this study investigated the effectiveness of explicit pragmatic instruction on the acquisition of requests by college-level english as foreign language (efl) learners in taiwan. the goal was to determine first whether the use of explicit pragmatic instruction had a positive effect on efl learners’ pragmatic competence. second, the relative effectiveness of presenting pragmatics through two deli...

this qualitative study analyzes the reasons of college students for learning english as a foreign language (efl) in costa rica and the reasons of high school students for learning german as a foreign language (gfl) in the us. it asks to what extent the learners’ reasons align with or deviate from neoliberal discourses that commodify foreign languages. the analysis of 27 interviews in a us high ...

The analysis of current EFL (English as a Foreign Language) education and literature indicates that most EFL practices can be characterised as traditional language learning settings in which teachers direct the learning process, and students are then assumed as passive receptors of knowledge. Furthermore, EFL learning has also been criticised as an in-class-only learning practice due to the rar...

As arecognized psychological construct, anxietyplays aninfluential role in the invaluable experience of learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This affective factor has appealed lots of researchersinto examination of anxiety levels and severityin a wide variety of academic and nonacademic contexts since the last three decades; however there are several unexplored EFL settings overlooked ...

This article reviews Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory as one of the current frameworks in the study of learning and teaching processes. Arguing that learners’ interaction is vital for language learning in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms and that the teacher’s perceptions and expectations can foster or discourage this interaction, the article shows how the sociocultural model of le...

Collaborative learning methods which emphasize peer interaction have been widely applied to increase the intensity and effectiveness of EFL reading programs. However, simply grouping students heterogeneously and assigning them group goals does not guarantee that effective collaborative learning will ensue. The present research includes two studies. In Study One, the weaknesses of collaborative ...