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Critical-thinking skills are a desired higher education outcome and a primary goal in education. This research focuses on fostering college students' critical thinking through reflective writing. During an 18-week study, a total of 60 English majors were recruited. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected, including 1) the pre- and post-tests of the 5-point Likert scale Reflection Questionnaire, and 2) nine students' reflective essays. The results showed that students significantly improved their critical thinking and revealed four prevalent changes. More specifically, self-worth and volunteerism (two major conceptual changes), as well as patience and gratefulness (two key behavioral changes) stood out among these changes. The implications of using reflective writing to promote students' critical thinking are discussed.

Previous research has addressed the effects of digital storytelling (DST) on verbal English competence and demonstrated that students engage more and learn more effectively. However, the relationship between learner engagement and speaking competence needs a further analysis of the methods wherein a specific DST tool facilitates learner engagement in the learning process and how it influences their speaking skills. Therefore, this study employed Toontastic--an app with the principles of scaffolding embedded to assist learners in producing DST. Results indicated that learners made significant progress in speaking competence as regards fluency and language use; but no significant correlations were observed between learner engagement and fluency as well as between engagement and language use; and topic familiarity and scaffolding embedded within DST were the two major methods in which the app, Toontastic, supported learners in improving speaking competence and learning engagement. The study concluded that using DST helps learners successfully communicate. Implications are disscussed.

Intracultural learning, building knowledge of one's native culture, is fundamental in developing learners into intercultural communicators. Integrating intracultural learning into the English curriculum could be a key to preparing English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students as cross-cultural communicators to people in non-English-speaking countries. The aim of this study was to investigate how assuming the role of local cultural material developers by making promotional YouTube videos helped EFL learners prepare to become socio-cultural agents to introduce themselves and their local culture to the world. Seventy-one participants were recruited from Multimedia English. Data included the students' concept-mapping worksheets, YouTube videos and final reflective oral presentations. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The results revealed that making YouTube videos helped EFL students to communicate aspects of their own culture, thereby enhancing their intracultural understanding and empowering them to take ownership of their learning. Practical implications and other issues were also discussed.

Although videos are now used pervasively in English as a Foreign Language settings, most existing literature centers on learners as knowledge receivers or passive video viewers (Lialikhova, 2014; Fisher & Frey, 2015; Bakar et al., 2019). Rarely do studies involving videos engaged learners as knowledge generators or active, self-directed learners. To fill this research gap, the current study examined the effects of the online-video pronunciation dictionary YouGlish, which employs a lexical approach on learners' speaking skills, including pronunciation, intonation, word usage, and strategies that learners applied while using YouGlish as well as their reactions to it. The results revealed that YouGlish can help learners make progress in their oral skills, especially in terms of word usage, by providing meaningful context that helps them comprehend how oral English is used in real life. The findings revealed the process of using YouGlish generated students to become more active and self-directed learners, rather than remained as passive receivers of knowledge.

Previous studies have indicated that computers and the internet play very important roles in students' acceptance and use of new information technology. In recent years, with the rapid development of mobile technology, mobile learning (m-learning) has becoming another popular topic. However, little is known about the students' attitudes and self-efficacy with the use of a mobile device in language learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes and self-efficacy of using mobile learning devices for college students in a language class by employing task-based instruction. The sample group of the study comprised 58 second-year students at a technical university in central Taiwan who used mobile devices for m-learning in an English class to complete assigned tasks under the guidance of the instructor. Results showed that most students agreed that their motivation for English learning was enhanced and most of them had positive attitudes towards m-learning. Implications for future research and the practice of m-learning are discussed. (Contains 6 tables.)

Due to its complex nature and inherent unobservable features, teacher change within a specific context has rarely been investigated despite its importance as an issue in teacher professional development. To meet this challenge, the present study explored how teacher change was nurtured with the support of a web-based writing platform featuring such functions as "teacher action logs," "student learning logs and writing records," and "discussion forums." The data included (a) the writing teachers' written commentary on students' texts, (b) the writing teachers' discussion transcripts, and (c) focus group interview transcripts. Results showed that teacher change in pedagogical beliefs was manifested through two cycles of written commentary that included preconceptions, evaluations, and re-conceptualisations of their commentary in terms of local and global feedback. The writing teachers' perceptions of the web-based writing platform were also addressed in this study.

