Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education最新文献

Despite the growth of research on English for specific purposes (ESP) teachers over the past two decades, the scope of research that focally examines ESP teachers’ emotions is limited. The present study explored 10 Iranian ESP teachers’ emotion labor. Collecting data from questionnaires, narrative frames, and semi-structured interviews, we show how contextual discourses, policies, and expectations of ESP instruction interact with the teacher participants across four areas of pedagogy, assessment, materials, and curriculum and culture. Our findings indicated that content featured as a significant factor in the teachers’ emotions, agency, and identity directly, indirectly, and specifically through content-related discourses and participants. More specifically, it is not necessarily the content itself that along with language shape ESP teachers’ professional sense-making; rather, the way content manifolds in institutional work and interacts with language through various contextualities, modalities, and participants functions more profoundly in ESP teachers’ work. We provide implications for ESP teachers to draw on their collegial potentials to form communities of practice that positively contribute to their professional growth and transform their negative emotions into mutual emotionality.

Educators encounter challenges in performing materials adaptation stemming from time limitations, institutional responsibilities, administrative demands, and a dearth of formal training in materials development resulting in improper adaptation and ineffective learning activities. This research investigated the process of adapting materials as a qualitative case study. The data were gathered from a senior high school teacher in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, by means of document analysis (e.g., teaching materials), observation, and interview. The results revealed that the instructor frequently added and modified educational resources to facilitate learning through several modalities. The act of deleting, simplifying, and rearranging was occasionally performed. Nevertheless, students’ reflection on course contents, inadequate level of difficulty, demanding tasks, and excessive reliance on first language remained as issues. This study emphasizes the role of adaptation in promoting meaningful learning experiences and urges the integration of culturally relevant themes with a variety of learning activities. Educators can use these findings to support professional developments focused on effective material adaption tactics, allowing them to reflect on their existing methods, try new approaches, and interact with colleagues to share successful practices.

A robust finding in psycholinguistics is that prior language experience influences subsequent language processing. This phenomenon is known as syntactic priming. Most of the empirical support for L2 syntactic priming comes from lab-based experiments. However, this evidence might not reflect how priming occurs in typical language activities in the L2 classroom. As such, we conducted a classroom-based priming study. Using a between-subject design, 52 L2 Arabic speakers read and listened to eight story-reading sessions over two weeks that either included a high proportion of the fronted temporal phrase (TP) structure (experimental group) or included no fronted TPs (controls). The effect of L2 proficiency was also investigated. Results revealed that the experimental group did not significantly increase their use of fronted TPs in the immediate posttest or the one-week delayed posttest relative to the baseline. A null effect of Arabic L2 proficiency was also observed. We discuss our findings in light of related priming theories and previous findings. This study highlights the need for more research on syntactic priming via common language tasks in the L2 classroom.

This study investigates region-specific inflectional morpheme frequencies within the ICNALE Corpus, exploring significant global linguistic intricacies. Through a quantitative, corpus-based approach, it conducts a comprehensive contrastive analysis, leveraging the extensive accessibility of the online ICNALE. Despite inherent limitations in data collection primarily reliant on interviews and written compositions within the ICNALE Corpus, the study offers illuminating insights into how diverse linguistic backgrounds influence the usage of inflectional morphemes in English. The findings bring to light interesting patterns in possessive usage, reflecting variations among ESL learners in acquiring grammatical features. Additionally, it highlights complexities in acquiring comparative and superlative degrees, aligning with challenges encountered by learners in mastering specific inflections. Analyses of plural noun inflections, subject-verb agreement, past tense, past participle, and present participle usage underscore the multifaceted influences of language background, acquisition stages, and instructional emphasis on learners’ morphological patterns. Future inquiries could further investigate the impact of instructional methodologies on inflectional morpheme acquisition, undertake comparative studies across proficiency levels and age groups, explore morphological transfer from learners’ native languages, and deepen comprehension of cognitive processes guiding effective learning strategies. These endeavors hold promise in refining pedagogical methodologies and enriching language learning experiences for diverse learner cohorts.

Quality inclusive education has been guaranteed at the international policy level, but for inclusive education to be realized, teachers must be prepared to teach students with a wide variety of support needs. With well over a billion English language learners worldwide, and considering the fact that language learning can present many unique barriers to students with disabilities, the TESOL field has a growing need to consider how to best train teachers to teach inclusively. English language teachers (ELTs) generally lack training to teach students with disabilities, and little research has been done to identify specific training needs. If language learning environments are to honor the human right to inclusive education, then this is a critical research gap to close. This study reports on the use of a novel instrument, the Inclusive Practices in English Language Teaching Observation Scale (IPELT), in combination with post-observation interviews, to determine specific training needs among ELTs working at the postsecondary level in Japan. Magnitude coding of IPELT results and thematic analysis of field notes and interview data from 13 participants suggests that ELTs in this particular context would likely benefit from training in differentiation and specific considerations for teaching students with disabilities, as well as identifying possible students with disabilities. The participants also demonstrated a foundational skill set to create inclusive learning environments despite a general lack of relevant training.

