A Review of Foreign Language Learners’ Emotions

In the past half century, the research on emotions of foreign language learners (FLL) has shifted the focus from an exclusive analysis of negative emotions to a more holistic study of both negative emotions and positive emotions, and currently to mediators of multiple emotions. Of the FLL’s negative emotions, foreign language anxiety (FLA) attracts the most attention. Researchers have widely discussed the relationship between FLA and foreign language achievement, the influencing factors of FLA, the dynamicity of FLA as well as regulation and intervention strategies of FLA. Foreign language enjoyment (FLE) is the most heavily studied research subject on FLL’s positive emotions. Researchers generally focus on the influencing factors of FLE, the dynamicity of FLE and the relationship between FLE and FLA. With the implementation of holistic education, emotional intelligence (EI), a mediator of multiple emotions of FLL, has been becoming a newly hot topic in the field of FLL’s emotions. By reviewing the previous studies, this paper proposes that the future research on FLL emotion needs to expand the research perspectives, enrich the research topics, and innovate the research methods.

THE IMPACT OF VISUAL STIMULI ON THE CONTENT OF WRITING IN TAMIL LANGUAGE: A STUDY AMONG USM UNDERGRADUATES

Visual images are increasingly appearing in learning and teaching resources, delivered across a range of media in a variety of formats: digitally Web-based material and multimedia as well as print and as transparencies. The proliferation of image-rich resources is due to the wide availability of digital images and access to the technology and graphics software that facilitates the creation and delivery of visual materials. The main aim of this research is to investigate the role of visual stimuli in enhancing writing skills among USM undergraduates who are taking Tamil as foreign language. Writing is an important skill often emphasized among foreign language learners. However, most foreign language learners face difficulties to pen down their thoughts. The respondents of this research are pursuing LAT 300 (Tamil Language III) course at the School of Languages, Literacies and Translation and are divide into two groups, experimental and control group. The methods used is written assignment; topic with visual stimuli for experimental group and topic without stimuli for control group. The written assignments were graded using the university’s grading rubric. In the questionnaire, the respondents were also asked to give feedback on the use of visual stimuli in writing. The findings of this study revealed that the experimental group performed better as they were given visuals. The experimental group respondents highlighted that they needed stimuli to motivate and trigger their background knowledge on the essay topics. It is hoped that this study will aid language teachers and practitioners to utilize visuals as a support in the teaching of Tamil Language as foreign language.

Improvement of Students’ Autonomous Learning Behavior by Optimizing Foreign Language Blended Learning Mode

Given the significance of cultivating students’ autonomous learning ability, there is a need to develop an instructional model that can improve students’ awareness and behavior of autonomous learning, as well as to explore the effectiveness and optimization of this model effectively. Taking college English course as a case study, this paper constructs a blended learning mode based on SPOC, which combines advantages of online and offline teaching. 15 types of nonredundant sets resulting from 500 questionnaires has been explored, and the optimal factor combinations have been found out from 15 types with the technology of data mining to optimize the mode constructed previously. Optimized blended learning mode, emphasizing the optimal factors more, has been applied to College English curriculum design and teaching practice in China. Surveys of students’ achievement and autonomous learning behavior have been conducted after experiment. The results of the research indicate that the optimized blended learning mode will stimulate foreign language learners’ learning motivation, cultivate their autonomous learning ability, so as to construct and improve their autonomous learning behavior further.

Equitable and Inclusive (Classroom-Based) Foreign Language Assessment Using Universal Design for Learning

In increasingly diverse learner groups, it must be ensured that foreign language learners can reach their full potential, so diverse learner needs have to be catered to in teaching and in assessment contexts. Providing accessibility of learning, teaching, and assessment is a matter of equity and has increasingly been embraced as a principle of foreign language assessment. However, accessibility of language assessment has often been seen as a retrospective accommodation rather than a flexible planning of language assessment from the start. The purpose of the chapter is to discuss the potential of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) for (planning) classroom-based language assessment (CBLA) procedures in order to foster equitable and inclusive language assessment. After clarifying relevant terms, the notion of accessibility will be applied to foreign language assessment. UDL as a flexible framework for individualized language learning will be presented and illustrated for a foreign language context before its potential for classroom-based learning assessment (CBLA) is discussed and exemplified.

