English Language Attrition Among EFL Learners in Terms of Writing Skills

This study aims to identify if participants experience attrition in writing skills after two years' nonuse of English.70 participants took the tests of writing.A questionnaire was administered to the 70 participants and it included numerous variables that relate to language attrition such as motivation and social activities.The data collected from the tests and questionnaire were analyzed via SPSS.Cronbach's alpha and Many Facets Rasch Model were used to validate the construct and external reliability.The findings showed that participants experienced an overall statistically significant level of attrition in writing skills.Additionally,the specific skills of pertinence,coherence,clarity but excluding grammar,were seen to experience significant attrition over the two years' period.Participants showed a lower level of positive motivation and less social activities for learning English language during the two years' nonuse than before the two years' nonuse of English and this could have contributed to the writing attrition.

A Corpus-based Study on Writer/reader Visibility in English Writing by Chinese EFL Learners

Writer/reader(W/R) visibility is regarded as an important indicator of personal involvement. Previous studies concluded that EFL learners tend to contains more personal involvement than native speakers in their writing, making it resemble spoken language as a result. Therefore, this paper examines the degree of W/R visibility in English writing by university-level Chinese learners to verify the applicability of the previous findings on Chinese learners. Based on the data collected in the corpora CLEC,WECCL and LOCNESS, the results show that Chinese EFL learners have the tendency to employ more features of W/R visibility than native speakers, for example the high use of first or second person reference and words that represent mental process. Besides, the paper also reveals little distinction on W/R visibility between English and non-English majors, suggesting the inefficiency of the writing ability of today's English majors.

Differences between Contrastive Analysis and Error Analysis on English Writing for Chinese EFL learners

With the increasing importance of English writing,how to improve students’writing ability is a big challenge.Contrastive analysis and error analysis are two popular approaches to error correction in English writing.This paper is going to compare the differences between contrastive analysis and error analysis,in English writing for Chinese EFL learners,from perspectives,such as,English writing purpose,English writing errors and attitude towards English writing.After that,some better suggestions will be given at the end of the paper.

A Discussion of Foreign Language Listening Problems and Their Causes among Intermediate EFL learners in Chinese universities

Listening has been considered as the most important language skill by many researchers but in Chinese context it has been overlooked for years.The Foreign Language(FL)listening problems gradually reveal when students attend to the Listening Course in universities or colleges.This paper at first illustrates the importance of listening in foreign language learning and provides a discussion on the top-down and bottom-up processes with the analysis of Anderson's three-model of language comprehension[9]as well as the factors affecting listening comprehension in Foreign Language in general,aiming at the illustration of the necessity on one of the bottom-up processes-the Spoken Word Recognition(SWR).The analysis of two issued official guiding documents for Chinese university students and the current situation of English listening teaching in Chinese universities are followed,providing a general background on English listening teaching in Chinese context.Three possible foreign language listening problems and their causes are proposed,followed by the pedagogical suggestions to EFL learners who are improving their listening skills and instructors who are advancing their teaching procedures.

Cultivation of EFL Learners’Intercultural Competence

Nowadays, educators from home and abroad believe that learning a foreign language means learning a great deal of the foreign civilization and culture. And the utmost goal of language teaching is to cultivate EFL learners'communicative competence, but not merely the linguistic knowledge. Thus, teaching a foreign language is more than teaching new words, expressions and grammar rules, but should also incorporate the target culture elements into language knowledge. In order to improve EFL learners'English proficiency, teachers must make efforts to cultivate EFL learners'intercultural competence and promote their sensibility and adaptability to the differences between Chinese culture and the Western culture. Only by doing so, can EFL learners communicate with native speakers appropriately and smoothly. This paper proposes some effective teaching techniques and methods that can be applied in English classroom to cultivate Chinese EFL learners'intercultural competence.

A Corpus-based Study on Discourse Markers of EFL Learners' in IELTS Writing

The paper investigated Chinese students' usage of discourse markers in IELTS writing.100 IELTS essays were collect-ed and a focused learner corpus was set up in order to find out the relationship between the usage of DMs of EFL learners and the score of IELTS writing.

