2025-12-29
Valery Solovyev, Anna Ivleva
Background. The problem of verb aspectual pairs in Russian studies remains relevant and still causes discussion, despite the large number of studies conducted. Triplets attract intense interest due to their special position in the system of aspectual forms and the implicitness of an aspectual pair of verbs in the triple. Another fundamental issue that causes a lot of discussion is the so-called hypothesis of empty prefix. Purpose. The purpose is to obtain objective quantitative evaluation of the semantic distance between the verbs in triplets: the basic imperfective verb, the perfective verb, and the secondary imperfective verb. The main problem we solve is which of the two imperfective verbs is semantically closer to the perfective verb, i.e. which pair is aspectual. Materials and Methods. So far, there have been no operational methods for determining verb aspectual pairs. With the advent of large text corpora and Language Models technology, it has become possible to evaluate the semantic similarity of words using rigorous methods. To solve the issues, the computational technique of embeddings (vector semantics) is used. The present study covers 440 triplets. The data on their frequency and collocations were taken from the Russian subcorpus of the Google Books Ngram database. Results. For both language models applied, statistical test shows greater semantic similarity for the pairs of perfective and secondary imperfective than for the pairs of basic imperfective and perfective. According to one or both of the models, for most of prefixes considered, the average distance between the pairs of basic imperfective and perfective is statistically significantly greater than between the pairs of perfective and secondary imperfective. Conclusion. The article presents quantitative analysis of identity of semantics in aspectual pairs of triplets. Secondary imperfective verb form is shown to be statistically closer to the perfective verb than basic imperfective form. This is an argument in favor of the point of view that secondary imperfective verbs form aspectual pairs with perfective verbs. Also, the models applied show that prefixes contribute to the semantics of the perfective verbs. This fact stands against the hypothesis of empty prefixes.
2025-12-29
Hanne Roothooft
Background: Although oral corrective feedback (OCF) has been shown to benefit second language acquisition, relatively few studies have examined students’ attitudes toward it, which may impact on its effectiveness. Moreover, even though students’ attitudes to language learning can depend on different variables, such as students’ level or cultural background, very few studies have looked at the possible impact of such variables on students’ attitudes to OCF. Even fewer studies have focused on affective responses to OCF and hardly any have included non-WEIRD populations. Method: To fill these gaps, the present study compared students’ attitudes to OCF, as well as their affective responses to OCF, in two contrasting EFL higher-education settings with different L2 teaching traditions, by means of a cross-sectional Likert-type questionnaire: 213 Spanish and 261 Algerian EFL students at the university level. Descriptive statistics in the form of percentages of agreement and disagreement were calculated, and chi-square tests of independence were carried out to investigate possible differences in attitudes. Results: Contrary to previous findings that cultural background only appears to have a minor effect on students’ attitudes to OCF, we found significant differences between Spanish and Algerian students’ attitudes for several aspects of OCF, such as frequency, error type, OCF-type and affective responses to OCF. For instance, although most students expressed a wish to receive as much OCF as possible, there were more Algerian students who preferred to be corrected only in certain cases. With regard to OCF types, the majority of students in both contexts expressed a preference for metalinguistic feedback, but Algerian students were more positive about recasts. Conclusion: Given these observed differences, we cannot expect students from all contexts to have similar beliefs about OCF. Teachers are thus advised to discuss OCF with their students in order to avoid mismatches between students’ beliefs and teachers’ practices, as this can negatively affect the learning process. This study sheds light on the beliefs about OCF of students from different backgrounds, including an underrepresented, non-Western population, i.e., Algerian EFL students. It also highlights a need to further explore the possible reasons behind the observed differences in attitudes.
