, performed a picture-based storytelling task and a short speech task. Stimulated recalls were collected from seventeen participants. Their oral discourses were analysed in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Stimulated recalls were analysed based on Levelt’s speaking model. The short speech tasks raised participants’ accuracy and lexical complexity and were more effective for higher-proficient learners regarding structural complexity. The findings yield suggestions for designing oral narrative tasks for EFL learners with different L2 proficiency levels.

EFL learners’ speaking proficiency and its connection to emotional understanding, willingness to communicate and musical experience

2019 ◽  
pp. 136216881989186
Author(s):  
Antonio Fernández-García ◽  
M. Carmen Fonseca-Mora
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Emotional Response ◽  
Willingness To Communicate ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Emotional Understanding ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
Song Lyrics ◽  
Speaking Skills

One of the main reasons for studying a foreign language is communicating with others, but many students do not feel confidently enough when trying to develop their speaking skills. Among adolescents’ frequent activities are that of listening to music while paying attention to song lyrics. We hypothesize that these musical experiences could influence their speaking skills. The present study aims to consider different factors that could influence students’ speaking proficiency. Among these factors, students’ emotional understanding, their willingness to communicate in a FL and their musical experience are considered. One hundred and twenty-four students of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the fourth year of Secondary Education from three different high schools in Spain took part in the study. Oral data were collected through individual interviews and three scales were administered to measure the different factors. Students’ musical experience and emotional response to music were measured through The Absorption in Music Scale, their emotional understanding of verbal texts through The Situational Test of Emotional Understanding – Brief, and their willingness to communicate in the EFL class through Willingness to Communicate Scale. Although no direct connection was found between students’ musical experience and their speaking proficiency, results demonstrate that students with high emotional understanding show better speaking skills and that students with musical experience exhibited higher emotional understanding. We detected a significant positive connection between emotional understanding and all the five parameters considered to assess students’ speaking proficiency. The connection between willingness to communicate in the EFL class and students’ speaking skills is even greater.

scholarly journals Speaking proficiency of young language students: A discourse-analytic study

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ching-Ni Hsieh ◽  
Yuan Wang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Assessment ◽  
Mixed Design ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Assessment Task ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
Comprehensive Test ◽  
Language Students ◽  
Task Types

This study investigated a range of fluency, grammar, vocabulary, and content features of young language students’ speaking performances, using a discourse-analytic approach. In total, 179 test takers’ responses to the speaking section of the TOEFL Junior® Comprehensive test were selected for analysis. Mixed-design ANOVAs were used to compare 21 spoken discourse features across four proficiency levels and two task types (i.e., a picture narration task and an integrated listen/speak task). The discourse features largely differentiated test takers across proficiency levels. Task types showed some impact on measures of grammar, vocabulary, and content, but had no influence on features of fluency. Findings of the study have implications for the language development of young second and foreign language students and provide insights into language assessment task design for this population.

scholarly journals Croatian EFL Learners’ Interlanguage Requests: A Focus on Request Modification

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-93
Author(s):  
Danijela Šegedin Borovina
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Oral Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Weak Evidence ◽  
Completion Test

This paper explores the development of pragmatic competence in the interlanguage of Croatian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) at three proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced). It investigates the way Croatian learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) use internal and external supportive moves to modify their requests. Data were collected using an oral Discourse Completion Test consisting of ten school-related situations. The research participants were 60 EFL learners aged between 11 and 18. The coding categories developed in the Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP, Blum-Kulka et al. 1989) and adapted by Schauer (2009) were used to analyse the data. Overall results indicated that the request production of EFL learners showed little variation regarding the type of modification and frequency of their use. Results also indicated weak evidence of pragmalinguistic development across levels, particularly in the use of grounders. The infrequent use of request modification suggests that pragmatic instruction should be included in FL classrooms to facilitate the development of L2 pragmatic ability.

Study of Consonant Pronunciations Errors Committed by EFL Learners

2019 ◽  
pp. 48-56
Author(s):  
Ali Akbar Khansir ◽  
Afsaneh Salehabadi
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Listening Skill ◽  
English Pronunciation ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Knowledge Of Language

As the topic suggests, the research paper presents Study of Consonant Pronunciations Errors Committed by EFL Learners. Error analysis always tries to resolve language learners’ problems in acquiring second or foreign language setting. Learning to English pronunciation is perhaps as important as learning listening skill, speaking, and spelling. Errors in English pronunciation create several problems for English language learners in their works. In other words, most of the English language errors of pronunciation are due to the lack of knowledge of language learners. However, all the students in our sample are of age group (16-25) at Bushehr language institute and they are all Iranian nationals. In addition, all of them were female learners. An English pronunciation (consonant) test was used to get information about the knowledge of the learners in English pronunciation. Findings of this article indicated that the first and second hypotheses of this article were accepted, but the third hypothesis was rejected. However, the findings of this paper showed that the Iranian EFL students have problem to pronounce English sounds correctly.

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