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Test of Orals is an aspect of English Language, a requisite subject for Nigerian secondary school students to pass at a credit level before gaining admission for university education. However, increasing failure in the performance of the Nigerian secondary students in the English Language has been attributed to the consistent poor performance in the aspect of Test of Orals. Consequently, this mixed-methods research examined the effect of the discussion method of teaching on the Nigerian secondary students’ performances in the Test of Orals. An intact class of 24 students were pretested, and then posttested after an intervention. Students’ performances in the pretest and posttest were quantitatively analysed via paired sample t-test. This was followed by collecting qualitative data from the tested students by interview on how they perceive the effect of the discussion method of teaching. While the quantitative result generally revealed that the discussion method of teaching was effective in improving the students’ performances in the ‘Test of Orals’, the qualitative result revealed that the intervention programme was effective as it made the English Language course interesting. Thus, it is recommended that discussion method of teaching can be used to help students improve their performances in ‘Test of Orals.

This study investigated the concept of politeness as perceived by Iranians in their social interactions from the perspective of politeness theory, especially politeness 1 that views politeness as judgments of other people’s behaviour. Data were collected using open-ended questionnaires and a focus group discussion. While 190 Iranians responded to the questionnaire, 6 teachers of English participated in the group discussion. Data were coded and analysed using thematic analysis. The results reveal that a taxonomy of five verbal strategies and eight non-verbal strategies, along with their sub-strategies, are used by Iranians in their social interactions. This taxonomy contributes to the discipline of politeness from the sociocultural perspectives. The study partially supports the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1987) as in this study new politeness strategies were discovered, while embracing multiple perspectives for the conceptualization and practice of politeness.

This paper aims to analyze the multimodal discourse of TED Talks in the healthcare domain. This analysis looks for opportunities for positive, negative, and neutral messages. The paper also offers ways to correct social inequalities and summarize best practices in health care. Studies examining verbal and nonverbal semiotics require a more fine-grained analysis since nonverbal parts play crucial roles in TED talks and cannot be neglected. The main features of the analysis are: to identify discourse patterns and message types, to overview the meanings of these patterns, and to propose ways to achieve social justice. With mixed qualitative and quantitative approaches, verbal and nonverbal elements are analyzed. They show a joint effort in meaning-making, which unravels how the speaker conveys ideas and affects the audience. The result shows the characteristics of different semiotic resources and ascertains how they generate meaning to reinforce the academic speaker’s message. It suggests that the adopted theoretical framework applies to the multimodal discourse analysis of public speaking. The speaker makes the speech more convincing and offers a comprehensive meaning delivered in public, academic speaking, establishing a rational and practical image.

Japanese EFL international students may experience high levels of apprehension when communicating in English due to their culture, educational background, attitudes towards the role of English in their society, and lack of opportunities to practice speaking in English. Although the students in this study had studied English before joining the English immersion program, their language learning experiences might not have focused on oral communication skills. EFL learners’ oral communication apprehension has been examined in various contexts, but the Japanese EFL context has not received adequate attention, especially Japanese EFL international students in Malaysian institutions of tertiary education. Thus, this study examined the levels of oral communication apprehension among Japanese EFL international students in four communication contexts (group discussions, meetings, conversations, and public speaking). The study adopted a quantitative approach, using the Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) to measure oral communication apprehension levels among 23 firstyear Japanese EFL students in an immersion program in a Malaysian public university. Data were analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The results of this study revealed that most of the Japanese EFL international students exhibited a high level of oral communication apprehension. The study also revealed that the highest levels of apprehension were found in two communication contexts: group discussions and conversation, possibly because oral communication takes place spontaneously in these two communication contexts.

Previous studies have examined benefits of collaborative writing, but the effectiveness of collaborative planning in academic writing courses has not been adequately addressed. Thus, this study examined Chinese-speaking ESL pre-university students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of collaborative planning in an academic writing course in the Malaysian ESL context. This study is a qualitative research in which data were collected using journal writing. The students in an academic writing course were requested to keep journals throughout the course. Specifically, they were requested to write about collaborative planning in terms of its effectiveness, challenges they faced, and suggestions for its improvement. Data were coded and analysed thematically. The analysis of the data revealed that Chinese-speaking ESL pre-university students perceived collaborative planning as an important instructional approach in which they could share ideas, develop their writing skills, and build their self-confidence. The study also showed that the students encountered some challenges, which resulted from their unfamiliarity with this approach. Suggestions for the improvement of collaborative planning given by the participants reveal that they enjoyed working collaboratively in groups at the planning stage of writing.

