Learning analytics of peer feedback on communicative skills in an EFL course across different learning modalities

Peer feedback can be described as the act of one learner evaluating the performance of another learner. It has been shown to impact student learning and achievement in language learning contexts positively. It is a skill that can be trained, and there have been calls for research on peer feedback training. Mobile microlearning is a type of technology-enhanced learning which is notable for its short duration and flexibility in the time and place of learning. This study aims to evaluate how an asynchronous microlearning app might improve students’ skills for providing peer feedback on spoken content in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) education. This study used convenience sampling and a quasi-experimental single-group pre-/post- research design. Japanese university students (n = 87) in an EFL course used the Pebasco asynchronous microlearning app to practice peer feedback skills. The students’ app usage data were used to identify five behavioral profiles. The pattern of profile migration over the course of using Pebasco indicates that many participants improved or maintained desirable patterns of behavior and outcomes, suggesting a positive impact on the quality of peer feedback skills and second-language (L2) skills, as well as the ability to detect L2 errors. The findings also suggest improvements that can be made in future design iterations. This research is novel because of a current lack of research on the use of no-code technology to develop educational apps, particularly in the context of microlearning for improving peer feedback skills in EFL.

Effects of multidimensional foreign language reading anxiety on achievement in Japanese EFL classrooms

In a globalized world of constantly challenging demands, the acquisition of English as a lingua franca remains essential. Bearing this in mind, the current paper explores how sustainability in English language acquisition can be emphasized to ensure quality outcomes in the long run. The study, as such, raises two questions: what components should an English as a foreign language (EFL) university course comprise to ensure sustainability in English language acquisition, and what are the specifications of an EFL course, designed to ensure sustainability in English language acquisition? Employing a mixed-methods design, the author of this paper distributed a questionnaire and conducted an interview covering two categories of subjects; namely, EFL instructors and university students. The study findings stress the need to integrate literature, life skills, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), communication skills, environment-awareness education, and human values into English language courses. In addition, the findings highlight several specifications for an EFL course designed to ensure sustainability in English language acquisition, such as utilizing technological advancements, tailoring English courses as per current trends, focusing on students’ research projects, encouraging community involvement, conducting co-curricular activities, and implementing Knowledge-Skill-Disposition (KSD)-oriented assessments. The study ends with a proposed framework for scholars to consider.

The present study explores the role of peer feedback in developing the essay writing ability of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in a multilingual setting who engage in peer feedback on Google Classroom. Writing is an essential skill for academic and professional communication, and peer feedback is recognized as effective in improving students' writing performance. Yet, learners in multilingual EFL classrooms experience difficulties related to linguistic and cultural diversity that may have an impact on their writing development. The methodology is a mixed one, that is, quantitative and qualitative methods are used as well. There were 12 students from the English Education program of Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar involved in the study. The students engaged in essay writing, peer feedback tasks, and utilising Google Classroom across a semester. The quantitative part included the quality of students' essays before and after receiving peer feedback, and the qualitative part included students' attitudes towards peer feedback, Google Classroom, and how multilingualism affects writing skills. The findings revealed that peer feedback had a significant effect on their essay quality, especially in aspects as organization, coherence, and grammar. Students also reported favorable attitudes toward peer feedback and Google Classroom, although a few experienced hurdles concerning their English proficiency. The results suggest that peer feedback has its promise in multilingual EFL classrooms and how well digital programs, such as Google Classroom, may facilitate collaborative learning. The research is a part of the ever-increasing exploration of peer feedback, multilingualism, and technology in EFL.

Peer feedback activities in higher education stimulate critical thinking and reflective learning. However, both research and practice show that students may be concerned about the quality of the peer feedback they receive. To address this, we developed an inductive teaching intervention aimed at enhancing students’ feedback literacy while exploring their understanding of ‘quality’ feedback. This was achieved by asking students to select and justify examples of useful, received peer feedback. Our findings revealed variability in the content of the peer feedback examples that students selected as useful, as well as in their justifications for these choices, highlighting content specificity, correctional guidance, and motivational comments. Evaluations and a focus group interview showed that the inductive approach increased students’ awareness of useful feedback characteristics and underscored the learning effect of the intervention. The findings also suggest that effective feedback principles are similar for both peer and teacher feedback, highlighting the link between giving and receiving feedback in developing feedback literacy.

