The VVT Project: A web-based platform for strategy instruction and research into self-regulated learning of L2 vocabulary

The focus of this dissertation is a web-based, second language (L2) instructional resource called VVT (Virtual Vocabulary Trainer) designed to teach integrated vocabulary depth of knowledge and dictionary referencing skills to tertiary-level learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). In addition to evaluating the potential of online resources to address long-standing challenges in the field of L2 strategy instruction, the project also targeted research objectives in other related areas. The work is described in four separate articles aimed at peer-reviewed journals in the fields of computer-assisted language learning (CALL), applied linguistics, and teaching English as a Second Language. The first paper discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the VVT course, the procedures followed in developing it, and the materials themselves, while also suggesting general design principles for L2 strategy instruction based on frameworks derived from cognitive theory. The second paper represents the evaluation component of the project and reports how the feasibility of automated, online strategy instruction was investigated by studying the resource\u27s effectiveness, both actual and perceived, in an experiment involving 64 ESL composition students. In the third paper, the VVT course serves as the platform for a study critiquing a recently proposed, structural model of L2 vocabulary learning, while at the same time adding to the literature on the acquisition of L2 vocabulary depth-of-knowledge features. The final paper uses discrepant cases from the evaluation study, i.e. individual participants whose performances diverged significantly from group norms, to investigate the metacognitive strategy of task definition, the stage of learning in which students develop internal, and potentially idiosyncratic, representations of instructional tasks. The findings provide evidence of the feasibility of automated, online strategy instruction for complementing teacher-led forms, while also shedding light on the challenges many L2 learners face in self-directed learning of vocabulary depth of knowledge. Finally, it demonstrates the potential of an integrative, multicomponential model of self-regulation for researching and theorizing about L2 learning

An argument-based validation study of the English Placement Test (EPT) – Focusing on the inferences of extrapolation and ramification

