Errors and Corrective Feedback in Chinese EFL Classroom Writing

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has constituted a major part of the curriculum in private and public institutions in Saudi Arabia for over eight decades. More recently, the emergence of English as a global language has made it a socially desirable language in Saudi society, as elsewhere in the world. However, despite the long history of English teaching in Saudi Arabia and the growth of the profession over the years, the overall English proficiency level of the majority of students is low and unsatisfactory. Saudi researchers have reported many reasons for the ineffectiveness of English Language Teaching (ELT) including, but not limited to, low levels of student motivation, negative attitudes toward English, a substandard English as a Foreign Language (EFL) curriculum, and inefficient teacher pedagogical practices. These problems fall into two major categories: problems related to the lwhyr of teaching and learning of EFL, and problems related to the lhowr of teaching and learning EFL. In investigating these issues, much of this research has been carried out within individual/psychological/structuralist/positivist frameworks, which has failed not only to problematize the complexity of such constructs but also to appreciate the fact that all realities are produced/(re)produced via ldiscourser. Hence, the present study investigated EFL teaching and learning practices by employing Foucauldian and poststructuralist frameworks. This study used poststructuralism not only as a theoretical lens per se, but also established it through the implemented analytical tools and textual representations of the collected data. Employing a poststructuralist discursive perspective made it possible to view EFL teaching and learning as complex social practices, interacting with the discourses of English and ELT practices available in the global as well as the local context(s). These discourses create the nexus between power and knowledge and impact on what an EFL teacher/ learner does within a classroom setting by constructing perspectives of reality through which he or she comes to understand the EFL teaching and learning process in certain ways which constitute epistemological spaces and generate particular practices. Drawing on policy documents, EFL textbooks, classroom observations, interviews with two Saudi EFL teachers, and focus group discussions with Saudi EFL students in two rural areas, the study identified seven discourses circulating within and competing across the examined discursive spaces. The first three discourses are related to English and its values, including: English as a universal language; English as the language for better employment opportunities; and English as the language for spreading religion. The remaining four discourses centred around ELT with exams as an important aspect of EFL learning and ELT; CLT as the key to success in ELT; L1 as a barrier to successful EFL learning; and EFL textbooks as an essential aspect of the processes of EFL learning and ELT. In exploring the production and (re)production of these discourses through the examination of how visibilization, normalisation, exclusionary/inclusionary acts, classification, and subject positioning as discursive strategies are employed, it was found that whether a particular discourse was made visible or invisible depended on other discourses operating across the examined discursive spaces: the social context, the policy, the textbook, the classroom, and the teachers and students. The analysis of the connection(s) and misconnection(s) between these discursive spaces demonstrated that the interplay between the different discourses constructed discursive battlegrounds, which impacted the processes of EFL teaching and learning. Through the investigation of this interplay, it was found that there was a disconnect and an ambivalent relationship between the study participantsr espoused discourses of English and their EFL teaching and learning practices, suggesting that EFL teachers and learners should not be considered lstabler figures, but rather as social agents with discursively constructed ever changing subjectivities. Furthermore, the analyses of the constructions of the discourses operating within the examined policy texts demonstrate an intra disparity and fragmentation. This was manifested in the difference between the ideals of the EFL curriculum and the institutionally imposed regulating techniques, that is, examinations and teachersr assessment practices which had negative effects on EFL teaching and learning dynamics. Additionally, as a consequence of the competition between the different sources of discursive constructions, I found that there was a gulf between the EFL policies and the enactment of these policies in EFL teaching and learning dynamics in the observed EFL classrooms. The findings of this study also indicate that if a discourse promoted through the policy is mediated by discourses operating in the larger societal context, it became more visible in teaching and learning practices as compared to other discourses that did not have social moorings. This suggests that taking the prevailing social expectations into account at the stage of developing any policy is of paramount importance.nThe study concludes with a discussion of the implications of the interplay of connections and misconnections between competing discourses across different spaces in Saudi educational settings for improving the EFL teaching/learning environments in Saudi Arabia and other similar contexts.n

This study explored the effects of entrenchment, preemption, and verb semantics on Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ ability to retreat from overgeneralization errors in English transitive and intransitive constructions. Two groups of Chinese EFL learners were required to rate the acceptability of 60 transitive and intransitive verbs within their respective constructions. The findings revealed that Chinese EFL learners were sensitive to entrenchment, preemption and semantic constraints. This indicates that these learners restricted the generalization of transitive and intransitive constructions by relying on statistical verb-bias information and semantic constraints. Moreover, the awareness of these constraints among Chinese EFL learners substantially improved as their English proficiency advanced. The study’s findings highlight the importance of frequency and distributional information in language learning, demonstrating that learners used statistical patterns to guide their grammatical judgments. These findings support usage-based approaches to second language acquisition and shed light on the “Baker’s Paradox”