The results of the investigation were aligned with the objective of determining the influence of the program in the strengthening of social skills in university students of Medical Technology of the National University of Jaén. It is an applied, explanatory, longitudinal research, with a quantitative approach and quasi-experimental design, with pre-test and post-test in experimental and control groups. The hypothetical-deductive method was used, with a population of 289 students and 80 for the sample. The Observation Form and the Social Skills Evaluation Scale were used. The results showed a good to excellent level of social skills in all the participants of the experimental group of the II and VI cycle. The means per academic cycle increased by 32 and 35.75 respectively. By dimensions according to academic cycle, the first social skills increased by 6.2 and 5.4, advanced social skills by 5.05 and 4.85, skills related to feelings by 5.45 and 5.1, alternative social skills to aggression by 3.95 and 6.7, social skills to cope with stress by 7.4 and 8.45, and finally social planning skills by 3.95 and 5.25 respectively. In conclusion, the program has a significant influence on strengthening social skills in university students, with a greater influence in the experimental group of the VI cycle (35.75 percentage points).

The current study investigated the challenges of listening comprehension encountered by Saudi university students in online English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes. It examined the role played by gender and academic specialisations in the listening comprehension challenges in online EFL classes. Data were collected via an online questionnaire from five hundred and thirty-nine male and female undergraduates. The results indicated that the primary challenge was related to Listening Conditions, which ranked highest with a mean score of 3.78. This was followed by Language Exposure (mean score of 3.60), Suitability to Student Proficiency Level (mean score of 3.47), Well-being and Alertness (mean score of 3.41), and finally, Listening Skills (mean score of 3.40). Additionally, the results revealed statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) in the challenges of listening comprehension based on gender, with female students reporting greater difficulties than male students. Furthermore, significant differences (p < 0.05) were found concerning the students' specialisation, with those in health-related fields experiencing more pronounced challenges compared to their counterparts in scientific disciplines. This study emphasises the necessity of implementing strategies to enhance students' EFL listening comprehension and calls for more urgent and comprehensive research to address the identified challenges in listening comprehension.

In order to make feedback become a process leading didactic practises it is necessary to overcome the static and single-directional vision linked to providing and receiving feedback and to go towards an interactive and generative feedback, foreseeing some peer feedback moments, some self-evaluation and self- regulation. In this paper we would like to describe a didactic path focused on feedback, activated in two University courses in different Universities with the following aims: activating subsequent feedback spirals (Carless, 2019), first between Professor and students, then between peers, to get to a self-awareness interior process, that is an incorporation of reflexivity on one's own practices. Promoting feedback literacy (Carless & Boud, 2018) in the student through the experimentation in the practice. In particular, we will account for a peer feedback process realised in the following steps: a) the group production of a learning design; b) the peer review of the colleagues' designs, through the "Ladder of Feedback" protocol, with a following sharing of the reviews; c) the subsequent reflection on the activated processes through a questionnaire on the students' perceptions. The analysis of those productions enables us to reflect upon the sense of effectiveness granted to the peer feedback, on the differences between the Professor's and the peer feedbacks, on the comprehension of the role of the peer feedback within the training process.