2025-12-29
Meihua Liu, Huimin Mi
Background : Although foreign language learning boredom (FLLB) is known to negatively influence learners’ L2 (second/foreign language) engagement and willingness to communicate (L2WTC), prior studies have reported inconsistent effect sizes and limited theoretical integration. Purpose : To (1) quantitatively estimate the overall strength of the associations between FLLB and both L2 engagement and L2WTC, and (2) identify significant moderators that might account for variability across studies. Method : A correlational meta-analysis was conducted, including 14 studies on FLLB–L2 engagement and 11 studies on FLLB–L2WTC. Effect sizes were computed using random-effects models and transformed via Fisher’s Z, and moderator analyses of meta-regression and subgroup analyses were performed to examine the potential moderator impacts of learner demographics, research context, and measurement tools. Results : The results indicated a medium-to-large negative correlation between FLLB and L2 engagement (r = –0.506) and a small-to-medium negative correlation with L2WTC (r = –0.302). Moderator analyses revealed that research context and engagement measurement scale significantly moderated the FLLB–L2 engagement relationship, while gender ratio and L2WTC measurement scale significantly moderated the FLLB–L2WTC relationship. Conclusion : These findings underscore the need for reducing boredom to enhance learner engagement and communicative willingness in L2 contexts. Future research should further explore individual and contextual moderators, particularly among younger learners and in digital learning environments.
2025-12-29
Hossein Bozorgian, Hossein Rahimi
Background: Although both peer and AI-generated feedback are increasingly used in EFL writing instruction, little is known about how they differ in terms of cognitive depth and interpersonal delivery. Existing studies often overlook the mechanisms through which feedback operates, limiting instructors’ ability to design balanced feedback ecosystems. Purpose: To provide a comparative analysis of peer and ChatGPT-4o feedback on undergraduate EFL academic writing, drawing on Hattie and Timperley’s (2007) cognitive model and Hyland and Hyland’s (2006) interpersonal feedback strategies. It aims to identify how each source targets task, process, and self-regulation levels, and how their rhetorical styles shape learner engagement. Method: Thirty Iranian undergraduate EFL students participated in a qualitative classroom-based study in which each essay received both peer and ChatGPT-4o feedback. A total of 430 peer comments and 224 ChatGPT feedback units were coded deductively using validated analytical frameworks. Inter-rater reliability for 20% of the dataset yielded substantial agreement (κ = .82). Results: Peer feedback was subjective, socially expressive, and frequently mitigated, with comments focusing on sentence-level issues but also including self-regulation prompts (15%) that encouraged reflection and decision-making. ChatGPT-4o provided predominantly task-level feedback (94%), characterized by structured, consistent, and objective guidance on grammar, organization, and coherence. However, its feedback exhibited minimal interpersonal variation and rarely promoted metacognitive engagement. Conclusion: The findings indicate that peer and AI-generated feedback serve complementary pedagogical functions: AI offers technical accuracy and consistency, while peer feedback contributes emotional support and occasional reflective prompts. A hybrid feedback model that integrates both sources may therefore enhance the revision process in EFL writing instruction.
2025-09-29
Soroor Rostami, Mansooreh Hosseinnia
Background : Traditional grading systems often undermine intrinsic motivation and learner autonomy in language education, prompting interest in alternatives like gradeless assessment. While descriptive feedback and self-correction show promise in enhancing learner development, their impact on specific motivational constructs, such as ideal and ought-to L2 selves, remains underexplored, particularly in non-Western EFL contexts. This study addresses this gap by examining how gradeless assessment influences motivation and autonomy, contributing to global debates on formative assessment practices. Purpose : This study examines the effects of a gradeless assessment approach, utilizing descriptive feedback and self-correction, compared to conventional grading, on the motivation (ideal and ought-to L2 selves) and autonomy of EFL learners. It aims to address the pedagogical challenge of designing assessments that foster sustained motivation and learner agency, particularly in diverse educational settings like Iran, to inform global language education practices. Method : Forty-one upper-intermediate EFL students, selected via the Quick Placement Test, were randomly assigned to an experimental (gradeless, n=21) or control (graded, n=20) group for a reading and writing course. Both groups received identical instruction and materials from the same instructor, differing only in assessment: the experimental group received written descriptive feedback with self-correction opportunities, while the control group received numerical grades. Pre- and post-test questionnaires assessed motivation and autonomy, with data analyzed using independent-sample t-tests. Results : The gradeless approach significantly enhanced ideal L2 self-motivation (t = -2.70, p < .05, η² = .15, 9.8% mean increase) and autonomy (t = -2.06, p < .05, η² = .15.1% mean increase), but reduced ought-to L2 self-motivation (t = 3.05, p < .01, η² = 6.2 % mean decrease), suggesting a shift toward ideal L2 self-motivation. Conclusion : These findings highlight the potential of gradeless, feedback-oriented assessment to foster intrinsic motivation and autonomy in Iranian EFL contexts, suggesting a need to reconsider traditional grading in favor of formative strategies. However, due to the study’s cultural and contextual specificity, generalizability should be approached cautiously, warranting further research across diverse settings.
