As literary courses in the curricula of the departments of Foreign Languages and Literature or English have been greatly dwindled, this presentation aims to examine the use of literature in a college EFL classroom in Taiwan to enhance students’ language proficiency and cultural awareness. It will discuss the major reasons why literature is neglected and explain the benefits of studying literature, to explain the pedagogy and activities used to comprehend the selected literary texts, and demonstrate how a four-skilled integrated approach (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) to learning literature can enhance EFL learners’ language performance. It is hoped that college students will be benefitted by studying literature.

Engaging in practitioner-research has a range of benefits for teachers, educational institutes, students, and the overall field of TESOL. Teachers can move toward becoming “holistic TESOL professionals” (McKinley, 2019), new approaches can be experimented with, effective teaching practice can be identified and promoted, and focusing on the real-life issues that affect teachers enables the linking of theory and practice.

In this presentation, three of the central tenets of practitioner-research (conducting, collaborating, and sharing) are identified and their importance to the wider educational community is discussed. Practical steps that can be taken by educators to promote the effective development of those tenets are then highlighted.

It is hoped that this presentation will encourage engagement in practice-based investigations, the sharing of research findings with others, and the development of collectivities or communities of practice, leading to a range of positive outcomes for multiple stakeholders throughout the educational environment.

With rapid developments in the field of digital literacy, technology has shifted from computer-assisted language learning (CALL) to mobile-assisted language learning (MALL). The smartphone plays an important role in helping students learn English. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the perception of English learning among ESL students in Malaysia. This study uses a quantitative research design. An online questionnaire was used to collect data, which was completed by 150 students in selected public universities in Malaysia. The result was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as percentage, frequency, mean and standard deviation. The empirical findings of the study show that students have a positive perception towards the use of smartphones as a potential tool to enhance their English learning. Therefore, the use of smartphones should be continuously practised by university students in Malaysia to enhance English learning and increase digital literacy in 21st century education.

Virtual Reality (VR) has shown promise in foreign language learning, with potential benefits in reducing foreign language anxiety, enhancing speaking performance, and improving long-term memory retention. However, using Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) can lead to user discomfort and sickness. To address this issue, this study aimed to compare the effects of VR English lessons delivered via HMDs and Personal Computers (PCs) on speaking proficiency and foreign language anxiety among eight Japanese university students. To evaluate the outcomes, the researchers conducted a TOEIC speaking test and a questionnaire survey three times: before and after the VR lesson with HMDs and after the VR lessons with PCs. Moreover, the study examined the self, social, and spatial presence through a questionnaire survey conducted after the VR lessons with PCs. The results of the study will be presented, along with their pedagogical implications in using VR with HMDs and PCs for foreign language learning.

Academic achievement gaps between different groups of students in Higher Education (HE) has become a crucial concern. This paper focuses on an action-research oriented, skills development diagnostic programme designed and delivered in collaboration between subject-specialists and learning development practitioners to first-year management students. The aim was to bridge the skills gap for students from different backgrounds including entry qualifications, race and socio-economic class. The programme targeted: structure, critical writing, and evidence-based writing. The diagnostic used the Articulate software and the results directed students onto one of two levels of study-skills sessions: Develop or Enhance. Preliminary evaluation results showed students reported an increase in confidence levels ranging from 22% - 25.8%. This type of programme could potentially equip students with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed in their studies regardless of their backgrounds, and thereby help in facilitating student mobility and social justice in HE.

This research explores a Funds of Knowledge (FoK) approach to ELT in a Malaysian refugee learning center. To promote social justice in quality education for refugees, teachers can harness this asset-based approach to capitalise on a learner’s knowledge, skills, experiences, and practices that can contribute to one’s well-being. FoK literature revealed few studies lie at the intersection of FoK and refugees’ literacy. This study utilised a case study approach to find out how five refugees, whose English is not their first language, learn English. Data comprised of interviews observations, and artefact collection. Open and axial coding methods were done on NVivo 12 Plus. The findings presented five FoK types and discussed how these five FoK can be implemented to support refugees’ ELL. With increasing numbers of refugees worldwide, this study’s implications are timely in informing stakeholders and researchers to support ASRs’ education and integration into society.

Novice English teachers in Japan at junior and senior high schools are facing challenges for which their pre-service training has failed to prepare them (Mouri, 2020; Tahira, 2012). In addition, the support structure for English teachers in the public system is wholly inadequate. This presentation explicates a research project that aims to understand and support the practical needs of pre-service English teachers who intend to teach at junior and senior high schools in Japan. Pre-service teachers of English (n=20) were asked to identify what topics they would like to be included in teacher-training workshops designed to address their needs. In 2022, two workshops were held based on these perceived needs. This presentation will focus on the efficacy of these workshops based on the participants’ feedback. The presenters will map out the design of future workshops and argue for the necessity of practical support considering the current teacher-training structure in Japan.

The current study proposed to integrate Problem-Based Learning into a college business communication course designed for English majors at the Department of English in a public university of science and technology in Taiwan. This study intended to examine students’ learning engagement and overall course effectiveness in the course infusing PBL learning. The research instruments consisted of both quantitative and qualitative methods, including learning engagement scale for college students (LESCS), the classroom teacher reflection notes, student interviews, and final course evaluation. The quantitative data were interpreted by using SPSS instrument to investigate pre-, mid-, and post- learning difference. The qualitative data presented the course effectiveness by looking into teacher reflections, student interviews, and reflections on course evaluation. The findings indicated: (1) PBL as an underpinning teaching method helped the participants engage, and (2) PBL, bringing in real-world issues, was embraced and considered an option to be adapted in EFL business courses.

