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Foreign language anxiety (FLA) is a well-documented phenomenon that can significantly affect academic performance. This study examined the extent to which Taiwanese postgraduate students experienced speaking anxiety during thesis defense presentations, along with potential gender differences and variations across postgraduate programs. It specifically analyzed the correlation between anxiety and thesis presentation performance. A meticulously designed study involving 168 Taiwanese master's students in an oral thesis defense seminar employed a modified Academic Performance Scale and Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety instruments to quantitatively evaluate anxiety levels. Statistical analyses unveiled significant associations between anxiety levels and academic performance. The results indicate a high level of anxiety among participants, with a mean anxiety level of 4.05 (N=168, X=2.85) and a moderate level of thesis presentation performance, evidenced by a mean score of 2.85 (N=168, X=2.85). Notably, female postgraduates exhibited higher anxiety levels than their male counterparts. The study identifies a positive, albeit modest, correlation between anxiety and performance, suggesting that a certain level of anxiety may enhance performance. The findings underscore the pervasive influence of anxiety in academic contexts and highlight gender disparities and the impact of diverse postgraduate programs on anxiety and performance. The study challenges conventional assumptions about the negative effects of anxiety on performance, suggesting that moderate anxiety can be a motivating catalyst. This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the role of anxiety in learning and performance and prompts the development of targeted interventions to address anxiety and support postgraduate students' academic success.

Public speaking is considered the most anxiety-provoking speaking activity for English as a foreign language (EFL) learner. While traditional lecture-based classrooms hinder EFL learners' constant practice and frequent interaction due to large class sizes and limited time, recent developments in technology, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Automatic Speech Analysis, and Virtual Reality (VR), may enhance language learning by offering accessible and personalized learning experiences. This study aimed to investigate the effects of technology-enhanced learning on reducing EFL learners' PSA. Thirty-three university students were divided into three groups and received either lecture-based, mobile-assisted, or VR-facilitated instruction for four weeks. The students' perceived PSA levels were reduced in all three groups after their respective instruction, but only the VR-facilitated group reached statistical significance, and there were no differences in the three groups' final oral performances. However, the two technology-enhanced language learning (TELL) groups achieved more convergent performances on the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety scale compared with the non-TELL group, which indicated that the impact of individual differences may have been compensated by technology assistance. The findings suggested that the instructional feedback generated by AI decreased the participants' PSA, although the irreplaceable role of teachers as facilitators was also emphasized, while the potential of using VR in teaching public speaking was evident.

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is increasingly adopted globally, including in Taiwan's educational initiatives, yet challenges remain in implementing effective CLIL practices, such as pedagogy and curriculum design. This study investigated the effectiveness of multimodal task designs, combining hands-on learning with poster presentations, in enhancing oral communicative competence within CLIL contexts. Employing a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design with a comparative case study framework, the study assessed English oral communicative competence in four intact fourth-grade Taiwanese CLIL Social Studies classes. The hands-on learning group (EG, n = 40) engaged in activities like Chinese Dumpling Making, Bird's Nest Building, and Succulent Pot Designing, while the non-hands-on learning group (CG, n = 34) used traditional worksheets on the same topics. Both groups proceeded to poster presentations within their multimodal task design, where students' oral communicative competence was assessed using rubrics developed based on Coyle's 4Cs dimensions, focusing on Content, Communication, and Cognition. Additionally, students' cultural knowledge related to the hands-on topics was evaluated through written tests. To complement the quantitative data, qualitative data from self-reported reflections and video recordings documenting interventions were collected for the assessment of oral communicative competence within a CLIL framework. Results demonstrate that integrating hands-on activities significantly enhanced procedural content, communication (i.e., sentence complexity, pronunciation accuracy for target vocabulary, presentation fluency), and cognitive abilities, confirming the efficacy of multimodal learning approaches in fostering linguistic and cognitive engagement. Post-test comparisons show the EG's superiority in cultural knowledge acquisition across all three hands-on topics. Student reflections endorsed the enrichment of learning experiences through multimodal task design. Video analysis of both groups' interventions revealed that despite significant engagement and autonomy, EG students commonly utilized general English rather than target vocabulary, a pattern similar to that observed in the CG. These findings highlight the potential of diverse modalities in CLIL to enhance English content learning and oral skills, shaping future pedagogy and language strategies in Taiwan. The study also emphasizes the role of embodied learning, the interplay between physical actions and cognitive processes, to facilitate deeper understanding and engagement with subject matter within CLIL settings.