English placement tests have been widely used in higher education as post-admission assessment instruments to measure admitted English as a second language (ESL) students’ English proficiency or readiness in academic English, usually upon their arrival at universities in English-speaking countries. Unlike commercial standardized English proficiency tests, many English placement tests are locally developed with comparatively limited resources and are relatively under-investigated in the field of language testing. Even less attention has been directed to the score interpretation and the impact of placement decisions on ESL students’ English learning and academic achievement. Undoubtedly, this scarcity of research on English placement tests is inappropriate in view of their status as one of the most frequently used language testing instruments, which may exert immediate and strong impact on ESL students’ learning in general. By employing a mixed-methods approach, this dissertation project investigates the validity of test score interpretation and use of the English Placement Test (EPT) used at Iowa State University (ISU) under an argument-based validity framework. More specifically, this study started with an interpretation and use argument for the EPT, which states the score meaning and intended impact of the EPT explicitly, and focused on the last two inferences in the interpretation and use argument, namely extrapolation and ramification. The extrapolation inference links expected scores of the EPT (scores that exhibit adequate test reliability) to target scores or actual performance in the target domain. In this study, the extrapolation inference requires investigation of the relationship between ESL students’ English placement test performance and two external criteria of English performance, including the TOEFL iBT and a self-assessment. The ramification inference links the use of the EPT results to its actual impact and in this study the ramification inference requires investigation of the impact of the placement decisions in a specific educational context. For the extrapolation inference, quantitative data such as test performance data on the EPT, the TOEFL iBT, and the self-assessment were collected and analyzed using multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) analysis techniques. The findings indicated that the EPT was found to have moderate relationships with the TOEFL iBT and weak to moderate relationships with the self-assessment. The EPT showed some of the expected convergent correlations as well as discriminant correlations based on the MTMM correlation coefficient matrix as well as the factor loading parameters in a correlated trait-correlated uniqueness (CTCU) model. For the ramification inference, three types of analyses were conducted to seek support with regard to 1) test stakeholders’ perceptions of the EPT placement decisions, 2) the impact of the EPT placement on ESL students’ English learning, and 3) the relationship between ESL students’ EPT performance and their first-semester academic achievement. The interviews with test stakeholders were coded and analyzed to identify statements indicating their perceptions of the impact of the placement decisions. The qualitative findings are also utilized to help interpret the quantitative findings. Multiple paired-samples t-tests are used to investigate ESL students’ progress in the ESL courses that they were placed into. In addition, a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to model the relationship among students’ performance on the EPT, ESL courses, and their first-semester GPA, mediated by individual difference constructs, such as learning motivation, academic self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning strategies. The qualitative analyses of the interviews with four groups of test stakeholders show that the interviewed ESL students in general experienced initial frustration regarding the placement decisions, in retrospect, they understood why they were placed into ESL courses and appreciated the benefits of taking the required courses, especially ESL writing courses. The ESL course instructors were satisfied with the placement accuracy, even though occasionally they identified a few cases of potentially misplaced students in the ESL courses. The interviewed undergraduate academic advisors showed positive perceptions of the EPT and the placement decisions. They also reported observing that the majority of the ESL advisees were receptive to the EPT placement decisions. The analyses of ESL course performance data collected at the beginning and the end of the course indicate that ESL students in Engl99L, an ESL listening course focusing on listening strategies, made statistically significant progress in terms of score gain on the same listening test administered at two time points. However, only nine out of 38 ESL students made satisfactory progress with reference to the course standard. Students in Engl101B (a lower-level ESL academic English writing course) and Engl101C (a higher-level ESL academic English writing course) did not show much progress in terms of lexical complexity, syntactic complexity, and grammatical accuracy. However, the Engl101C students on average wrote longer essays at the end of the course. Based on the ratings of the essays written in the final exams using the EPT scoring rubric, 14 out 18 Engl101B students (77.8%) and eight out of 16 Engl101C students (50%) showed satisfactory progress in these classes and were deemed ready for the next level of English study. The SEM analysis results indicate that ESL students’ EPT performance had significant and direct impact on their academic achievement. What’s more, students’ EPT performance predicted their academic self-efficacy and affected extrinsic goal orientation. However, these motivational factors did not have direct impact on academic achievement. The findings in this study contribute to building the validity argument for the EPT with two of the assumptions underlying the warrant for the extrapolation inference and ramification inference found supported and the other three partially supported. This findings in this study contributed to a better understanding of the score interpretation and use of the EPT at Iowa State University through constructing a validity argument. These findings shed light on the future development of the EPT and other similar English placement tests. The findings in this study as well as the research methodology can be informative for other institutions where English placement tests are used

TEACHER MANAGEMENT OF SELF-REGULATED LEARNING THROUGH ePORTFOLIO

Background and Purpose: Students’ ability to self-regulate their learning and to learn effectively are predictors of success. In developing and initiating Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), teachers play a significant role. Hence, this study aims at exploring teacher management of SRL in the ESL writing classroom using ePortfolio.   Methodology: This study adopts an interpretive paradigm with action research as its methodological approach. The data collection methods consisted of observation, documents, and interview.  A total of one teacher and 16 of her students participated in this study. The data were analyzed thematically.   Findings: In using the ePortfolio, the teacher had managed to assist learners SRL development by employing several strategies. It was identified that the teacher used strategies such as setting the learning goals, sharing the criteria of success, questioning techniques, giving feedback, as well as allowing self-assessment activity to take place. These strategies were believed to promote the constructs of independent learning, autonomous learning, and assistance from a more capable peers particularly in learning ESL writing via ePortfolio.  Also, a shift in a teacher’s role from being authoritative in the classroom to a facilitative role is deemed necessary in developing SRL among ESL writing students.   Contributions: The results from this study offer new insights into pedagogical strategies that could be considered for promoting SRL in language teaching and learning. An outcome of this research could serve as a guide for teachers in planning their pedagogical approach and to decide on suitable strategies to be employed for different types of learners.  Also, the sharing of the teacher practices in this study would provide rooms for other researchers to further explore other possible strategies and ways for strengthening any weaknesses found in the practice.    Keywords: Self-regulated learning, ePortfolio, action research, autonomy, self-assessment.   Cite as: Segaran, M. K., & Hasim, Z. (2021). Teacher management of self-regulated learning through ePortfolio.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 6(1), 373-393. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol6iss1pp373-39

