In recent years, Taiwan has been vigorously promoting Chinese–English bilingualism. However, while universities across the country have been dedicated to fostering students’ English proficiency, what has been greatly overlooked concerns learners’ identity, especially that of those with lower proficiency levels. To address the gap, this multiple-case study investigated an interdisciplinary, project-based course in the general education curriculum, English for Tour Guides. Participants were four lower-proficiency Taiwanese university EFL learners enrolled in this semester-long course, with self-reported CEFR levels ranging from A2 to B1. Data collected through semi-structured interviews, surveys with open-ended questions, and learners’ reflective accounts were analyzed based on the model of investment put forth by Darvin and Norton in 2015. Findings reveal not only each learner’s negotiation of their identity as an EFL speaker and as a tour guide against the dynamic construction of ideologies but also the resulting empowerment that began emerging after revaluing their capital. Moreover, learner’s identity construction was partially contingent on classroom practices, highlighting the contextuality and fluidity of the learners’ identity and capital. Finally, participants’ enactment of agency was observed in their pursuit of membership in imagined communities and in their decision-making concerning their level of investment.
This study compares English language teachers’ anxiety between face-to-face (F2F) classrooms and online teaching environments and identifies mode-specific factors contributing to any differences. Drawing on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, a sequential mixed-methods investigation was conducted with 57 teachers (survey) and 6 teachers (follow-up interviews). Quantitative results showed moderate overall anxiety in both modes. Although there was no significant difference in overall anxiety between modes, item-level analyses revealed distinct mode-specific stressors. In online settings, teachers reported significantly greater anxiety concerning specific factors such as technology dependence, technical problems, and uncertainty about maintaining student attention. Qualitative findings revealed distinct anxiety triggers in each mode. In online teaching, teachers were most concerned about diminished student engagement, technology-induced disruptions to lessons, problematic student online behaviors (e.g., unauthorized recordings), and blurred boundaries between professional and personal spaces. In contrast, F2F teaching anxiety stemmed primarily from performance pressures (public speaking, being observed) and immediate classroom management challenges. The study further theorizes these mode-specific patterns by showing how two pedagogical processes, teachers’ reading of learners and their governing of the instructional space, are reconfigured across modes. These results suggest that teachers have partially adapted to post-pandemic online teaching, yet specific stressors unique to online contexts persist. The findings highlight the need for mode-specific support strategies, including practical training for online pedagogy, peer sharing of coping techniques, and institutional policies that address the unique emotional demands of online teaching.
Figure legends serve the essential functions of describing information of figures, which hold significant importance in marine science research articles. Adopting a corpus-driven approach, this study systematically investigates the structural and functional features of lexical bundles in figure legends from leading marine science journals. The analysis specifically focuses on three-word bundles due to their prevalence in the genre of figure legends. Structurally, the findings reveal a predominance of noun-related lexical bundles in figure legends, which reflects a tendency toward high information density and nominalization in this genre. Functionally, research-oriented lexical bundles constitute the majority, highlighting the primary role of figure legends in articulating experimental details and empirical observations. Further analysis indicates that these bundles are predominantly employed to describe spatial attributes, temporal sequences, quantitative dependencies, and data aggregation methods. This study reveals the commonly used phrases of figure legends in marine science and provides pedagogical resources for academic writing and English for Specific Purposes instruction for marine science academic writing.
Traditional classroom response system (CRS)–based instruction often relies on teacher-generated questions, which may limit students’ independent inquiry and deeper engagement with the text. This study compared two questioning strategies integrated with CRS technology: CRS with teacher-generated questioning (TGQ) versus CRS with student-generated questioning (SGQ). In the SGQ approach, students worked in groups to read texts, create text-based questions, and use the CRS platform ClassPoint to answer questions posed by other groups during whole-class peer questioning activities. In the TGQ approach, students answered teacher-created questions via the same ClassPoint platform. A quasi-experimental design evaluated the effectiveness of these two questioning strategies within CRS-based collaborative instruction, focusing on reading comprehension and collaborative learning dynamics. While no significant difference was found between the TGQ and SGQ groups on immediate multiple-choice reading comprehension tests, the SGQ group outperformed the TGQ group on delayed recall tests. Both approaches improved students’ perceived collaborative learning, though SGQ did not significantly enhance peer interactions or collective efficacy compared to TGQ in CRS environments. Qualitative semi-structured interviews provided additional insights, enriching the understanding of the quantitative findings. This study expands the CRS research by integrating SGQ instruction, providing valuable insights into the effectiveness of this combined approach in collaborative learning environments.
Focused corrective feedback addressing a single error type has demonstrated greater effectiveness compared to unfocused corrective feedback that addresses various linguistic error types. The notion of “one error type” remains ambiguous in focused feedback studies, as the efficacy of focused feedback practices may hinge on how narrowly an error type is delineated. An investigation into the concept of error type in relation to feedback effectiveness is warranted, as it may enhance the existing literature on focused feedback and deepen our comprehension of its efficacy. The current study investigated whether the use of a narrow or broad definition for article usage in correcting usage errors influences the effectiveness of focused feedback. The study recruited college students divided into two experimental groups (narrow and broad definition groups: Groups A and B, respectively) that received corrective feedback and one control group (Group C) that did not receive feedback. The results showed focused feedback to be effective in improving usage accuracy in Group A. Although focused feedback was effective in improving usage accuracy at the immediate posttest in Group B, the benefits did not persist to the delayed posttest. Moreover, the study revealed that in Group B, students who were aware of the type of error being targeted in their feedback registered greater improvements in usage accuracy than did those who were not aware of such error type. This study’s findings suggest several implications for teaching practices.