2025-09-29
Dara Tafazoli, Lee McCallum
Background: The field of language education is experiencing substantial advancements with the introduction of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). While there is a significant amount of research on teachers’ perceptions in language education, there is a noticeable gap in understanding the integration of ChatGPT into this field. Purpose: This study investigated the perceptions of EFL teachers in Iran regarding how ChatGPT can contribute to the enhancement of language teaching practices and pedagogical awareness. Method: A qualitative case study examined teachers’ perspectives on using ChatGPT in language education. A Zoom webinar on AI in teaching was conducted for Iranian EFL teachers, using tools like Focusky. From 73 registered teachers, 23 were selected based on ≥2 years’ teaching experience and voluntary participation. Data were gathered through focus groups, semi-structured interviews (n=10, in Persian), and reflective essays (n=10) submitted two weeks post-webinar. Inductive thematic analysis was performed using NVivo 12, with rigor ensured via peer debriefing, member checking, cross-case comparison, and 83% inter-coder agreement. Results: Data analysis revealed that ChatGPT can promote pedagogical awareness (i.e., enhanced professional development opportunities, enhancement of critical thinking skills, and autonomy and confidence) and pedagogical practices (i.e., understanding students’ needs and personalizing teaching and content creation and resource development). Conclusion: These findings suggest that ChatGPT can positively impact language teachers without necessarily sacrificing their jobs, which is the dominant concern in the current academic literature.
2025-09-29
Egor Salnikov, Anastasiya Bonch-Osmolovskaya
Background : Contemporary methods for detecting synthetic text, including model-specific detectors and transformer-based classifiers, often rely on intensive training or on features tied to particular language models, which restricts their generalizability to unfamiliar LLMs and diverse domains. Purpose : This study aims to advance text attribution research by introducing a stylometry-based approach that utilizes trigram-based cosine delta as a lightweight and interpretable metric for distinguishing LLM-generated texts from human-written texts, irrespective of the underlying generation strategy. Method : A corpus of Russian diary entries was compiled, encompassing both authentic human-written texts and synthetic counterparts generated through few-shot prompting and finetuned LoRA models. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, multiple stylometric-delta variations were examined, integrating uni-, bi-, and trigram features with Manhattan and cosine distance metrics. Results : The evaluation demonstrated that the trigram–cosine delta consistently achieved the highest performance across experimental conditions, reaching an Adjusted Rand Index of approximately 0.70. This markedly surpassed both the finetuned RuModernBERT baseline (ARI ≈ 0.28) and the classic unigram-based delta (ARI ≈ 0.53). Importantly, the method proved effective not only within the Russian diary corpus but also when applied to the RuATD benchmark, where it successfully separated human-authored and machine-generated texts and produced coherent clustering of related model families. Conclusion : The findings confirm that trigram–cosine stylometric delta offers a robust, interpretable, and computationally efficient strategy for detecting LLM-generated texts across diverse generation strategies, including few-shot prompting and finetuning. By capturing discourse-level stylistic cohesion, the method advances beyond surface fluency and provides a scalable, unsupervised alternative to classifier-based detectors. While current validation is limited to Russian diaries and selected generation models, the approach demonstrates clear potential for broader application across domains, languages, and emerging state-of-the-art LLMs.
