Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach

The targeted use of the informal register on a social networking site by foreign-language learners evaluated through linguistic analysis and perceived-context appropriateness

In today’s society, complex issues relating to socio-cultural integration are a key concern for policy makers, with far-reaching implications for domestic and foreign-language policies. In an increasingly globalized world, English continues to be used by many people from diverse linguistic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds, who need to communicate daily. The use of the informal register is crucial for developing successful professional and personal relationships, yet it has not received sufficient attention from foreign-language teachers, researchers and policy makers. This exploratory study addressed this research gap through the deployment of a multi-layered study, which focussed on the instruction and perception of the informal register. It is the product of a research project spanning almost five years in which it employed a one-group pretest-posttest intervention. In the intervention study, referred to as Stage One, 15 advanced foreign-language learners completed study materials comprising of listening, reading, writing and ‘speaking’ activities over a period of five weeks. The ‘speaking’ activities were undertaken using asynchronous chat on the social networking site. In addition to a linguistic assessment of the intervention, a practical evaluation was undertaken in Stage Two by speakers of English who rated Stage One posts based upon their context appropriateness. The results of the study indicate that students not only used the informal register with more frequency, but utilized a wider variety of register features and furthermore used these with greater appropriateness. Students considered instruction in the informal-register features to be beneficial. Analysis of the findings illustrated that context-perceived appropriateness is linked to characteristics of English speakers such as personal preference and knowledge of Spanish, and not to the linguistic features identified in the posts. The implications of this study for practice, theory, policy and methodology are extensive; from the need to reassess the effectiveness of traditional e-learning models for interaction to the introduction of new policies which introduce pedagogical-focused teacher training to exploit the affordances associated with the educational use of social media. The study’s primary, original contribution to knowledge lies in the fact that it contributes to the debate about the teaching of informal language, by introducing dedicated instruction in the informal register, to adult learners of English, using a social networking site

Beyond the language classroom: researching MOOCs and other innovations

With the rise of the internet and new communication technologies, language learning has moved beyond the classroom walls. This volume presents a range of important studies on innovative ways for learning languages outside the classroom. Chapters discuss MOOCs in the UK, Belgium, China, and Italy for studying a range of languages, research on new apps, flipped classroom modes, and approaches to informal learning in a range of international settings. In these ways, the volume offers a significant contribution to our understanding of how learning beyond the language classroom will transform language education in the decades to come

Chinese undergraduates’ perceptions of L2 learning and strategies in emergency online teaching : a case study in a central China university in times of Covid-19