As part of an ongoing project, researchers created a formative speaking assessment tool. Research suggests a clear and succinct rubric is critical to any speaking assessment in the EFL classroom. The project’s analytic rubric helped first-year university students practice and improve their speaking skills. Though learning outcomes were achieved, the evaluation results of the previous cohort tended to range toward the high end. This prompted researchers to review the rubric. Research questions: 1) How did editing and revising the rubric affect student results? 2) How did editing and revising the rubric increase student confidence? This study collected data from student grades and surveys. The findings showed that after introducing the newest version of the rubric, student grades were centered around the average, expected results. Researchers concluded that the use of the revised rubric improved students’ English-speaking skills and confidence.

The effects of gamified instruction via the Classcraft website on Japanese ELLs' self-reported motivation levels are explored in this study. Classcraft is geared toward increasing ELLs’ motivation to study English by ‘gamifying’ the classroom through game elements like points, rewards, leveling, and teamwork. A2-level (the CEFR equivalent of elementary level) students across four compulsory Listening and Speaking classes at a university in western Japan were chosen for this study. Similar to traditional role-playing video games (RPGs), the participants were required to create and ‘level-up’ online avatars with points they acquired through good in-class behavior and performance. To measure changes in motivation over the course of the semester, the two instructors involved in the study recorded observational data and conducted pre- and post-study surveys. The data suggests that while students generally had a positive outlook on the rewards Classcraft offered, it had a negligible effect on their motivation.

This study examined the vocabulary size of junior high school students in southern Taiwan. Altogether, 343 participants from two junior high schools, 1 urban and 1 rural, in Kaohsiung City Taiwan participated. The data were collected by the Test of the First 1,000 Words of English (Nation, 1993), and the 2,000-word level and 3,000-word level tests of the revised version of Nation’s Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, 2000). The averaged vocabulary size of the first-, second-, and the third-year students were 503, 534, and 658 words respectively.

The results indicated that the junior students of higher academic levels carried a larger vocabulary. Moreover, the vocabulary size of the urban students was found to have a slighter lead than that of their counterparts in the rural area. The findings could suggest possible improvements for the teaching and learning of English vocabulary for the junior high school classrooms in Taiwan and Asia.

Collaborative caring is “creating relationships that honour the connections and the space [students and university teachers] need to more effectively continue to develop our capacities, insights and talents so that we might come closer to fully realising our personal and professional potential” (Sumsion, 2000, p.174). I believe it is important to take a care ethics perspective on collaboration in education. In discussing the aim of education, Noddings (2012) argued for a shift in focus from high test scores to that of helping students discover their strengths and purpose in life, which means that cooperation should be prioritized over competition. In this presentation, I seek to extend understanding of collaboration by drawing on my experience of collaborative caring as a lecturer in Singapore’s English teacher education. I refer to anecdotes from my English classes and qualitative student feedback I received between 2019 and 2022 to deduce the impact of caring methods.

The study investigates L1 and L2 speakers’ oral fluency across levels of task complexity and input formats to understand the cognitive processes in L2 speech production. Oral fluency is conceptualized as cognitive fluency, measured by frequency of pausing. The study builds on Skehan et al. (2016) hypothesis that pauses ‘within a clause’ suggest difficulties in formulation, and pauses occurring ‘between clauses’ mean problems with conceptualization. Eighty participants carried out two narrative tasks differentiated by complexity and input format. Participants were 40 English L1 speakers and 40 Korean L1 speakers who speak English L2 at an intermediate level. Data were coded for pauses using PRAAT. The findings reveal L2 speakers show increases in frequency of pauses at mid-clause level on more complex tasks. Pauses at end clause were unaffected by complexity for both L1 and L2 speakers. Findings are explained in terms of cognitive fluency, automaticity, and L2 speech production.

In previous studies, researchers have argued that teaching in the target language (L2) is the most effective approach (Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p. 9). Recent studies show, however, that using students’ language (L1) can offer a variety of benefits to language learners (LLs) (Leeming, 2013; Bartlett, 2017; Inada & Inada, 2021). In the following presentation, I will present the results of the first stage of a long-term data collection, which explored university LL perspectives regarding English-only and Japanese-only lessons. In this study, students enrolled in compulsory English lessons at a Japanese university completed a survey at 3 different times throughout the first semester. Results from initial data collection show that students prefer neither L1- nor L2-only lessons, but a mixed usage of both. The presentation will conclude with advice for language teachers. Specifically, how to find balance in your language use, and how your language use can affect learner development.

This study explored how automated pronunciation score feedback in a Computer-Assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) system impacted undergraduate L2 English learners’ pronunciation and motivation. The experiment involved the use of the CAPT system to provide multiple feedback (word-level, phoneme-level, and syllable-level) scores on the learner’s read-speech of English sentences, which contained phonemes Korean L2 English learners commonly make errors pronouncing. The learners practiced pronunciation with the CAPT system, and the effect of the score feedback was examined objectively and subjectively. In the objective analysis, pronunciation quality and motivation were measured using the score trend and the number of practices. In the subjective analysis, learners’ views on the system’s effectiveness for pronunciation and motivation were surveyed and analyzed. The results indicated that the CAPT system helped Korean L2 English learners improve their pronunciation and motivation.

Since 2012, there has been a steady increase in the number of multicultural families in South Korea, with a subsequent increase in multicultural students in schools (Chung, 2021; Im, 2022). According to Lee (2022), multicultural children encounter language barriers, academic difficulties and discrimination from peers, as well as teachers. Stakeholders have advocated the need for policy makers, administrators, as well as researchers to collaborate on comprehensive solutions that ensure improved educational opportunities for multicultural students (Kim, 2022). This review aims specifically to summarize research literature about multicultural education in South Korea and identify emergent issues faced by multicultural students. It concludes in a ‘best practice’ guideline for English language teachers and other stakeholders of multicultural programs.