The paper "The influence of translation on reading amount, proficiency, and speed in extensive reading" (Sakurai, 2015) outlined the first six years of the official English education system and policy in Japan. It then discussed the efficacy of extensive reading (ER) followed by a distinction between reading and translation. Previous…

This dissertation had a three-pronged approach by examining (1) the role and sustainability of university-based intensive English programs (IEPs), (2) the value of a master's in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), and (3) relevance of attending an IEP for international/English as a second language (ESL) students. IEPs face…

Few studies have examined willingness to communicate (WtC) changes resulting from short-term intensive immersion programmes. This study investigated the antecedents to and changes in WtC during one such programme held at a Macau university. The programme required students to reside on campus and participate in extensive task-based communicative…

The purpose of this study was to investigate university students' perspectives of effective teaching that helped them learn English better. Adopting an interpretative approach to the research, the data was collected in three phases. In Phase One an interview was used and 17 university students studying English in Intensive English programs were…

This study examines the effects of a 2-week intensive English program based on the college students' perceptions of core competencies: English Communication Competency, Self-Directed Competency, Community Competency, and Knowledge and Information Literacy Competency. The program was non-credit and was held in January 2019 for first-year students…

The teaching and learning process changed into an online during the COVID19 outbreak, and thus online evaluation became a requirement. This research examines the positive and negative effects of online assessment on students' learning behaviour and how teachers prepare their teaching. This case study research included the result of questionnaire…

Formulaic sequences comprise a large body of language and their mastery is supposed to be a key determiner of language proficiency. However, despite their significance in language learning, they are seldom taught in any principled manner in language classrooms and their correct and appropriate use remains a particular challenge to language…

The purpose of this study is to explore how students' anxiety about learning English and their perception of their English communicative competence change through participating in a five-day English camp. Eighteen first-year university students majoring in English language and cultures participated in the camp. The participants were randomly…

Research suggests that pre-task planning time provides learners with opportunities to formulate, organize, and mentally store content, thereby freeing up attentional resources during tasks (Skehan, Xiaoyue, Qian, & Wang, 2012). However, relatively few studies to date have investigated pre-task planning in a synchronous computer-mediated…

This article proposes translingual dispositions as a way to move beyond the NES/NNES dichotomy in understanding language teacher identity. Recent scholarship in TESOL and Applied Linguistics has problematized the NES/NNES binary from a poststructuralist perspective, highlighting how NES/NNES subjectivities are discursively and performatively…

Computer-mediated collaborative writing has drawn attention from second language researchers and instructors for a few decades, and due to recent developments in Web 2.0 technologies, the possibilities of wikis for collaborative writing have increased enormously. However, few studies have explored the nature of wiki collaboration and interaction,…

Collaborative text reconstruction tasks such as dictogloss have been suggested as effective second language (L2) learning tasks that promote meaningful interaction between learners and their awareness of L2 target grammatical structures. However, it should be noted that the effect of pair interaction on the final product may differ depending on…

This dissertation explores science literacy for English learners (ELs) in secondary and university contexts. The two studies conducted for this dissertation demonstrate the reading comprehension abilities of secondary school ELs, and the writing of ELs for a university introductory biology course. The first study reveals some inequity in public…

Intensive English Program (IEP) Instructors and content faculty both listen to international students at the university. For these two groups of instructors, this study compared perceptions of international student speech by collecting comprehensibility ratings and transcription samples for intelligibility scores. No significant differences were…

Listening comprehension is an essential and challenging skill for language learners, and listening instruction can also be a challenge for language instructors, since they have little access to the listening process inside students' minds. Greater knowledge about what learners perceive when they listen could help language teachers better tailor…