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摘要：Based on various theories of human agency (Ajzen, I. (2005). Attitudes, personality and behavior (2nd ed.). London: Open University Press; Davis, F.D. (1989). Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of information technology. MIS Quarterly, 13, 319-340; Rogers, E.M. (1983). Diffusion of innovations (3rd ed.). New York: The Free Press), it is essential to know users' attitudes and abilities before implementing widespread use of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) techniques in schools. This study takes a two-tiered approach. On the one hand, it aims to explore the current computer-related attitudes and abilities of Iranian high school language teachers and students, before the actual diffusion of computers into the education system. On the other hand, this study compares the attitudes of language teachers and students towards CALL, cultural perceptions of the role of computers in education, computer competence, and computer access. Toward this aim, a multi-section survey in the Persian language was administered to high school language teachers and students. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and the results indicated that the majority of the participants have positive attitudes towards CALL and find it relevant to the cultural context of Iran. Teachers have moderate computer competence, while students have limited competence. Language teachers and students have daily access to computers mostly at home. The study further shows the difference between language teachers and students in that although teachers are presumed to be ambivalent about computer-related issues, in comparison with their students, teachers rank significantly higher on the CALL attitude and computer competence scales. From the positive CALL attitudes of both groups, it may be inferred that they will use computers in language education once computers become available, accompanied by adequate training.

摘要：In this study a self-paced instructional method based on the use of Apple's iPod Touch personal mobile devices to deliver content was compared with a group-oriented instructional method of content delivery in terms of learner acquisition of course material. One hundred and twenty-two first-year Japanese university students in four classes were used in the study. The subjects were placed in two experimental groups and two control groups, and each researcher taught one control and one experimental group. An independent samples t-test performed on the groups' placement scores on the university's English entrance examination showed no significant difference between the two groups in terms of general English ability at the outset of the experiment. During the treatment sessions the control groups studied in a group-oriented classroom environment while the experimental groups studied the same course material but did so with a self-paced method that used Apple's iPod Touch personal mobile devices. As such, the subjects in the experimental group were allowed to study at a rate they chose rather than having the timing of the language input controlled by the teacher. The curriculum for both the control and experimental groups was based on the course textbook (Science English: Communication skills for scientists and engineers, Daniels, 2007, Tokyo: Thomson). The same standardized tests were given to all students involved in the study and the scores of the control and experimental groups were analysed using independent samples t-tests supported by Mann-Whitney tests. The post-treatment data showed a significant difference emerge between the groups, while the experimental group scored consistently higher than the control group. Results of a post-treatment survey given to the experimental group also indicated very positive learner attitudes towards the self-study iPod Touch-based instructional method.

摘要：This study focused on the interface between classroom assessment and learning motivation, in particular, whether and how classroom tests and grades motivated student effort. In a university in Taiwan, six English as a Foreign Language teacher interviews were conducted, and 744 student surveys, accompanied by 289 more detailed written opinions, were gathered and analyzed. It was found that teacher considerations in designing classroom tests and assigning nontest grades were associated with intentions to ensure student efforts. Students were generally alert to grade-related requirements but reacted differently. Many indicated the effectiveness of tests in inducing student effort but felt ambivalent about being pushed to study by tests and grades. Teachers should avoid actually demotivating students when their original aim was to motivate. Adapted from the source document

