Fluency development in an EFL setting: A one-semester study

Language learning activities involving time-pressured repetition of similar content have been shown to facilitate improvements in fluency. However, concerns have been voiced about whether these gains might be offset by reduced levels of grammatical accuracy. This descriptive study tracked the oral proficiency of 32 Japanese university students enrolled in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes over one academic semester during which they regularly completed 3/2/1 fluency development activities. Measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) were analysed to investigate whether any developmental patterns could be identified. The results indicated that over the semester, the students made small, but significant gains in two fluency measures, the mean length of pause and the phonation/time ratio. Despite the relatively small size of the gains, expert ratings of perceived fluency suggested that these fluency improvements were detectable to the human ear. Furthermore, a significant relationship emerged between three of the four CAF measures over the semester. These results suggest that the activities moderately impacted students’ speaking fluency without negatively affecting accuracy or complexity levels; however, further longitudinal research is needed to determine which factors might influence this development, as class performance measures did not account for any of the variation detected.

Grammatical Verb Errors: Differences Between English Learners With and Without Diagnosed Language-Based Learning Disabilities

Purpose: This study examines the written language samples of fifth grade English learner (EL) students with and without diagnosed language-based learning disabilities (LLDs) in an effort to explore the utility of such supplemental materials for aiding in differential diagnosis of ELs with and without LLDs. Method: This sample of 127 fifth grade students consisted of ELs without identified disabilities ( n = 89) and ELs diagnosed with LLDs ( n = 38). Written language samples from a classroom-based expository writing task were coded for grammaticality and specific verb type of errors. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) between the groups that differed by language abilities was conducted at two time points to compare the frequency of errors and the average change in grammaticality from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year. Results: EL students with and without LLDs performed similarly at the beginning of the school year. ELs without LLDs showed greater average change in accuracy across the school year. Significantly, higher proportions of verb tense and verb omission errors were demonstrated by ELs with LLDs when compared with their EL peers at the end of the school year. Overall grammatical accuracy was also lower for ELs with LLDs. Conclusions: Group differences at the end of the school year were confirmed in types and rate of verb errors. Results support the potential clinical utility of monitoring verb errors in writing samples over time as a supplemental tool in diagnostic evaluations and assessments for progress monitoring.

Contextual learning approach to the development of the grammatical accuracy in EFL

The present article highlights the importance of teaching grammar contextually so that students develop their grammatical skills. Effective strategies for all the stages of a lesson-presentation, practice and production (PPP model) – are presented. The main elements of a contextualized lesson are discovery, cooperation, authentic material and reflection.

Information Disorder Online is an Issue of Information Quality

Issues of information disorder online could be reduced to the issue of information quality: not just about distinguishing truth from falsehood but highlighting, describing legitimate and credible information. “Trustworthiness” is the buzzword in info-quality circles, trending content online should have a signal of the level of ‘trust’ we can place on such content. Social media platforms have recognized the important of signals of trust, for low-quality content to be de-prioritized and high-quality quality content amplified. The algorithms built into a social media platform play an important role in the virality of content online and appear more focused on the quantity of user engagement with content than the quality of the content and the engagement .Information quality is an issue primarily about meaning: the semantic aspects are more relevant than engineering efficiency or grammatical accuracy.

Glocalizing ELT Reform in China: A Perspective from the Use of English in the Workplace

With the largest number of English learners in the world, the influence of the English language teaching (ELT) reform in China cannot be underestimated. This article explores the implications of the actual use of English in China’s workplace for ELT reform in the context of English as a lingua franca (ELF). On the basis of cross-validated data (questionnaire survey and focused interview) collected from 2495 participants, we argue that ELT reform in China should be geared towards using English communicatively in ELF settings –that is, firstly, ELT curriculum and pedagogies should focus more broadly on improving students’ communication skills instead of narrowly measuring whether they have successfully adhered to lexico-grammatical accuracy pertaining to Standard English norms. Secondly, the native-speaker-based pedagogical model of ELT in China should be enriched with judiciously selected indigenized variants as long as meaning is not adversely affected. Last but not least, for ELT reforms to bear fruit, it is absolutely crucial to ensure a steady supply of properly trained and resourceful ELT teachers.