This study employed a blended learning approach to investigate 98 medical university EFL students' perceptions and analyzed the learning trajectory of their LMOOCs in formal education. Meanwhile, Byram's (1997) intercultural communicative competence (ICC) model was adopted to explore if students' English proficiency and ICC abilities could enhance or hinder their LMOOCs. Participants of this elective two-credit course, "English Presentation Skills," were all required to complete one LMOOCs course to earn official certificates for the credits. Questionnaires about self-learning background and intercultural communicative competence, weekly reflections on self-learning, assistant-student interviews, and personal presentations at the final stage are conducted to test the consistency between student self-evaluation and class performance. The rubric of the TOEFL iBT Test was adopted to evaluate students' oral expression. Video clips collected in class were analyzed to track the differences in students' target skills. Findings revealed that before integrating LMOOCs in formal education, it is essential for instructors to equip students with enough self-learning skills through orientations and stress time management in MOOCs learning strategies, and scaffold sufficient English communication skills before students are thrown to sink or swim on their won. A revised version of the ICC model was proposed at the end (the context may vary) in the hope of drawing more attention and voice to this research area. The integration of LMOOCs in formal education, be it for language teaching or self-learning, should be directed toward the level of "precision instruction" in the future.

Oral presentation assessments are commonly used in higher education. This paper conducts an exploratory study and investigates student perceptions of oral presentation assessments on two aspects, the benefits of oral presentations for presenting students and the engagement of non-presenting students during presentations. A mixed method with both qualitative and quantitative survey questions is used for collecting data from students undertaking an elective Finance course in the third year of an undergraduate degree. Results show that presenting students perceive the oral presentation assessment as beneficial to their learning and developing presentation skills. Peer evaluations and reciprocal peer questioning, intended to increase non-presenting students' engagement during presentations, are also well-received by students. The frequency count of students' feedback indicates that reciprocal peer questioning facilitates engagement better than peer evaluations.

This paper investigates English language learners' oral presentation needs, alongside students' and instructors' perceptions towards mobile seamless language learning. The findings will be used to develop a mobile-based learning environment. Interviews with both instructors and students were used to help build a Likert questionnaire which was refined with input from experts. Results reveal that students have a need for oral presentation training in areas such as slide design, presentation-specific language, structure, and body language. Instructors and students are willing to work with peers on oral presentation projects despite lacking previous experience. Deeper exploration from interviews show students believe sentence level language issues are more important than the organization and design of a presentation. Furthermore, instructors expressed problems with incorporating technology and online collaborative learning into language courses suggesting they need more training with learning technology. Students also believed online collaboration would be convenient but difficult to manage, indicating a need for both online and face-to-face collaboration. These findings will help with the development of a mobile seamless language learning framework and app for oral presentations. Guidelines are suggested to help instructors to improve students' oral presentation performance.

This study investigated student perceptions and opinions on an English Oral Presentation Application (EOPA), a mobile learning application designed to assist English learners develop oral presentations and online collaboration skills. This study was part of a Design Based Research (DBR) project which incorporated an adapted Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) questionnaire to gain insights on students' perceptions towards EOPA. In addition, focus-group interviews were used to discover the external and internal factors involved in this type of mobile learning. Participants were 30 Taiwanese undergraduate students who took part in a six-week training course. The questionnaire results indicated that 37% of students found EOPA to be useful for learning, but 33% also found it inconvenient to use. Furthermore, attitudes towards learning suggested they had some difficulties using the app. To gain a deeper understanding of why students use EOPA and to discover other app-related learning problems, the interviews were explored using a Complex Dynamic Systems approach to find the attractor and repeller dynamic states in the learning system. These included the language and presentation skills, the multimedia learning material, app design, online collaboration, anxiety, and limited self-regulation skills. The findings will be used to refine EOPA and the oral presentation learning framework. The study demonstrates how the discovery of different dynamic states can be used to improve mobile learning design.

English speaking is a challenging learning objective for EFL (English as Foreign Language) learners owing to the lack of practicing environments. In this study, Interactive Spherical Video-based Virtual Reality (ISVVR) was adopted as the learning mode to provide realistic sociocultural contexts for English speaking. In addition, an experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of the SVVR approach on the English speaking performances and anxiety of the EFL students with different cognitive styles. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was conducted to investigate the effects of the interaction between cognitive style and multimedia learning mode on students' learning motivation, speaking anxiety, oral presentation, and move analysis. The student sample consisted of two classes of 93 students. All of the students took the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) to identify whether their cognitive style was field dependent or independent. The results showed a significant effect for the interaction between the cognitive styles and the learning modes on the students' oral presentation and speaking anxiety. Their structural moves in oral presentations with the ISVVR learning mode showed more similar spoken genre patterns to those of TED speakers. Findings further support the benefit of incorporating cognitive styles into the ISVVR learning mode for EFL learners.