Guided by Vygotsky‘s sociocultural theory, this dissertation presents a case study exploring the perceptions of Chinese undergraduates‘ second language learning and strategies used in emergency online teaching at H University in Central China during the first lockdown period of the Covid-19 pandemic. By using the sequential mixed research method in this study, I first carried out an online questionnaire with 612 undergraduates for quantitative study, and then interviewed 12 questionnaire respondents for qualitative study and three English teachers for triangulation. This research concerned the undergraduates‘ perceptions towards emergency online teaching and their strategies in online learning; conducted variance analysis between different learner groups, including groups with distinct genders, majors, and English levels; made correlation studies among learners‘ perceptions, strategies, and their English scores in the lockdown semester, and explored challenges for the respondents‘ emergency online English learning as well. The sociocultural theory advocates a learner-centred teaching approach and regards language learning as constructed socially through interactions with others. Concerning the respondents‘ perceptions relating to emergency online teaching, this research used the notions of online learning readiness proposed by Warner et al. (1998) and expanded five-dimension online learning readiness advanced by Hung et al. (2010), which include self-directed learning, motivation, computer/internet self-efficacy, learner control and online communication self-efficacy into seven, by adding the respondents‘ trust and appreciation for emergency online learning. As for online learning strategies, this research used Oxford‘s six-dimension taxonomy of language learning strategies proposed in 1990 as the key reference, including direct strategies of memory, cognitive and compensation strategies, and indirect metacognitive, emotional and social strategies. The research results indicated a number of interrelated findings. Firstly, among the seven dimensions of the undergraduates‘ perceptions, the mean value of motivation for emergency online teaching was the lowest. Secondly, for the respondents‘ online learning strategies, they used cognitive strategies and compensation strategies more frequently, but social strategies the least. Thirdly, females, arts students and high-scoring respondents in general had higher English scores and smaller variance in scores than their counterparts of males, science students and low-scoring ones. Fourthly, the respondents‘ perceptions towards emergency online teaching as a whole showed significant positive correlation with their online learning strategies at 0.01 level. Fifthly, dilemmas in emergency online teaching, such as the migration of teaching approach from student-centred to teacher-centred and less online communications between teacher and students were widespread. In addition, neither teachers nor their students were prepared for emergency online teaching and learning when the pandemic emerged, and the technology they used was not up to the standards required for the emergency online teaching to take place in a coordinated and effective manner. Finally, myth of educational technology was disillusioned, as technology alone was unable to transform education, but enlarged the gap of education equity. The study is significant mainly on a number of levels. It supports sociocultural theory, makes contribution not only to the research contents of the undergraduates‘ L2 learning perceptions and strategies in emergency online teaching circumstance, but to the research results of the respondents‘ low online learning motivation, dilemmas in emergency online teaching and disillusions of the myth of educational technology. This study yields pedagogical implications useful for future L2 online teaching and makes methodological contributions by using a mixed research method and teacher interviewees as triangulation in a case study. Based on the results of these findings and enlightened by sociocultural theory, the research outlines the following pedagogical implications for future second language online teaching. It should be student-centred to encourage learners‘ learning motivation and interests. Teachers should emphasise social interaction between teacher and learners or among peers, design more online courses and activities to familiarise learners with online education and provide learners with training for online learning strategies. In addition, teachers should prepare for future potential emergency teaching approaches so as to develop online second language teaching better.Guided by Vygotsky‘s sociocultural theory, this dissertation presents a case study exploring the perceptions of Chinese undergraduates‘ second language learning and strategies used in emergency online teaching at H University in Central China during the first lockdown period of the Covid-19 pandemic. By using the sequential mixed research method in this study, I first carried out an online questionnaire with 612 undergraduates for quantitative study, and then interviewed 12 questionnaire respondents for qualitative study and three English teachers for triangulation. This research concerned the undergraduates‘ perceptions towards emergency online teaching and their strategies in online learning; conducted variance analysis between different learner groups, including groups with distinct genders, majors, and English levels; made correlation studies among learners‘ perceptions, strategies, and their English scores in the lockdown semester, and explored challenges for the respondents‘ emergency online English learning as well. The sociocultural theory advocates a learner-centred teaching approach and regards language learning as constructed socially through interactions with others. Concerning the respondents‘ perceptions relating to emergency online teaching, this research used the notions of online learning readiness proposed by Warner et al. (1998) and expanded five-dimension online learning readiness advanced by Hung et al. (2010), which include self-directed learning, motivation, computer/internet self-efficacy, learner control and online communication self-efficacy into seven, by adding the respondents‘ trust and appreciation for emergency online learning. As for online learning strategies, this research used Oxford‘s six-dimension taxonomy of language learning strategies proposed in 1990 as the key reference, including direct strategies of memory, cognitive and compensation strategies, and indirect metacognitive, emotional and social strategies. The research results indicated a number of interrelated findings. Firstly, among the seven dimensions of the undergraduates‘ perceptions, the mean value of motivation for emergency online teaching was the lowest. Secondly, for the respondents‘ online learning strategies, they used cognitive strategies and compensation strategies more frequently, but social strategies the least. Thirdly, females, arts students and high-scoring respondents in general had higher English scores and smaller variance in scores than their counterparts of males, science students and low-scoring ones. Fourthly, the respondents‘ perceptions towards emergency online teaching as a whole showed significant positive correlation with their online learning strategies at 0.01 level. Fifthly, dilemmas in emergency online teaching, such as the migration of teaching approach from student-centred to teacher-centred and less online communications between teacher and students were widespread. In addition, neither teachers nor their students were prepared for emergency online teaching and learning when the pandemic emerged, and the technology they used was not up to the standards required for the emergency online teaching to take place in a coordinated and effective manner. Finally, myth of educational technology was disillusioned, as technology alone was unable to transform education, but enlarged the gap of education equity. The study is significant mainly on a number of levels. It supports sociocultural theory, makes contribution not only to the research contents of the undergraduates‘ L2 learning perceptions and strategies in emergency online teaching circumstance, but to the research results of the respondents‘ low online learning motivation, dilemmas in emergency online teaching and disillusions of the myth of educational technology. This study yields pedagogical implications useful for future L2 online teaching and makes methodological contributions by using a mixed research method and teacher interviewees as triangulation in a case study. Based on the results of these findings and enlightened by sociocultural theory, the research outlines the following pedagogical implications for future second language online teaching. It should be student-centred to encourage learners‘ learning motivation and interests. Teachers should emphasise social interaction between teacher and learners or among peers, design more online courses and activities to familiarise learners with online education and provide learners with training for online learning strategies. In addition, teachers should prepare for future potential emergency teaching approaches so as to develop online second language teaching better

