scholarly journals Can Instant Messaging Platform QQ Help Solving the Deficiency of EFL Learners' Critical Literacy in China?

Author(s):  
Quanyou Ruan
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Iman Tohidian ◽  
Ali Khorsandi Taskoh

To be literate, students need to able to think critically and read between the lines to find the implicit meanings and ideologies. To help Iranian English language learners learn writing as a social action and not independent of social (in)justices and (in)equalities, we included critical literacy in a writing course at the University of [for anonymity]. We intend to illuminate teacher’s narration about raising students’ awareness towards (mal)practices, (in)justices, and (in)equalities of the society in their writings.To do so, all 52 undergraduate 3rd-year-EFL learners of English Literature and Translation participated in our writing class. The teacher was also an associate professor (50 years old) with critical literacy as his main area of research. Students were required to write essays as mid-term and final exams. The teacher’s reflection on the course in general and on the EFL learners’ reflective essays highlighted that teaching writing through critical literacy helped students realize that writing is a process dependent on different social and political issues.Students’ growth in critical consciousness through their writing reminds teaching practitioners, policy-makers, and teacher educators to provide innovation in their classrooms to empower language learners with teaching methodologies contrary to what they are accustomed to during their learning.


Author(s):  
Paschalia Patsala ◽  
Maria Michali

In the past, corpora were primarily employed by linguists. Recently, there has been a growing interest from teachers and researchers in the pedagogical applications of corpora. However, literature of corpus-based instruction has little explored whether corpus-based instruction can reinforce English Foreign Language (EFL) learners' critical literacy. This chapter builds on research and practices that explore how corpus-based teaching may enhance learners' critical literacy skills, offering recommendations to teachers of English as a foreign language. The main features of critical literacy teaching are presented, and consideration is given to tools and techniques through which educators can encourage EFL learners to critically look at authentic language data and question both the language and the reality they are exposed to, affecting or enabling social change.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ehsan Namaziandost ◽  
Sajad Shafiee ◽  
Ray Suryadi

Smartphones are becoming an increasingly common part of our daily lives. Applications used in these systems are extremely varied due to their extraordinary efficiency. With respect to language teaching, the use of these technologies has opened up new doors, changing innovatively the way teachers teach and students learn. Accordingly, this study aimed to find out the impacts of using WhatsApp as a mobile instant messaging application on teaching vocabulary among pre-intermediate EFL learners. To this end, 60 Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners were selected from a private English Language Institute. Then, they were randomly assigned to two equal groups- an experimental group and a control group. They were pre-tested by a researcher-made vocabulary test.  Then, the treatment was applied to both groups. As the treatment, the control group was taught with traditional activities whereas the experimental group was taught with the use of mobile application (WhatsApp). At the end of the instruction, a researcher-made vocabulary post-test was administered. The results of independent samples t-test and one-way ANCOVA indicated that the experimental group had better performance on the post-test compared to control group revealing the usefulness of the mobile application utilized in this study on learning vocabulary.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-57
Author(s):  
Shin Yi Chew ◽  
Yanqiu Chen

In recent, mobile technology is experiencing a highly development, it is necessary to explore whether it holds the potential to boost EFL learners’ language acquisition based on its instant messaging apps in synchronous voice chat (SVC) mode. With a focus on Chinese EFL learners, this study aimed to compare their speaking performance in SVC and face-to-face (F2F) chat modes. It also explored the relationship between learners’ speaking performance and anxiety levels in these two chat modes which allow real-time communication. In this mixed methods study, WeChat instant messaging was used as the platform for SVC. Forty students from a public university in China participated in 4 chat sessions in SVC and F2F chat modes over 4 weeks. Quantitative data were collected through the oral scores of the participants’ performance in the chat sessions and anxiety questionnaires. Then, qualitative data were obtained from a focus group interview. The findings revealed a significant difference in learners’ speaking performance in SVC and F2F chat. Students’ speaking performance outperformed in SVC chat compared to F2F chat. This could be linked to students’ anxiety levels which were slightly higher in F2F chat. Despite that, most of the students preferred F2F chat to SVC chat due to the practicality of F2F chat.


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