Examining the Association of Grit Profiles With Big Five Personality and Achievement Among Iranian Foreign Language Learners

Grit—trait-level perseverance and prolonged passion for primary goals—is related to several indicators of educational success such as academic achievement, engagement, and motivation. Although there is new evidence showing the beneficial effects of grit, most research has taken a variable-focused approach and consequently has failed to indicate how individuals with different grit profiles might have different academic results. The present study aimed to build on the existing literature on grit by investigating the relationship between grit, big five personality and L2 achievement. The participants of this study were 384 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students from different academic majors studying at Yazd University. They had enrolled in General English (GE) courses. The results of the cluster analyses showed that there were three natural grit profiles (Cluster 1 = High Perseverance and High Consistency; Cluster 2 = High Perseverance and Low Consistency; Cluster = Low Perseverance and High Consistency) in the current study. The results of the multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that students belonging to cluster 1 had the highest scores on big five personality traits and L2 achievement. The results also showed that when taking academic exams, high perseverance of effort and low consistency of interest were related to higher level of neuroticism and lower level of consciousness. Our study has some theoretical and practical implications. Regarding the theory, this study is related to the existing grit literature by elaborating the relationship between grit profiles, big five personality traits, and L2A. Regarding the practice, our findings affirm the significance of developing and implementing the big five personality traits interventions in grit prediction.

The Effect of Using KWL (Know-Want-Learned) Strategy on Reading Comprehension Of 5th Grade EFL Students in Kuwait

Metacognitive reading strategies play an essential role in improving reading comprehension. This study explores the effects of English metacognitive reading strategies and reading comprehension in Kuwaiti primary school students as foreign language learners; this experimental study tries to find a relationship between students' metacognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, and students' reading performance. Participants were fifth grade EFL students in Kuwait primary education government public schools. The students' reading comprehension was evaluated. Comprehension tracking strategies were measured using Metacognitive strategies (K-W-L Plus). While the experimental groups (B) received instructions according to (K-W-L Plus) techniques, the control (A) group was trained with the traditional teaching approach based on the Kuwait national curriculum school textbooks. A questionnaire investigating the use of English and perceived English proficiency was also conducted. The results revealed that Perceived proficiency in English was not determined by the early or late pre-school age of second language acquisition. Also, bilingual students with perceived proficiency in English had better meta-cognitive reading skills than low perceived proficiency in English. Comprehension monitoring and (K-W-L) strategy was adequate and the most important predictor of reading comprehension among all students in the research sample.

ACADEMIC WRITING CHALLENGES OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN PAKISTAN

This descriptive qualitative research sought to explore as what would be the best writing approach adopted to teach academic writing skill to the undergraduate university students to identify and minimize the identified problems. The aim of the study was to strengthen the academic writing skill of university students. For this purpose, thirty undergraduate students were selected and involved in focus group discussions to highlight the problematic area in the field of academic writing. Thematic analysis helped to understand the problems faced by the students and suggestions were made on the basis of the study’s findings. The study revealed the students’ inability to use appropriate vocabulary. These students lacked the skill to express themselves in their own words, and often their written work would look patchy. English being the foreign language to the students hampered their ability to think in the target language. The present study contributed to understand the problems and suggested process approach of writing to be adopted by the faculty to overcome the academic writing related problems. Key Words: Process Approach, Product Approach, Genre Approach, Academic Writing

INVESTIGATING SEVERAL SIMILAR QUESTIONS TYPES IN TURKISH, KURDISH, ENGLISH, RUSSIAN AND GERMAN

Language is used as a tool of communication in all over the world, and each society or country may adopt a different language leading various dialects or language usages. In order to interrogate different aspects, multiple question types are utilized in a language. Also, questions are globally used to get information about a topic / issue, ask for confirmation, request something or clarify some controversial aspects almost in all languages. In addition, some questions are directed to speakers via question words such as what, where or how; on the other hand, some questions are conducted via helping verbs, adjuncts or question tags. Foreign language learners first learn affirmative, then negative and finally questions forms in the target language that is why it may be inferred that using questions in a language requires improvement and experience. The current study aims to find out some similar questions types in Turkish, English,Kurdish, Russian and German; hence, an analysis has been conducted on question samples obtained descriptively in those languages. The results of the analysis indicated that there are some similar types of questions such as general questions, special questions, tag questions and alternative questions in both languages. Key Words: Types, question, Kurdish, English, Turkish, Russian, German

method of educating vocabulary in a foreign language or target language

The article illustrates the important features of vocabulary in receiving knowledge in a foreign language. The author of the article analyses the core hypothesis of vocabulary, crucial strategies, vital techniques, variety of instruction, and various approaches (methods) theoretically and practically. To conclude, teaching/learning vocabulary is one of the most crucial and difficult tasks in the field of foreign language teaching/learning. Learning a new word is considered a challenge to foreign language learners. Different strategies are suggested to handle the learning process. So that, teachers should consider that they are responsible to help learners use the most appropriate strategies, and carry on strategies they lack. Teachers should be aware of almost all issues related to this linguistic phenomenon.