摘要：The General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) was developed in accordance with the Taiwanese Ministry of Education's three goals to improve learners' English proficiency, motivate English learning, and promote lifelong learning. This article used questionnaires to investigate the success of the GEPT in meeting these goals. As the GEPT is intended for Taiwanese English as a foreign language, learners from all walks of life (Wu, 2012), both student and non-student GEPT test takers were involved in this study (n = 384). Results showed that although most test takers responded that the GEPT was successful in making them feel that their English has improved, only a slight majority responded that the GEPT was successful in motivating them to learn English. Most test takers did not support the idea that the GEPT was successful in promoting lifelong learning. Probit regression was used to examine the relationships between these verdicts and variables such as test takers' background, motivational influences, feeling toward the GEPT, perceptions toward self-assessment, learner autonomy, and capacities for lifelong learning. Based on the findings, the article argues for a unique place of the GEPT in the Taiwanese context and reflects on the use of tests to promote lifelong learning of a foreign language. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Feedback to the test taker is a defining characteristic of diagnostic language testing (Alderson, 2005). This article reports on a study that investigated how much and in what ways students at a Taiwan university perceived the feedback to be useful on an online multiple-choice diagnostic English grammar test, both in general and by students of higher and lower language proficiency. Stage 1 involved questionnaire data from 68 students who rated each item's feedback according to usefulness, and Stage 2 involved interviews with five students as they read the feedback after taking the test. The data from these two stages showed students' overall positive attitude toward the feedback and students' preferences for particular feedback characteristics. The study also found that although higher proficiency test takers found the feedback to be more useful than lower proficiency test-takers, views about the characteristics of good feedback were similar regardless of level. Recommendations for improving diagnostic language test construction and validation are discussed based upon the findings. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Although the influence of learner beliefs on performance and satisfaction in particular instructional contexts is uncontested, empirical studies have so far concentrated on students in various geographical rather than discipline-specific settings. Starting from the premise that tertiary sector ESP students may have more in common than their choice of discipline, this study uses interviews and questionnaires to investigate first and fourth year business students' beliefs about effective language learning. The influence of students' conceptions of learning on their use of strategies is explored, and then juxtaposed with their evaluation of the reality of the business English classes. [Copyright The American University; published by Elsevier Ltd.]

摘要：English for academic purposes (EAP) has established itself as a considerable part of English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction in Iranian universities. Considering the Internet as a major educational source in EAP reading courses, it is highly important that the stakeholders have positive attitudes toward it and be aware of promises and challenges. This study was conducted to investigate the participants' attitudes toward the Internet in EAP courses for undergraduate students of civil engineering (CE) in Iran. To this end, 723 undergraduate students, 67 EAP instructors and 105 CE instructors participated in the study. Instrumentation included a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews and non-participant observation. Our analysis of the data revealed that the majority of EAP instructors, CE instructors and undergraduate students have positive attitudes toward the Internet. However, the results showed that EAP instructors do not make use of any types of Internet-based activities in their classes. Moreover, the majority of limitations in using the Internet in EAP courses were identified. It is concluded that undergraduate students of CE need training in various Internet-based skills. The findings promise implications for renewing the EAP programs. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This study explored the developed and acquired critical competence of a group of American learners of French as a second language (L2), intermediate level, within a virtual learning environment (VLE). In this VLE, students had to resolve complex problems in a collaborative way. The study focused on the concept of negotiation and co-construction of meaning as a paradigmatic phenomenon of emerging critical competence for learners of a foreign language. It first aimed to evaluate the nature of discourse schemas produced by these learners when chatting in the VLE in order to find out what these schemas indicated about the quality of the critical competence of these learners. Furthermore, this study wanted to explore the learners' perception of the impact of their immersion within the VLE on the development of their critical competence in French in order to better inform the way VLEs should be used in foreign language courses. This study was based on a mixed methods research protocol that favoured the complementarity of quantitative and qualitative data in order to increase the results' validity and credibility. Adapted from the source document

摘要：The Native English Teachers (NETs) Scheme has been in place for over 20 years in secondary schools in Hong Kong and yet how students perceive these teachers is under-researched. This article reports a study which analyses student perceptions of the advantage and disadvantages of learning English from NETs and their non-native counterparts, local English teachers (LETs). Data were collected through semi-structured group interviews with 30 secondary students studying in three different schools in Hong Kong. Content data analysis was conducted, and main themes that emerged from interview transcripts were categorised. Results show that the perceived advantages of LETs include their proficiency in students' L1, their knowledge of students' learning difficulties, the ease students experience in understanding their teaching, and in communication. The perceived advantages of NETs are their good English proficiency and ability to facilitate student learning. The disadvantages of one category of teachers appear to be the reverse of the advantages of another. Data also show that some students experience anxiety when encountering NETs and tend to prefer certain teaching styles. This study has significant implications for classroom teaching practice and teacher professional development. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This study examined the motivation to learn English of Indonesian junior high school pupils, 13-14 years of age, in three distinct contexts: a metropolitan city, a provincial town, and a rural district. Utilizing Dornyei's second language (L2) Motivational Self System as the theoretical framework, this study employed a 50-item questionnaire to sample the views of 527 learners, and a C-test to measure their current proficiency in English. Motivation was found to be similar in strength and character in the two urban settings but significantly different in the rural setting. A positive view of the experience of learning English was the strongest predictor of both motivated learning behavior and L2 proficiency, whereas the Ideal L2 self was only a significant factor among the metropolitan group. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This study concerns the development of autonomy in adult learners working on an online learning platform as part of a professional master's degree programme in "French as a Foreign Language". Our goal was to identify the influence of reflective and collaborative dimensions on the construction of autonomy for online learners in this programme. The material used was 27 self-analysis papers in response to an assignment which asked students to review their distance learning experience (reflective dimension) and to highlight the role of others, if any, in their learning (collaborative dimension). In addition to these two major points, the analysis by category of the body of results shows principally that in qualitative terms, the factors of autonomisation for online learning are interconnected and include: the difficulties related to distance learning and the strategies that learners develop to face those difficulties, the importance of interpersonal relationships in social and emotional terms in overcoming those difficulties, the specific modes of sociability developed for distance learning and the related development of a new type of autonomy that is both individual and collective. The discussion examines the creation, over the course of time, of a new "distance learning culture" that is nonetheless never easy to create and share. Adapted from the source document

