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Introduction. Positive emotions are crucial for facilitating the learning process in foreign language (FL) classes. It has been well established that the emotion of enjoyment highly influences students and teachers in language learning environments and plays a key role in motivation. Goals. The first objective of this study was to investigate the foreign language enjoyment (FLE) levels of FL teachers in Saudi Arabia. The second objective was to investigate the level of enjoyment felt by these teachers when they were FL students. Third, gender differences with regard to the level of enjoyment were studied. Finally, the sources of enjoyment were explored. Thirty-six teachers from different educational institutions in Saudi Arabia were surveyed. Results. The results demonstrated that the participants experienced high levels of enjoyment when teaching FL classes; however, their enjoyment levels were significantly higher when they were FL students. A positive atmosphere at the workplace, students’ excitement about language learning, and the joy of passing knowledge to others served as sources of enjoyment among the FL teachers. In terms of their experiences as FL students, FLE stemmed from their own FL teachers’ attitudes as well as the process of learning a language applicable to real daily life. Gender was found to be only a mediator, not a predictor, of participants’ enjoyment as there were no statistically significant differences between male and female teachers. Conclusions. Thus, the following conclusions can be drawn based on the study. First, teachers must promote positive classroom environments by perfecting their general attitudes as much as possible to enhance the feeling of enjoyment among learners. This, in turn, will make the FL learning journey effortless and help students reach their learning goals and objectives. Furthermore, in pre-course sessions, a brief introduction that clarifies the importance of English as a foreign language is highly recommended. This will help students recognise the possible outcomes of their learning and enable them to enjoy their experiences of learning EFL. Second, institutions – i.e. schools and universities – that offer opportunities to teach EFL should provide positive working environments for their FL teachers. Institutions must also draw teachers’ attention to their role as vital knowledge resources for their students.

Second language writing researchers have examined the affordances of Automated Writing Evaluation programs in providing immediate feedback that helps improve students' writing outputs. However, a little is known about tracking learners' process during writing essays and whether much/less pauses made by learners could predict good/poor quality of students' writing output. This article aims to address this issue by recording a case study of 8 postgraduate students' pauses during writing two types of text genre; descriptive and argumentative essays. Their pauses have been recorded using Keystroke logging program-Input Log 7.0 (Leijten and Van Waes in Writ Commun 30:358-392, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088313491692) and their screen activities were captured by Active Presenter program. Findings revealed that the students' pauses were significantly higher in word boundary than in sentence and/or paragraph boundaries. Moreover, on word boundary, pauses before words were significantly higher than that after words for both types of text genre. Concerning pauses across text genre, students' pauses were significantly higher in the argumentative essay than that of the descriptive essay. Multiple regression revealed negative correlation between much pauses and poor quality of students' product in the descriptive essay while there was no correlation found in the argumentative essay.

Writing in a language different from one’s mother tongue is a daunting task. The same challenge may apply to languages that have diglossic features whose spoken form differs from the written form. This article investigates Arab students’ writing behaviors (fluency, pauses, and revision) in response to an argumentative composition in their L1 (first language: Arabic) and L2 (second language: English), given that understanding their complexities in writing processes would help instructors to rectify language writing-related problems. Guided by Kellogg’s model, this article attempts to investigate the cognitive processes underlying these writing behaviors as aided by a keystroke logging program (Inputlog 7.0). It also examined if writing behaviors would be correlated to the writing quality of their produced final texts. Data were collected from log files of the Inputlog generated upon the students’ writing processes, screened video recordings, and a stimulated recall interview. Results indicated that compared with L2 writing in character production, L1 writing processes were highly significant, less significant in pauses over word boundaries, and highly significant in time on the task factor. Concerning revision behavior, no significant differences were found in time spent on deletion and insertion, whereas a significant difference was found in R-burst for L2 writing. As regards quality of text, many pauses and minimal production of words tend to be negative indicators for writing quality output. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are highlighted.

This study aims to investigate the acquisition of vocabulary recognition and vocabulary production in the short-and- long-term via listening and reading comprehension activities using ®Voice software. Sixty participants were invited to read or listen to two passages in different sessions, that is, three sessions in listening inputs and one session in reading comprehension. The materials in reading comprehension input were converted into audio and given for the students who were assigned to participate in the listening sessions. Vocabulary recognition was measured through written multiple-choice tests, whereas the vocabulary production was assessed by a cloze test for both scenarios. Each test was administered before the intervention immediately after the intervention and at a delayed post of time for both inputs. Results showed that the students were able to learn new vocabulary from both modes in the pre-post-delayed treatments. Participants scored higher in recognition vocabulary test than in the production test. In view of the vocabulary gains in both scenarios in the post-tests, the performance of listeners was significantly lower than that of readers after the first session, which was almost the same after the second session, and significantly higher after the third listening session. However, vocabulary acquisition from listening comprehension mode was significantly higher than that from reading input in the delayed post-tests.

