scholarly journals The Impact of Discourse Marker Instruction on Fluency, Accuracy, and Complexity Improvement of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 152
Author(s):  
Ghader Asadzadian ◽  
Rashid Saad ◽  
Fereshteh Asadzadian
Keyword(s):  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Writing Courses ◽  
English Major ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of the study was to investigate the impact of discourse marker (DM) instruction on fluency, accuracy, and complexity improvement of Iranian intermediate EFL learner’s writing. To this aim, among the two hundred forth year English major learners in Dezful university, Iran, fifty of them who were in the intermediate level, based on the scoring system of the university, were recruited. They were given a topic to write before intervention. Then, the fifty participants passed through twenty-hour instruction on micro and macro DMs, based on Belles-Furtuno’s (2004) classification of discourse markers. The mentioned classification included both sentential and supra sentential markers. In the process of explicit instruction (EI) of DMs, they were given various exercises and activities to apply DMs and learn the function and usage of these units and input flood (IF) was performed along with corrective feedback (CF) with the help of the teacher with their mistakes and misunderstandings of DMs. After intervention, they were given another topic to write to examine if EI+IF of DMs could help them improve fluency, accuracy, and complexity of their writing. To quantify the results the Wolfe-Quintero (1998) method was used and it was unveiled that all the three components of writing improved after intervention, which practically means instruction of DMs could enhance learner’s writing in the three aspects. The findings can be used by teachers and syllabus designers to consider DMs as one of the most crucial components in writing courses.

scholarly journals Discourse markers in academic and non-academic writings of Thai EFL learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1209-1226
Author(s):  
Sumit Choemue ◽  
Barli Bram
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Writing Assignments ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
University Level ◽  
The University

The ability to use discourse markers (DMs) to create cohesion and coherence of a text is essential for EFL learners at the university level to express ideas and thoughts in various types of writing assignments, such as academic papers and reflections. Hence, this study attempted to shed more light on the use of DMs in academic and non-academic writings of Thai EFL learners. The main objective was to investigate the types, overall frequency, and differences, and similarities of discourse markers in both styles of writing. Sixty essays, consisting of 20 academic essays and 40 non-academic ones, were selected as the primary data. Academic essays were selected from the Critical Reading and Writing course of Xavier Learning Community (XLC), Thailand, while the non-academic ones were selected from the XLC English Newsletter. The data were analyzed based on Fraser’s taxonomy (2009). The results showed that 2.521 DMs distributed in five types, namely contrastive discourse, elaborative discourse, inferential discourse, temporal discourse, and spoken discourse markers, were identified in the 20 academic and 40 non-academic essays.  The most frequently used DM was elaborative discourse markers (EDM), F=1,703. This study concluded that raising awareness of DMs would assist Thai EFL learners in producing an effective and coherent piece of writing. 

scholarly journals CAN EFL LEARNERS' LEARNING STYLES IMPACT THEIR PERFORMANCE ON WRITING SKILL UNDER DIRECT AND INDIRECT CORRECTIVE FEEDBACKS?

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Mojtaba Maghsoudi ◽  
Sahar Saeedi
Keyword(s):  
Learning Styles ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Skill Scores ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Field Dependent ◽  
Writing Skill ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Experimental Group

This study presents the findings of an investigation of the impact of teacher error corrective feedback on 180 field-dependent/ field-independent (FD/FI) male and female pre-intermediate and advanced Iranian EFL learners writing skill. The participants were separated into two experimental groups and one control group and were asked to write three paragraphs of about 100-150 words around three different topics, each in odd days of a week; then they received direct (in experimental group 1), indirect (in experimental group 2) and no correction feedback (in control group). The results based on Mean Scores, Standard Deviation, Multivariate Analyses and 1-way ANOVA showed that there was not any significant difference between the FD/FI learners' writing skill scores who had received corrective feedback on their errors; however, as indicated by the second finding of the present study it would be better to feedback field-dependent/-independent EFL learners indirectly. It was also indicated that, learners' learning styles had made a significant change in their writing skill scores.

