Adopting the interactional linguistic framework, the study aimed at exploring the range and frequency of interactional functions of yes/no tokens used by Thai university students of A2 proficiency in their English conversation, and contrasting their use with that of English native speakers (ENSs). The data was derived from 83, two-three party…

The aim of this study is to identify Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) that seem to be used more frequently by Saudi undergraduate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students and to discuss the sub-strategies amongst the main five strategies identified by Schmitt's (1997) taxonomy of VLS. The population sample of 94 undergraduates was selected…

This study aimed to examine students' perceptions of the effectiveness of virtual classrooms in enhancing their communication skills. Study participants were 43 female English majors at the College of Education at a Saudi Arabian university. This study was conducted during the first semester of the 2020/2021 academic year when COVID-19…

For many sociolinguists, the issue of shyness and hesitation phenomenon has been problematic for Japanese L1 and L2 speakers, particularly in gendered interactions. Over the past decade, more Japanese are shunning conversations, relationships, and isolating themselves, which is accelerating the demographic crisis in Japan. Thus, this paper focuses…

Simulation technique could be effective if it is cleverly manipulated and incorporated in a project-based learning context. This current study aims to explore students' learning experience in a project-based simulated business context. The participants were 51 second and third year students who took Business English as an elective course at a…

This paper investigates the level of anxiety due to learning English as a foreign language. It tries to answer these questions: (1) Is anxiety a factor in hindering English proficiency? (2) Does anxiety lead to fear of communication? (3) Which type of anxiety is high among tertiary level female Saudi students? The Foreign Language Anxiety…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the production of pragmatic markers (PMs) by multilingual students in a CLIL context. Previous studies have analyzed pragmatic competence in multilingual settings (e.g., Cenoz, 2003; Martín-Laguna & Alcón-Soler, 2015; Portolés, 2015; Safont & Portolés, 2016). However, to the best of our…

Much has been written on the determinants that can expedite or hinder learners' willingness to communicate in second and foreign language contexts. Though the literature is abundant with studies on many of these variables, little if any can be found to have targeted EFL students of private institutes in Iran. An effort was made in this study to…

The article discusses the investment of L2 learners in the English language on Facebook that they portrayed through their Facebook activities. It studied four informants consisted of diploma students in a Malaysian university. The study consisted of 14 weeks of online observation and semi-structured interviews. Data were collected from online…

This paper investigates the use of politeness strategies in 32 discussion sections of research papers produced by Thai graduate students at Graduate School of Language and Communication, National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA), Bangkok, Thailand. The study reported in this paper adopts Brown and Levinson's (1978, 1987) and Myers'…

Complaint is intrinsically an abusive act which tends to offend the complainees. In spite of this complainers could consider politeness when they still intend to maintain a good relationship with the complainees. This paper investigated politeness strategies involved in complaints relating to different social status levels and social distances.…

As most traditional classroom environments in English as Foreign Language (EFL) still restrict learners' collaboration and interaction in college writing classes, today, the majority of EFL learners are accessing Social Networking Sites (SNSs) as online communities of practice (CoPs) for adopting informal collaborative learning as a way of…

In Inner Mongolia, those Mongolian students face lots of difficulties in learning English. Especially the English translation ability of Mongolian students is a weak point. It is worth to think a problem that how to let our students use the English freely on a certain foundation. This article investigates the problems of Mongolian English learners…

This study investigated the different primary and secondary strategies the Iranian EFL students use in different situations and the effect of gender on this. A questionnaire was developed based on Sugimoto's (1995) to compare the apology strategies used by male and female students, only gender was examined as a variable. The results showed that…

This paper investigates the value of the social context and its role in learning a second language in different contexts. Social context is believed to be able to influence attitude and motivation. It also provides learning opportunities which give rise to learner's outcomes. In fact, students acquire a language by using it in social interaction…