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.

Objective: Communication skills are important, but the evaluation of these skills in the medical curriculum remains inconsistent. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between the communication skills scores of junior medical students following curricula with different module evaluations and the clinical interview performance of the same students in a psychiatry department in their fifth year. Design: Prospective evaluation of communication and clinical interview skills. Setting: Medical school and psychiatry department inpatient setting. Method: The communication skills scores of 208 medical students in their second year (between 2009 and 2011) and their performance in interviews with patients in a psychiatry department in their fifth year (between 2012 and 2014) were assessed. Initial assessment was undertaken on the basis of problem-based learning (PBL) performance, evaluation of performance during conversation with patients, a related oral presentation and written report, students' self-rating and a peer rating. Extra marks were given if students completed an optional special report inspired by the curriculum. To assess the interview performance of fifth-year medical students, the mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) was used, together with weekly case-based discussions and the observation of a clinical interview with a real patient. Results: Tutors' evaluations of the junior medical students' performance during role-play (? = 0.22, p = 0.001), its related reciprocal assessment (? = 0.18, p = 0.010) and an extra-effort task (? = 0.18, p = 0.009) as part of the communication skills curriculum were significantly correlated with the students' later performance in a clinical interview with a patient. Conclusion: Observation of student interactions and motivations along with reciprocal peer evaluations offer better measures of communication skills in medical education than are oral presentations, self-ratings and conversations with real patients.

The digital technology era has profoundly evolved and changed the ways that people consume and produce information. As language itself is recognized as a multimodal resource for communicative purposes, different forms of multimodality have been advocated to nurture students' multiliteracies in educational contexts. This study aims to investigate students' perceived benefits with respect to the process of their multimodal video making. The participants were 69 advanced English as a foreign language undergraduate students who took a course titled Multimedia English for one-semester (18 weeks) at a university in Taiwan. The students were trained to utilize a wide range of multimedia affordances to facilitate their English learning. They were asked to produce a digital video employing multiple modalities for their final project. The collected data for the scope of the paper included students' uploaded reflective essays and videos of their final oral presentations with their PowerPoint slides based upon their overall perceptions regarding their video creation processes and the perceived benefits they experienced. The findings showed that a multitude of students perceived that the video making process nurtured their multiliteracies to different degrees and expanded their awareness of the interplay between different modes of semiotic resources for meaning construction. This study also highlights pedagogical implications for language teachers regarding the provision of opportunities for students to become involved in the creation of multimodal artifacts in developing their multiliteracies.

Educational blogs have drawn the growing interest of researchers and language teachers due to the user-friendly interfaces as well as the powerful archiving features. The purpose of the current study is two-fold: (1) to examine the effectiveness of extensive speaking practice on speaking performance in voice blogs, and (2) to examine learners' perceived gains in extensive speaking practice via voice blogs. The participants of the study were 46 college students learning English as a foreign language in Taiwan. They were taking a one-semester English speech class that lasted for 18 weeks. The participants were required to post voice blog entries during out-of-class time on a class blog as a supplement to the insufficient speaking practice in the class. The participants' gains in speaking skill were evaluated by two raters who examined the learners' first three and last three voice blog entries. Participants' perceived gains in speaking skills were collected through questionnaires. The results indicate that students generally perceived gains in their speaking proficiency. However, there was no significant improvement in their pronunciation, language complexity, fluency, or accuracy. The results corroborate previous studies that the personal and authentic nature of blogging might encourage students to focus more on meaning expression, rather than accuracy. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study reports on the development of ESP (English for Specific Purposes) multimedia courseware on oral presentations, and its integration into self-study learning and elective courses for students with different English proficiencies, as one solution to problems in ESP courses in Taiwan. The courseware design is based on Mayer's multimedia learning cognitive theory, and the language learning focus draws on Chapelle's suggested criteria for development of multimedia CALL. Evaluation of student performance with two different formats for courseware integration is based upon data from pre- and post-tests for preparing speech texts, and a questionnaire survey. The courseware provides authentic materials with a logical situational layout and a friendly interface design for learning ESP for oral presentations in international business and technical settings and offers rich and flexible learning activities with corresponding on-line self-evaluation so that students actively engage in cognitive processing. Students with different English proficiencies have different concerns about giving a presentation. Meanwhile, after students' self-study for six weeks, regardless of level of proficiency, students' learning effectiveness and satisfaction with the courseware integration were significantly improved, by qualitative and quantitative analysis. Such students' improvement suggests success of the courseware design and learning effectiveness with its integration. (Contains 8 tables and 4 figures.)

