2025-10-10
A number of studies have investigated phrasal verbs from various aspects (Liu, 2006; Yu, 2011; Liao & Fukuya, 2004). However, those studies lack generality, because only a couple of phrasal verbs were chosen as examples, or too much content prompt was offered in task response of L2 learners. The current study applies a corpus-based approach to investigate English phrasal verbs in free conversations from a Chinese learner corpus, SWECCL (Wen & Wang, 2008), which demonstrates Chinese students’ actual use of phrasal verbs. This study focuses on analysis of two phenomena: development of phrasal verb uses and avoidance of phrasal verbs across different proficiency levels in Chinese students’ oral English conversations. Results showed that students at higher proficiency level used more phrasal verbs in oral communication, and the progress of phrasal verb use was evident from middle proficiency level to advanced proficiency level. The study also found that phrasal verbs occurred less frequently overall in L2 learners’ oral conversations compared with frequency of their single-word synonyms.
Professional Development (PD) for teachers in China, as in many other countries worldwide, is receiving increased attention. Within the research context, a gap has been identified for teachers’ engagement in PD which may play a mediating role between PD and classroom teaching practice. Therefore, this small-scale research was conducted to explore the relationship between teachers’ engagement in PD and teaching practice, and further, the potential PD programme contributors to teachers’ engagement in PD. This study employed a mixed-method methodology: a survey (n=124) and interviews (n=14) with Chinese English Language Teaching (ELT) teachers from primary and secondary schools. Results indicated that there was a reciprocal relationship between teachers’ engagement in PD and their teaching practice. In addition, based on teachers’ different individual PD needs, four types of teacher engagement emerged.
Although assessment for learning (AfL) has gradually become a dominant discourse in L2 writing classrooms in higher education throughout the world, in many cases, the quality of AfL implementation in real writing classrooms does not seem to be high enough to support students’ authentic writing literacy development. Therefore, using 155 EFL first-year university students’ written texts such as essays with written peer feedback, assessment sheets, reflective journals, and documents in e-portfolios as well as transcripts of interviews with four focal participants as the main data sources, this mixed-methods study seeks to investigate whether and how the implementation of AfL influences EFL students’ learning in L2 argumentative writing. The quantitative results produced from analyzing the differences between students’ writing scores before and after the intervention show that formative assessment significantly facilitates EFL students’ learning of L2 argumentative writing skills. The qualitative accounts reveal a number of benefits that the students gain in L2 writing, such as enhancement of logical thinking ability, promotion of self-regulated learning, and improvement in peer feedback quality. The study also has implications associated with assessment design for L2 writing, teachers' roles in formative assessment, and teacher development programs.
In China, while an increasing number of research studies have shed light on English-medium instruction (EMI) at the tertiary level, very few have investigated the influence of EFL learners’ negative emotions (e.g., anxiety) on their attitudes toward EMI. Furthermore, limitations from a methodological perspective exist in related research, in which the effect size is often ignored when reporting the statistics. To overcome the limitations and broaden the research scope of EMI attitude, the present study surveyed 169 university students in the Chinese mainland, incorporating two previously-studied variables, gender and major, and one understudied variable, anxiety in EMI learning. The results of the questionnaire showed that the general attitude toward EMI appears to be positive, and three main themes which emerged from the open-ended questions may help to explain the attitude. Regression analysis revealed that “perceived peer pressure,” which is one of the six items of the anxiety scale, appears to be an important predictor for EMI attitudes of students, which accounts for 25.1% of the variance. The findings indicate that attention should be drawn to students’ mental health regarding their overall anxiety in EMI learning, in which assistance concerning peer culture improvement should be considered. This article concludes with implications for positive emotions in EMI learning.
From the 2000s, attitudinal studies on “China English (CE)” and incorporating CE into English Language Teaching (ELT) have emerged because of CE’s legitimacy as a variety of “New English” and its pedagogical implications being widely recognised. However, no settled conclusions have been made on students’ attitudes towards CE, which could also be constantly shifting. Furthermore, the reliability and validity of existing attitude questionnaires on CE and teaching CE have not been tested, and the impact factors of attitudes toward CE and teaching CE have seldom been explored quantitively. Given these research gaps, the present study investigates students’ attitudes towards CE and the idea of incorporating CE into university ELT. The methods include a questionnaire and statistical approaches such as exploratory factor analysis and factorial MANOVA. The results suggest that the CE and teaching CE scale comprises nine factorial dimensions with acceptable reliability and validity. Furthermore, Chinese university students hold mixed attitudes towards CE and generally negative attitudes towards teaching CE. The results have also revealed that students’ academic discipline and understanding of the “World Englishes” concept are statistically significant predictors of their attitudinal response in some areas. Based on these findings, the study suggests that it is still too early for CE to be taught in the classroom, but the discussions around this topic should not stop. At the same time, various endeavours could be tried to lay the foundation for CE to be incorporated in ELT. Recommendations for future attitudinal studies on CE and teaching CE are also proposed.
Feeling connected as one navigates life as a post-secondary student is a challenge for many students, both domestic and international. Many non-native speakers of English may not feel a sense of belonging or social connectedness at university and have emotional and other needs hindering their adjustment and success at university. Institutions often have various opportunities for students to volunteer at events, support centres, and other university units. Self-access centres, such as language learning centres and writing centres, have become common at many institutions and often have many student volunteers, making these an ideal environment for research on students. This study took place in one of these centres at a university in Canada - a language learning centre. In this study, researchers used a mixed methods approach to explore student volunteer perceptions. Survey responses that related to the emotional well-being of student volunteers were highlighted for this study. The data from the survey were then cross-referenced with the transcripts of the focus group study for further confirmation. Findings indicate that the act of volunteering in the centre made an impact on student volunteers’ emotional well-being. It gave students a sense of belonging and the feeling that they were part of a greater community. It also helped reduce loneliness and build self-esteem.
