Framväxten av artificiell intelligens (AI) och generativ AI har lett till lanseringen av AI-baserade chatbottar som OpenAI:s ChatGPT. Det är i stort sett fortfarande oklart vilken effekt användningen av dessa verktyg har på undervisning i engelska som främmande språk. Den empiriska undersökningen som presenteras i detta examensarbete har därför syftet att undersöka vilken effekt ChatGPT-feedback har i jämförelse med lärarfeedback på svenska gymnasieelevers komplexitet, korrekthet och flyt i skriftlig produktion på engelska. Ett ytterligare mål med denna studie var att undersöka om elevernas språkliga kompetens påverkar dessa effekter. Studien genomfördes genom att undersöka 56 gymnasielevers argumenterande texter före och efter feedback. Studiens resultat pekar på att båda feedbackmodaliteter har liknande effekt på elevernas komplexitet, korrekthet och flyt. Statistiskt signifikanta ökningar går att se i dimensionerna för korrekthet, lexikal komplexitet och flyt för båda feedbackmodliteter. För dimensionen syntaktisk komplexitet har endast ChatGPT gruppen nått en statistiskt signifikant ökning, och för korrekthet har Lärarfeedback haft en större effekt med statistiskt signifikanta ökningar inom alla fyra analytiska mått för dimensionen. Vidare visar studien att elever med lägre språklig kompetens gynnas mer av feedbacken än elever med högre språkliga kompetens. Studien belyser även behovet av att framtida forskning fokuserar på ChatGPT-feedbacks effekter på texters generella kommunikativa funktion för att bättre förstå vilka effekter AI-genererad feedback har på skriftlig produktion i engelska som främmande språk.

A breadth of research has revealed that English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers are positive towards technology integration in their classrooms (Sun & Mei, 2022) and are willing to develop their knowledge on ways to utilize technology (Nguyen, 2022). Nonetheless, there is limited information in terms of the impact of teachers’ past experiences and learning opportunities on how they implement technology in their teaching practices. Therefore, this research aims to expand on teachers’ perspectives, uses of technology, and their professional development with regard to technology. The research questions that guide this study are: 1) What are the perspectives of ESL/EFL teachers on technology integration in ESL/EFL classrooms? 2) How do ESL/EFL teachers utilize technology? 3) What factors influence ESL/EFL teachers’ past and ongoing development in technology enhanced language teaching? To address these research questions, this mixed-methods study employed online survey and interviews as the data collection instruments. Also, this research utilized thematic analysis to analyze the data from ten collegiate level ESL/EFL teachers. The participants of this study teach in two different countries: Turkey and the United States (U.S.), which increased the context-specific diversity of the data. Findings of this paper suggest that teachers have positive perspectives on technology integration in their classes and their practices of technology implementation vary depending on their teaching context and experiences. The findings also reveal that hands-on experiences and teacher collaboration have positive effects on teacher professional development with respect to technology. Along with the positive perspectives and various uses of technology, this study touches on drawbacks of technology such as student distraction, cheating/plagiarism, and other logistical difficulties. The research concludes with implications and recommendations for future research.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether language aptitude and the use of language strategies predict pronunciation gains in second language (L2) acquisition. A second goal was to determine whether these factors differed depending on whether learning occurred in an English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) learning context. Eighty-six ESL students in the United States and one hundred EFL students in China were asked to take the Pimsleur language aptitude test. The top 15 or 16 and lowest 15 or 16 scorers on this test from each group were asked to complete a test of pronunciation proficiency and a pronunciation strategies inventory at the beginning and end of a 10-week speaking class in which they were enrolled. The pre and post pronunciation tests were rated and pronunciation proficiency gains in global foreign accent, fluency, comprehensibility and accuracy were compared to both Pimsleur test scores and use of pronunciation strategies before and after training. Results indicated that general language aptitude did not predict pronunciation gains regardless of type of setting (ESL or EFL), but that auditory aptitude may be linked to pronunciation proficiency. Analyses revealed that specific pronunciation strategies were strong predictors of pronunciation gain for comprehensibility and accuracy gains. The findings for this study suggest that pronunciation strategies seem to play a bigger role in pronunciation improvement than language aptitude and are effective in both ESL and EFL settings.

The purpose of this study is to examine pupils’ and teachers’ perspectives and use of language strategies when speaking English. Questions that will try to be answered are: What are the teachers’ thoughts about language strategies? In the subject English, which strategies do the pupils in 6th grade use? Which strategies to communicate are used most frequently by 6th graders when speaking English unprepared? To answer these questions, interviews with teachers were held. The pupils answered a survey and were observed while talking English. Earlier studies have showed that language learning strategies are an efficient tool for people learning a second language while overcoming their language skills shortcomings that might arise while communicating in a second language. This study concludes that language learning strategies have a significant part to play in the development of a communicative competence. The teachers emphasized the importance of a good learning environment, interaction and pupils’ awareness about the language learning process. The pupils reported that they used strategies such as paraphrasing and body language, which the observation later confirmed.