Launching new educational provision in China

Services are dominant entity in the global economy nowadays. Previous research has largely concentrated on new physical product launch. This research study generalizes and extends the current new product launch literature review by focusing on new service launch. Rather than focus primarily on a developed market, this project focuses on an international market. Thus, this research study addresses the research question: What are the successful strategic and tactical launch decisions for the launch of new educational provision in China? The research identifies the successful service launch strategies and understanding the nature of a proficient service launch strategy in the international market. To expand the previous research heavily focused on financial services that are standardized and mass-produced, an in-depth study of new service launch in complicated services featuring a high degree of complexity and customization was conducted. This study integrates empirical data with theoretical concepts from various disciplines (e.g., services marketing, new service development, international services and education marketing) to encourage a new perspective to the research of new international service launch for an improved understanding of launching new educational provision in China. The study uses a multiple case research strategy where empirical data was collected in three transnational higher education institutions (TEIs). Challenging extant research that has focused on a manager’s perspective, this current research focuses on the dual perspectives of TEIs and students, to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complicated phenomenon of launching new educational provision in China. In a practical sense, it provides greater insight into understanding what contributes to successful international service launch and in effect, attaining the goal of improving launch success rates by allowing foreign institutions interested in launching new educational provision in China to refine their launch decisions for new TNE offerings. Any reader wishing to understand more about the workings of the TNE marketplace in China, the management practices and managerial directions therein would benefit from this detailed research project