An investigation of machine translation output quality and the influencing factors of source texts

The use of machine translation (MT) in the academic context has increased in recent years. Hence, language teachers have found it difficult to ignore MT, which has led to some concerns. Among the concerns, its accuracy has become a major factor that shapes language teachers’ pedagogical decision to use MT in their language classrooms. Despite the urgency of the issue, studies on MT output quality in foreign language education remain scarce. Moreover, as MT is advancing every year, updated studies are imperative. Therefore, the present study investigated the quality of MT outputs (Google Translate) from Korean to English by comparing it with the English-translated texts of intermediate English as a foreign language students. The study also examined the factors within the source texts that affect the quality of MT outputs. Five trained evaluators examined multiple aspects of MT output samples (N = 104) and students’ English texts (N = 104), including mechanics, vocabulary, grammar, and context. The results showed that both texts were equally comprehensible, but MT outperformed the students in most aspects under investigation. The study further found that only two factors in the source texts – punctuation and sentence complexity – influenced MT output quality, whereas lexical and grammatical accuracy, lexical diversity, and contextual understanding did not affect it. Based on the results, the study presents classroom implications for using MT for educational purposes.

English Language Standards in California, China and Mexico: History, Comparison, and Analysis

Learning standards have become a prominent feature for schools and school systems worldwide. Our paper describes the development of recent English teaching standards in California, China, and Mexico, as well as analyzing them for their theoretical orientations. We begin with an overview and critique of the standards movement. Our analysis of the standards in California, China, and Mexico reveals a substantial shift from a grammatical accuracy focused approach towards a communicative approach to language instruction. While this turn may be welcomed by professional educators, there are practical policy questions to be answered. We end our paper by noting additional challenges to implementing the new standards. Our general assessment is that the authors of the standards firmly believe that the new guidelines will improve instruction.

Teacher’s Corrective Feedback in Paragraph Writing in Terms of Accuracy: Teacher’s Comments Vs. Error Marking

The aim of this paper is investigating whether teacher’s corrective feedback (Teacher’s comment vs. error marking) caused any differential effects on the paragraph writing in term of accuracy by Iranian EFL learners. The participants were divided into two groups. Experimental group1 and experimental group 2 forty learners in intermediate level formed two groups, 20 learners in each group. One experimental group did not receive teacher’s comment in terms of grammar during four alternative weeks; the other group received teacher’s comment. The statistical analysis indicated that the second group performed better than the group which did not receive teachers’ comment in terms of accuracy in paragraph writing. Therefore, these results suggested that teachers’ corrective feedback has pedagogical value, and teachers’ corrective feedback promoted learners' grammatical accuracy in L2 writing more effectively.

The Effect Of Indirect Coded Versus Indirect Non-Coded Corrective Feedback On Improving Students’ Grammatical Accuracy Of EFL Writing Class

The aimed at investigating the effectiveness of indirect coded CF and indirect non-coded CF on improving grammatical accuracy at the fourth semester students of English Literature Study Program Flores University in 2013/2014. This research was quasi-experiment with pre-test-post-test non-equivalent design. As the sample, 54 students in three intact classes with 18 students of each class were randomly assigned to three groups; indirect coded CF, indirect non-coded CF, and control groups. Free writing was the major source of data. The scoring scheme adopted based on the five categories; content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. The instrument reliability was assessed by the inter-rater technique. ANCOVA was to analyze data continued by post-hoc Scheffe. The upshots denote that (1) indirect-coded CF and indirect non-coded CF have a significant difference of effectiveness on grammatical accuracy in the second draft with self editing strategy: (2) indirect coded CF is more effective than indirect non-coded CF, and that of control group in the second draft with self-editing strategy; (3) indirect coded CF and indirect non-coded CF have a significant different in a new draft; (4) indirect coded CF is more effective than indirect non-coded CF, and that of control group in a new draft