This thesis aims to explore whether some Swedish teachers and students feel that they are helped by ICT tools in their classrooms or not. It is vital for this thesis to find out whether or not teachers experience that their students are positively stimulated by the use of ICT when learning English. Ascertaining whether teachers find that ICT tools make it easier for them to teach or not is also of particular interest. Students’ answers to questions regarding the perceived benefits of technology and what they think about their teachers’ technology usage are also important. In order to accomplish this aim, four teachers were interviewed about their opinions on this matter and one English class per teacher, totaling 70 students, answered questionnaires regarding their opinions on the matter. The results reveal that teachers believe that while ICT offers some great tools to create variation in the classroom and that it might increase student motivation, opinions on whether or not technology also helps students to produce better results differ. The students’ results on the other hand clearly show that most students believe that they learn better when using computers, they would like to use computers more during class, and they prefer to write using a computer rather than pen and paper. Overall, the students have a more positive attitude to ICT tools than the teachers.

The present study aimed at investigating the video-enhanced reflections of Iranian EFL teachers. It also made an attempt to cast light on the differences between male and female teachers’ video-enhanced self-reflections of their own teaching process. Moreover, the role of experience in changing their video-enhanced reflection was explored. Applying instruments like video-recording, reflection checklists and semi-structured interviews, this study implemented a mixed-method approach with a triangulation design focusing on both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of the study demonstrate that the video-enhanced reflections of Iranian EFL teachers mostly pivot around issues consisting of innovative teaching strategies, classroom management, learners’ characteristics, classroom interactions, teacher talk, organization of the lessons, technology resources and visual aids. Results also show that the above-mentioned reflections are both experience and gender-sensitive.

The present study aimed at investigating the video-enhanced reflections of Iranian EFL teachers. It also made an attempt to cast light on the differences between male and female teachers’ video-enhanced self-reflections of their own teaching process. Moreover, the role of experience in changing their video-enhanced reflection was explored. Applying instruments like video-recording, reflection checklists and semi-structured interviews, this study implemented a mixed-method approach with a triangulation design focusing on both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of the study demonstrate that the video-enhanced reflections of Iranian EFL teachers mostly pivot around issues consisting of innovative teaching strategies, classroom management, learners’ characteristics, classroom interactions, teacher talk, organization of the lessons, technology resources and visual aids. Results also show that the above-mentioned reflections are both experience and gender-sensitive.

No description available.

With the dominance of the Web in education and English language learning, new literacies have emerged. This thesis is motivated by the assumption that these literacies need to be integrated into the Egyptian pre-service EFL teacher education programmes so that EFL student teachers can cope with the new reality of language teaching/learning. Therefore, the main objective of the present study is to develop a theoretical understanding of the relationship between Web-based new literacies and the teaching of TESOL in a way that supports the possibility of expanding Egyptian pre-service EFL student teachers’ language-related literacy practices by integrating some Web-based new literacies into their education programme, with specific reference to the context of Assiut University College of Education (AUCOE). This requires accomplishing minor objectives represented in: (1) identifying the range of those Web-based new literacies that Egyptian EFL student teachers need in this ICT-dominated age; (2) identifying those Web-based facilities beneficial to them, and why and how they can be beneficial; and (3) generating framework for EFL curriculum design based on both literature and empirical data. To accomplish this, a design-based research (DBR) methodology drawing on a pragmatic epistemology is developed and employed as the main research paradigm informing this design study. Thus, the research design involves a flexible three-stage research framework: (1) the preliminary phase, which acts as a theoretical and empirical foundation for the whole study, and informs a preliminary design framework; it involves reviewing relevant literature and obtaining empirical data through documentary analysis (100 documents), online questionnaire (n=50), and semi-structured interviews (n=19); (2) the prototyping phase that involves two iterations (36 participants in the first iteration, and 30 in the second) conducted in the Egyptian context to test the proposed design framework. Each iteration acts as a micro-cycle of the whole design study, and thus involves its own objectives, learning design, research methodology and procedures (in line with the main DBR methodology), and results; (3) the assessment/reflective phase which, based on the prototyping phase results, presents a final design framework for expanding EFL student teachers’ language-related literacy practices. This has implications for the EFL curriculum design process within the Egyptian context in general, and AUCOE in particular. Results indicate that throughout the two iterations, it has become evident that the process of expanding EFL student teachers’ language-related literacy practices by integrating some Web-based new literacies into the AUCOE pre-service programme is quite feasible once some design principles are considered. Some significant conclusions and educational implications are provided, along with some main contributions to knowledge in TESOL/TEFL, language-learning theory, research methodology, and educational practice as far as the Egyptian context of pre-service EFL teacher education is concerned.

Out of the debate in Swedish media about homework, the idea for this study was born. The idea was to investigate the popular belief of many foreign language teachers which suggest that homework glossing is a necessity in the English classroom for pupils vocabulary acquisition, while other assumes this method doesn’t lead to knowledge that last. Therefore, the purpose for this study was to examine how learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) manage to learn new words when they received glossing as homework and when they studied the words in a context during class. Furthermore, out of the argument that homework stress pupils and lowers their interest and motivation for the subject, a secondary purpose was to find out pupils’ opinions about learning new words through glossing as English homework. The study was focused on two teaching methods for vocabulary acquisition: the traditional teaching method designed to teach vocabulary by giving glossing as homework, and teaching new words during class with a focus on teaching the new words in context. Through the survey of these two different methods for vocabulary learning and an empirical study with two primary school classes in which these two methods were put on test, contrary to the expectation that learning words through homework glossing wouldn’t lead to vocabulary knowledge that last, the results of the empirical study showed that the group which received glossing as homework, did better on both test than the group which studied the word in context. Similarly, the data results showed the average pupil had a positive attitude to vocabulary homework as for the most part they felt it benefited them to study this method because of the effects of learning.