With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, online education has been embraced as an instructional delivery mode to ensure continuity in all levels of education including higher education. Given the fact that the success of online learning heavily relies on the learner's ability to autonomously regulate their learning, this study focuses on…

In many U. S. universities, international students whose second language is English follow one of two admission paths: 1) the traditional admission path, where students apply directly to the university for full admission; or 2) the conditional admission path, where they can apply to the university's intensive English program (IEP) and be granted…

This paper reports the findings of a study that investigated why a large number of test-takers show a low performance in four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) offered in an entry test used by a College of Technology in Oman to place students in advanced diploma and bachelor's degree programs. The main research question…

Grounded in the activity theory, we adopted a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach to explore the impact of automated written corrective feedback (AWCF) on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' academic writing skills (i.e. task achievement, coherence and cohesion, lexicon, and grammatical range and accuracy). To this end, two…

Many institutions around the world use the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) to assess test-takers' proficiency in English, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where a given Band score (or its equivalent) is required for direct entry to majors taught in English. However, despite the test's importance and despite being one…

New media are used by language learners and teachers inside and outside the classroom to improve basic language skills. This study investigated the uses of new media for enhancing reading skills, stimulating student motivation, and promoting learner autonomy within the context of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). This…

This study investigated how English learners complete multimodal formative quizzes. Participants included 17,950 students enrolled in a mandatory English for Academic Purposes course at a university in Hong Kong. We retrieved data from Blackboard, a learning management system, and conducted a two-step cluster analysis to examine student…

Many international students in American universities are required to take writing courses in English as a second language (ESL) before participating in a mainstream first-year composition (FYC) course. Given that the goal of ESL writing course is to prepare students for FYC course, the connection between ESL and FYC courses is significant. This…

The writing module of the IELTS has proven to be a challenging section for test takers. Part of this difficulty may stem from the divergence between what test takers expect to learn in such courses and what is delivered by instructors. To address this issue, a 24-item questionnaire (Student Questionnaire A) relating to IELTS writing preparation…

This study considered the social emergency of the COVID-19 pandemic. It utilized quantitative methods to investigate the L2 self-images (i.e., ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and feared L2 self) held by EFL college students in formal online English classes, based on Dörnyei's (2005) L2 Motivational Self System. Meanwhile, this research proved the…

Since the teaching-learning process must go online, it is assumed that conducting a flipped classroom could promote students' active learning. Thus, this classroom-based research attempts to investigate the implementation of the flipped model in an online speaking class. It examines students' learning outcomes on speaking skills after studying in…

Two groups of English as a second language students engaged in a fourteen-week repeated reading (RR) treatment: (1) a 3x group (n = 16), which engaged in three readings per session, and (2) a 5x group (n = 15), which engaged in five readings per session. Reading rate and background knowledge were measured at five points to assess the effect of…

This paper outlines and details historical L2 curriculum development for segments of China's State education system over a ten-year period beginning with the start of the Sino -- Foreign joint programs classes in 2011. A two-year post assessment from 2015-2017. Tracking students continuing test results for both the CET (College English Test)…

Translanguaging and trans-semiotizing research has problematized the static view of language and argued that meaning making is a dynamic, material, social, and historical process across multiple timescales in complex eco-social systems. The second author proposed the concept of trans-semiotizing as an alternative lens to study language teaching…

Future second language (L2) self-images have proven integral to L2 motivation, prompting several attempts to purposefully develop learners' ideal L2 selves over the past decade through the use of vision-building techniques. Some of these 'vision interventions' have reported successfully enhancing learners' L2 self-images and motivation; other…