2025-09-29
Tatiana Golechkova, Nadezhda Arupova, Elena Golubovskaya
Introduction: Stylistic deviations such as wordiness and redundancy undermine clarity and precision in academic writing. Their frequency and communicative impact, however, are likely to vary across disciplinary traditions. Earlier research has examined these phenomena in education-related corpora and revealed patterned distributions of redundancy in justificatory passages. By contrast, the ways in which such deviations manifest in linguistics research articles remain underexplored. Results: Wordiness predominated across the corpus, accounting for 70.6% of all deviations, while redundancy accounted for 29.4%. Class balance was stable across Moves and Steps, but severity was functionally localized: high-impact deviations clustered in M3_S3, M3_S1, M2_S2, and M1_S3. Almost all high-impact cases were linked to wordiness, with syntactic complexity alone responsible for 54 of 61 instances. Redundancy, although frequent in structural and lexical repetition, rarely reached high severity. Conclusion: These findings show that in linguistics Introductions in English the primary stylistic risk lies not in repetition but in syntactic overload at rhetorically dense points of the text. The results extend previous applications of the taxonomy by demonstrating a discipline-specific pattern of risk concentration. The study highlights the value of combining rhetorical segmentation with fine-grained stylistic annotation and suggests that pedagogical efforts should focus on reducing syntactic complexity in high-pressure rhetorical contexts. Limitations include the modest corpus size and the absence of cross-disciplinary comparison, which future research should address to refine understanding of stylistic risk across fields.
2025-06-29
Ibrahim Hassan Ali Al-jumaily, Istabraq Tariq Jawaad Alazzawi
Background: Technological devices and multimedia resources are enhancing verbal communication in language learning. Vodcasts, combining audiovisual material with visuals, help develop mental schemas. Nonverbal communication is challenging for students, potentially impacting grades. Verbal communication analysis examines speech structure, social uses, roles, and power relations, highlighting the complexity of verbal communication in everyday interactions. Purpose: The study aims to examine the influence of multimodal visual methodologies on the audio-visual comprehension of EFL university students. The study also seeks to understand how multimodal visual methodologies affect the non-verbal and verbal communication skills of EFL students. Besides, it aims to explore the factors that cultivate students' audio-visual comprehension, non-verbal, and verbal communication skills. Method: The study's sample consists of 214 EFL university students. A mixed-mode descriptive research design was used in this study. The quantitative data collection instruments used in the current study were three tests: audio-visual comprehension, non-verbal, and verbal communication tests. Consequently, a repeated-measures ANOVA and t-test paired samples were conducted on the set of three test scores over time. In the qualitative phase, data were collected from 20 purposefully selected students. "Focus group semi-structured interview" was used to collect qualitative data. Results: The study's findings revealed that adopting multimodality has a positive impact on EFL university students. Audio-visual multimodal input, such as videos with subtitles, enhances listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. Teaching body language, gestures, and facial emotions using images enhances verbal and non-verbal communication, creative skills, and engagement. Finally, the results from the students' interviews show that students positively perceive psychological, social, engagement, and pedagogical factors affecting verbal and nonverbal communication, and multimodal technologies improve the learning environment, boost mental readiness, overcome listening anxiety, interpret body language, and prevent boredom. Conclusion: The study highlights the critical role of linguistic and psychological factors in EFL, particularly emphasizing the significance of audio-visual comprehension and both verbal and non-verbal communication skills. It also identifies three key variables that aid EFL students in enhancing their retention, long-term memory, and confidence for independent English learning.
2025-06-29
Marina Kolesnichenko, Vitalii Kapitan
Background: This study addresses a gap in applied phonetics by developing an evidence-based, neural network-driven computer phonetic test for Russian EFL learners. Integrating interdisciplinary methods, the system targets Russian-specific pronunciation deviations and delivers adaptive feedback, thereby advancing both perception and production skills while aligning technological innovation with pedagogical effectiveness. Purpose: The purpose of the study is twofold: (1) to design and develop a computer-based system employing deep learning neural networks for objectively assessing Russian EFL students’ perception and production skills, and (2) to evaluate the effectiveness and reliability of this system through repeated testing, statistical analysis of learner performance and user feedback. Methods: A pre-test identified frequent segmental deviations, informing a targeted item pool. The software was developed in Microsoft Visual Studio 2022 (C#) using the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine. The perception module used randomized audio stimuli (WAV files), while the speech recognition one recorded response via built-in microphones for automated accuracy evaluation. Twenty-five Russian EFL students (B1–B2 CEFR, aged 19–22) completed three test iterations at one-week intervals. Post-test questionnaire assessed usability and perceived learning gains. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. Results: We designed a computer-based system employing deep learning neural networks and assessed its efficiency in Russian EFL learners. The study found a 14.5% overall improvement in participant performance, with results showing a clear linear increase supported by a high R² value. Students performed better in perception tasks than in production practice. Pearson correlation analysis indicated consistent performance between consecutive attempts, supporting robust test-retest reliability. Both modules showed high internal consistency (α = 0.90 for perception, α = 0.88 for production). Participants rated the tool as useful and interesting, although they suggested improving the speech recognition function due to minor technical flaws. Conclusion: The module focused on testing perception skills can serve as an effective and engaging learning tool. While the pronunciation control component shows potential, its performance can be further enhanced through additional testing with high-sensitivity microphones to refine speech recognition accuracy. Overall, continued exploration of CAPT systems presents a promising direction for future research and innovation.