Tensorized Self-Attention: Efficiently Modeling Pairwise and Global Dependencies Together

Neural networks equipped with self-attention have parallelizable computation, light-weight structure, and the ability to capture both long-range and local dependencies. Further, their expressive power and performance can be boosted by using a vector to measure pairwise dependency, but this requires to expand the alignment matrix to a tensor, which results in memory and computation bottlenecks. In this paper, we propose a novel attention mechanism called "Multi-mask Tensorized Self-Attention" (MTSA), which is as fast and as memory-efficient as a CNN, but significantly outperforms previous CNN-/RNN-/attention-based models. MTSA 1) captures both pairwise (token2token) and global (source2token) dependencies by a novel compatibility function composed of dot-product and additive attentions, 2) uses a tensor to represent the feature-wise alignment scores for better expressive power but only requires parallelizable matrix multiplications, and 3) combines multi-head with multi-dimensional attentions, and applies a distinct positional mask to each head (subspace), so the memory and computation can be distributed to multiple heads, each with sequential information encoded independently. The experiments show that a CNN/RNN-free model based on MTSA achieves state-of-the-art or competitive performance on nine NLP benchmarks with compelling memory- and time-efficiency

Inaccurate Metacognitive Monitoring and its Effects on Metacognitive Control and Task Outcomes in Self-Regulated L2 Learning

Accurate metacognitive monitoring of one’s own knowledge or performance is a precondition for self-regulated learning; monitoring informs metacognitive control, which in turn affects task outcomes. Studies of monitoring accuracy and its connection to knowledge and performance are common in psychology and educational research but rare in instructed SLA. This paper describes two studies in which actual performance and self-evaluated performance were compared. In Study 1, 64 college-level ESL learners completed L2 vocabulary tasks that differed in complexity and familiarity. Wide discrepancies in monitoring accuracy were observed. In Study 2, the same sample was divided into two groups, and the more complex task from Study 1 was used as a pre- and post-test. One group was given strategy instruction to improve monitoring accuracy. Metacognitive control was operationalized as choice of dictionaries used during the task, and effects of control on task outcomes were operationalized as points achieved on the task that could be attributed to use of a particular dictionary type. Results showed that control decisions leading to poorer task outcomes were associated with lower monitoring accuracy

Promoting Comprehension Strategies of Primary Grade Students Through Datacasting Materials for Distance Learning

Many online learners especially in resource-challenged schools struggled with learning gaps during the pandemic crisis. This study focuses on using cost effective datacasting learning materials for distance education that promote intermediate grade students’ self-regulation, reading and writing skills. Datacasting is the process of delivering computer (IP) data over a traditional television broadcast signal. Locally, where only some households have Internet access but many have television sets, datacasting affords greater learning opportunities. Guided by structure, interactivity, and the functional language teaching theory, this study used sequential explanatory design to explore the role of datacasting in a public elementary school in Cavite in the academic year 2021 to 2022. Analyses of students’ artifacts reveal that their levels ofautonomy are non-autonomous, semi-autonomous, and autonomous. Moreover, the data also show that when they navigated the materials, they used these types of comprehension strategies: preparational, organizational, elaboration, andmonitoring. Correlations between culminating writing activities and final writing scores were found, but are not statistically significant, which may be attributed to the pandemic-induced sample attrition. The results suggest a need to refine the learning materials following the multimedia principles of personalization and embodiment through judicious text choice and adaptation and task design. Pedagogical recommendations for the use of datacasting materials are also offered