Correlating self-efficacy with self-assessment in an undergraduate interpreting classroom: How accurate can students be?

The current paper intends to explore whether there are significant correlations between students’ self-efficacy and their self-assessment accuracy and how the former mediates the latter. Framed within an undergraduate interpreting classroom in China, which shares similar pedagogical aims with general foreign language courses, a total of 53 senior students completed an Interpreting Self-Efficacy (ISE) Scale before self-assessing their English-Chinese consecutive interpreting performance. Spearman correlation tests were employed to investigate the correlations between students’ ISE level and their self-assessment accuracy, compared with the teacher’s marks. Although ISE and self-assessment accuracy were positively correlated, the relation was not significant. Medium to low level ISE could only vaguely predict students’ self-assessment performance, but students were capable of accurate self-assessment regardless of their ISE level. This justifies more rigorous reflection on self-regulated learning enabled by accurate self-assessment in language classrooms, which is simultaneously informed by multiple social and psychological variables experienced by individual learners, such as self-efficacy.

Anxiety and personality as indicators of academic performance in university foreign language classrooms

The main purpose of this study is to test whether students’ performance in official language tests in the university context is influenced, apart from anxiety, by certain personality traits. A sample of 394 university students in Spain were assessed in language academic performance using the Test of English for International Communication: Listening and Reading (TOEIC L&R), Foreign Language Anxiety using the Spanish version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS), Test Anxiety, by means of the Spanish version of the Test Anxiety Inventory and Personality Traits through the Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI). Frequency analyses for the categorical variables, and means and standard deviations for continuous variables were calculated, and a forward stepwise regression model was used to assess the independent variables that contributed significantly to the variance in the score on the academic performance. Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) correlated most significantly with student foreign language academic performance, followed by the Neuroticism dimension, Test Anxiety and Extraversion. These results show that anxiety can still be considered the best indicator to predict language academic performance and that personality traits do play a relevant part in the foreign language learning process in the university context.

Reducing speaking anxiety in EFL classrooms: An explanatory mixed-methods study

This study outlines the impact of a process enriched with mini-speeches, presentations, and scaffolded feedback on EFL learners’ foreign language speaking anxiety. The participants included 52 university freshman students and the data were collected during an oral 14-week communication course. For quantitative data, the foreign language speaking anxiety scale (FLSAS) was administered as pre and post tests and the qualitative data included reflection reports and a focus group interview at the end of the semester. The data derived from the scale were analyzed through a paired-sample t-test and the qualitative data were analyzed using a content analysis scheme. The findings revealed a significant impact of the aforementioned activities, leading to around thirty percent reduction in participants’ EFL speaking anxiety. Highlighting the effectiveness of feedback sessions, the participants suggested that the major gains of this process were a) increased self-confidence, b) increased opportunities to speak, and c) learning from their own mistakes, all of which helped them become less anxious learners. In line with these findings, the study offers several suggestions for both practitioners and research purposes.

Determining Efficient Post-writing Activity for Error Correction: Self-editing, Peer review, or Teacher Feedback?

Writing in English has always been a formidable obstacle for learners; accordingly, many studies aimed to find not band-aid but complete solutions for learners to improve their writing proficiency. One of these solutions, largely thought to reduce language errors, is error correction. However, instructors seem to be alternating between different corrective feedbacks with the purpose of determining the most efficient one for their students. Previous research largely compared peer feedback and teacher correction and ignored self-editing. In this sense, this study investigated three error correction methods, namely self-editing, peer review, and teacher corrections. To achieve this, three student groups were created and each group, composed of 10 students, was tested with one method. Wilcoxon, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney U tests were employed for analyses and the results yielded significant differences in terms of all methods concerning comparisons of pre- and post-tests. On the other hand, the test to determine inter-group differences found significant results for the method of teacher correction. Furthermore, the most frequent linguistic errors in students’ writing were revealed. This research contributes to teaching pedagogy by comforting instructors regarding the efficiency of teacher correction and suggests instructors focus on particularly spelling, punctuation, and article to prompt writing development.

