On the Teaching Methods to Balance Fluency & Accuracy for Chinese University English Learners

By dividing English learners in Chinese university context into intermediate and advanced level learners, the essay argues that fluency rather than accuracy is needed for most university students. It further discusses some suitable teaching methods in both contexts respectively to balance this pair of objective focus.

On L2 English Learners’Formulaic Language Use and Spoken English Fluency

This study explored the distribution of three types of English formulaic language, which involves four categories in L1 Chinese L2 English learners’ speaking performance. In addition, it investigated the relationship between the English learners’ use of formulaic language and their spoken English fluency. A CCA(canonical correlation analysis) was conducted to examine the correlations between two sets of fluency variables(dependent variables) and linguistic variables of English formulaic language use(independent variables). The fluency variable set consists of:(1)temporal indices such as SR(speech rate), AR(articulation rate), MLR(mean length of run), and PTR(phonation time ratio);(2) linguistic variables of English formulaic language like F2 R(twoword formulaic sequences/run ratio, B3 R(three-word lexical bundles/run ratio), and B4 R(fourword lexical bundles/run ratio). These are calculated according to the frequency of the English formulaic language in the speech samples of the participants(n = 86) across three academic levels.The results indicate that the learners’ spoken English fluency is highly related to their use of English formulaic language. Its limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Presenting Knowledge System of International Trade Terms in Business English Learners＇ Dictionaries

Dictionaries should present business encyclopedic knowledge as well as business linguistic knowledge. This paper, taking Incoterms for international trade as an example （with ＂CIF＂ as the case for analysis）, introduces 7 types of dictionary structures （overall structure, frame stzucture/megastrncture, macrostructure, microstzucture, distribution structure, cross-reference stzucture/mediostrncture and access structure）, summarizes the knowledge system of international trade terms （consisting of ＂international trade＂, ＂sets of rules of international trade terms＂, ＂Incoterms 2010＂, and ＂CIF＂）, and illustrates the methods of systematically presenting the knowledge system of international trade terms through dictionary structures in an English-English-Chinese bilingualized business English learners＇ dictionary with Oxford Business English Dictionary for Learners of English （New Edition） as a reference. Such presentation is intended for enhancing business English learners as dictionary users to grasp the knowledge of international trade terms as a whole.

An Empirical Study on the Effectiveness of Language Learning Strategy Training for Chinese Adult English Learners

This paper explores how to implement effective strategy training for part-time Chinese adult English learners in a tertiary FLT （Foreign Language Teaching） classroom. Through a study of threx~ semesters during which six sessions of learner training workshops and constant, integrated task-based instruction were carried out, empirical evidence was collected via the instrument of questionnaires, interviews, learners＇ regular written reports, and the findings indicate that： （1） The students reported a statistically significant increase of the overaU average frequency of language strategy use over all SILL （The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning） items with 2.95 at the beginning and 3.61 at the end; and （2） Well-organized, explicit, and discrete leaner training workshops combined with frequent, explicit, and integrated task-based strategy instruction are an effective and helpful way to improve learners＇ awareness, selection, and frequency of strategy use, which can further foster learner autonomy.

The Influence of Morpheme Awareness on Junior Middle School English learners’ Reading Comprehension

According to the understanding of English learning process and the surrounding educational environment,it is found that most English learners have not received the training of morpheme awareness,and English teachers have hardly cultivated their students’morpheme awareness.In English learning,it is found that English morpheme awareness plays a role in promoting English learning.It can be seen from the relevant literature that the identification of English morphemes is very important for English learners’language acquisition and development,and has attracted the attention of researchers at home and abroad.This paper mainly studies the influence of morpheme awareness on junior middle school English learners’reading comprehension.

Chinese English Learners＇ Text Reading Strategy Research

Reading strategies are different from identifying the words, but a kind of metacognitive activity based on the monitoring mode. This paper will explore Chinese English learners＇ text reading strategies according to the cognitive process of the reading, hoping for providing some suggestions and references for Chinese college students to learn English well and improve the text reading ability.

