Maintaining Learners’Motivation

Foreign language learning is a complex process and its success is determined by a variety of factors. The prime one of them is motivation ,which, as everyone knows, could be controlled by external forc...     

SST (Successful Strategic Teaching): Enhancing Adult Learners’ Motivation and Achievement

Enhancing motivation in adult learners is often a difficult task in today’s college classroom. Significant reforms in America’s educational system have directed the initiative to adopt Common Core Standards in Language Arts by all 50 states. With the focus on increased rigor and depth of understanding in learning, the hope is to prepare students throughout the K–12 sequence for college and careers. This new instructional model requires moving students from passive recipients to active learners. Although the arrival of an expanding population is encouraging for college communities, the issue of underprepared college students must be addressed. Instructional methods designed to cultivate active learning and critical thinking through more contextualized, hands-on teaching activities produced initial evidence of improved reading achievement.     

A Study on the Effects of Online Interaction for the EFL Learners ’Writ-ing Motivation

With the rapid development of information technology, how to utilize the Web in the field of language teaching has become a heated issue in the foreign language teaching reform around the whole world. ...     

A Study on the Effects of Online Interaction for the EFL Learners’ Writing Motivation

With the rapid development of information technology, how to utilize the Web in the field of language teaching has become a heated issue in the foreign language teaching reform around the whole world. For so many years, during the teachercentered English writing teaching process, students have no choice but to accept model essays and recite the well-performed sentences and structures. it is hard for teachers and students to conduct an effective interaction, which leads to students’ lacking of writing motivations. The author conducted the experiment with QQ group as a medium, and analyzed the results of the experiment among 66 students from Wuhan University, in order to study how to make good use of the network environment to promote the communication and interaction between students, and then enhance their writing motivation. The experimental data and discussions show that online interaction can motivate students to complete writing tasks, especially enhance their instrumental achievement and intrinsic motivation.     

Polishing the EFL Learners’ Writing Performance

This paper intends to provide tips on improving EFL learners’ writing performance.It probes this question first from the different patterns of English writing and Chinese writing.Second,the use of varied sentences structures and wording can make the writing more impressive.Third,it suggests the application of connectives.Last,be aware of the employment of the idioms as well as figure of speech.The primary feature of this paper is that the methods mentioned here are pragmatic supported with specific examples respectively.     

Multimodal Children’s E-Books Help Young Learners in Reading

Many children struggle with reading and are seldom engaged in this process when teachers assign them to read. Young learners may lack motivation to read an dislike this activity because they have had frequently have unpleasant experiences with reading. If educators fail to provide support for struggling readers, these pupils will likely experience academic problems in later years. One strategy that instructors can implement to provide help for students who perform poorly in reading is to teach reading with multimodal e-books. Multimodal e-books are interactive electronic resources that combine text with sound, animation, and images and often include text that is read aloud and highlighted. The purpose of this article is to discuss how teachers can use multimodal e-books to help children make academic gains in reading and to provide guidelines for selecting good interactive e-books. Also included in this article is an annotated bibliography of CD-ROMs and e-book apps for children.     

Fostering Learner Autonomy by Strengthening Learners’ Motivation

This paper aims to discus some practical ways to develop the learners’autonomous English learning abilities.After analyzed the motivation problems,the author strengthened learners’motivation through classroom teaching successfully by building good social relations,promoting negotiation,promoting interaction in the classroom and setting up adequate evaluation systems,etc.The author finds that using the content of regular college classroom teaching as a meaningful context for the development of responsibility can enhance the learning effect.The teacher’s guiding role in autonomous learning should never be ignored.Developing autonomous English learning in vocational colleges in China is our long-term pedagogical goal.     

Age-related Differences in L2 Learners’Motivation: A Literature Review

Traditionally, researches in L2 motivation have mainly focused on definition, classification and model building. Recently, however, researchers’focus begins to shift from static to dynamic, taking factors like age-changing into account. The paper aims to provide an overview of the recent 5 years’researches abroad concerning the dynamic investigation of age-related differences in L2 learners’motivation, and put forward possible ways for motivation research in China.     

The Role of Parents in Adolescents’ Reading Motivation and Activity

Parent support for reading is one of the many elements that may play a role in the development and sustainment of children’s reading motivation; to date, however, research has focused much more on the role that parents play in their preschool and primary-grade children’s reading than in their older children’s reading. Thus, this paper examines the findings and methodology of empirical studies concerning the ways and extent to which parent support for reading relates to the reading motivations and habits of students in the fourth through 12th grades. The review includes discussion of extant quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method studies, theoretical models from the reading domain applicable to the socialization of reading practices, and extensive recommendations for future research. The dual purpose of this review is to present a sketch of the role of parents’ in adolescents’ reading motivation based on extant work and to encourage research that will help develop this sketch into a fuller portrait.     

The ‘Unionization Effect’ among Adult Computer Learners

Findings from qualitative and quantitative research in Canada are combined to explore the links between adult participation in progressive trade unionism and patterns of learning. Progressive trade unionism is defined partially by an organization's commitment to member education and the effective ‘buffering’ of supervisory discipline within the labour process. With a focus on computer learning specifically, the data suggest that involvement in such organizations and community formations encourages different subjective appreciation for learning and education, more effective informal learning practice, as well as greater access to material resources and greater involvement in formalized courses. Informal learning networks among manufacturing workers are described comparatively. Central to this effect is the formation of a proletarian public sphere articulated by culturally and materially stable forms of class-based community.     