2025-06-29
Helena Ortiz-Garduño, Daniel Torres-Salinas
Background: This paper explores the development and evaluation of a GPTBot tailored for institutional translation tasks. It addresses a gap in applied research on how generative AI can be adapted for domain-specific translation workflows, particularly in academic institutions. Purpose: To design and implement UGRBot, a chatbot based on ChatGPT-4 that supports the translation of institutional texts at the University of Granada (UGR) while also outlining a structured and replicable methodology for creating specialised chatbots to enhance translation processes. Method: The methodology includes: (1) chatbot development using a knowledge base of 57 bilingual institutional documents; (2) evaluation of output quality using BLEU scores, comparing UGRBot with DeepL and Google Translate; and (3) a focused assessment on the translation of 100 institutional terms. Results: A reference corpus in English of 14,521 words was compiled from UGR administrative and regulatory documents, with human translations serving as the benchmark. BLEU scores were computed using the Natural Language Toolkit library in Python, employing 4-gram analysis for full-text evaluation and bigram analysis for terminology translation. Conclusion: Results show that UGRBot outperformed both baseline systems in the translation of specialised institutional terminology, achieving the highest BLEU score in this area. However, limitations include lower performance across full-length texts. In conclusion, this research documents the development of a domain-specific GPTBot and its implementation in an institutional context, offering a transferable framework for integrating generative AI into specialised translation workflows.
2025-06-29
Chau Hoang Vo, Tin Thanh Nguyen
The book “Reading Images for Knowledge Building: Analysing Infographics in School Science” by J. R. Martin and Len Unsworth, published by Routledge in 2024, explores new perspectives on visual grammar derived from Systemic Functional Linguistics and their application in the multimodal discourse of school science. It examines key components of infographics, specifically image mass (technicality, iconization, aggregation) and image presence (explicitness, affiliation, congruence). The book enriches our theoretical understanding of visual grammar and provides strategies for the effective use of infographics in classrooms.
2025-03-30
Ana Isabel González Contreras, David Pérez Jorge, Elena Honorio González, Isabel Alonso Rodríguez
Background. The state of emergency triggered by Covid-19 has significantly impacted various sectors, with education being one of the most affected. This qualitative study explores the psychosocial and educational repercussions for students with Specific Learning Difficulties (SLD), focusing mainly on those with dyslexia and their families. That is, understand how dyslexic students and their families have experienced their confinement and what psychosocial and educational consequences have derived from this situation. Purpose. To investigate the Covid-19 impact on dyslexic students, identifying specific challenges to improve support strategies. Method. In collaboration with the Extremadura Dyslexia Association (EXADIS) and the Spanish Dyslexia Federation (FEDIS), we developed a 20-item questionnaire to assess perceptions, experiences, and challenges during lockdown. Nineteen families participated, providing relevant data. Results. Students with dyslexia experienced an overload of tasks and significant difficulties in understanding content, which increased their levels of stress and anxiety. Concurrently, positive aspects were identified, such as the strengthening of family bonds and improvement in the quality of shared time. However, the teaching staff detected a lack of coordination in the implementation of curricular adaptations and the appropriate follow-up for these students. Conclusion. These results underline the need for more effective pedagogical strategies and coordinated support to address the educational needs of students with dyslexia in crises.