In the domain of first and second language (L1/L2) acquisition, Morpheme Order Studies (MOS) encapsulate a body of influential research. This study specifically aimed to (1) assess the accuracy of nine grammatical morphemes used by Chinese learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in their compositions, (2) investigate the factors affecting the accurate use of these morphemes among Chinese EFL learners, and (3) explore the interventions implemented by their instructors to assist the Chinese EFL learners in accurately using these intricate grammatical constructs. Employing the Target-Like Use methodology, the data were collected from the essays of 108 high school learners in Kunming, Yunnan, China, to ascertain the order of their accuracy in using these morphemes. Subsequently, a semi-structured interview was conducted with five EFL instructors and 15 tested learners to delve into the factors influencing their proficiency with specific complex morphemes and the application of instructional interventions used by the instructors. The findings of the study revealed that the learners did not consistently adhere to Krashen’s hypothesized natural order; rather, they exhibited idiosyncratic acquisition patterns. Particularly, it was noteworthy that there was a relatively low accuracy observed in the usage of certain morphemes, such as irregular past and 3rd person singular –s (features absent in the learners’ native language). Furthermore, factors contributing to the diminished accuracy of these specific morphemes include the learners’ mother tongue interference in their use of these morphemes, syntactic and semantic complexities, motivational factors, environmental factors, and limited output of specific morphemes. Additionally, the research uncovered various interventions such as peer review, storytelling, and incorporating songs employed by the EFL instructors to assist the Chinese EFL learners in using these challenging grammatical morphemes correctly. This study provides valuable insights for EFL students, instructors, curriculum developers, and textbook editors.

Exploring Chinese college EFL learners' AI technology acceptance driven by computer self-efficacy.

Background: Corrective feedback plays the role of enabling both teachers and learners to gauge their performance and reflect on their development. It can vary in nature, amount, and focus; nevertheless, its centrality to the classroom cannot be ignored. At the same time, what makes it effective is the way it is communicated. The role of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) is vital as both a corrective measure and durability for future reference. Foreign language classrooms are an active foreground for feedback practices, given that the bulk of correction is multifaceted and multimodal. However, teachers are left to their devices to formulate best practices in the absence of defined classroom feedback mechanisms. The purposes of this study are (i) to evaluate Saudi English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors’ real practices in supporting their students with corrective feedback; and (ii) to check the students’ beliefs about the feedback they receive from their instructors. Methods: Using the writing output of 92 EFL learners from Qassim University, Saudi Arabia, and the nature of WCF provided to them by three university instructors who were free to choose their feedback strategies in two phases of writing and correction, followed by learners’ cumulative response to the two, the study concludes that a number of difficulties surrounding the scope of feedback need to be researched. Results: The study found that the most used type of WCF is direct in regard to grammatical errors, vocabulary, syntax, and content evaluation. However, the Saudi EFL learners prefer direct corrective feedback for grammatical errors but indirect coded feedback for content correcting their writing assignments. Conclusions: The study encourages EFL teachers to focus on the different types of WCF when reverting to their learners. Furthermore, students’ preference for feedback should be the cornerstone teachers begin with while giving the WCF.

This case study examines factors that influence the construction and development of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ metacognitive knowledge (MCK) about English writing in online learning in China. Drawing upon theories and research in metacognition, writing in a second or foreign language (L2), and distance language learning, we investigated two Chinese EFL learners’ knowledge about themselves as EFL writers and the affordances of second language writing instruction in an online language course over a 16-week semester. Findings suggest that the two learners’ adjustments and revisions of their MCK about EFL writing were influenced by several pedagogical factors, including the task design, online writing instruction, and teacher feedback. Findings from this study have important implications for the design and delivery of writing tasks in online language programs for EFL learners.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world not only a health crisis but an instructional challenge about shifting teaching and learning from the classroom to online. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of online English as a foreign language (EFL) instruction during the coronavirus pandemic at Changzhou University in China (CCZU). A mixed-method design, including questionnaire surveys and interviews, was employed for the specific purposes of this study. A group of 90 Chinese EFL students from CCZU completed the surveys measuring learner attitude and needs in online EFL instruction amid the pandemic. 5 Chinese EFL university teachers from CCZU with rich experience in online instruction participated in the interviews. The findings displayed that Chinese EFL learners showed positive attitude toward online EFL instruction since it is proven that achieving learning objectives was also possible in emergency online classes which are considered as more convenient and effective amid the pandemics. The findings also indicated that learners had strong needs in learning engagement and classroom management to achieve the learning objectives in online EFL instruction. Strategies for effective online EFL instruction delivery were discussed and recommendations for future instruction were given.