This article investigates how the use of a deliberate approach of analyzing a given reading may predict differences in CVA effectiveness. Sixty Arab EFL learners were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group, thirty participants for each. The experimental group received training in the deliberate Clarke and Nation (System 8:211-220, 1980) CVA technique, whereas the control group were not guided through a training method. Then, both groups were asked to answer three vocabulary tests and then participate to finish a series of six readings adjusted using Nation's K-level reading lexicon to control the difficult words during readings. After treatments, the students took a post-test vocabulary session. Results show that the group that have used the deliberate CVA technique retained about twice as many new words as the other group did. That is the use of a deliberate-CVA methodology significantly improves learning. The experimental manipulation produced a learning effect that was 76.1% greater than that of the control group in terms of word context recognition and 128.0% greater than that of the control group in terms of word definition accuracy. Pedagogical implications, limitations and directions for further research are discussed.

Several types of help options have been incorporated into reading and listening comprehension activities to aid second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition. Textbook authors, teachers, and sometimes even students may pick and choose which help options they wish to use. In this paper, I investigate the effects of two help options in a multimedia listening environment (annotated captioned animation versus annotated transcript animation) on L2 vocabulary acquisition. Thirty-four Arab learners of English as a foreign language watched and listened to an animated story under any one of the following conditions: (1) annotations + captions + animation (ACA) and (2) annotations + transcripts+ animation (ATA). After viewing the story, the participants received a vocabulary posttest (i.e., L2 spelling) and posttest of translating Arabic words into the target language (L2 form recall). These tests were readministered five weeks after the treatment. The results revealed that the ACA and ATA groups performed si...

There is a new tendency for institutions to augment their publications in journals indexed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Non-native English researchers may find it hard to get their submissions published in applied linguistics journals that are solely indexed in SSCI, which are known for their high rate of rejection. This could minimize the opportunity for researchers to get their manuscripts accepted for publication. This paper aims to collect data for academics’ perceptions of Saudi institutions to see their attitudes towards submitting and publishing in these journals. The article also aims to check the perceptions of journals’ editors on the submissions affiliated to Saudi universities to check the rate of rejection and the main reasons that lie behind the rejection. Thirty seven academics responded to an online survey designed to gauge their perceptions about submitting and publishing in applied linguistics journals indexed in SSCI. Academics perceive that publishing in such journals is difficult due to the high rate of rejection, long time of turnaround review, and a stringent peer review. Editors—those who responded to another survey—reported that a combination of outdated issues being investigated, poor research design and the lack of generalizability of research findings are the main reasons for rejecting submissions from Saudi academic institutions. On the bases of the study findings, limitations and tips for future studies are highlighted.

This article reviews the literature of multimedia glosses in computer assisted language learning (CALL) and their effects on L2 vocabulary acquisition during the past seventeen years. Several studies have touched on this area to examine the potential of multimedia in a CALL environment in aiding L2 vocabulary acquisition. In this review, the researchers investigate the studies that deal with different modes of multimedia annotations in a CALL environment. This article reviews the empirical studies of multimedia glosses in reading as well as in listening comprehension activities and discusses the factors under which these studies have been conducted and their impact on L2 vocabulary acquisition. The study aims to understand how multimedia glosses have been used in the past to support second language vocabulary acquisition and also to explore any evidence regarding how multimedia glosses in a CALL environment can enhance the acquisition of L2 vocabulary. Only empirical studies (18 studies published in international refereed journals and conference) have been reviewed exclusively. The article discusses the findings of the reviewed studies and recommends future research.

The widespread availability of technological infrastructure has enhanced the adoption of learning management systems (LMSs) in educational institutions. Blackboard is one of the most popular marketable LMSs adopted in higher education institutions. As some previous studies have viewed that positive perceptions played a vital role in adopting new technologies, this paper aims to investigate teachers’ perceptions on blackboard applications in the context of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). To gather data, 32 EFL university teachers from Saudi Arabia were surveyed and interviewed about their perceptions toward the use of the blackboard. The results from the data instruments reveal that EFL teachers have positive perceptions on Blackboard applications to English language teaching. Most teachers view Blackboard as a structured e-learning platform that helps improve the teacher-student relationship in a course and aids to make teaching English more successful. The study findings; however, revealed that the use of blackboard as a blending learning is still focusing on administrative issues rather than pedagogical significance for language learning. Recommendations and directions for future research are highlighted at the end of this article.