System
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Fourth semester students of Spanish as a foreign language at the university level in the US participated in two kinds of comprehensible-input based instruction, an extensive reading class that combined assigned and self-selected reading, and a ''Reading-Discussion'' class that consisted of assigned reading, debates and discussions. Students in both classes outperformed those in a traditionally taught...
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The aim of this research was to show the importance of instruction in learning a specific set of words. Two different tasks were used in the experiment: one in which subjects were required to fill in sentences and choose the appropriate answer in a multiple choice exercise (lexical test), and the other was a rating task designed to assess semantic relationships. It was hypothesized that subjects would...
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This study is concerned with possible relationships between general foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA), foreign language reading anxiety (FLRA), gender, extended overseas experience, and classroom performance. Versions of previously published measurement scales (the FLCAS and the FLRAS) were administered to three different groups in nine intact first-semester English classes (252 students)...
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This paper explores the question of how cultural stereotypes are formed, modified, dismissed or reinforced, drawing on findings from a collaborative intercultural e-mail project between Hong Kong learners of Japanese at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and native Japanese speakers at Kagoshima University. It also evaluates role of e-mail assisted projects in breaking down the stereotypes. Analysis...
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This paper addresses teachers and researchers of English as a second or foreign language who are interested in speech intelligibility training and/or vocabulary acquisition. The study reports a stress-pattern analysis of the Academic Word List (AWL) as made available by Coxhead [TESOL Quarterly 34 (2000) 213]. To examine the AWL in a new way, we identified patterns of word-level stress in the AWL's...
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This article reports on research into the motivation of Indonesian children aged 11-12 years old, as they begin formal study of English in an urban junior high school. The research used closed and open questionnaire items, backed up by class observations and interviews with a selected group of learners. Very high levels of motivation to learn the language were found throughout the cohort, including...
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Given the cost of running second or foreign language teacher training programs with a high number of in-school placement hours, the selection of candidates who are likely perform well academically and complete their studies is an important consideration. The purpose of the present study was to examine the potential offered by vocabulary profiles as predictors of academic performance in undergraduate...
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The major purpose of this study was to explore, in a phenomenological tradition, factors that lead some students to persist in foreign language study past the usual 2 years in high school. Factors that have been prevalent in the literature include language aptitude, motivation, grades, intellectual and cultural curiosity, language learning strategies, lack of anxiety, and positive attitudes toward...
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The use of pair and small group activities in the second language (L2) classroom has been supported by both theoretical and pedagogical arguments. However, L2 researchers and practitioners have expressed concerns about their use in some instructional contexts. This small-scale study explored instructors' and learners' perceptions about the use of pair and small group activities in a Thai EFL context,...
