Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2021) | Viewed by 8120

Special Issue Editors


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Chief Guest Editor
Woosong Language Institute, Woosong University, Daejeon 34514, Korea
Interests: career decision and development; educational psychology; foreign language teaching and learning; nursing education; teachers’ professional development; visual-based teaching and learning strategy

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Guest Editor
Department of Childcare, University Preparation College, Sydney, Australia
Interests: early childhood curriculum; preschool leadership

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Guest Editor
Centre for Applied English Studies, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Interests: learner autonomy; language advising; blended learning

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Due to the development of globalization, tourism, business, educational profession, political situation, and pop culture, proficiency in at least one foreign language is essential for many individuals. There is no right or wrong answer about what should be taught and how a language should be taught in the on-campus classrooms, blended environments, and virtual distance learning platforms. In addition to the teaching and learning environment, some scholars focus on the background of the learners. For example, it is important to understand the teaching and learning strategies, methodologies, and motivation among students and learners at kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, college and university, and vocational centers for nontraditional, returning, evening, and adult students. Moreover, previous studies have advocated that individuals at different life spans (infant, early childhood, young adulthood, mid-age, and late life) may have different learning behaviors and motivations. Therefore, this current issue provides the opportunity for researchers, scholars, governmental leaders, policymakers, and teachers to share their ideas, teaching and learning strategies, concepts, reviews, and feedback on the topic of foreign language teaching and learning. This issue welcomes all original studies with a qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodology.

Dr. Luis Miguel Dos Santos
Dr. Yuk Lan Leung
Dr. Daya Datwani-Choy
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Additional language
  • Foreign language learner
  • Foreign language teaching and learning
  • Foreign language teacher
  • Foreign language strategy
  • Motivation of learning
  • Program evaluation
  • Second language acquisition
  • Second language teaching and learning

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 433 KiB  
Article
The Effects of L2 Proficiency on Pragmatic Comprehension and Learner Strategies
by Hsuan-Yu Tai and Yuan-Shan Chen
Educ. Sci. 2021, 11(4), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11040174 - 7 Apr 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3859
Abstract
The present study aimed to examine the effect of proficiency on the pragmatic comprehension of speech acts, implicatures, and routines, as well as the way learners of different proficiency levels employ strategies when comprehending a pragmatic task. Thirty-three high-proficiency and forty-one low-proficiency Chinese [...] Read more.
The present study aimed to examine the effect of proficiency on the pragmatic comprehension of speech acts, implicatures, and routines, as well as the way learners of different proficiency levels employ strategies when comprehending a pragmatic task. Thirty-three high-proficiency and forty-one low-proficiency Chinese learners of English completed a multiple-choice discourse completion task (MDCT). Of the participants, six were selected from the two proficiency groups to perform verbal retrospections to probe their strategy use in the MDCT task. The quantitative results showed that the high-proficiency group performed significantly better than the low-proficiency group on speech acts, implicatures, and routines. In addition, the analyses of verbal reports identified eight major strategies the learners used while performing the task, including sociopragmatics, hearer’s response, relevance, keyword/key phrase, life experience/world knowledge, amount of information, intuition, and multiple strategies. The high-proficiency group showed a significant use of multiple strategies, life experience/world knowledge, amount of information and relevance. The low-proficiency group, on the other hand, indicated a significant use of intuition. Close examination further revealed that the high-proficiency group showed more flexibility in strategy use, thus leading to more accurate performance. Conversely, the low-proficiency group did not vary their strategy use, which normally led to incorrect responses on the task. Finally, the study closes by providing pedagogical implications for language teachers as to how strategy instruction can be implemented in L2 pragmatics classrooms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foreign Language Teaching and Learning)
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Review

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9 pages, 256 KiB  
Review
Third-Age Learners and Approaches to Language Teaching
by Jaroslav Kacetl and Blanka Klímová
Educ. Sci. 2021, 11(7), 310; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11070310 - 22 Jun 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3243
Abstract
Foreign language learning in the third age is one of the popular activities among the elderly. The question remains as to how to teach a foreign language to older adults properly. The first objective of this review was to identify suitable pedagogical approaches, [...] Read more.
Foreign language learning in the third age is one of the popular activities among the elderly. The question remains as to how to teach a foreign language to older adults properly. The first objective of this review was to identify suitable pedagogical approaches, teaching methods, or strategies for teaching foreign languages to third-age learners. The second objective was to determine whether foreign language learning later in life is beneficial. The authors used a method of literature review to achieve these goals. The former objective was not fully achieved as there is no clear outcome, although some generalizations based on other review studies can be made. Namely, foreign language teaching among the older generation should be student-centred and a communicative method should be implemented with a special focus on talking about familiar topics and listening comprehension to facilitate a senior’s foreign language learning. In addition, the teaching methods ought to incorporate real life experiences and provide relevant content. Respect should also be paid to the fact that older adults have intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation to learn a foreign language. The latter objective was attained since older people can benefit from learning a foreign language at a later age in many ways, including areas like travelling, social inclusiveness, improvement of cognitive skills, and overall well-being. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Foreign Language Teaching and Learning)
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