This study explores how machine translation (MT) influences the English writing process and performance of 29 9th-grade EFL students with limited English proficiency. Over 10 writing tasks conducted during the semester, participants had varied accessibility to MT. The research compared their performance when MT was permitted versus when it was…

This paper presents the findings of a descriptive multiple case study carried out with six teachers of English in five public secondary schools in a city in northwestern Mexico aimed to determine how writing was taught. A mixed methods approach was followed with an embedded design in which qualitative data had increased weight and quantitative…

Reading is a core element in language education. Despite extensive research in second/foreign language (L2/FL) reading, relatively little is known about the differences between two common practices: Compulsory reading (i.e. reading assigned by teachers) and voluntary reading (i.e. self-initiated reading). This article reports two related…

This article presents the results of a study carried out to explore the elements of Young Adult Literature (YAL) present in the prescribed texts for Malaysian secondary school English as a second Language (ESL) students (3rd cycle). The three novels studied were; "Captain Nobody" by Dean Pitchford, "Sing to the Dawn" by MinFong…

This paper presents the findings of a research project on UK school students' attitudes to the use of Free Online Machine Translation for L2 production and more specifically in preparing for assessment. Data were collected from a publicly available online forum to analyse students' spontaneous discussion of the use of Free Online Machine…

Motivation in reading is very important for engaging learners in reading activity which can affect better reading comprehension. However, without motivation in reading can affect the worst reading comprehension. Therefore, motivation in reading needs to be constructed first by the teachers. This study examined whether intrinsic and extrinsic…

This study investigates task-specific emotions, examining how they arise and impact performance in a second language writing task through the lens of control-value theory and a positive psychology (PP) perspective. Participants were 206 secondary English-as-a-foreign-language learners from rural China. They completed an English argumentative…

This study explored high school students' perceptions of using AI chatbots in English learning. Specifically, it aimed to gauge the breadth of chatbot utilization and discern perceptions surrounding potential challenges linked to their use. Thirty students from a high school took part in the survey. Data analysis involved frequency, mean and an…

Since written assignments often constitute the main form of assessment in tertiary education, academic writing skills are of paramount importance to university students. The role of academic writing in turn emphasises two aspects vital for successful written production at universities: genre awareness as students are assessed on the production of…

The present study examines the ways Chinese high school EFL learners organize information in their writing. A class of 50 students at grade 9 from a local high school in Guangzhou, China, were recruited as participants. The students' writing at grade 9 was collected as a corpus, comprising ten writing tasks from different text types. In order to…

With the wide introduction of English-medium instruction (EMI) to higher education institutions throughout East Asian countries, many East Asian universities are using English proficiency tests that were not originally designed for this context to make admissions and placement decisions. To support the use of these tests in this new EMI context,…

The opinions of parents as a school-based stakeholders on ELT curricula have been neglected by not only authorities but also the related literature. Except from their consent or demands' being a prerequisite for the application of intensive curriculum for 5th graders, parents do not have a role for the development or application of English…

Background: Many empirical investigations focus on how personality traits and academic motivation are related to academic achievement. Regarding the personality traits described in the five-factor model, prior research has shown associations between openness to experience and language achievement in particular. Following the principle of trait…

This study applies multimodal conversation analysis to examine how pupils of L2 English in Sweden make use of online translation tools (OTTs), i.e. bilingual dictionaries and Google Translate, in a range of digital collaborative writing tasks. The collection of sequences where pupils use OTTs comes from 31 hours of video-recorded data from four…

The construct of critical cultural awareness (CCA) is often regarded as an element pertaining to intercultural communicative competence (Byram, 1997, 2021). In this model, CCA is defined as the ability to "evaluate, critically, and on the basis of a systematic process of reasoning, values in one's own culture and other cultures" (Byram,…