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With the advancement of automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology, ASR-based pronunciation assessment can diagnose learners' pronunciation problems. Meanwhile, ASR-based pronunciation training allows more opportunities for pronunciation practice. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of ASR technology in diagnosing English pronunciation errors and to explore teachers' and learners' attitudes towards using ASR technology as a pronunciation assessment tool and as a learning tool. Five Chinese EFL learners participated in read-aloud tests, including a human-assessed test and an ASR-assessed test. Pronunciation error types diagnosed by the two tests were compared to determine the extent of overlapping areas. The findings demonstrate that there were overlaps between human rating and machine rating at the segmental level. Moreover, it was found that learners' varied pronunciation learning needs were met by using the ASR technology. Implications of the study will provide insights relevant to using ASR technology to facilitate English pronunciation assessment and learning.

Research on TPACK has been burgeoning recently. Some review studies in the field of educational technology have indicated issues and trends in TPACK research conducted in the past decades. However,...

As an intimidating school subject for students globally, writing requires a high level of motivation, especially for second language (L2) learners. Despite abundant research on motivation in both f...

Digital technology plays a crucial role in modern second/foreign language education. Enormous changes in technology and the growing emphasis on 21st century skills raise a concern about English as ...

It has been over a decade since the International Civil Aviation Organization proposed Language Proficiency Requirements to improve aviation English proficiency and air safety through adequate avia...

The present work synthesizes the studies in flipped language education based on Social Sciences Citation Index publications up to the year 2018. A sum of 33 studies were finalized as the targeted s...

This study explored (a) pre-service teachers’ knowledge structure on teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) reading using concept mapping in a language pedagogy course, (b) the characteristics of concept maps drawn, and (c) the relationship between concept mapping and the course achievement scores. The participants were 14 pre-service teachers majoring in English language education at a university in Hong Kong. The data sources included assessments of concept maps and final exam scores. The overall research findings reveal the educational potential of integrating concept maps as a diagnostic and predictive assessment tool in teacher education programs.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used for language learning in higher education to strengthen teaching practice and meet learning needs. However, studies on the behavior of university students using artificial intelligence for language learning are still insufficient. The study involved 129 university students and investigated factors inherent in their behavior of using AI to learn languages. Exploratory factor analysis was used to validate the questionnaire consisting of five factors: (i) knowledge of AI-enabled language apps, (ii) attitude to use AI, (iii) perceived ease of use, (iv) subjective norm, and (v) behavioral intention. Results of this study indicated that the above factors were associated with students’ behavioral intention for language learning positively.

In many English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, learning is often limited to decontextualized classroom learning, and students suffer from lack of interaction and authentic opportunities for ...

EnglishThe precision and effectiveness of the communication between air traffic controllers and pilots is quite literally a matter of life or death. Speakers of aeronautical English, the language of communication in the realm of aviation, are required by the ICAO to meet a minimum standard of language performance across the communication skills of listening and speaking, yet miscommunication and misunderstandings across channels persist, potentially resulting in catastrophic collisions and incidents. This English for Specific Purposes (ESP) paper reports on the creation of an aeronautical English training unit guided by principles of the ADDIE (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation) model of instructional design developed to assist Korean army enlisted soldiers and noncommissioned officers who are serving as air traffic controllers in the improvement of integral aeronautical English skills. Designed materials were assessed with the assistance of four subject-matter experts (SMEs) as a pilot test, and results of the evaluation demonstrate the potential for application of the ADDIE model of instructional design for future ESP instructional units. portuguesA precisao e a eficacia da comunicacao entre controladores de trafego aereo e pilotos e quase literalmente uma questao de vida ou morte. A OACI requer que falantes do ingles aeronautico, a lingua de comunicacao no dominio da aviacao, atendam a um padrao minimo de desempenho linguistico nas habilidades comunicativas de compreensao e producao oral, ainda que continuem a ocorrer falhas de comunicacao ou mal-entendidos em varios canais, potencialmente resultando em incidentes e colisoes catastroficas. Este artigo sobre Ingles para Fins Especificos (ESP) informa sobre a criacao de uma unidade de capacitacao/treinamento de ingles aeronautico consoante os principios do modelo ADDIE (analise, design, desenvolvimento, implementacao e avaliacao) de design instrucional, desenvolvido para auxiliar suboficiais e soldados alistados do exercito coreano que estao servindo como controladores de trafego aereo a aperfeicoarem suas habilidades integrais de ingles aeronautico. Os materiais elaborados foram avaliados, como um teste-piloto, com a assistencia de quatro especialistas no assunto (SMEs) e os resultados da avaliacao demonstram o potencial de aplicacao do modelo ADDIE de design instrucional para futuras unidades instrucionais de ESP.

Aviation English proficiency is a core competency in the global air traffic controller profession. There is, however, growing concern about the current ineffective paper-based assessment methods and the severe lack of interactive online testing for such a critical profession, one that should be ideally assessed in an authentic task and situation (Alderson, 2010; Douglas, 2013). The tests, which lack validity and authenticity, cannot capture how knowledge of aviation English communication and strategic competence are used through valid means and, therefore, inevitably fail to predict how test takers actually perform in the target language use situations (Douglas, 2000). In the present study, the researcher examines the potential use of verbal report data produced by test takers interacting in a virtual testing environment. The research seeks to answer two specific questions: (a) What types of strategies are used in the virtual aviation English task performance? and (b) How can the assessed strategies be interpreted in relation to test takers’ performance? The analysis of the test takers’ verbal reports from stimulated recalls indicates that various cognitive, metacognitive, and communication strategies were used while performing the Virtual Interactive Tasks for Aviation English Assessment, and that there is a positive relationship between the total number of cognitive and metacognitive strategies adopted and the test scores. The findings suggest that the use of an immersive interface and simulated tasks in a virtual world could provide language learners with more authentic opportunities to perform the target tasks and promote strategic, as well as linguistic, competence.