2025-03-30
Elena Tikhonova, Lilia Raitskaya
Introduction: Various linguistic mechanisms and devices are applied in academic writing to communicate the opinion and valuations of the authors and engage with their readers. The concepts of author’s voice, stance and identity stand out among numerous notions describing various aspects related to the author in the written academic discourse. The scoping review aims to synthesize the knowledge on those concepts in the international publications with a view to defining frequently and interchangeably used terms. Method: This scoping review sticks to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for Scoping Reviews, the framework proposed by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) and PСC framework. Results: The review synthesized 40 publications on the author-related concepts indexed in the Scopus database. The documents were distributed among three thematic clusters: Cluster 1. Identity in academic writing and author-related concepts. Cluster 2. Authorial voice in academic discourse. Cluster 3. Author’s stance. The data extracted from the documents under review on the key author-related concepts in academic writing – author’s voice, stance and identity – allowed to sum up the definitions and major features supporting the understanding of those concepts. Discussion: The review proved that the terminology in the field is rather unclear and ambiguous. The key concepts tend to be used interchangeably. The limitations of the review were incorporated in some eligibility criteria, including publications in other languages, geography, and types of publications. Future reviews may focus on the publications dwelling upon authorial engagement with readers indexed in databases other than Scopus to give a more realistic picture. Conclusion: The findings may become the background for future research on authorial voice, stance, identity in academic discourse as well as other author-related concepts.
2025-03-30
Sanja Marinov Vranješ, Mirna Varga
Background : Motivated by the growing interest in the impact of study abroad programs on language development, the present research addresses a gap in the literature by examining the often-overlooked role of metadiscourse markers in writing. Purpose : The study explores the impact of study abroad on the use of attitude markers, boosters, and hedges in the L2 English academic writing of international students. Method : Using a pre-test post-test within-subject design, we analysed essays written by students before and after a semester abroad to map the characteristics of their interactional metadiscourse style and assess changes in their use of these markers. Results : The findings show a significant increase in hedges post-study abroad, indicating a shift towards a more cautious and nuanced writing style. However, no statistically significant changes were observed for attitude markers and boosters. The overall range of interactional metadiscourse markers remained limited, occasionally making lexical choices more typical of informal language rather than academic written discourse. Conclusion : While study abroad may enhance certain aspects of language use, targeted pedagogical interventions are needed to improve academic writing. Emphasizing interactional metadiscourse markers could help students develop a more sophisticated written style, better suited to academic contexts. This research contributes to both pragmatics and study abroad literature. In pragmatics, it expands existing knowledge on the writing styles of novice academic writers, particularly by identifying potential areas for improvement related to the use of metadiscourse markers. Simultaneously, it advances study abroad literature by introducing metadiscourse as a critical, yet previously underexplored indicator of writing quality. By highlighting the importance of these linguistic features, this study opens new avenues for both theoretical inquiry and practical applications in enhancing the academic writing skills of international students.
2025-03-30
Caterina Artuso, Elena Torelli, Carmen Belacchi
Background: Definitional skills represent the ability to express words’ meaning using canonical formats (i.e., ‘a cat is a domestic animal that meows’). This complex linguistic production requires lexical, semantic, morphosyntactic, pragmatic and metalinguistic abilities, all implicitly mastered in language listening comprehension. Listening comprehension has a crucial role also in the cognitive linguistic mediated development, especially in promoting future reading comprehension. The relationship between definitional skills and listening comprehension is an underinvestigated topic. Purpose: The aim of the present study was to explore this relationship in preschoolers and in school-aged children (first and third graders). Method: Fifty-seven Italian children (age range: 44-106 months) were individually administered both a definition task, that requires to produce the definition of noun, verbs, and adjectives, scored by the Scale of Definitional Competence (Co.De. Scale), and the Test for Oral Reading Comprehension (TOR) that assesses textual and inferential listening comprehension via two brief stories. Results: We found preliminary evidence of a bidirectional relationship between definitional skills and listening comprehension both in preschoolers and in school-aged children. Age explains a significant portion of variance of definitional skills (over listening comprehension); whereas definitional skills account for listening comprehension (in particular, textual comprehension). Conclusion: The results are discussed in the light of the bidirectional link emerged from the analyses, promoting an initial reflection on the complex relationship between a metalinguistic ability (i.e., definitional skills) and listening comprehension processes both involved in school achievement.