Developing adequate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) academic writing skills is of paramount importance for students’ success in higher education in Oman. The traditional teaching approaches adopted in writing courses often lead to students’ disengagement, however. Although several studies have examined students and teachers’ perceptions of flipped instruction in various EFL courses, no study has examined the impact of flipping on students’ engagement in writing courses. This practice-based research project, where the instructor was the researcher, explored the impact of flipped teaching on 57 General Foundation Program (GFP) EFL learners’ behavioural, cognitive, emotional and agentic engagement in academic writing in a higher education institution in Oman, and the variations that exist in students’ engagement according to gender, age, English language proficiency and technology skills. The study adopted a mixed-methods design and used a student engagement questionnaire, focus group interviews and participant observations to collect data. Descriptive and inferential statistics and deductive and inductive analytical procedures were used to analyse the quantitative and qualitative data respectively. The study presents new practicable knowledge about the implementation and implications of flipped instruction for Omani EFL students’ engagement in academic writing at the GFP level. It proposes flipping as an instructional approach which helps to address GFP students’ lack of 4 behavioural, cognitive, emotional and agentic engagement in writing courses in the Omani context. Behaviourally, students in the flipped classroom experience increased effort, improved concentration levels, persistence, communication and collaboration, and amelioration in their attitude to class attendance. It is reasonable to conclude that learners undergo cognitive growth and develop self-regulatory strategies and meta-cognitive awareness. At the level of emotional engagement, learners initially experience negative emotions such as anger and frustration, and then more positive emotions such as contentment and increased interest in the subject as they adapt to the flipped teaching-learning model. Flipping also seems to influence students’ autonomy and ability to ask questions and express opinions. It appears, however, that this approach does not influence students’ capacity to contribute to their own learning resources and activities. This study makes a valuable contribution to knowledge about students’ engagement in EFL writing courses. It revealed that a strong positive correlation exists between students’ behavioural, cognitive and emotional engagement, and that a positive correlation exists between students’ technology skills and linguistic proficiency and several aspects of their engagement. The study demonstrated, however, that no correlation exists between gender and age and students’ engagement in the flipped classroom. Furthermore, this practice-based research indicated that although flipped instruction helps to address the problem of students’ disengagement in writing courses in our context, factors such as students’ linguistic proficiency and technology skills should be taken into consideration before implementing this instructional approach in the current setting.

This study is conducted to evaluate learning and teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) since English is still treated as a foreign language. Despite the prevailing high-level anxiety in Saudi learners of the English language, there are limited researches available to study the impact of language anxiety on the achievement of the student in a particular language. This literature search study explored the underlying causes and impacts of foreign language anxiety (FLA) and then studied these impacts on the language achievement of Saudi students in EFL classrooms in KSA. Credible academic researches and conference papers are critically reviewed in the context of the relationship between foreign language anxiety and language achievement of EFL students in Saudi Arabia. The findings of the review revealed that government initiatives and exposure to globalization in Saudi Arabia, students are encouraged to get expertise in English through EFL courses. However, the review of literature demonstrated that Saudi students experience anxiety while learning English as an unknown language. Additionally, the level of understanding in students of FLA negatively affected their accomplishment. Therefore, the collaborative strategies in classrooms are needed with complete participation of language instructors and favourable environment with positive competition building strategies encourage EFL students to enhance learning. 

As a supplementary of teacher’s feedback, peer feedback activity is believed can help the students improve their writing achievement. During and after the pandemic, teachers often applied online teaching for certain reasons, including in practicing peer feedback which can be done via different application. This study aims at investigating the types of comments appeared when the students conduct peer feedback in quip application. The study involved a class in which the teacher applied peer feedback via quip. This research is a descriptive quantitative in which the data was collected through documentation. The students’ responses were analyzed using types of comments proposed by Jun Liu and Hansen. The result of the study showed that the students made a lot of comments during online peer feedback activity. This study demonstrates that students are very active in giving comments during online peer feedback; however, it also underlines that the students still produced many local and non-revision comments.

The article presents a mixed-methods study that examines how undergraduate students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) sustain their practices of learning English during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022–2023. In total, 33 undergraduate EFL students (henceforth – participants) took part in the study. In order to gain insight into their sustainable learning practices, the participants were requested to write a short reflective essay titled “My Thoughts on How I Learn English during the War”. The participants were instructed to write their essays in English within a one-week timeframe. Seeking to identify and classify a range of sustainable practices related to the ways the participants learnt English during the Russo-Ukrainian war, their reflective essays were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The analysis of the participants’ essays revealed the following learning practices that, according to the participants, helped them to sustain their EFL learning trajectory in the wartime EFL contexts: (i) participation in online EFL courses, (ii) communication with the native speakers of English on social networking sites (e.g., Instagram), and (iii) the combination of EFL learning activities offered at the participants’ university. The findings are discussed in detail further in the article through the lens of sustainable multilingualism development. Specifically, we argue that the development of multilingualism in the time of crises is feasible and sustainable, especially if it is coupled with an EFL learner’s inner psychological factors that are further facilitated by the external support offered by the digital learning environments that are (i) institutionalised and systematic, and (ii) extra-mural and unstructured (in other words, digitally wild).