This cross-sectional study examined the effects of English language proficiency on Jordanian EFL students’ production and comprehension of apology strategies. The participants were 270 Jordanian EFL learners and 90 native speakers of English. Data were collected using Written Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) and Multiple-choice Discourse Completion Test (MDCT). Descriptive statistics and the Spearman rank-order correlation coefficient (rho) test were used to analyse the data. Results showed that Jordanian EFL learners’ production and comprehension of apology strategies is influenced by their levels of English language proficiency. A small to large negative correlation relationship was reported between Jordanian EFL learners’ language proficiency and the production of explicit apology strategies and non-apology strategies. On the other hand, the study revealed a small to medium positive correlation relationship between Jordanian EFL learners’ language proficiency and the production of less-explicit apology. The study also showed a significant correlation relationship between proficiency and the comprehension of apology strategies. Thus, teachers of English at Jordanian schools may need consider focusing on classroom activities that can help EFL learners enhance their pragmatic knowledge of apology strategies.

PurposeThis qualitative study examined English for Professionals students' experience of the internship programme and their perceptions of the relevance of the internship programme to their current and future courses and to their future career choices.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a qualitative inquiry in which qualitative data were collected using journal writing. Using purposeful sampling, 40 English for Professionals students in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) were selected. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.FindingsThis study revealed that the internship programme was beneficial to interns because it helped them to gain real-world experience and knowledge about the environment of real workplace. Interns' negative experience can affect their career selection. The majority of the participants revealed that the internship programme is relevant to most of their undergraduate courses. The participants revealed that the internship programme was effective as it helped them to explore their career choices and to select future courses that match their interests.Originality/valueTaking into account students' negative experience and their perceptions of the relevance of internship to their courses and career choices, improvement of undergraduate programmes can be done. Unlike samples in previous studies, the sample in this study is English for Professionals students. The study provides significant findings which are related to interns' perceptions of the relevance of the internship programme to their career choices. Unlike all data collection methods used in previous studies, journal writing was used to collect qualitative data in this study.

The abundance of information technology and electronic resources for academic materials has contributed to the attention given to research on plagiarism from various perspectives. Among the issues that have attracted researchers’ attention are perceptions of plagiarism and attitudes toward plagiarism. This article presents a critical review of studies that have been conducted to examine staff’s and students’ perceptions of and attitudes toward plagiarism. It also presents a review of studies that have focused on factors contributing to plagiarism. Our review of studies reveals that most of the studies on perceptions of plagiarism and attitudes toward plagiarism lack an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the perceptions of plagiarism and other contextual, sociocultural and institutional variables, or the relationship between attitudes toward plagiarism and students’ perceptions of various forms of plagiarism. Although our review shows that various factors can contribute to plagiarism, there is no taxonomy that can account for all these factors. Some suggestions for future research are provided in this review article.

Studies on teacher written feedback in Second Language (L2) contexts have not given adequate attention to learners’ emotional responses towards teacher written feedback. Thus, this study examined the relationship between emotional responses of EFL university students towards teacher written feedback and students’ success of revisions. Data were collected using think-aloud protocols, students’ written texts, and semi-structured interviews. To obtain students’ emotional responses towards teacher written feedback, grounded theory was employed to analyse think-aloud protocols and semi-structured interviews. Teacher written feedback was tabulated and categorised using a coding scheme which was developed based on Straub and Lunsford (1995) and Ferris (1997). Students’ success of revisions was analysed using an analytical scheme based on Conrad and Goldstein (1999). The results revealed that EFL university students’ emotional responses include acceptance of feedback, rejection of feedback, surprise, happiness, dissatisfaction, disappointment, frustration, and satisfaction . Some emotional responses could be attributed to harsh criticism, negative evaluation, and miscommunication between teachers and their students. The study also revealed that emotional responses can affect students’ understanding and utilisation of teacher written feedback.

This study investigated the relationship between English language teachers' motives to use online teaching resources and three types of Internet practices: teachers' practices in using the Internet to collaborate with others, teachers' practices for classroom teaching, and the Internet's contribution to the overall professional development of teachers. Gender was also used to assess differences in the proposed model. In this study, one hundred and seventy-four English language teachers completed an online survey. SmartPLS was used to assess the measurement and the structural models. The results indicated that participation was a significant determinant of both English language teachers' Internet-related practices at classroom level and the Internet's contribution to the overall professional development. Considering gender differences, the results demonstrated that participation in online professional development was significantly related to the English language teachers' practices at classroom level for males but not for females.

This study contributes to the ongoing interest of research into the sociocultural adjustment of international students in host universities in Malaysia. This study examined the sociocultural adjustment of Yemeni postgraduate students in a Malaysian public university. This study adopts a quantitative design (a survey) in which a questionnaire was used to gather data. The data were analysed using SPSS. The results have revealed that the major aspects of cognitive adjustment problems faced by Yemeni postgraduate students in Malaysia include dealing with people of higher status, dealing with people in authority, and understanding the local accent/language. These cognitive adjustment problems can be attributed to postgraduate students’ sociocultural and educational background.