Teacher's in-Class Feedback Based on Individual Learner Differences in EFL Writing Classroom

Studies on feedback in second language(L2) writing have mainly focused on feedback per se, with little attention paid tothe individual learner differences. This study investigates how teacher’s in-class feedback based on individual learner differencesaffects EFL students’correction of writings and students’attitude towards teacher’s in-class feedback based on their individualdifference, as well as the factors that influence teachers’feedback among three EFL students and an in-service English teacher byemploying interviews, classroom observations. The findings indicate that students pay more attention to their errors in their writingsand students hold a positive attitude towards teacher’s in-class feedback based on their individual differences, students’aptitudeand personality mostly affect teacher’s in-class feedback.

A Brief Discussion of Movie Dead Poets Society and the Reflection on Grammar Teaching

In China,the growing number of EFL(English as a Foreign Language)learners are faced with different public examina⁃tions,in order to improve the passing rates,most English teachers choose traditional teaching method,which leads to the reduction of some students’interest of learning English.Dead Poets Society is a remarkable film that shows education as a way to enlighten children,which inspires people to think about the appropriate English grammar teaching method for EFL students.

中国成人英语学习者的语音学习策略与语音可理解度的关系研究

语音学习策略(Pronunciation Learning Strategies,PLS)在第二语言语音(Second Language Speech)研究领域占据重要地位,关于中国成人英语学习者(English as a Foreign Language,EFL)如何运用这些策略以提升语音可理解度的研究相对缺乏。以一所公立大学本科三年级英语专业学生为样本,采用诱导性自然话语语料,辅以问卷调查手段,系统性地考察了学习者在语音学习过程中所采用的各类策略。研究结果表明,就自然话语而言,尽管语音学习策略的整体运用与语音可理解度之间并无显著相关性,但是输入/练习类策略在提升语音可理解度方面的效果尤为突出。这一发现对基于策略的英语语音课堂教学设计具有重要的指导意义。

中国EFL学习者句法复杂度自动测量研究——以L2SCA和D-level Analyzer为工具

以L2SCA(二语句法复杂度分析器)和D-level Analyzer(句法发展水平分析器)为工具,对某省高校间英语写作竞赛作文语料进行句法复杂度的自动测量实验研究,所测15个指标中有4项显示与作文整体得分相关。作文句法复杂度人工分组单因素方差分析发现,议论文10个指标、记叙文7个指标呈显著差异,工具对于议论文体裁的测量表现总体优于记叙文。研究结果证实,体裁是影响中国EFL学习者句法复杂度的重要因素。绝大部分指标测量值表现为组间线性发展趋势,数据分析结果显示支持L2SCA和D-level Analyzer用作中国EFL学习者句法复杂度自动测量工具。

PBL在国外ESL\EFL领域的研究综述

从PBL的定义、特征、作用,以其在国外ESL\EFL教学中的实施等方面,对PBL研究现状进行了系统地梳理和分析,旨在为我国英语教师实施PBL提供参考。

模因论与EFL学习者词块习得

本文讨论了一项旨在验证模因论对EFL学习者词块习得是否有促进作用的教学实验。受试者为64名英语专业本科二年级学生。他们在课内学习六篇英语写作范文,同时学习词块,然后在课外用英语写一篇作文,两周和八周之后各参加一次写作测试。要求实验组必须通过朗诵范文学习词块并在作文中尽量使用这些词块,对照组未被刻意要求这样做。结果表明,与对照组相比,实验组记住并正确使用词块的可能性更大,词块在大脑中保持的时间较长,英语写作表达能力也相应地得到提高。

中国EFL学习者阅读与写作关系的关联理论阐释

以英语专业四级考试成绩为研究数据,对阅读、写作、听写、听力理解、完形填空、语法词汇等变量进行相关性分析、因子分析和回归分析。结果表明:英语阅读技能与写作技能之间存在显著正相关;阅读技能与写作技能之间存在明显的相互独立性。根据关联理论,阅读和写作具有共同的认知基础,因此二者存在显著正相关。阅读和写作过程中所使用的认知策略不同,阅读技能和写作技能受到学习者能力的限制,这使得二者具有明显的相互独立性。