Entangled relationship:Chinese parents’involvement in young learners’English tests

Young learners’English(YLE)tests have become increasingly prevalent among and important to Chinese English learners and their parents.In China,parents are actively involved in their children’s education and test-taking decisions,and their participation has given rise to a series of social impacts.Although parent involvement has received increasing public and academic attention in newspaper and scholarly articles,there exists no thorough analysis of current research on parents’roles in young learners’test-taking.To address this gap,we systemically analyzed Chinese newspaper articles and academic articles between 2011 and 2021 to elicit Chinese parents’roles in YLE test-taking.Our thematic analysis of the literature identifies the ways in which parents influence their children’s test-taking experiences,and how the tests affect this influence.Specifically,our results elicit 1)parents’engagement in YLE testing;2)parents’understanding of the intended uses of YLE tests;3)parents’perception and consequences of their involvement in YLE testing;and 4)parents’backgrounds.This analysis reveals the popularity of YLE tests among young learners and their parents in China and public concern over test-related issues.It also broadens our understanding of YLE testing impact and suggests future potential research directions.

Teaching Writing to Adult English Language Learners： Lessons From the Field

For the past several decades, it has been clear that the ability to write texts for academic and professional purposes （＂academic writing＂ in this article） is key to the success of adults in U.S. society--in school, in university courses, on tests that they need to take to progress through learning and into work, and in the workforce. Academic writing has specific features and involves approaches that are different from much of the writing that is done with adult learners, particularly those learning English as an additional language （e.g., described in reviews by Hinkel, 2015; Leki, Cumming, ＆ Silva, 2008; and a survey by Rosenfeld, Courtney, ＆ Fowles, 2004）. However, a recent survey of adult educators, conducted by the authors, found that academic writing has not been a focus in many adult education programs, and teachers receive limited professional development in this area and instructional support in implementing it. This article describes the importance of academic writing at all levels of adult education, the key features of academic writing, and the current state of writing instruction in adult education programs. It then describes the motivation for, design, and outcomes of a survey of and interviews with adult educators across the country on their preparation for and instructional practices with academic writing （conducted in 2014 and 2015）. Finally, it describes approaches that can be used in adult education programs to meet the writing proficiency needs of students at all levels and next steps that the adult education field might take.

The Features and Patterns of Revision Process in English Learners＇ Writing

Revision is an important part of writing process but it often baffles the researchers due to the difficulties in recording the revision process of students. Based on a self-made questionnaire and the online record of the revision process, this study describes the English learners＇ revision behaviors and process in their second semester of a two-year writing course. The analysis indicates that the English learners hold a positive attitude towards revision and but passive in resorting to outside sources for help. The source of the feedback has a great influence on their motivation of revision. On the other hand, although they use all types of revision operations, they concentrate on surface changes and simple operations.

A Corpus-Based Study on Synonyms in Chinese Learners'English:A Case Study of Affair"and"Event"

Using British National Corpus(BNC)as the reference corpus and Chinese Learner's English Corpus(CLEC)as the observed corpus,this paper attempts to analyze synonyms in Chinese learners5 English based on"event"and tcaffair.?,By comparing the frequency,colligation,collocates,and semantic prosody of the two words in BNC,it is found that"event"and“affaiT”differ from each other in terms of frequency and semantic prosody.The same comparison is made between BNC and CLEC.It is found that Chinese learnersJ English vocabulary is rather small,and there is no significant difference in the semantic prosody of the two words between English native speakers and Chinese English learners except that Chinese English learners have a misunderstanding about"love affair,which may be attributed to their negligence of semantic prosody in the process of learning.

