• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.265-290
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• 2009

The present data-driven study attempted to explicate nonnative English teacher trainees' foreign language teaching anxiety in microteaching settings from their perspectives. It is assumed that nonnative English teachers or teacher trainees may experience anxiety not only as foreign language learners but also as foreign language teachers. In order to inquire into their anxiety, the researcher had 172 teacher trainees perform extended microteaching tasks and reflect on their teaching and anxiety through group discussion. Based on the analysis of their discussion, three aspects related to nonnative English teacher trainees' anxiety were identified. First, teacher trainees identified three main types of anxiety-provoking situations: communicative-competence-threatening situations, unexpected situations, and instruction-hindering situations. Second, they identified three sources of anxiety: limited ability to use English, lack of English teaching skills, and fear of criticism. Third, they were aware that they used diverse strategies to lower anxiety before and while teaching for different purposes. From their identification and awareness of anxiety-provoking situations, sources of anxiety, and anxiety-lowering strategies, they could reflect on professional qualifications as a foreign language teacher.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.85-102
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• 2002

Learners and users of a second language have to resort to a variety of conversational strategies or structures to enable them to communicate effectively and competently. Factors affecting effective communication among English as a second or English as foreign language (ESL/EFL) learners are diverse in nature because of different socio-cultural backgrounds. Gambits as a conversational strategy are used to a large extent and teachers must be made aware of such conversational strategies used by English as second or foreign language learners. Thus, studies focusing on conversational strategies among ESL/EFL learners in the English language classroom are important in order to identify the types of conversational strategies used and to help teachers to understand the appropriate conversational strategies and structures. Such understanding can be used to guide learners to use correct conversational strategies when communicating in English. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the use of gambits as a communication strategy in conversation among non-native speakers of English in an English as a second language(ESL) context based on Kellers conversational strategy signals. (175 words)

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.189-215
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• 2008

This study proposes using children's literature as a means of teaching and learning English as a foreign language and suggests practical strategies on the basis of transactional theory of reading suggested by Rosenblatt (1994, 1995). This study suggests three novels written for children or young adults: On My Honor (1986) by Marion Dane Bauer, The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry and Hatchet (1987) by Gary Paulsen. These texts were selected because of their diverse topics, easy and comprehensible language, engaging stories, and authentic and rich expressions, making them effective materials for foreign language learners. This paper is organized as follows: First, it reviews research on teaching literature in English education and response-oriented language teaching to provide theoretical background of literature-based language teaching and learning. Second, it provides the background of the texts selected for the study. Third, it develops diverse, practical strategies for instructors who intend to use children's literature in EFL teaching. We expect to guide EFL instructors in adopting children's literature in their English class by connecting theory and practice and by providing diverse methods and strategies, and sample responses by EFL university students.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.37-44
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• 2023

This study investigates perceptual confusions of English fricatives among 121 Korean elementary school English as a foreign language (EFL) learners with shorter periods of learning English. The objective is to examine how they perceive English fricative consonants and to provide educational guidelines. Two sets of English fricative identification tasks-voiceless fricatives and voiced fricatives-were administered to participants in a High Variability Phonetic Training (HVPT) setting. Their phonemic awareness of the fricatives was visualized in perceptual confusion maps via multidimensional scaling analysis. The findings are explored in terms of the impacts of Korean EFL learners' L1 linguistic aspects and a comparison with L1 learners. Learners' phonemic awareness patterns are then compared with their relative importance in speech intelligibility based on a functional load hierarchy. The results indicated that Korean elementary EFL learners recognized English fricatives in a manner largely akin to L1 learners, suggesting their ongoing acquisition progress. Additionally, the findings demonstrated that the young EFL learners possess sufficient phonemic awareness for most high functional load segments but encounter some difficulties with one high and one low functional pair. The findings of this study offer suggestions for diagnosing language learners' phonemic awareness abilities, thereby aiding in the development of practical guidelines for language instructional design and helping educators make informed decisions regarding teaching priority in L2 classes.

• Asian Journal for Public Opinion Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.250-265
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• 2018

Thailand is one of the ASEAN countries and is said to be the most visited country in Southeast Asia. Despite its development, Thailand falls as one of the countries with the lowest rates of English proficiency. This article is written to describe one of the possible factors of Thailand's low English proficiency, which is the foreign language anxiety of students. This article outlines references regarding the English language anxiety of Thai students and uses them as a basis in distinguishing English language anxiety among nursing students in Boromarajonani College of Nursing Nakhon Lampang, Thailand (BCNLP). A survey was conducted using a questionnaire based on the FLCA Scale by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope, (1986) with a focus group consisting of 80 participants randomly selected from $1^{st}$ year to $4^{th}$ year nursing students of BCNLP. As found in the survey there were two sources of English language anxiety among nursing students: 1. Fear of negative evaluation due to unpreparedness, and feeling and thinking that others are better in language learning as the main factors; and 2. Communicating apprehension, where in speaking without preparation, speaking in the foreign language in front of other students, and self-doubt about one's ability to speak in the foreign language are the highest ranked causes of anxiety. The results indicate two main problems: unpreparedness and self-concept. Therefore, it is recommended that English Language classes should be taught with the learner-centered approach and that instructors should put importance in preparing the students during class, and encouraging them to increase a positive self-concept towards English language learning.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.77-102
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• 2002

