TESOL

This exploratory study invited 285 Japanese university students studying English as a foreign language (EFL) to reflect on what demotivated and remotivated them. Students charted the ups and downs of their English learning histories and then completed a questionnaire in which they explained the causes of their demotivation and the pathways, unintentional or intentional, by which they became remotivated. This data was analyzed in terms of the affective and attitudinal conditions which students brought with them into the classroom. Students
with positive antecedent conditions were found to have experienced fewer periods of demotivation in the past and exhibited more dynamic use of a wide range of strategies in their attempts to remotivate themselves. There is evidence to suggest that these learners also had more exposure to such strategies in use. Based on this hypothesis, we compiled and returned the strategies they reported to seed their self-motivational practices.

Educational systems endemic of demotivation might signify a stagnating rather than nurturing ecology of learning, due in part to an obstruction in the loops of shared information between the organisms within these systems, i.e., teachers, educational researchers, teacher educators, school administrators, and educational policymakers. Working within the ecology of English as a foreign language education in Japan, we have been endeavoring over several years to open loops of communication with students through a learning-teaching-researching process we call critical participatory looping (CPL). We reported successes in various publications about how CPL has improved our students’ motivations, and this paper elaborates upon two recent examples to provide a grounding of CPL in practices that support activating ecological adaptability. First, we theorize that individuals and groups (classes) can be seen as socially intelligent dynamic systems, and examine this perspective in relation to intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics of students needing nurturing loops of open communication in order to foster greater self-awareness and mutual care. Then we suggest that through soft assembling expansive learning, students and teacher-researchers might open communications explicitly about themselves and their contexts, deepen mutual appreciation and understandings, and act purposefully as agents toward promoting healthy qualities in themselves. Finally, we show with two examples that the social life of valuable information can be extended by looping it not only back to those that created it but also by looping it forward (similar to paying it forward) across expanding networks that might benefit from it with ecological adaptability.

This study examined the gains in student affect, vocabulary, and reading fluency for 110 university students in an extensive reading program in Japan. It was important to measure all of these dimensions within a single study and a single teaching methodology, so gains could be appropriately compared against each other. The adopted teaching methodology was a communicative one which stressed a number of in-class activities, with out-of-class reading. Students were measured over the course of a semester, and paired-sample t-tests were conducted using pre-and post-test scores on six variables. Results indicated that affect increased a great deal, while fluency increased minimally, and vocabulary did not increase at all. Students were also clustered into two groups, higher-level and lower-level, to determine if they differed at all in their learning rates. Paired sample t-tests indicated that the lower-level students gained more in terms of fluency than the higher-level students. 本研究では、 日本の大学の英語多読プログラムの受講者110名の学生を対象に、 学生の情緒的反応、 語彙、 読みの流暢さに関する進歩状況につい て調査した。 進歩を互いに適切に比較することが可能になるように、 これらの特質はすべて単一の研究及び単一の教授法のなかで測定することが重要 であった。 採用された教授法は、 授業内における多数のアクティビティに重点をおき、 併せてリーディングを課外に行うコミュニカティブ･アプローチで あった。 学生たちは半期の授業に渡って測定された。 ６つの変数に関して受講前のテスト･スコアと受講後のテスト･スコアを用いて、 対標本t検定が実 施された。 結果は、 情緒的反応の飛躍的な増加を示していた。 一方で、 読みの流暢さの増加は最小限にとどまり、 語彙に関しては全く増加が見られなか った。 さらに、 学習率に何らかの違いがあるかどうかを決定するため、 学生たちはレベルの高い方のグループと低い方のグループの二つの集落に分けら れた。 対標本t検定の結果は、 レベルの低い方の学生たちが、 レベルの高い方の学生たちよりも、 流暢さの点で進歩の度合いが高かったことを示した。 F or English students, especially those in an EFL context where access to an L1 community is constrained and viable language input is minimal, there are a number of benefits realized with extensive reading. One of the central tenets of extensive reading (ER) is the potential boon to affective dimensions, such as motivation, perceived competence, and enjoyment. With respect to research

As a consequence of the Turkish educational system’s shift from a teacher-centred to student-centred approach in the academic year of 2005-2006, school curricula of all subject areas have moved towards the development of learner autonomy. In response to this institutionally-directed reform, this ‘conceptual framework study’ intends to both inform researchers about the development of learner autonomy in learning English as a foreign language, and teacher autonomy considering the pivotal role that teachers have in the development of learner autonomy. That European Language Portfolios (ELPs) increase in use worldwide as a means to promote autonomy also merits attention. For this reason, the study also tries to inform researchers about ELP use and assessment in the Turkish context, and to provide the wider research community with important local messages of issues surrounding ELP implementation in schools. It further debates the issue of assessment since it requires reconsidering with the advent of ELPs.

Keywords: learner autonomy, European language portfolio, ELP, foreign language learning, EFL

It has been a while nearly from many years ago to the present day that two standard exams of IELTS and TOEFL have applied with the purpose of evaluating the candidates pursuing their higher-education goals and/or immigrating to the English or non-English speaking countries. This research intends to compare the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Internet-based test (iBT) with the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) regarding the format, content and grading of the test. Recently, these two exams have been played a prominent role of gatekeepers into English language institutions and society. In this research a brief history of each test will be described in the literature review and based on studied various comprehensive comparison researches as the methodology there will be a detailed explanation of IELTS and TOEFL exams in terms of format and content criteria separately. Subsequent to comparing each section of both exams in the discussion section the similarity and some differences will be mentioned there. Finally, it will be conducted that while the two tests have some similarities such as the same four sections of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, it doesn't mean that the same abilities are being measured in each exam and its section. In addition, it has been recommended that whether a test taker wants to take the IELTS and or chooses the TOEFL, he or she should decide with regard to his or her interests as well as skill assessment tests.