The Production of the Sequence -UI- by Francophone Learners of English

This paper considers the renderings of the sequence -UI- by Cameroonian, Gabonese, and native French users learning English with the view to finding out whether French users speaking different L 1s pronounce this sequence in different or similar ways. The data were recordings of items containing -UI- and the contrastive method of analysis was used. It was found that this sequence is rendered in two ways by the learners. Besides, different L2 French-speaking learners tend to pronounce it in the same ways and so do L2 and L1 French-speaking learners. It can therefore be hypothesised that Francophone speakers tend to draw more from French when they speak English than from their respective L 1s.

Intensifier-Verb Collocations in Academic English by Chinese Learners Compared to Native-Speaker Students

It is difficult for L2 English learners in general, and especially Chinese learners of English, to form idiomatic collocations. This article presents a comparison of the use of intensifier-verb collocations in English by native speaker students and Chinese ESL learners, paying particular attention to verbs which collocate with intensifiers. The data consisted of written production from three corpora: two of these are native English corpora: the British Academic Written English(BAWE) Corpus and Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers(MICUSP). The third one is a recently created Chinese Learner English corpus, Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners(TECCL).Findings suggest that Chinese learners of English produce significantly more intensifier-verb collocations than native speaker students, but that their English attests a smaller variety of intensifier-verb collocations compared with the native speakers. Moreover, Chinese learners of English use the intensifier-verb collocation types just-verb, only-verb and really-verb very frequently compared with native speaker students. As regards verb collocates, the intensifiers hardly, clearly,well, strongly and deeply collocate with semantically different verbs in native and Chinese learner English. Compared with the patterns in Chinese learner English, the intensifiers in native speaker English collocate with a more stable and restricted set of verb collocates.

The Construction of College English Courses, Syllabus and Text-books Should Pay More Attention to Unsuccessful Learners—Separating CET-4 from College English Teaching

The term ＂unsuccessful college English learners＂ mentioned in this paper refers to those undergraduates getting less than 49.5 points in their fourth semester＇s CET-4. This paper did quite a lot of statistical data work, summarized the main characteristics of those students and analyzed the main causes of resulting in this. In the end, some practical proposals and measures have been put forward to improve these students＇ English learning conditions and help them to get out of their difficult situation.

Incorporating Technology into English Language Learners’Classroom—A Case Study of Using Wiki,Podcast,and Computer Graphic Organizer as Tools

The technology has been utilized by many teachers to provide English language learners with better learning experience.But it can not be denied that the technology is a two edged sword.The technology could facilitate the students’learning if it is used in a proper way.Otherwise,the technology may even have adverse effects.The paper will illustrate how the teacher could succeed in adapting the technology to meet specific demand of the students through case study.

The Use of Children＇s Literature With University English as a Foreign Language Learners in Taiwan

This paper reports findings from a longitudinal qualitative study that investigated the use of children＇s literature for Taiwan Residents University English as a Foreign Language （EFL） students＇ reading. During the course of their sophomore year, 17 students participated and each student held two to seven individual reading sessions, to which they brought a self-selected children＇s picture storybook or children＇s novel they had finished reading on their own and orally read it to the researcher. Their oral reading and the discussion of each book with the researcher were audio recorded. To gain insight into the reading progress, these oral data were categorized and analyzed in terms of mispronunciation patterns, misunderstanding of vocabulary, misinterpretation of sentence or passage, and researcher＇s guidance. General findings of the 17 participants were presented in three categories： （1） vocabulary acquisition, （2） common comprehension problems, and （3） common pronunciation problems. Further analysis of two motivated students who read five to seven books revealed that （1） these two EFL learners gradually developed conscious awareness of their own pronunciation and comprehension errors and （2） they progressively acquired better competence to apply the pronunciation tips and reading comprehension techniques provided by the researcher during previous sessions. These findings and corresponding implications are discussed and further research suggestions are made.