scholarly journals Arab Learners of English and the Use of Discourse Markers in Writing

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 715
Author(s):  
Farah Mohammad Al Mughrabi
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Academic Level ◽  
Development Level ◽  
English Major ◽  
Hashemite University ◽  
Academic Year

This study aims at investigating the development level of Arab EFL learners in the use of discourse markers (DMs) in writing through the analysis of their errors. For this purpose, two types of questions regarding the use of DMs (additive, causative, adversative, and temporal) were distributed to 40 undergraduates (20 males & 20 females), first, second, third, and fourth year English-major, in the academic year 2015, at the Hashemite University in Jordan. The study concludes that students' level in using DMs becoming better and better as their academic level evolves.

The interplay of oral corrective feedback and L2 willingness to communicate across proficiency levels

2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882092896
Author(s):  
Mostafa Zare ◽  
Zohreh Gooniband Shooshtari ◽  
Alireza Jalilifar
Keyword(s):  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Willingness To Communicate ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Feedback Type ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
High Preference ◽  
Oral Corrective Feedback ◽  
The Impact

This study aims to explore the impact of oral corrective feedback types on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ willingness to communicate across proficiency levels. It also investigates how EFL learners view different types of feedback in relation to their willingness to communicate. Sixty Iranian EFL learners were tracked in four proficiency levels. Initially, the participants filled in a questionnaire to measure their attitudes to oral CF and their willingness to communicate. Subsequent to the teachers’ employment of explicit correction, recasts, and prompts, the learners’ willingness to communicate was measured anew. A semi-structured interview was also conducted. The results revealed learners’ high preference for prompts. A two-way mixed between-within ANOVA demonstrated a significant effect for both oral corrective feedback and proficiency level on willingness to communicate. Furthermore, elicitative types of feedback were ranked as the most contributory feedback type to L2 willingness to communicate.

Developing a New Shadowing Procedure for Japanese EFL Learners

RELC Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003368822093762
Author(s):  
Yo Hamada
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Explicit Instruction ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Primary Study ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
Speakers Of Other Languages ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Preliminary Study

Shadowing, a practice of repeating what one hears as simultaneously and accurately as possible, has been researched in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) field for years. The research findings have shown that shadowing contributes to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ bottom-up listening skills, which leads to their overall listening comprehension skills. However, the accumulated research findings have not uncovered what aspects of bottom-up skills shadowing precisely contributes to. Thus, this study attempts to examine the aspects of bottom-up skills to which shadowing contributes and proposes a new shadowing procedure to compensate for the limitation of the current shadowing procedure. To this end, a preliminary study and a primary study were conducted. In the preliminary study, the bottom-up skill development through shadowing practice was precisely examined, using a 112-item bottom-up listening test. Thirty-six Japanese university students participated in the experiment and engaged in shadowing practice in eight lessons for a month. The result showed that shadowing practice was effective for developing the skill of identifying prominence in a speech, and word recognition skills but not effective for enhancing phonemic discrimination skills. In the primary study, to overcome the limitation of the shadowing procedure, a new shadowing procedure including three components of attention to output, corrective feedback, and explicit instruction was proposed. Twelve Japanese university students participated and engaged in the new shadowing procedure for three months. Their progress was assessed by a 32-item phonemic discrimination test, and the result showed that the new output-based shadowing procedure with explicit instruction and corrective feedback improved phonemic discrimination skills for intermediate level Japanese EFL learners.