2025-03-30
Miguel Ángel Jordán Enamorado
Introduction: The launch of ChatGPT has popularized the use of Artificial Intelligence and has opened a debate about the opportunities and risks of this digital tool. Although it is still in development, ChatGPT offers numerous application possibilities as an educational resource. Purpose: To explore the application of ChatGPT in enhancing English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learning, particularly in the field of tourism. Method : In this research, 91 students from two groups taking the English 2 course at the University of Valencia used ChatGPT to complete tasks aimed at improving their English for Tourism Purposes (ETP) skills. Students used digital devices to interact with ChatGPT and submitted their work through the university's platform. The tasks included reading comprehension, vocabulary exercises, and role-play activities relevant to the tourism field. After the activities, students' interactions with ChatGPT were collected, and the quality of ChatGPT's responses was analyzed, with a focus on achieving at least 80% accuracy. This methodology was designed to provide real-world language practice and was evaluated to ensure the effectiveness of ChatGPT's assistance. Results : The findings reveal that despite some limitations, ChatGPT proves to be a versatile and highly effective tool for both classroom and self-directed learning. It enhances students’ written communication skills through role-play activities by simulating conversations, that require students to write responses to its questions and providing them with detailed corrections and suggestions for improvement. In vocabulary acquisition, through a text-based methodology, ChatGPT helps students identify, define, and use relevant terms, which improves their overall language proficiency. Additionally, the interactive nature of ChatGPT tasks and its ability to provide instant feedback increase student engagement and motivation. Conclusion: This study's findings indicate that ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learning, despite some limitations in accuracy that hinder its unsupervised use. It is particularly effective for generating activities, obtaining additional information about texts, and vocabulary practice, although its current effectiveness in correcting activities requires teacher supervision. The ability of Chat GPT to create real-world scenarios with minimal preparation time makes it a useful resource for both classroom and autonomous learning. However, further research is essential to explore its full potential and address its limitations, ensuring reliable integration into language curricula.
2024-12-29
Sergey Pletenev
Background: Modern computational linguistics heavily relies on large language models that demonstrate strong performance in various Natural Language Inference (NLI) tasks. These models, however, require substantial computational resources for both training and deployment. To address this challenge, a range of compression and acceleration techniques has been developed, including quantization, pruning, and factorization. Each of these approaches operates differently, can be applied at various levels of the model architecture, and is suited to different deployment scenarios. Purpose: The objective of this study is to analyze and evaluate a factorization-based compression technique that reduces the computational footprint of large language models while preserving their accuracy in NLI tasks, particularly for resource-constrained or latency-sensitive applications. Method: To evaluate the impact of factorization-based compression, we conducted probing experiments. First, we chose a widely-used pre-trained model (Bert-base and Llama 2) as our baseline. Then, we applied low-rank factorization to its transformer layers using various singular value decomposition algorithms at different compression rates. After that, we used probing tasks to analyze the changes in the internal representations and linguistic knowledge of the compressed models. We compared the changes in the model's internal representations with its ability to solve natural language inference (NLI) tasks and the compression rate achieved through factorization. Results: Naive uniform factorization often led to significant accuracy drops, even at small compression rates, reflecting a noticeable degradation in the model's ability to understand textual entailments. Probing tasks showed that these uniformly compressed models lost important syntactic and semantic information, which aligned with the performance decline we observed. However, targeted compression approaches, such as selectively compressing the most redundant parts of the model or weighting algorithms, mitigated these negative effects. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that factorization, when used properly, can significantly reduce computational requirements while preserving the core linguistic capabilities of large language models. Our research can inform the development of future compression techniques that adapt factorization strategies to the inherent structure of models and their tasks. These insights can help deploy LLMs in scenarios with limited computational resources.