This article discusses the concept of digital literacy and presents a digital literacy questionnaire containing questions related to the use of digital technologies and the level of digital literacy skills. It also reports the results of two studies that used the digital literacy questionnaire to investigate the digital literacy level of 100 English for academic purposes (EAP) students at a university in Australia and 70 English as a foreign language (EFL) students at a university in Japan and examine factors affecting their use of digital technologies for learning English. The findings of the studies provide some insights into the students' awareness and use of digital technologies and their views of the use of digital tools and resources for language learning. Each group showed a different level of expectations and needs in their digital literacy skills with a different background and experience. It is suggested that the expectations and needs of respondents to the digital literacy questionnaire should be taken into account when the results of the digital literacy questionnaire are presented and interpreted in different contexts.

This study investigates the extent to which university teachers’ beliefs about classroom writing assessment are congruent with their self-perceived practices in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) contexts, and what factors contribute to belief-practice inconsistencies. Drawing on data from a survey of 136 Chinese university EFL writing teachers and ten teacher interviews, results showed a degree of belief-practice alignment regarding assessment for learning (AfL) practices that make learning explicit, but belief-practice discrepancies were more salient. AfL practices that empower students to take responsibility in writing assessment were perceived to be more important than assessment of learning practices; however, the reverse was found in teachers’ practice. Impacts of micro-level factors including assessment training, teaching experience, student attributes, meso-level school factors, and macro-level assessment culture are discussed, and implications are drawn.

Task-based language teaching has been claimed to be an effective way to promote second language acquisition. This paper reports on the process of developing a task-based English-as-a-Foreign-Language curriculum in a Japanese computer science university. 38 tasks, which language education experts perceived as important, were re-evaluated by computer science experts via an online needs analysis survey with the goal of selecting target tasks for first- and second-year English courses. The results indicate that there are both similarities and discrepancies in the perception of task importance between English and computer science faculty members. A qualitative analysis of comments from computer science professors illuminates the logic behind their judgements about the needs of teaching particular tasks. The cooperation between language and content experts is indispensable in the development of the curriculum of English for science and technology; it allows for synthesis of a variety of viewpoints and development of a stronger English curriculum.

In response to the research priorities of members of TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), this study investigated language learners’ real-world tasks in mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) to inform the future development of pedagogic tasks for academic English as a second language (ESL) courses. The data included initial semistructured interviews with four ESL teachers and four college ESL students followed by an online task-based needs analysis conducted with 23 ESL teachers and 76 college ESL students at a university in the midwestern United States. Through the interviews and surveys, we identified how teachers and students used mobile devices and how they felt mobile devices could be used in language learning, and we categorized their target tasks in MALL according to the four language skills (reading, listening, speaking, and writing). The study found that ESL learners already use various mobile device functions, but that ESL instructors were less inclined to use these for teaching, suggesting that teachers may need further support and ideas before they can help their learners take advantage of their mobile devices for language learning. Both learners and teachers gave high rankings to tasks for listening and speaking as well as to activities integrated with SMS and the Internet. Based on the identified tasks, we created a MALL task typology to provide an initial authentic and sound resource for the future development of MALL tasks, lesson plans, and curricula.En réponse aux priorités de recherche des membres de TESOL (enseignement de l’anglais à des apprenants étrangers), cette étude a porté sur les tâches réelles dans le contexte de l’apprentissage mobile des langues pour ensuite éclairer le développement de tâches pédagogiques pour l’anglais académique dans les cours d’anglais langue seconde (ALS). La collecte des données a inclus des entrevues initiales semi-structurées auprès de quatre enseignants d’ALS et quatre étudiants d’ALS à l’université, ainsi qu’une analyse des besoins basée sur les tâches et accomplie en ligne auprès de 23 enseignants d’ALS et 76 étudiants d’ALS dans une université du Midwest des États-Unis. Les entrevues et les enquêtes ont permis d’identifier l’emploi que faisaient les enseignants et les étudiants des appareils mobiles ainsi que leurs perceptions du rôle que pouvaient jouer les appareils dans l’apprentissage d’une langue. Par la suite, nous avons classé leurs tâches cibles selon quatre compétences linguistiques (lecture, écoute, expression orale et rédaction). Les résultats indiquent que les apprenants d’ALS se servent déjà de diverses fonctions des appareils mobiles mais que les enseignants d’ALS étaient moins portés à s’en servir pour l’enseignement, ce qui porte à croire qu’il faudrait peutêtre leur offrir plus d’appui et d’idées de sorte à ce qu’ils soient en mesure d’aider les apprenants à profiter de leurs appareils mobiles pour apprendre la langue. Tant les apprenants que les enseignants ont attribué beaucoup d’importance aux tâches liées à l’écoute, à l’expression orale, à la messagerie texte et à l’Internet. À partir des tâches identifiées, nous avons créé une typologie des tâches pour l’apprentissage mobile des langues, fournissant ainsi une première ressource authentique et solide pour le développement futur de tâches, de plans de cours et de programmes d’étude dans le domaine.