This study examines five Chinese EFL learners in a language institution regarding the effects of collocation noticing instructions in reading classes in terms of collocation competence and attitudes towards the noticing instructions. The data were collected from multiple sources, including vocabulary tests, pre/post collocation tests, in-class practice tests, questionnaire surveys, and semi-structured interviews. The analysis mainly focuses on two aspects: (1) the effectiveness of incorporating collocation learning into reading lessons, and (2) the learners' perception and attitude towards collocation noticing instructions. Data analysis shows that the reading intervention effectively raised learners’ collocation awareness, and that learners showed mixed attitudes towards it. They deemed useful the collocation orientation and input-enhancement approaches, especially the one with Chinese glossary embedded into reading texts, but they found self-directed noticing challenging and meanwhile realized that collocations learned in reading are difficult to output in writing and speaking. Therefore, this research suggests that language teachers should integrate collocation teaching into the classroom as early as possible through various awareness-raising methods, so that the input and output of collocation learning are not separated.
Following the rise of bilingual international schools in China, many learners of primary school age face huge barriers to academic success at school due to weaknesses in language proficiency. In my experience, without sufficient language support, not only is the academic growth of many young learners impeded, their social life and even their mental health suffer. This study investigates how an understanding of course design for primary learners will help prepare English language courses that support an effective transition to a bilingual school environment. Cognitive factors, physical factors, and the environment are discussed and serve as lenses through which methodologies, including needs analysis, syllabus framework, and assessments are reviewed and conducted. The overall design is considered to have reached the original goals and have fulfilled learners’ needs with evidential assessments and stakeholders’ consensus.
Whether L1 (the first language) should be used in English (as the second or foreign language) classrooms has long been a controversial issue. In the United States, much of this work has focused on French or Spanish as a foreign language teaching and learning. In the context of English as a foreign language, research has focused on adults and primary school students. This literature review considers this question in the context of Chinese as L1 and secondary EFL classrooms. Our review suggests that the use of Chinese serves several supportive functions and that, despite the insistence on strong English-only policies, teachers and students actively use Chinese to enhance their language teaching and learning experiences.
In this interview, Professor Hugo Baetens Beardsmore first talks about his story of how he became bilingual when he was very young, pointing out that the term “mother tongue” can be sexist and provocative. He then talks about his Ph.D. research on language usage in the Belgian capital (Brussels), the publication of which in the early 1970s immediately provoked much interest in the press in Belgium and France; one major contribution of this earlier research included his socio-linguistic explanations of what made Brussels French distinct from French elsewhere (e.g. Paris in France). In his most influential book Bilingualism: Basic Principles (first edition by Multilingual Matters in 1982), he argues that bilingualism is not a problem but an enrichment and underscores the interdisciplinary nature of work on bilingualism, explaining why this book covered not only purely linguistic aspects but also many other (e.g. sociological and psychological) aspects. He shares his experiences of giving invited lectures in countries including Germany, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and the US, where he needed to address the four types of worries concerning bilingualism, namely Politico-Ideological Fears, Educational Fears, Parental Fears and Cultural Fears. Finally, after sharing his interesting experience of producing a daily language tip in English on Belgian radio, he offers some study tips to EFL learners in China.
The present study examined Chinese university EFL (English as a foreign language) undergraduates’ classroom anxiety and listening anxiety in online English language classrooms. 261 freshmen from a Chinese state-owned university answered a 56-item questionnaire on their English language classroom and listening anxiety. Findings from the survey data were as follows: (1) the participants were slightly higher than intermediate level in both overall English classroom anxiety and overall English listening anxiety; (2) gender does not play a significant role in differentiating undergraduates’ overall English classroom anxiety, overall English listening anxiety, and their subscales; (3) the ELCAS and its subscales were significantly positively intercorrelated and correlated with the ELLAS and its subscales; (4) students’ classroom anxiety and listening anxiety predicts each other. The results of the study add to the limited number of studies on foreign language anxiety in online learning environment and can offer teachers pedagogical suggestions inclusive of providing more opportunities for students to practice spoken English, relieving students’ fear of the new instruction technology by changing task assignment, and endeavoring to help students with technical problems.
At the start of this interview, Professor Jin recounts how she abandoned her ambition to become a physician and ended up teaching and researching clinical linguistics at a British university for 18 years. She emphasises the crucial role of intercultural communication (IC) in both foreign language education and the ‘internationalisation’ of universities; in connection with the former, she recommends some ways for EFL teachers to promote intercultural communication competence (ICC) in their TESOL practices; regarding the latter, she points out that for a university to be ‘internationalised’, true IC is indispensable as it can bring all partners (i.e. academic, administrative, technical staff and students) up to a level where they understand, empathize and appreciate each other. In her current role as Dean of Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in the City University of Macau, she has been leading a group of faculty members to work on proposals to establish Applied Linguistics programmes for BA, MA and PhD levels, in order to support the infrastructure of future workforces in Macau and the Greater Bay Area. Additionally, in the Chinese EFL context, she discusses several key issues concerning teaching English to young learners and to older learners (aged 50 and above). Finally, she offers some advice regarding how to balance the teaching, research, and administrative responsibilities expected of a faculty member in the field of applied linguistics.
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