El desarrollo de la competencia cultural en el entorno virtual – teoría y práctica

This article deals with the issue of cultural competence in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language in the virtual environment. It presents the term ‘culture’, deals with interculturality, and shows some practical examples of how to teach culture in the virtual classroom. The objective here is to differentiate the types of culture and analyze the different ways to use them in Spanish as a foreign language classroom when working with students at the threshold level (A1–A2/B1).

Understanding Austria from Afar: Treating Regional Variation in the Virtu-al German as a Foreign Language Classroom.

The COVID-19 pandemic has influenced nearly every aspect of the academic world, and study abroad is no exception. Particularly in the foreign language learning sector, the unprecedented switch from in-class lectures to distance learning brought with it many challenges. Not only were language instructors tasked with creating an interactive language learning atmosphere from afar but continuing to spark student motivation while catering to a broad range of learning goals constituted a seemingly insurmountable obstacle. The following case study therefore seeks to provide an easily adaptable and interactive task-based activity for the German as a foreign language classroom that should support learners in gaining a deeper understanding of the social dimensions and usages of Austrian regional varieties. Furthermore, the activity is designed so as to be applicable in both an online as well as face-to-face classroom and accommodate foreign language instructors with less experience in digital course delivery and/or minimal access to learning management systems. Abstract in German Die COVID-19 Pandemie hat nahezu jeden Aspekt der akademischen Welt beeinflusst, und Study Abroad ist keine Ausnahme. Gerade im Bereich des Fremdsprachenerwerbs hat die beispiellose Umstellung von Präsenzunterricht auf Fernlehre viele Herausforderungen mit sich gebracht. Nicht nur wurden Fremdsprachenlehrer:innen mit der Aufgabe konfrontiert, eine interaktive Sprachlernatmosphäre aus der Ferne zu schaffen, sondern auch die Motivation der Schüler:innen trotz der Situation zu wecken, aufrechtzuerhalten und gleichzeitig ein breites Spektrum an Lernzielen zu berücksichtigen. Dies hat eine scheinbar unüberwindbare Hürde dargestellt. In der folgenden Fallstudie handelt es sich daher um die Bereitstellung einer leicht adaptierbaren und interaktiven task-based Aktivität für den Deutsch als Fremdsprachenunterricht, die Lernende dabei unterstützen soll, ein tieferes Verständnis der sozialen Dimensionen und Verwendungen österreichischer Regionalvarietäten zu erlangen. Darüber hinaus ist die Aktivität so konzipiert, dass sie sowohl im Online- wie auch im Präsenzunterricht Einsatz finden und von Fremd-sprachenlehrer:innen mit wenig(er) Erfahrung in der digitalen Abhaltung von Lehrveranstaltungen und/oder minimalem Zugang zu Lernmanagement-systemen umgesetzt werden kann.

How Classroom Environment and General Grit Predict Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety of Chinese EFL Students

Interest in the role of learners’ personality, emotions and the learning environment in foreign language (FL) learning has grown exponentially in the past decade. The introduction of personality psychology in the field of applied linguistics has led to the inclusion of a set of personality dimensions in research designs like resilience and grit, which have been shown to be significant predictors of FL achievement. The abrupt emergence of COVID-19 in 2020 forced universities around the world to move their courses online, which has been named Emergency Remote Teaching. The sudden change in FL learning environment offers a unique opportunity to researchers to investigate whether the relationships between learners’ personality and classroom emotions in traditional ‘in-person’ classes, and the predictors of those emotions, also exist in the new online environments. The present study examined the foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) of Chinese secondary students at different instruction levels and its links with learner-internal and external factors, namely general grit and the classroom environment (CE) of the online English classes. A total of 1,526 Chinese secondary students completed an online questionnaire. Pearson correlation analyses and regression analyses revealed that general grit and CE predicted FLCA either independently or jointly. The findings are discussed and interpreted in the light of existing research on person-environment interaction. We identify avenues for further research and propose a number of pedagogical implications for optimizing online FL teaching.

USING GROUP-BASED METHODS IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM WITH STUDENTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENTS

The article deals with the problem of using group-based foreign language learning in higher education establishments. The emphasis is on the advantages of small-group work in the foreign language classroom. The general models of using small groups are described in the article.

Turn-taking in EFL Classroom Discourse

In this essay, there will be a contrast and comparison between the teacherdominant turn-taking patterns and students-centered turn-taking patterns. This comparison can help us to find out which pattern can help develop an effective turn-taking in classroom discourse. In terms of the turn-taking pattern in EFL classroom, there also will be a study of turn-taking patterns. This study is concentrated on the EFL students who study in foreign language classroom. Different turn-taking patterns will be recorded to analyze students’ language performance and language anxiety during the turns change process. Brown (2008) proposes that senior foreign language learners tend to be influenced by the low sense of confidence, the feel of shame and inferiority. However, evidence shows that many students with higher level of language proficiency also are silent in the foreign language classroom. They seldom take turns to make a contribution to the speech in the classroom. This essay shows great interests in the relationship between EFL learners’ language anxiety and turn-taking patterns. Particularly, this essay will explore the several turn-taking patterns which can help to foster the flow of classroom talk. These turn-taking patterns will be analyzed in two directions: the teacher-fronted turns exchange and students-centered exchange. This can help EFL teachers to adjust the turn-taking patterns to the classroom teaching to help students get more involvements in the classroom conversation.

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN EFL ANXIETY AND STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION”.

The objective of the current study examined whether there was any significant correlation between foreign language classroom anxiety and students’ reading comprehension. In this regard, hopefully, this study provided English language lecturers to recognize the most provoking factor that affect learning a foreign language, such anxiety and helped students to solve language anxiety to become better English language students. This researcher was conducted at Lakidende University, particularly 32 university students of English Language Teaching Department who enrolled in academic year 2018/2019. The data were obtained from students’ reading comprehension test and questionnaire that is Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) and to analyze the data this study applied Pearson Correlation analysis. The finding revealed that there was a significant relationship between foreign language classroom anxiety and students’ reading comprehension, p (.061) 0.05. Meanwhile, the strength of correlation between reading anxiety and students’ reading comprehension was categorized “moderate” according to table Guidelines of Interpreting Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (r =.381). It might be the fact that most of students frequently experienced moderate level of foreign language classroom anxiety in their reading comprehension class.

Validating the Short-Form Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (S-FLCAS)

Foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) is a popular construct in applied linguistics research, traditionally measured with the 33-item Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). However, recent studies have started utilising the 8-item Short-Form Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (S-FLCAS). There is therefore a need, which this study addressed in five sequential steps, to validate the S-FLCAS in order to ensure the validity and reliability of the scale. A sample of n = 370 foreign language learners was utilised in the validation efforts, which included exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, the establishment of convergent and discriminant validity, and invariance testing. The S-FLCAS was found to have a unidimensional structure with the 8 items loading on a single latent variable. Evidence was provided of the internal consistency and the convergent and discriminate validity of the S-FLCAS. In addition, the measure was found to be fully invariant across age, gender, educational levels, and L1 groups. It is therefore with some considerable confidence that we can recommend the future use of the S-FLCAS in peer-reviewed research.