Factors affecting foreign language learning task are diverse in nature due to the different social and cultural backgrounds so that learners have to somehow use strategies and expressions to adjust diverse factors to their learning environments. The main purpose of this paper is to show how important NNS vs. NNs interaction through CCDL can be in their enhancement of English proficiency by giving examples from their chatting conversation(written conversation) data collected for over two semesters. Chatting as a means of synchronous communication interaction between students from two different cultural backgrounds can act as a predictor of foreign language achievement. Chatting and Telemeet activities have their own advantages in enhancing communicative competence when learning English. By engaging in these synchronous communication activities learners of English from different cultural backgrounds can acquire unique strategies and expressions from which they learn from each other. In short, this study advocates the importance of strategies and patterns foreign language learners can acquire from interaction among culturally different peer groups.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.1
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• pp.129-157
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• 1995

I made a careful study of affective variables in foreign language learning Affective variables have not been adequately investigated in the study of second language acquisition. Egoism and inhibition are two egocentric factors which play important roles in foreign language learning. Three sociocultural variables. cultural factors, introversion / extroversion, and aggression may be keys to understanding the social nature of second language learning. And the emerging of cognition and affect in "cognitive styles", which vary within and among individuals, might account for varying degree of success in learning a second language. In the process of learning English. the students new to foreign language come to face the language barrier. though they express the deep interest and feel excited at the beginning stage. Of course, the several reasons can explain this fact. but more specially they can be explained in terms of such personal affective factors as age, aptitude, personality, and first of all, motivation. Also the socicultural factors between language and culture can be considered to the learner's aptitude toward the language. Affective factors of students are involved in personality. and personality and affective factors affect English learning. Affective variables of students affect the will to take part in English learning, and the rate of participation in English learning affect the fluency. If students feel inconvenience in English class, it is rarely that they run a risk. Students who do not run a risk in English class are short of spontaneous participation Consequently, it may have negative influence on the accuracy and the fluency of English. Therefore, teachers must be more influential in motivating students and specially attentive so that the students may not make the negative and inhibitive language learning attitude.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.19
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• pp.313-338
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• 2010

Attitudes toward target language culture and motivation have been known as important factors in second or foreign language learning. In this study, cadets' attitudes toward the target language community and culture were investigated to find out any relationships with English achievement. Integrative or instrumental motivation in foreign military context was investigated to determine which motivation was more positively related to English proficiency. Cadets' responses were shown highly positive and internally consistent in most cases. Military cadets' attitudes toward American culture were statistically significant and could predict their English achievement. Even though integrative motivation was statistically significant, correlation with English achievement was low. However, instrumental motivation was not significant. This result implies that attitudes toward culture is an important factor in foreign language learning and integrative-instrumental motivation dichotomy might not be enough to explain specific context like cadets' English learning situation at Korea Army Academy at Youngcheon.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.961-972
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• 2005

The purpose of this study is to investigate the improvement of English proficiency of children in the ESL and EFL learning style classrooms through the experiment method. The results of this research are as follows: first, the scores of listening and speaking and the perception of alphabets in the ESL program are higher than that in the EFL program. This means that learning in the ESL style classroom is the better way to improve English skills than in the EFL style classroom, which is common in Korea. Second, there is no difference in the English listening and speaking skills and the perception of the English alphabets between the two gender groups in the ESL & EFL style classrooms. These results suggest that the target language may be used in the English classrooms by the teachers and the students with the materials, books, and equipment are English. Teachers are expected to be in charge of playing decisive roles as demonstrators of speech, models and correctors of pronunciation and providers of materials including TV, VCR, CD players, and cassette recorders, etc.

• English Language & Literature Teaching
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• no.6
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• pp.113-142
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• 2000

In order to obtain a better understanding of L2 learners, transitional knowledges, it is very important and necessary to have a better knowledge of interlanguage. According to Corder, the role of interlanguage in English education holds significance to (1) for language teachers, (2) for language learners themselves, and (3) for language textbook compilers. To me the significance of interlanguage in English education can be described in terms of not only language teachers, learners themselves, textbook writers and compilers but pure linguists, applied linguists, school authorities as well as parents. For language learners themselves a clear understanding of interlanguage results in students being receptive to language input, and the avoidance of mental block, and low levels of foreign language anxiety. Native speakers of English (NSE) reflect not only linguistic features but also psychological, socio-linguistic, and discourse features when engaged in communication activities. This means that L2 learners are introduced to these different features, especially pragmatic features which are different from their mother tongue or L1 when engaged in communication with NSE. Hence the importance of interlanguage pragmatics should be recognized. It is very important that teachers of English should have a better understanding of interlanguage and present L2 learners with their interlanguage features so they can avoid any misunderstandings such features may cause when conversing with NSS. It should also be noted that interlanguage can form the foundation of language acquisition theory and linguistic analysis.