In response to the emphasis on the benefits of enhanced multicultural educational experiences of international students in higher education, this study examined international students' perceptions of the influence of multiculturalism on the study programs in Malaysian public universities. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The respondents were 794 international students from 11 Malaysian public universities. Results show that international students perceive that the content of the courses had little consideration for including topics from countries of international students. In addition, the results reveal that the presence of international students in the study programs can be one of the factors to encourage lecturers to bring updated contents from international materials. Furthermore, the results reveal that motivation for learning, encouragement for active participation, and improvement of intellectual atmosphere in the study programs can be enhanced by the presence of international...

This study documents an investigation of multilevel data from the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment to examine the reading literacy of 5,944 15-year-old students in Jordanian schools. A multilevel model was employed to examine the factors linked to students’ reading literacy from both students’ and schools’ levels. At students’ level, the study revealed that metacognition, elaboration, memorization, structuring, and scaffolding strategies were significant predictors of students’ reading literacy. At schools’ level, the study showed that school type, extracurricular activities, and teachers’ behaviour were significant predictors of students’ reading literacy. Practical implications and recommendations to research community at local and international levels are provided in this study.

This paper reports a qualitative study which examines the challenges faced by six international undergraduate students in their socialisation of oral academic discourse in a Malaysian public university. Data were collected employing interviews. Students’ presentations were also collected. Semi-structured interviews were transcribed verbatim and qualitative content analysis was employed to examine the challenges faced by international undergraduate students in their socialisation of oral academic discourse. The results reveal that the major difficulties international undergraduate students face in their oral academic discourse socialisation are related to linguistic knowledge, presentation skills and content-related difficulties. Linguistic difficulties constrain students to express complex concepts and ideas while engaged in oral presentations. Difficulties related to presentation skills are associated with how to prepare PowerPoint slides and how to organise the content of the presentations. This study also reveals that content difficulties may be related to the specific topics the students are asked to prepare presentations on. In this study I argue that understanding the challenges faced by undergraduate international students in their oral academic discourse socialisation can be one of the essential steps to help them overcome the challenges they face.

A rigorous understanding of the use of Smartphones for foreign language vocabulary acquisition is crucial. Employing the technology acceptance model, this study aims to investigate students’ behavioural factors affecting Saudi students’ attitudes towards employing Smartphones for foreign vocabulary acquisition. Two hundred and seventy-three students studying in a preparatory year programme were surveyed. SmartPLS was employed to analyse the data obtained from the study’s sample. The results revealed that perceived usefulness and attitude proved to be significantly and positively related to vocabulary development. In addition, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use proved to be significant predictors of students’ attitudes towards the use of Smartphone for vocabulary learning. However, the study showed that the relationship between perceived ease of use and vocabulary development is not significant. Thus, publishers of dictionaries may find it necessary to take into account the important role played by the design of dictionaries interfaces in facilitating the use of dictionaries in Smartphones. Furthermore, teachers and educators are encouraged to employ creative activities (e.g., word guessing games) that invest students’ use of Smartphones to learn vocabularies. Using Smartphones in learning improves interaction among students and teachers. Discussion and conclusions are also provided.

The purpose of this paper is to map out the status of English language teaching (ELT) as practised in the Arab World and, specifically, in Jordan today. The study also aims to bring into focus significant issues that need to be addressed in ELT in the Arab World. This paper presents a review of the current status of English language education, with an emphasis on the need for urgent reforms in the teaching of English in the Arab World. Further, longitudinal data in respect to classroom and workplace English proficiency are presented. English language education seems to be up-to-date teacher-centred and bound to other issues such as teaching the textbook rather than focusing on developing lifelong strategies. There is a critical need for writing national standards for English language professional development programmes that should be based on the findings of sound research. The paper highlights the significance of teaching English language through observing and reviewing the current practices.

The present paper reports a qualitative case study of investigating EFL students’ affective reactions to and perceptions of their teachers’ written feedback. In addition, the study reported here also focuses on contextual factors that may influence students’ reactions to and perceptions of their teachers’ written feedback. Data were collected using multiple methods that included semi-structured interviews, think-aloud protocols, teachers’ written feedback, and students’ written essays. Results of data analysis revealed that EFL students showed some variations in their affective reactions to their teachers’ written feedback. The students perceived their teachers’ written feedback as useful and very important for the development of their writing skills. The students wanted their teachers to focus on all aspects of written texts when they provide written feedback. Contextual factors such as students’ past experience, teachers’ wording of written feedback, students’ acceptance of teachers’ authority, and teachers’ handwriting have their impact on EFL students’ affective reactions to and perceptions of their teachers’ written feedback