Peer feedback serves as a valuable strategy for improving students’ writing proficiency. Over the past forty years, peer assessment, review, and feedback have been widely promoted, with a significant body of research emerging in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) writing. Nevertheless, limited studies have delved into how students perceive and respond to their peers’ written work in varying contexts, as well as the underlying reasons for their reactions. This study aims to explore students’ perspectives on the implementation of peer feedback during the writing of expansion texts. Specifically, it examines students’ emotional responses, their engagement in the feedback process, their reactions to feedback received, and whether the benefits of peer feedback established in earlier research remain relevant to current learners. Employing a qualitative approach and a case study design, the study draws on questionnaire responses and archived materials from two English education students at one of the universities in West Java who participated in peer feedback activities. The findings reveal that self-confidence affects students’ engagement with feedback, while an organized peer feedback process helps in correcting mistakes and improving writing quality. For future research, it is recommended to include a larger sample size, explore different educational levels, and examine the long-term impact of peer feedback on students’ writing development.

The primary objective of this mixed-method study was to explore the effectiveness of integrating peer feedback and self-regulated learning (SRL) in improving students' essay writing ability and self-regulation. The study also investigated the relationship between students' essay writing ability and their self-regulation, as well as explored students' attitudes towards the intervention. During the 12-week online instruction necessitated by the pandemic crisis, a group of thirty-five 3rd year students majoring in Business English at Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University were instructed in essay writing using peer feedback activities and SRL techniques. Data collection involved an essay writing test, a self-regulation questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and an attitudes questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, and content analysis were employed to analyze the data.
 
 The findings of the study indicated a significant improvement in students' essay writing ability and self-regulation after the implementation of the intervention. However, no significant relationship was observed between students' essay writing ability and their self-regulation. Additionally, students exhibited positive attitudes towards the intervention. These findings underscore the feasibility and importance of incorporating interdisciplinary dimensions of education, including instruction, assessment, and social-cognitive theory, to enhance students' academic performance and lifelong learning strategies. Furthermore, the study suggests that peer feedback and SRL strategies can be effectively delivered and taught through online platforms, which aligns with the growing trend of online instruction in the post-pandemic era.

Teaching in the 21st century requires the ability to know and use technological resources that allow the development of virtual learning environments that facilitate the incorporation of educational content and that the student has access to it through educational platforms, while generating environments and situations of learning that allow the development of socio-emotional skills. Socio-emotional skills are the source of differentiation of human talent within the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is characterized by continuous technological, scientific and social advancement. Within the use and management of technological tools in the context of education, whether formal or non-formal, the relevance of the use and application offered by these resources to develop the capacities, attitudes and Social and Emotional Skills that any citizen of the world needs XXI century. It is in this context that this article supports the effects of virtual learning environments (PLE) in the development of Social and Emotional Skills in university students. A correlational analysis is made between the use of LMS Platforms (Learning Management System) and the development of Socioemotional Skills of undergraduate students. The research is developed in the population of the Faculty of Accounting and Administration (FCA); attached to the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), Mexico. A quantitative, descriptive and correlational research is designed. The degree of association between the independent variables socio-emotional skills in three constructs is evaluated: intrapersonal, interpersonal and cognitive, with the dependent variable, virtual learning environments, by means of a structural equation model. For the statistical analysis, the AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structures) software is used, which allows the construction and validation of a structural model that identifies, specifies, estimates evaluation parameters of adjustment specification of the investigative modeling, as well as its results, integrates the multivariate techniques of Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Models (SEM). A recursive model is obtained, which shows a positive correlation direction between the exogenous variable (LMS) and the endogenous variables (Intrapersonal, Interpersonal and Cognitive). The results reflect a greater correlation in the effects of the use of virtual learning environments (PLE) in the development of interpersonal and cognitive Social and Emotional Skills.