摘要：The aim of this study was to improve students' English as Foreign Language (EFL) writing and speaking performance with appropriate learning activity design supported by Virtual Pen (VPen), a multimedia web annotation system. Students' perceptions toward using VPen and learning activities, attitude toward using VPen, actual VPen usage and their relationships were also investigated. After the experiment the students perceived that VPen was easy to use and useful during learning activities, and generally had a positive attitude toward using VPen. Furthermore, the students believed that learning activities were 'playful' and useful for improving writing and speaking performance. Further investigation revealed that the students' actual VPen usage had a significant correlation with speaking and writing performance and that students' speaking and writing performance significantly correlated with learning achievement. Based on our findings, we conclude that designed learning activities supported by the VPen system could facilitate students' writing and speaking performance and therefore improve their learning achievement. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Oral communication ability has become increasingly important to many EFL students. Several commercial software programs based on automatic speech recognition (ASR) technologies are available but their prices are not affordable for many students. This paper will demonstrate how the Microsoft Speech Application Software Development Kit (SASDK), a free but powerful tool, can be used to develop an oral skills training website for EFL students. This ASR-based website offers six different types of online exercises which allow students to practise their oral skills and obtain immediate feedback on their performance. A group of 25 college students and a group of 35 pre-service English teachers were invited to use the website. Two surveys were conducted to investigate the students' and the pre-service teachers' perceptions of this site. The results indicated that most teachers and students enjoyed using this website, which they felt could help improve their English oral skills. They also pointed out that the main strength of the ASR-based learning system is that it offers several different types of exercises which can encourage learners to produce more output in a low-anxiety environment. The major limitations of the website are the insufficient feedback and the challenging standards one must meet in order to achieve a pass mark. These findings can be useful for teachers who are interested in using ASR in teaching and for CALL researchers who aim to develop better ASR-based systems for language learning. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This study tracked gender differential item functioning (DIF) on the English subtest of the Korean College Scholastic Aptitude Test (KCSAT) over a nine-year period across three data points, using both the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) and item response theory likelihood ratio (IRT-LR) procedures. Further, the study identified two factors (i.e. reading strategy and perceived interest) that explained a portion of the variance in the magnitude of gender DIF via a series of multiple linear regression analyses. The results indicated (1) an interaction between item type and gender DIF and (2) a significant relationship between gender differences in the examinee's perceived interest in test items and the magnitude of gender DIF. The study discusses the results based on previous DIF research and presents pedagogical implications and some avenues for further research. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：School-based assessment (SBA) has recently been introduced into the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examinations (HKCEE) in English. The present study was conducted within the context of this assessment change to investigate students' and parents' perceptions of the impact of SBA. Two surveys were employed to explore students' and parents' perceptions of SBA and their perceptions of the impact of SBA on learning. The results from the student survey demonstrated a relationship between students' perceptions of SBA-related learning activities and their perceptions of their own language competence. The results also showed significant differences between students' perceptions of the learning activities they had taken part in during the previous school year and those they were currently engaging in. In addition, parents' perceptions of SBA and the opportunities for them to know about SBA significantly and positively predicted their support for their children's SBA learning. Parents' education level and the amount of time they spent with their child daily also predicted their support for their children's SBA learning, though to a lesser extent. Further, parents' perceptions about the SBA are directly and significantly related to their children's perceptions about SBA. Taking the results from both students' and parents' surveys together, we have gained a better understanding of the complexity of the impact of SBA within the Hong Kong educational context, as perceived by students and their parents. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications, Ltd., copyright holder.]