With globalisation and the advent of information technology, the English language has become more important for second language (L2) learners. This study aimed to establish a blended teaching and learning model combining online and face to face instructional blogging for an English for specific purposes (ESP) course named "English Public Speaking". The research methodology combined qualitative and quantitative approaches and included peer and instructor feedback, interviews, self-reflection, and a learning satisfaction survey. A total of 44 college seniors majoring in English participated in the study. The results of the study showed that this model could contribute to learning effectiveness and student satisfaction if the blended model is implemented with sufficiently supportive equipment and course plans. Most importantly, peer and instructor's feedback and the blog characteristics like free access, ease of revision, and interesting material for learning were major factors that enhanced students' learning satisfaction by motivating them to learn effectively. (Contains 3 tables and 5 figures.)

Toastmasters is a widely recognized international club that aims to develop and enhance the art of public speaking by offering participants educational programmes and chances to speak before groups. This article reports on the integration of the Toastmasters approach to an EFL oral-communication class in Taiwan. As both the author of this study and the teacher of an EFL course, I organized the course content and the course delivery that this paper describes. At the end of the semester, the participants completed a written questionnaire that asked their opinions about the effectiveness of this unorthodox teaching approach. Students enthusiastically reported that they had improved their proficiency in public speaking and that they had made gains in various skill areas. Drawing on these experiences, this article addresses the value of a Toastmasters approach to foreign-language curricular design. (Contains 7 tables and 2 figures.)

Entering an "English Impromptu Speech Contest" intimidates many students who do not have a good command of the English language. Some choose to give up before the contest date while others stand speechless on the stage. This paper identifies a range of problems confronted by contestants from my college, the Yuanpei Institute of Science and Technology in Taiwan. These problems can be categorized into three aspects: (1) language, (2) speaking skills and (3) background knowledge. Language poses many difficulties; many students have a narrow knowledge of English vocabulary, others have a limited understanding of correct word usage, and some make frequent mistakes with their grammar usage. As for speaking skills, students lack public speaking organizational skills and the ability to develop key points, and they have difficulty in controlling the subtle yet important timing of a speech and difficulty with attention-grabbing opening statements. The third problem is the contestants' limited background knowledge. Many students simply do not have the life experiences necessary to converse on a given topic. A number of ways are probed to remedy these problems confronting speech contestants at the Yuanpei Institute. (Contains 2 tables.)

The article offers world nursing news briefs as of March 2018. Information about the 18th International Council of Nurses (ICN) Asian Workforce Forum that was held in Taipei, Taiwan at the end of 2017 is presented. The ICN has also unveiled the theme it has chosen for the 2018 International Nurses Day (IND) which is "Health is a human right." The group also represented the nursing profession at the first WHO Global Ministerial Conference on ending TB in the Sustainable Development Era.

Some previous research has questioned the appropriateness of using McCroskey's Personal Report of Communication Apprehension with participants of non-Western countries. Rival measurement models of the scale were examined on two samples of 216 and 177 college students in Taiwan. Confirmatory factor analysis of the data showed that although a four-factor model was more representative of the data than the models with one, two, or three factors, this model did not generate an acceptable fit to the data. Further testing of discriminant validity suggested that Taiwanese college students do not differentiate a meeting setting from group, dyadic, and public speaking settings. Findings of this study suggest a re-examination of the conceptualization of communication apprehension before evaluating the relative importance of biological and environmental causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Toastmasters is a widely recognized international club that aims to develop and enhance the art of public speaking by offering participants educational programmes and chances to speak before groups. This article reports on the integration of the Toastmasters approach to an EFL oral-communication class in Taiwan. As both the author of this study and the teacher of an EFL course, I organized the course content and the course delivery that this paper describes. At the end of the semester, the participants completed a written questionnaire that asked their opinions about the effectiveness of this unorthodox teaching approach. Students enthusiastically reported that they had improved their proficiency in public speaking and that they had made gains in various skill areas. Drawing on these experiences, this article addresses the value of a Toastmasters approach to foreign-language curricular design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]