Effects of teacher’s personality traits on EFL learners’ foreign language enjoyment

This study investigated the erroneous use of the high-frequency verb TAKE by the Chinese college learners of English as a foreign language (EFL), aiming to identify the similarities and differences between Chinese EFL learners, aimed at finding out more effective ways for the teaching and researching of the high-frequency verbs. Corpus-based Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis and Error Analysis were carried out in the present study, with the subcorpora ST4 and ST6 of CLEC (Chinese Learner English Corpus) as the learner corpora. 
 The analyses involved the misuse of the verb TAKE by the Chinese EFL learners. The error analysis of TAKE was based on the classification in the corpus CLEC. From the perspective of the overall frequency, the ST6 learners commit fewer errors than the ST4 learners. From the perspective of error types, the ST6 learners and the ST4 learners have much in common. That is, the error types of “wd” and “cc” take up an overwhelming part of all the errors in both corpora. These errors are caused by some interlingual and intralingual factors such as language transfer, overgeneralization, and communication strategy. In comparison, in the process of EFL learning, the non-English majors are interfered by their mother tongue to a larger extend than the English majors.

This study investigates the transfer effect of dialect and Mandarin on English monophthongs acquisition and compares acoustic features of English monophthongs by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners from Harbin (HEB), Changchun (CC), Shenyang (SY) and Dalian (DL), which belong to northeast region of China, in comparison with native English speakers, from the spectral perspective. Ten English monophthongs (/α, Λ, i, I, u, ℧, ae, Λ, Ɔ,3 /) and all monophthongs of dialect and Mandarin are investigated. An acoustic analysis results show that α produced by HEB and CC learners is more affected by dialect, /i/ produced by SY learners is affected by Mandarin, 3 / produced by HEB, CC and DL learners is affected by similarly pronounced monophthong $/\alpha/$ in dialect. These results can be explained by the Speech Learning Model (SLM). On the other hand, /u/ produced by learners from all four cities is similar to that of the native English speakers. In conclusion, both dialect and Mandarin exhibit a transfer effect on EFL Learners’English monophthongs acquisition.

Emotional research in foreign language learning has bloomed recently, and yet there has been a call for attention to a broader spectrum of emotions experienced by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Whilst emotions and self-regulated learning (SRL) are both believed to play important roles in EFL learning, little is known about their interplay. To fill the void, the study intends to map out an overall status quo of Chinese university EFL students’ academic emotions and SRL strategy use and sophisticated interrelationships between them using structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings showed that the Chinese participants demonstrated a medium level of positive emotions, a low level of anger, a medium level of shame and anxiety, and a low to medium frequency use of SRL strategies in English learning. ANOVA results detected gender differences in SRL strategy use, with females outperforming males in using self-evaluation and persistence strategy types, together with grade level influences in anxiety level with seniors feeling less anxious than juniors and sophomores. Furthermore, SEM results suggested that enjoyment had positive relationships with SRL strategy use; anger and shame had negative relationships while anxiety had ambivalent relationships with SRL strategy use. Important implications are discussed.

Effects of pedagogical intervention on Chinese EFL learners' use of motivational regulation strategies and oral English proficiency improvement

As one type of the most extensively used sentences, English questions are must-learn grammatical structures for learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). However, it is commonly seen that English learners across proficiency levels produce ungrammatical English questions. To determine the source of learners’ erroneous production, we conducted a written test to collect hands-on data of four types of English questions produced by 81 Chinese EFL preliminary learners. Learners’ achievement scores showed that learners from both higher and lower proficiency groups had similar difficulty producing questions. The statistics also showed morphosyntactic inconsistencies in learners’ production were congregating on auxiliaries’ choice and tense variation. Cross-linguistic transfer from first language (L1) in English question acquisition for Chinese EFL learners was measured against the three dimensions of Jarvis’ (2000) methodological model. Influence from learners’ L1 was found to be related to preliminary learners’ morphosyntactic inconsistencies. The findings suggest that practitioners in an EFL context should raise learners’ grammatical consciousness, and design production-oriented tasks, to improve learners’ morphosyntactic accuracy in English question formation.

The effect of artificial intelligence tools on EFL learners' engagement, enjoyment, and motivation

The interplay between perceived teacher support, grit, and academic engagement among Chinese EFL learners