Extensive reading research: What have we learned and what questions remain?
Research to date suggests that extensive reading (ER) can help develop learners’ language competence. Students who read a great deal in the target language are more likely to develop a higher overall proficiency. This article aimed to examine the extent, range, and nature of research activities on ER and identify gaps in the existing literature on the effects of ER on language learning. To identify relevant studies, EBSCOhost, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases were searched using the following search terms: extensive reading or graded readers or free voluntary reading (TI) and extensive reading or graded readers or free voluntary reading (AB). A total of 109 studies published from 2001–2021 were then analysed to determine the characteristics and emergent themes of prior studies on ER. Our analysis revealed that the existing studies placed greater emphasis on improving learners’ reading attitudes than learners’ linguistic abilities and language use (e.g., speaking and writing skills). Given the potential impact of ER on students’ overall language development, not just increased reading proficiency and skills, the ER research base should be substantially expanded so that we know more about its effects on diverse aspects of language learning.
Expanding students' choices in language education
Many teachers seem interested in their classes being more student-centered. Students making more choices about their own learning forms a key aspect of student-centered learning, as well as life-long learning. This article offers ideas for ways to provide students with more choices in their learning and suggests ways to encourage students to make choices when given opportunities to do so. These ideas for increasing student choice include extensive reading, cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, service learning, thinking questions, and use of the internet and other IT affordances. Student choice fits with an overall paradigm shift toward democratizing society, and it also fits with greater choice for teachers. Theoretical underpinnings of student choice include social cognitivism, social constructivism, humanistic psychology, self-directed learning, and social interdependence theory.
Five reasons why listening strategy instruction might not work with lower proficiency learners
Despite numerous theoretical discussions and empirical studies that have been generated in the past 30 years or so, a strategic approach to teaching L2 listening has not been whole-heartedly embraced by practitioners, in particular when they work with lower proficiency learners of English. I offer five possible reasons for this: first, the empirical evidence supporting listening strategy instruction is not particularly strong; second, strategy instruction places a rather heavy demand on the teachers; third, teachers are not totally convinced that strategy instruction can solve their students’ listening difficulties which often stem from basic decoding (word recognition) problems; fourth, lower proficiency learners have not acquired a threshold level of proficiency to take full advantage of strategy instruction; finally, there is a possibility that learners may not in fact need to learn strategies, as they may have acquired and used these strategies in their first language. Of these, the first reason, lack of strong empirical support, deserves serious attention from advocates of strategy-based instruction.
Extensive reading
Extensive reading is an approach to language teaching that aims to facilitate second language acquisition by immersing L2 learners with large amounts of interesting and comprehensible language. In extensive reading, students choose what they want to read, how they want to read it and what they want to do with it after they have finished reading.
Harnessing the power of technology in ELT
The aim of this paper is to delve deeper into the pivotal role that technology plays in the enhancement of second language (L2) learning, and more specifically, how technology can propel or even fast track L2 proficiency. Drawing upon insights from educational research and English Language Teaching (ELT) resources and practices, this paper aims to illuminate the multifaceted ways in which technology is reshaping the landscape of language education. The paper begins by discussing the advantages of using technology to enhance language learning. It suggests that while these benefits are valuable, it is crucial for ELT professionals to investigate whether relying solely on these benefits can actually enhance students’ language proficiency. The next part of the paper looks into a set of widely accepted principles related to second language acquisition. It then proposes how these principles can serve as a foundation for creating tech-enhanced language lessons that can potentially propel students’ proficiency development. The paper concludes that technology can and should be used to engage students more actively in their English language learning process.
Engagement with research: A qualitative study of English department teachers’ experiences and insights
This study delves into the engagement with research among university-level English department teachers. It examines their reading habits, literature preferences, and the influence of these activities on their professional practices. Through in-depth interviews with teachers from four reputable universities, this research offers insights into the frequency, format, and resources of engagement with research, as well as the challenges and reasons behind their varying levels of engagement. The findings drawn from this study contribute to the current body of research on teachers' engagement with research. They offer insights that may help improve educational programs or policies aimed at enhancing engagement with research in the academic community. The study, while offering valuable insights, acknowledges its limitations and suggests future research to broaden the scope and understanding of research engagement across different academic fields and settings.
A corpus-based study of the vocabulary profile of high school English textbooks in China
The study investigates the vocabulary profile of a set of English textbooks New Senior English for China, which is widely used for senior secondary education in China. It examines how the words required by the 2017 National English Curriculum Standard for General Senior Secondary Education in China are covered, repeated and distributed in the textbooks. The results show that the textbooks cover only about 80% of the lemmas required by the 2017 English Curriculum Standard. Among the lemmas covered in the textbooks, half of them are repeated less than five times in the textbooks. Most of the lemmas which recur more than five times in the textbooks have dispersion values above 0.5. Lemmas with dispersion values below 0.1 are mainly composed of theme-based words. Although the study indicates that some words are distributed favorably, the textbooks fail to provide sufficient coverage and repetition of the words required by the 2017 English Curriculum Standard. Therefore, extra exposure and repetition of these words are required for optimal learning.
Demotivation in L2 classrooms: Teacher and learner factors
Studies on learner demotivation has attracted the attention of second language (L2) researchers and scholars worldwide in recent years. In this paper, L2 demotivation is defined as external and internal influences which can lead to the diminishing motivation to study the target language. This paper further identifies and discusses significant influences in the form of teacher- and learner-related factors that affect learner demotivation. For teacher-related influences, inappropriate teaching styles and attitudes, poor teaching quality as well as teacher demotivation have been cited by several studies as key factors of learner demotivation. Learner demotivation can also be affected by learner-related influences arising mainly from intrinsic issues such as low self-esteem or poor self-worth. Suggestions for pedagogical implications include the enhancement of teachers’ professional development, the use of 5Ts (Teacher, Teaching Methodology, Text, Task and Test), as well as imparting students’ coping strategies for self-regulation. Finally, we suggest that future studies on demotivation could explore less commonly applied theories and research methods and expand demotivation research to include older L2 learners.
Any questions? Ideas for encouraging more and better student questions
One of the key characteristics of student-centered learning is the active involvement of students in the learning process, where they co-construct knowledge with the guidance of the teachers and their peers. The co-construction of knowledge can be greatly facilitated when students respond to teachers’ questions and when they themselves generate well-thought out questions. The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of student-generated questions in a student-centred learning environment and to offer practical strategies for language teachers to guide students in asking more and better student questions in the classroom, i.e., the kind of questions that promote deeper engagement and learning.