A Survey of Adverbial Connectors in EFL Learners’ Writing:A Comparative Study

Through a comparative study of the use of ACs (ACs) in EFL learners’ writing at different English writing proficiency, Chinese EFL learners’ use of ACs are analyzed with the hope to provide valuabe suggestions in Enligh writing teaching and learning.     

Effects of Different Reading Purposes on L2 Learners’IVA

According to the former studies, there are many factors having effects on second language (L2) learners’incidental vo?cabulary acquisition (IVA). This paper is aimed to reveal how reading a text with d...     

Effects of Different Reading Purposes on L2 Learners’ IVA

According to the former studies, there are many factors having effects on second language(L2) learners’ incidental vocabulary acquisition(IVA). This paper is aimed to reveal how reading a text with different purposes might affect IVA of L2 learners. The results of this study show that there is a closed relationship between the efficiency of IVA and reading purposes. Besides,it also has something to do with L2 learners’ reading abilities.     

Using Coh-Metrix to Automatically Access Discourse Coherence in EFL Learners’Writing:A Quantitative Analysis

The purpose of the present study was to use Coh-Metrix,a computational tool,to examine the relationship between discourse coherence and writing level,and analyze the coherence of high level writing and low level writing.The study uses 5 Coh-Metrix variables to analyze 40 college students’timed compositions from Chinese Learners English of Corpus(CLEC) and their corresponding readability scores.The study demonstrates that Coh-Metrix variables,number of words,words per sentences,the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level,LSA sentence all,and argument overlap can contribute to text coherence.Findings of the study indicate:there is a relationship between discourse coherence and writing level,but there is no significant difference between high level group and low level group in discourse coherence(p=.409>.05),and writing level can not distinguish discourse coherence in EFL learners’writing.     

Personal and Contextual Influences on Township School Learners’ Motivation and Self-Regulated Learning

Learners’ self-regulation, which includes motivational variables, is influenced by personal variables within learners themselves, as well as by contextual factors. A great deal of research has focused on personal variables in learners that influence their self-regulated behaviours; yet contextual influences that operate outside of formal schooling of township school learners, although generally acknowledged, remain under-researched. The research presented in this paper explored 14 secondary township school teachers’ perceptions of the factors that influence learners’ motivation to achieve academic success. A better understanding of contextual motivational factors could influence teaching and learning, as well as provide the needed support that ultimately will enhance the academic achievement of South African township school learners. Participants perceived autonomy-supportive, extrinsic motivation, schools as positive learning environments, study and job opportunities, community projects, friends and peers, poverty, and encouragement from the local community as strong sources of motivation.     

Learners’ engagement online in peer help

ABSTRACT

Much is known about help seeking in face-to-face classrooms, but there is a limited understanding about how learners seek and provide help online. This study implemented a peer-help forum in an online technology course, and investigated students’ engagement in the forum, their perceptions, and the relationship between peer help and course performance. The findings suggested that students actively engaged in the peer help beyond the course requirements. Emerging themes are presented regarding the students’ online help-seeking and help-giving behaviors and their perceptions. In addition, help seeking was not significantly related to performance, but a significant interaction effect suggested that help seeking benefited the performance of a subgroup of the students – those who provided less help.     

Does the Visual Appeal of Instructional Media Affect Learners’ Motivation Toward Learning?

While authors like Mayer (2009) suggest that designers should avoid using visuals for the purpose of attracting learners’ interests, some scholars suggest that visuals could influence learners’ emotions. In this study the author investigated whether the perception of the visual appeal of instructional handouts affects learners’ self-reported motivation to learn from the handouts. Two handouts were prepared for this study: a minimalist handout following Mayer’s (2009) Coherence Principle and an appealing handout complying with everyday visual trends. Participants were instructed to look at the handouts in different orders according to groups and were asked about their impressions of the handouts. The appealing handout was perceived as motivating when it was seen after the minimalist handout. However, the group that saw the minimalist handout first did not perceive the appealing handout as motivating. The result implies that not only the design but also the learning context influences learners’ self-reported motivation to engage with the handout.     

The Role of Teachers and Schooling Experiences in Learners’ Adult Life Quality: A Senegalese Case Study

School attended, Qur’anic education attendance, fathers’ occupation, and some aspects of teachers’ classroom actions make a difference for the adult life of the former learners. This paper presents findings from a longitudinal study of the career and life situations of Senegalese individuals who were of school age in the beginning of the 1980s. Data was collected on teacher ratings and predictions of school success as well as absenteeism during the academic year 1980/1981. In a follow up study in 1999/2000 the individuals were 25-32 years old and they were interviewed and tested on a simple life-skills test.     

Adult learners’ emotions in online learning

The aim of the research study reported in this article was to investigate how adult learners talk about their emotions in the context of a year‐long online course, the first online course these adults take, as part of a distance education program. The theoretical and methodological approach focused on formulating an account of how emotion discourses are used by learners, what role they play in online learning, and how they change over a one‐year period (if they do so). The findings of this study provide three insights: (1) they show how adult learners (who also happen to be novice online learners) respond emotionally and talk about their emotions in relation to online learning; (2) they call attention to the ways in which emotion talk changes from the beginning of the course to the end, always in response to specific demands and dimensions of online learning; and (3) they reveal the differential emotional responses between men and women in relation to their social and gender roles and responsibilities. Empirical and policy implications of this study are discussed at the end.