Test-takers' voices in relation to high-stakes language tests have received growing attention in recent years. While the perspectives of this stakeholder group can be utilised to improve test quality, test-taking experience, and test impact, we argue that this goal needs to be achieved by considering a fundamental shift in our conceptualisation of…

This quasi-experimental study adopted a pretest/posttest design to investigate the effect of instructional intervention in teaching polite refusal strategies explicitly on Iranian EFL learners' performance of the speech act of refusing. The participants, consisting of 24 male elementary EFL learners aged 12-18, responded to a discourse completion…

This study explored the longitudinal changes of Japanese EFL learners' psychological attributes of unwillingness to speak English in a task-based classroom. Thirty-three university students participated in this study. They engaged in a communicative task once a week for two semesters. They completed a questionnaire examining the psychological…

The purpose of this small-scale study was to examine whether language is a factor in the reporting of bullying behavior by young English language learners enrolled in an early childhood program of an English-medium school in China. Further investigated was whether an English-only language policy affects the reporting of bullying behavior.…

This study examines intercultural learning during an email collaboration project carried out as part of an EFL didactics course attended by Polish and Romanian teacher-trainees. Email entries and the results of a final questionnaire were used as sources of data that offered insight into the intercultural dimension of the participants'…

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the learners' behaviors and perceptions about autonomous language learning at the university level in Turkey. It attempts to reveal what type of perceptions learners held regarding teachers' and their own responsibilities in the language learning process. Their autonomous language learning…

Theories on emerging technologies have stated that using blogs in the classroom can engage students in discussion, support peer learning, and improve students' literacy skills. Research has pointed to many ways that blogging is beneficial to student learning when used as an instructional tool. The researchers conducted a project that investigated…

With the emergence of the intercultural approach to L2 teaching, several studies investigated teachers' attitudes and beliefs concerning the cultural dimension of L2 teaching in different foreign language settings. This study explored teachers' perceptions of the relationship between teaching English and culture in Tunisia, an EFL setting where…

The Internet has made it possible for teachers to administer online assessments with affordability and ease. However, little is known about Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students' attitudes of internet-based tests (IBTs). Therefore, this study aimed to measure the perceptions of IBTs among Japanese English language learners with the…

This study investigated perceptions of a class of 20 first-year Japanese college students on peer questioning in cooperative reading activities. After the instructor gave an hour of interactive explanations of the reading, in which students were encouraged to interact actively with the instructor in interpreting the reading material, students were…

Teachers assume several key roles in the language classroom. Because any one teacher is unlikely to possess the full range of characteristics suggested in the literature, it is vital to explore what individual class groups of learners believe are the characteristics most beneficial to their language learning. This study therefore explored their…

This paper reports the findings of a study investigating Chinese English language learners' perceptions of pragmatics in the EFL learning context in China. A total of 237 Chinese EFL first--year university students participated in the study. A questionnaire and focus group interviews were used to collect data about learners' pragmatics insights…

Supervisors play a critical role in fostering teacher candidates' reflective thinking on their practice, yet too often it is the supervisor, rather than the teacher, doing most of the observation work. Video-based supervision offers a promising alternative, as teachers have an opportunity to examine their own lesson and thus engage with the…

This study is grounded in three theories of self-­regulation, goal-­orientation, and the act of writing. The authors collected the data from 48 Iranian EFL B.A. level students majoring in English in different universities in Iran. The instruments consisted of two questionnaires: a goal-oriented questionnaire developed and employed by the authors,…

Simultaneous with a call for standardized assessments to assess developing rather than preexisting or surface knowledge (Sawyer, 2006) has been a growth in awareness of the unavoidable interactive nature of any form of assessment and this awareness has created a social turn towards approaches to language assessment (McNamara & Roever, 2006).…