The study was conducted to identify students' difficulties in speaking English and recommend strategies to cope with these difficulties so that their ability to speak English can be improved. The era of globalization requires students to be able to master English to keep up with current developments. Entering the era of free markets requires…

This study addressed whether combining tinkering with digital storytelling (i.e., narrating and reflecting about experiences to an imagined audience) can engender engineering learning opportunities. Eighty-four families with 5- to 10-year-old (M = 7.69) children (48% female children; 57% White, 11% Asian, 6% Black) watched a video introducing a…

Collaboration is argued to be an important skill, not only in schools and higher education contexts but also in the workspace and other aspects of life. However, simply asking students to work together as a group on a task does not guarantee success in collaboration. Effective collaborative learning requires meaningful interactions among…

This article focuses on listening not as cognition and comprehension but as a way of being attuned to self and others. The author follows Patrick Sullivan's (2014) pedagogy of listening, which establishes "listening, empathy, and reflection as the primary values in the classroom" (p. 7). These values promote "embracing respect for…

This paper advocates for using critical intercultural and participatory pedagogy as the basis for an introductory communication course. Communication programs are often concerned with the basics -- teaching students to communicate effectively through writing and speaking. Yet the methods for teaching these two classic competencies diverge widely,…

Class conversation in the learning process has important benefits and can facilitate the learning process, students' understanding of the material and create a close relationship between teachers and students. This study describes the classroom conversation strategies implemented in junior high schools, namely preliminary, core and final at…

The recent world pandemic has highlighted the need for effective procedures to teach language in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) environments. Fully online and asynchronous classrooms are especially challenged when addressing learning to speak a foreign language toward greater communicative competence. Current CALL research is…

This paper focuses on the influence of task types, namely divergent and convergent tasks, on the interactional space of learners and the amount of collaboration in EFL adult learners' interactions naturally emerging from performing each type of task. To define interactional space, behavioural engagement measurement was adopted, and the total…

Given the unconscious nature of many micro-invalidations, conversations about them easily devolve into cycles of accusation, defensiveness, and recrimination. To better understand the specific effects of micro-invalidations, this interactive exercise emphasizes listening, hearing, and empathizing with use of the statement, "You are so…

Understanding fast speech can be an ongoing challenge for English learners of all levels. Even after years of study, learners might be accustomed to clear, slow classroom English and struggle with understanding the reductions that proficient speakers of English use in fast, fluent speech. Many online resources exist to help students learn about…

This activity extends the rich pedagogical scholarship on impromptu speaking by integrating visual imagery into the impromptu speaking exercise. The goal of this semester-long series of exercises is to provide students with the opportunity to apply effective delivery skills across general purposes of speaking, receive feedback, and thus develop…

This paper reports from a case study which explores kindergarten children's mathematical abstraction in a teaching--learning activity about reflection symmetry. From a dialectical perspective, abstraction is here conceived as a process, as a genuine part of human activity, where the learner establishes "a point of view from which the concrete…

Due to the pivotal role that interaction plays in SLA, the issue of willingness to communicate has drawn considerable attention among researchers in the field. Nonetheless, literature on WTC has been primarily theoretical; little has been done to find practical solutions to the problem that could actually help ESL practitioners in their daily…

Out-of-class learning is an additional vital component in successful English language acquisition among proficient ESL users. Thus, this study employed a quantitative research approach to investigate out-of-class English language practice by Malaysian ESL post-secondary students. 106 first-semester Diploma in Tourism Management students at a…

Previous studies have indicated that social media has been used by students to develop speaking skills. Nevertheless, precisely how guided social media (GSM) (usage determined by the instructor) and unguided social media (USM) (freely chosen by students) activities in speaking courses affect their speaking skills and willingness to communicate…