Effectiveness of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in Enhancing the English Proficiency

In response to the significant impact of the widespread use of digital devices and mobile technologies on language teaching and learning in this time of Internet information technology,this study aims to investigate the effectiveness of Mobile-Assisted Language Learning(MALL)in enhancing the English proficiency of students,while exploring the potential advantages of mobile devices for assisted learning in the English learning environment in China and the potential for mobile applications to assist English learning to foster learner autonomy.Anchored with the design thinking approach,the researchers used the empirical analysis methodology in developing an efficient mobile-assisted language learning model.Usability testing was conducted using a case study of two mobile applications,WeLearn and Flipped English,in Heilongjiang University of Finance and Economics to measure the extent of usability and acceptability of MALL on English language acquisition among college students identified through surveys,interviews,and quantitative assessments.Mobile technology is a perfect tool for every student that enhances their experience and increases their joy while improving their English language skills.It adds new value and brings new opportunities for both English learners and the language education industry.Indeed,MALL is English learners’new ally.

Chunk approach for English teaching

This paper suggests a chunk approach to solve the plateau problem among advanced English learners. The paper first discusses the extant problems and then provides a definition of the chunk approach. Based on some research results in cognitive psychology, it analyses the important role that chunks play in language acquisition and production and thus provides a cognitive foundation for implementing the chunk approach in English teaching. The paper also offers a set of classroom activities which can be easily adopted or adapted by other teachers.

Technology-Assisted Reading Instruction for English Language Learners:A Methodological Review

Purpose:By methodologically reviewing the literature on Technology-Assisted Reading Instruction(TARI)for English Language Learners(ELLs)in K-12 settings,this study aims to advance the knowledge of TARI research and guide future research directions.Design/Approach/Methods:This study examines 32 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 2000 and 2020.Each article was analyzed for research objectives,reading skills,learner demographics and contexts,theoretical frameworks,research designs,and outcomes.Findings:A review of the literature reveals a strong focus on evaluating the efficacy of TARI through summative assessments,but limited attention to learners'literacy practices and interactive engagement in digital contexts.Additionally,there is a marked lack of alternative approaches to assessing the effectiveness of technology in promoting ELLs'reading progression and a continued emphasis on developing traditional literacy over multimodal literacy.TARI can enhance reading motivation,foster collaborative learning,provide scaffolding,improve reading performance,andexpand semiotic resources.Originality/Value:As one of the first comprehensive methodological reviews of TARl,this study elucidates ELL reading education in the era of multiliteracy.Results have implications for technology-mediated education,which expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What Fails English as the Dream Language of Rural India？

Rural masses in India view English as the language of socio-economic empowerment through education. Education could be either in English or in regional languages, but children should learn English, because it is seen as the key to the world of opportunities in higher education and employment. The governments need to politically respond to the aspirations of the common masses keeping aside both politicised language policies and theoretical linguistic inputs that encourage one＇s mother tongue as the ideal medium of instruction. Onerous responsibility lays on men, methods, and materials over which government have the least say, but the practising teachers of English and academics who help bureaucrats in framing language policies in India are solely responsible for non-realization of dreams of the masses. There is something terribly rotten in the state of English-teaching enterprise in India. This paper proposes to examine the present state of affairs in the teaching of English to rural students and to offer constructive alternatives to the existing package of men, materials, and methods.

Impact of Intercultural Learning Program on Language Learners＇ Intercultural Competence

As institutions of higher education continue to internationalize, the number of exchanged students climbs ever higher in China. It is important to know what they have gained in the intercultural learning experiences in terms of attitudes, awareness, and knowledge, which are the three constructed dimensions of Intercultural Competence in this study. A qualitative research is conducted by using interview and seven English language learners are investigated to explore their learning outcomes in the intercultural learning program. From the thematic analysis of the interviews, it can be found that these English language learners＇ intercultural competence has been improved during their stay in USA. They successfully overcome cultural shock, hold positive attitudes toward target culture and people, become more confident in English study, and acquire more cultural knowledge. The research outcomes contribute to promoting intercultural learning effectiveness and improving learners＇ intercultural competence.