Motivational Languaging for L2 Learning and Motivation

This paper focuses on the effect of motivational languaging activities (MLAs) on EFL learning motivation. Swain (2006) defines languaging as “the process of making meaning and shaping knowledge and experience through language” (p. 98). We extend Swain’s original notion to L2 motivation; through MLAs, L2 learners are encouraged to talk or write about the importance of L2 learning and their visions in their own words. Various types of activities were implemented for elementary, junior high, and high school students: 1) written, 2) spoken, and 3) spoken plus written activities, in individual or group conditions. By using questionnaires, students’ motivational changes including their ideal L2 self and the ought-to L2 self (Dörnyei, 2009) were measured at the beginning and the end of the participation in the activities. The results indicated that students in experimental groups exhibited various increases in their motivations, compared to no significant changes in control groups. Furthermore, the written form proved to be a more effective type of activities, especially when students engaged in it individually. Findings suggest the usefulness of MLAs for enhancing L2 learning motivation.

Impact of Motivational Languaging Activities on Novice English Teachers’ Motivation: An Activity Theory Perspective

The study aims to explore the influence of languaging on novice English teachers’ motivation and to investigate the uniqueness of each English teacher’s reactions to motivational languaging activities (MLAs) from an Activity Theory (AT) perspective. Three novice English teachers at secondary schools in South Korea were interviewed using questions based on an AT framework, and they completed six sets of MLAs consisting of two parts: motivation and languaging. Our findings indicated that the two relatively motivated teachers could use MLAs to develop their ideal teacher identity and improve their teaching confidence. By participating in MLAs, a demotivated teacher can reshape her thoughts regarding teaching and motivate herself again. It has also been shown that MLAs can mediate participation in an imaginary teacher community, possibly leading to enhancement of L2 teacher motivation, but that this also might not occur depending on one’s teacher agency.

Towards a Moodle-based assessment of Algerian EFL students’ writing performance

The present study examines the effect of a technology-based assessment on the writing performance of Algerian English Foreign Language (EFL) students. Forty-two first-year EFL at the English Department at Tlemcen University (Algeria) took part in the experiment. They were divided into an experimental group (n = 21) and a control group (n = 21). A pre-test and a post-test were used as research instruments before and after the administration of the treatment, respectively. The data were analysed quantitatively using IBM SPSS (20.0). The results revealed that the Moodle-based e-assessment had a significant effect on the performance of the experimental group. We argue that the proposed type of assessment had some pedagogical, practical, and emotional attributes that explained students’ improved scores. We also believe that the e-assessment acted as pedagogical teaching support to traditional evaluation.

The effect of using the native language as a pedagogic intervention on Iranian EFL learners' complexity of English oral productions

The present study aims at investigating the effect of using the native language as a pedagogic intervention on the complexity of Iranian EFL learners' English oral productions. A sample of 39 male and female adult English learners of B1 and B2 CEFR proficiency levels was recruited to participate in this study. They were placed into two intact classes (i.e., as already determined by the institution’s authorities) and each class was randomly chosen to serve as either the experimental (EG) or the control (CG) group. Improving the learners’ speaking ability was the focus of both groups while only the EG was asked to orally produce the equivalents of Persian sentences presented to them. In order to measure the lexical and grammatical complexity of oral productions of the learners, two parallel speaking tests of IELTS 10, in the form of two oral interviews, were used as pre- and post-test oral interviews. A MANCOVA test was run to compare the performance of the two groups in terms of their lexical and grammatical complexity after the treatment. Results indicated that the EG's lexical and grammatical complexity improved as compared to the CG, and the improvement in both of these variables was statistically significant.

Interaction patterns and support for learning in the primary foreign language classroom

In this study, both sociocultural and cognitive perspectives are used to investigate how learners in the primary foreign language classroom support each other’s learning during peer oral interaction, and how this is influenced by different interaction patterns. Learners were recorded taking part in 3 spot-the-difference tasks in a year 4 primary class, and Storch’s model of interaction patterns (2002) was used as a framework to classify learner interaction. Transcripts were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively, and show how learners used a variety of strategies to support their partner’s output. It also shows how the majority of learners worked collaboratively, how collaboration increased with task repetition, and how pairs who engaged in collaborative interaction provided most support for their peer. However, other dyads showed less mutuality and engaged little with each other’s contributions, with quantitative analysis showing these learners provided each other with the least support for language learning, as they were unlikely to ask their peer for help, one of the most common strategies used by other dyads.