The effectiveness of written corrective feedback and the impact Lao learners’ beliefs have on uptake

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Rummel ◽  
John Bitchener
Keyword(s):  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Written Corrective Feedback ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Feedback Preferences ◽  
The Impact

This article presents the results of a study examining the effectiveness of written corrective feedback (CF) on the simple past tense and the impact beliefs may have on students’ uptake of the feedback they receive. A seven-week study was carried out with 42 advanced EFL learners in Vientiane, Laos. Students’ beliefs about written CF were first collected, after which they were assigned to either the control group or to groups that received written CF according to their feedback preferences. Students produced four pieces of writing (pre-test, post-test and two delayed post-tests) that responded to four different narrative prompts. The targeted grammatical feature was the simple past tense. The study found that the three feedback groups showed significant improvement in the use of the targeted feature while the control group did not. Furthermore, the results seemed to indicate that beliefs might have impacted on the extent to which the Lao students improved their linguistic accuracy because the students who received their preferred type of feedback were more successful at eliminating the targeted errors than the ones who did not.

scholarly journals Investigating Metalinguistic Written Corrective Feedback Focused on EFL Learners' Discourse Markers Accuracy in Mobile-mediated Context

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Pourdana ◽  
Payam Nour ◽  
Fariba Yousefi
Keyword(s):  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Preliminary Test ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
L2 Writing ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Writing Performance ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Intact Group ◽  
Written Corrective Feedback ◽  
Learning Platform

Abstract Among a growing body of research that examined the contradictory role of written corrective feedback (WCF) in development of L2 writing accuracy, this study investigated the possible impact of focused metalinguistic WCF on discourse markers (DMs) in writing performance of an intact group of 42 Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners over an eight-week period. In an authentic, situated, and personalized learning platform, giving and receiving WCF were made possible only through the mobile-mediated application of WhatsApp. Before participants wrote on selected elicitation topics, they had taken part in a 2004 version of Oxford Preliminary Test in order to be screened for their initial differences in writing performance. After receiving metalinguistic WCF on their scripts, participants were required to work on the coded feedback and try to eliminate the DM errors in their revised writing assignment. After collecting the scripts over an eight-week period, the content of written assignment was thematically analyzed using NVivo 21 Software for the additive, adversative, causal and temporal DMs, following Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) typology. In a convergent mixed-methods design, the content analysis of the qualitative data showed a larger distribution of additive DM than adversative, causal, and temporal DMs in all participants’ written scripts. Exploring the possible impact of metalinguistic WCF on improving the DMs accuracy, analysis of the frequency count data with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) multivariate Chi-square test reported the fluctuation and unsystematic patterns of distribution for four types of DMs with no sign of significant long-term improvement in DMs accuracy after receiving metalinguistic WCF. These findings implied further research on practicing alternative WCF strategies focused on variety of error types in actual and virtual L2 writing environments.

scholarly journals The Impact of Immediate and Delayed Corrective Feedback on Iranian EFL Learners’ Willingness to Communicate

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Mahtab Zadkhast ◽  
Majid Farahian
Keyword(s):  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Willingness To Communicate ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Immediate Feedback ◽  
Intermediate Students ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Experimental Group ◽  
Group 1

The present study investigated the impact of immediate and delayed corrective feedback on Iranian EFL learners’ willingness to communicate. To attain the purpose of the study, 45 females intermediate students that were roughly selected according to their previous grades and their assigned  level in language school were chosen to participate in this study. Then they were divided to three equal groups: Experimental group 1(immediate feedback), Experimental group 2 (delayed feedback) and control group. In the first session, WTC questionnaire (MacIntyre ,2001 modified by Pourya Baghaei and Ali Dourakhshan) was administered to all groups as pretests. In group 1 the students’ errors were corrected by the teacher immediately after committing but in the second group, the students’ errors were written by the teacher and her comments were given to them when they finished their tasks. For the control group, the routine procedure of New Headway intermediate was followed. After about 12 sessions WTC was repeated as posttests. The findings revealed that immediate and delayed corrective feedback have a significant effect on EFL students’ level of WTC. The results, also demonstrated that experimental group 1 (immediate feedback) outweighed the other two groups in relation to their WTC. The findings have implication for pedagogy as well as further research.

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