摘要：This article reports on a mixed-methods study of Chinese university students' knowledge of and attitudes toward plagiarism in English academic writing. A sample of 270 undergraduates from two Chinese universities rated three short English passages under different conditions, provided open-ended responses to justify their ratings, and completed a written questionnaire. The rating tasks were designed to determine their ability to recognize two forms of intertextuality (i.e., unacknowledged copying and paraphrasing) generally regarded as plagiarism in Anglo-American academia. The questionnaire was administered to collect self-appraisals of competence in source use and to assess declarative knowledge of intertextual practices that match typical Anglo-American definitions of blatant and subtle plagiarism. Qualitative and quantitative analyses revealed that a minority of the students recognized the two forms of plagiarism and generally took a punitive attitude toward the detected cases of plagiarism. Further quantitative analyses found that discipline, self-reported competence in referencing, and knowledge of subtle plagiarism were consistently significant predictors of successful plagiarism detection. These findings raise questions about some culturally based interpretations of plagiarism and point to the need to take a nuanced approach to plagiarism in L2 writing. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This article examines the language-related challenges that first-year students face when adjusting to the demands of English-medium higher education in Hong Kong. The article is based on the findings of a longitudinal study which tracked the university careers of 28 students from a range of backgrounds via in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted at regular intervals over their three years of study. These findings are complemented by the results of a questionnaire survey completed by around 3,000 students at the same university. The interview and survey findings indicate that students experience four particular problems during the crucial first year at university: understanding technical vocabulary, comprehending lectures, achieving an appropriate academic style and meeting institutional and disciplinary requirements. The evidence suggests that students are able to overcome these and other problems through a combination of strong motivation, hard work, effective learning strategies and supportive peer networks. To illustrate and personalise the first-year experience, the article paints portraits of three students from different societal, educational and disciplinary backgrounds. These portraits follow a series of landscapes which depict recurring patterns in the qualitative and quantitative data. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the study for EAP provision in ESL and EFL contexts. This article examines students' transition to English-medium university studies. This is one of the few EAP-related longitudinal studies ever conducted. Students' main first-year challenge lies in understanding specialist vocabulary. School teaching medium is the key variable influencing ease of adjustment. Freshmen from Chinese schools struggle to adjust to English-medium studies. [Copyright The American University; published by Elsevier Ltd.]

摘要：This study utilizes a pre-test/post-test assessment to investigate the instructional efficacy of a genre-based approach to teaching summary writing. Forty-one EFL university students in Taiwan were asked before and after the instruction to summarize a simplified version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in a maximum of 500 words. All the students' summaries on the pre- and post-tests were evaluated against content, organization, vocabulary, and language use. The statistical results showed that such an approach was effective in improving students' overall summarization performance of a narrative source text and that the students benefited to a greater extent in content and organization than in vocabulary and language use. The results were also supported by the students' interview comments. Adapted from the source document

摘要：Motivation is a well-researched construct; however, few studies have investigated how teachers perceive and make sense of situations in which learners are not motivated to learn. Thirty-two EFL teachers working in Japanese universities were surveyed and interviews with three of these teachers were conducted to reveal their perceptions of student 'unmotivation'. Three different factors were identified which explain why these teachers consider influencing learner motivation positively has its limits. These are the external factors of institutions and educational systems and the internal factors of student attitudes and personalities and teacher-student relationships. Pedagogical and research implications are suggested in response to teachers' perceptions of this unmotivation. Adapted from the source document

摘要：This article explores Japanese EFL learners' classroom silence in a Japanese EFL context. The existence of silence in second language learning contexts can be a source of conflict between students and teachers and even among students themselves. It can also bean obstacle to acquiring the target language. In order to tackle this problem and to illustrate the dynamic characteristics of classroom silence, this study draws on insights from the ethnographic approach and interprets the roots, functions, and meanings of silence from a sociocultural perspective. It was conducted through a questionnaire survey which aimed to elicit learners' and teachers' views on silence and also to examine whether a mismatch of perceptions exists. The issues of identity and the role of cultural and contextual factors in the use of silence are discussed and possible pedagogical approaches which could be implemented in varied learning contexts are suggested. Adapted from the source document