Previous studies have evaluated reading comprehension as the general understanding of reading texts. However, this broad and generic assessment of reading comprehension overlooks the specific aspects and processes that students need to develop. This study adopted Kintsch's Construction-Integration model to tap into reading comprehension at different levels and investigated how English as a foreign language (EFL) students benefit from online annotations to scaffold reading comprehension. Fifty EFL students participated in this study and the data collected included (1) the pre- and post-test assessments in reading comprehension levels, (2) the students' online annotations on reading texts, and (3) the discussion transcripts from an online discussion forum. The results from the first two data sources (1 and 2) were the data-sets used to investigate the influence of the annotation types on reading comprehension levels. The third data source was the data-set used to probe into the process of how students benefited from annotation types to reach different levels of reading comprehension. Four types of online annotations were frequently used by the students while reading online, including (1) marking vocabulary, (2) adding Chinese explanatory notes to unknown vocabulary, (3) marking text information, and (4) adding summary notes to each paragraph. Different frequencies of using the four types of online annotations resulted in three different comprehension levels: surface-based, text-based, and situation-based levels. Marking vocabulary and adding Chinese explanatory notes helped scaffold the students' learning to achieve surface comprehension levels to facilitate recognition and meaning of unknown vocabulary. Marking text information and in particular, the adding of summary notes to each paragraph were the core annotations that helped students comprehend the online text in text-based and situation-based levels. EFL teachers can guide students to use online annotations to different extents in order to deepen their reading comprehension.

Using the theories of critical reflection and community of practice, the aim of this paper was to explore the use of blogs as a reflective platform in the training processes of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) student teachers, who were learning to teach English for future employment in Taiwan. They made use of blogs as a platform to critically reflect on their learning processes as well as to gauge the impact of blogs on their own professional growth. Forty-three student teachers in two teacher-education programs at two science and technology institutions in central Taiwan participated in this study. Two instructors created a blog for use as a discussion forum so that the student teachers could engage in and examine their own reflection process. The data collected was qualitative in nature, consisting of student teachers' posting messages and comments on the blog, surveys on the student teachers' reflective experiences using blogs as reflection tools, and group reflective dialogues recorded by instructors in class meetings over the implementation of blogs during the course. The results showed that the student teachers actively discussed teaching theories and their implications through blogs. All of the 43 teachers who took part in this study were reflective, and some critically reflected on their thoughts and made significant comments; and the participants considered technology a useful platform for reflecting and communicating with each other. The positive implications for the use of blogs as a medium to provide and promote critical reflection for EFL teachers are discussed. (Contains 2 tables.)

China's economic performance over the past few decades has put China in a position where it now accounts for one-third of global economic growth, twice as much as America. The large-scale growth of China's economy has attracted attention from businesses and investors worldwide [Morrison (2006). "China's economic conditions." Congressional Research Service: The Library of Congress]. With the continuing growth of China's economy, more and more people from all over the world are learning Chinese in order to conduct business and access China's huge markets. Correspondingly, an increase in the demand for Chinese speakers is being matched by an increase in available Chinese language teaching jobs globally. This has led many Chinese native speakers to consider teaching Chinese as a second language either in China or overseas. This study is a narrative inquiry into the transformation of thinking about language education, based on the author's experience of teaching Chinese while pursuing a doctorate program at a major university in the United States. The data used in this study are qualitative in nature, consisting of self-observations and journal writing. Narrative inquiry serves as a conceptual framework to this study and was adopted as a tool for data analysis. The analysis focused on how the author, as a teaching assistant from Taiwan, dealt with issues of teaching Chinese as a second language and how he drew on pedagogical theories and methodologies. The author's experience with students in the East Asian Language and Culture Department with their different assumptions and motivations highlighted the importance of teaching strategies and pedagogies in class. Elements like cultural diversity and learning styles are also discussed in this paper.