Strategies for Combining e-Learning and Serious Games

Analisar as múltiplas valências dos sistemas de aprendizagem em e-learning constitui um desafio. A educação e a comunicação estão em constante (r)evolução. Os fenómenos da globalização afetam de forma direta e/ou indireta a maioria das áreas da atividade humana e os sistemas de ensino aprendizagem não são exceção. A relação entre a utilização de ferramentas e as estratégias digitais é um ponto fulcral desta dissertação. Nesta dissertação doutoral teve como objeto a contextualização e problematização das diferentes estratégias na utilização de game-based na aprendizagem e estratégias de utilização do e-learning. A utilização de jogos sérios no âmbito das aprendizagens digitais em Portugal não é pratica comum no contexto educativo. Assim, esta dissertação foi desenvolvida para a definição de estratégias de utilização dos jogos sérios e e-learning, propondo uma utilização pedagógica dos jogos sérios em sala de aula por forma a motivar e consolidar conhecimentos adquiridos. A construção de jogos sérios com o intuito de corresponder às necessidades foi o objeto de análise da experiência controlada. O jogo sério “Alpha Patrol” foi conceptualizado, desenvolvido e testado sob responsabilidade do Centro de Investigação para Tecnologias Interactivas. O projeto de investigação envolveu diferentes etapas da investigação de forma a adoptar uma estratégia de análise, que por vezes, se mostrou difícil e ingrata. Investigar e desenvolver jogos sérios em Portugal confronta-se com ambientes indiferentes ou mesmo hostis. O preconceito de jogar (em especial no espaço de sala de aula) ainda existe. No estudo de caso que a dissertação apresenta e desenvolve foi decidido que, face a algumas limitações sociais e culturais, o objecto digital a ser analisado apresenta-se uma estrutura híbrida: livro e jogo dele extraído. A experiência controlada permitiu definir os parâmetros sobre o jogo sério criado, os elementos de motivação, a pertinência na utilização de diferentes estratégias como o livro, os quizzes e as medalhas de aprendizagem.To analyze multiple valences of learning systems in e-Learning is a challenge. Education and communication are in constant (r)evolution. The phenomena of globalization affect directly and/or indirectly most areas of human activity and learning educational systems are no exception. This doctoral dissertation focuses on the context and problematization of different strategies in the use of game-based learning and the use of e-learning strategies. The relationship between the use of tools and digital strategies is a key point of this thesis. The use of serious games in the digital learning context in Portugal is not a common practice in the educational context. Thus, this thesis was developed to define the use of elearning and serious games strategies, proposing a pedagogical approach to the use of serious games in the classroom in order to motivate and consolidate knowledge acquisition. The construction of serious games in order to meet the identified needs was the object of analysis of the controlled experiment. The serious game "Alpha Patrol" was conceptualized, developed and tested under the responsibility of the Research Center for Interactive Technologies. The research project involved different stages of the investigation in order to adopt a strategy of analysis, which sometimes proved to be difficult. Research and develop serious games in Portugal is often faced with indifference or even hostile environments. Prejudice to play as a form of knowledge acquisition (especially in the classroom) still exists. With this in mind, in the case study it was decided that the digital object had to present a hybrid structure: a book and the serious game. The controlled experiment allowed to set the parameters for the serious game created, the motivation elements, the relevance of using different strategies like the book, quizzes and learning medals

Chinese elements : a bridge of the integration between Chinese -English translation and linguaculture transnational mobility

[Abstract] As the popularity of Chinese elements in the innovation of the translation part in Chinese CET, we realized that Chinese elements have become a bridge between linguaculture transnational mobility and Chinese-English translation.So, Chinese students translation skills should be critically improved; for example, on their understanding about Chinese culture, especially the meaning of Chinese culture. Five important secrets of skillful translation are introduced to improve students’ translation skills

Internationalisation in higher education: A comparative view of cross-border type 1 & 2 education and their impact on developing and developed countries

Este trabajo examina que significa 'la internacionalización de la educación superior' y como la globalización, en particular, la internacionalización han influencionado la educaciñon transnacional y los efectos que las polítcas comerciales y económias han tenido en la movilidad de estudiantes y en la movilidad de programas e instituciones a lo largo de estos últimos años. Estos dos tipos de movilidades han sido muy relevantes en el desarrollo nacional. Por medio de la investigacion cualitativa y cuantitativa, resulta evidente que para los países en desarrollo que han tenido dificultad en satisfacer las exigencias y necesidades de educación superior de su población, la educación transnacional ha sido la solucion principal para ellos para así cubrir dichas demandas. No obstante, para los países que proveen la mayoria de los servicios de la educación internacional, la educación tranfronteriza ha sido y seguirá siendo un medio de renta significativa. Los beneficios financieros a nivel individual, nacional, y regional, son evidencias de la importancia del papel de la educaion transnacional en una creciente economía de conocimiento global. Este trabajo de invetigación, por lo tanto, presenta las diferentes faceta e implicaciones de la educación transnacional que a nivel superior tiene para los países desarrollados y en desarrollo.This research paper examines what is meant by ‘internationalising’ higher education and how globalisation and, in particularly, internationalisation have influenced cross-border/transnational higher education, as well as the effects trade policies have had on student mobility and programme and institution (P & I) mobility over the years. These two types of mobility have been instrumental in nation building. Through qualitative and quantitative research it is evident that for countries that have had and continue to have difficulty addressing the demands for higher education cross-border education has been their primary solution. On the other hand, for countries that provide the majority of international higher education services education export has been and will continue to be a significant means of revenue. The financial benefits to individuals, nations and regions are evidence of the importance cross-border higher education plays in an ever growing global ‘knowledge economy’. This paper, therefore, looks at various facets and the implications of cross-border/transnational higher education for develop and developing countries