This study investigated the effectiveness and dynamics of peer feedback in online and offline learning environments, focusing on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ affective engagement and its impact on learning outcomes. Utilizing an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, the research divided participants into groups that studied through Zoom and traditional classrooms over 12 weeks, analyzing their engagement with peer feedback. Data were gathered from Likert-scale and open-ended questionnaires, along with performance scores on key tasks, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, linear regressions, and thematic analysis. The findings indicated that students valued peer feedback in both settings, with online learners showing higher engagement levels. However, this engagement did not translate into improved writing skills, highlighting the need for further research into other factors that could enhance EFL writing proficiency.

Background: Indications for reverse total shoulder arthroplasty(rTSA) continue to expand making it challenging to predict whether patients will benefit more from anatomic TSA(aTSA) or rTSA. The purpose of this study was to determine which factors differ between aTSA and rTSA patients that achieve meaningful outcomes and may influence surgical indication.

Methods: Random Forest dimensionality reduction was applied to reduce 23 features into a model optimizing substantial clinical benefit (SCB) prediction of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeon score using 1117 consecutive patients with 2-year follow up. Features were compared between aTSA patients stratified by SCB achievement and subsequently with rTSA SCB achievers.

Results: Eight combined features optimized prediction (accuracy = 87.1%, kappa = 0.73): (1) age, (2) body mass index (BMI), (3) sex, (4) history of rheumatic disease, (5) humeral head subluxation (HH) on computed tomography (CT), (6) HH-acromion distance on X-ray, (7) glenoid retroversion on CT, and (8) Walch classification on CT. A higher proportion of males (65.6% vs. 54.9%, p = 0.022), Walch B-C glenoid morphologies (49.5% vs. 37.9%, p < 0.001), and greater BMI (30.1 vs. 26.5 kg/m², p = 0.038) were observed in aTSA nonachievers compared with aTSA achievers, while aTSA nonachievers were statistically similar to rTSA achievers.

Discussion: Patients with glenohumeral osteoarthritis and intact rotator cuffs that have a BMI > 30 kg/m² and exhibit Walch B-C glenoids may be less likely to achieve the SCB following aTSA and should be considered for rTSA.

Recognizing the importance of students’ attitudes in enhancing their educational achievements, this study aimed to examine the roles of spiritual motivation, religiosity, and L2 WTC (Willingness to Communicate) in students’ English language achievements. The study aimed to create a scale to assess students’ spiritual motivation. Additionally, it scrutinized the relationship between spiritual motivation, religiosity, and L2 WTC. The data was collected from 194 students (97 males; 97 females) coming from both social and non-social sciences who completed three questionnaires: spiritual motivation, religiosity, and L2 WTC scales. Descriptive and inferential statistics were obtained using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences), and AMOS (Analysis of a Moment Structure). The analysis confirmed that both spiritual motivation and religiosity scales have reliable psychometric properties. SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) also revealed that spiritual motivation and religiosity are positively associated with L2 WTC. However, neither of the dependent variables emerged as predictors of English language acquisition. Notably, when mediated by spiritual motivation, SEM revealed that religiosity can predict L2 WTC. The study concludes with a discussion of the results and implications for research.

Despite the growth of research on EAP teachers in the past decade, little research has focused on their emotions and much less on their well-being. In response to this gap of knowledge, the present study draws on the theoretical framework of activity theory and explores the well-being of 13 Iranian EAP teachers. We collected data from a questionnaire, narrative frames, and semi-structured interviews. Data analyses revealed three themes in relation to the teachers’ well-being: (1) content as a site of experiencing positive and negative emotions, (2) content and institutional contextualities as determinants of seeking purpose in EAP instruction, and (3) sociocultural parameters as shaping meaning in EAP instruction. We found that EAP teacher well-being functions as a layered construct that is influenced by various personal, institutional, and sociocultural dynamics, and substantially influences teachers’ professional practices, identities, and emotions. Across these processes, content operates as the antecedent or consequence of the influence in EAP instruction. Based on the findings, we provide implications for teachers and teacher educators in how to employ professional alternatives that could effectively contribute to EAP teachers’ well-being.

The impact of students' intrinsic or extrinsic motivations on their future intentions for online language schooling has been widely documented, but further emphasis needs to be placed on examining motivation beyond traditional theories. Thus, the current study sought to pivot the focus from intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to university language learners’ L2 self-identities in shaping their intention to learn language online. Toward this, we extended the technology acceptance model by integrating language learners’ L2 motivational self-system (L2MSS). Accordingly, 422 Iranian territory students who learned language online completed surveys covering language motivation and attitudes toward online language learning. The results of partial least squares structural equation modeling validated that current L2-self and digital self-authenticity can be used as separable subcomponents of L2MSS in the Iranian territory context. Moreover, learners with a higher level of future self-image and current L2 self-description found online learning more useful and easy to use. A further finding revealed an authenticity gap among higher educators since they were more motivated to learn language online than in face-to-face classrooms. Besides introducing a new conceptual framework into the literature, the researchers suggest that as a way of influencing higher education language learners’ intentions towards online language learning, lecturers should uncover language learners’ future ideal selves in advance of attending this online language course and design their language syllabus accordingly. It is also imperative for instructors to encourage students to self-describe their progress during online courses as it influenced their behavioral intention to learn languages online.