2024-12-29
Lilia Raitskaya, Elena Tikhonova
Introduction: Academic writing is getting through a transformative shift with the advent of the generative AI-powered tools in 2022. It spurred research in the emerging field that focus on appliances of AI-powered tools in academic writing. As the AI technologies are changing fast, a regular synthesis of new knowledge needs revisiting. Purpose: Though there are scoping and systematic reviews of some sub-fields, the present review aims to set the scope of the research field of research on GenAI appliances in academic writing. Method: The review adhered to the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews, and the PPC framework. The eligibility criteria include problem, concept, context, language, subject area, types of sources, database (Scopus), and period (2023-2024). Results: The three clusters set for the reviewed 44 publications included (1) AI in enhancing academic writing; (2) AI challenges in academic writing; (3) authorship and integrity. The potential of AI language tools embraces many functions (text generation, proofreading, editing, text annotation, paraphrasing and translation) and provides for assistance in research and academic writing, offers strategies for hybrid AI-powered writing of various assignments and genres and improvements in writing quality. Language GenAI-powered tools are also studied as a feedback tool. The challenges and concerns related to the appliances of such tools range from authorship and integrity to overreliance on such tools, misleading or false generated content, inaccurate referencing, inability to generate author’s voice. The review findings are in compliance with the emerging trends outlined in the previous publications, though more publications focus on the mechanisms of integrating the tools in AI-hybrid writing in various contexts. The discourse on challenges is migrating to the revisiting the concepts of authorship and originality of Gen AI-generated content. Conclusion: The directions of research have shown some re-focusing, with new inputs and new focuses in the field. The transformation of academic writing is accelerating, with new strategies wrought in the academia to face the challenges and rethinking of the basic concepts to meet the shift. Further regular syntheses of knowledge are essential, including more reviews of all already existent and emerging sub-fields.
2024-12-29
Valery Solovyev, Marina Solnyshkina, Андрей Тен, Nikolai Prokopyev
Introduction: Automatic profiling and genre classification are crucial for text suitability assessment and as such have been in high demand in education, information retrieval, sentiment analysis, and machine translation for over a decade. Of all kinds of genres, fairy tales make one of the most challenging and valuable objects of study due to its heterogeneity and a wide range of implicit idiosyncrasies. Traditional classification methods including stylometric and parametric algorithms, however, are not only labour-intensive and time-consuming, but they are also struggling with identifying corresponding classifying discriminants. The research in the area is scarce, their findings are still controversial and debatable. Purpose: Our study aims to fill this crucial void and offers an algorithm to range Russian fairy-tales into classes based on the pre-set parameters. We present the latest BERT-based classification model for Russian fairy tales, test the hypothesis of BERT potential for classifying Russian texts and verify it on a representative corpus of 743 Russian fairy tales. Method: We pre-train BERT using a collection of three classes of documents and fine-tune it for implementation of a specific application task. Focused on the mechanism of tokenization and embeddings design as the key components in BERT’s text processing, the research also evaluates the standard benchmarks used to train classification models and analyze complex cases, possible errors and improvement algorithms thus raising the classification models accuracy. Evaluation of the models performance is conducted based on the loss function, prediction accuracy, precision and recall. Results: We validated BERT’s potential for Russian text classification and ability to enhance the performance and quality of the existing NLP models. Our experiments with cointegrated/rubert-tiny, ai forever/ruBert-base, and DeepPavlov/rubert-base-cased-sentence on different classification tasks demonstrate that our models achieve state-of-the-art results with the best accuracy of 95.9% in cointegrated/rubert-tiny thus outperforming the other two models by a good margin. Thus, the achieved by AI classification accuracy is so high that it can compete with that of human expertise. Conclusion: The findings highlight the importance of fine-tuning for classifying models. BERT demonstrates great potential for improving NLP technologies and contributing to the quality of automatic text analysis and offering new opportunities for research and application in a wide range of areas including identification and arrangement of all types of content-relevant texts thus contributing to decision making. The designed and validated algorithm can be scaled for classification of as complex and ambiguous discourse as fiction thus improving our understanding of text specific categories. Considerably bigger datasets are required for these purposes.
2024-09-29
Jaja
Introduction: Students' writing skills positively impact their overall academic ability. Writing allows students to gain knowledge while enhancing their intelligence, initiative, courage, and willpower. Moreover, it fosters creativity, inspiring students to think outside the box. Therefore, it can be said that teaching students to write is crucial to the learning process in the classroom, even though, in reality, teaching students to write is an activity that neither teachers nor students enjoy. It seems contradictory that writing is both necessary and undesirable simultaneously. Purpose: This study investigates research trends in students' writing skills through bibliometric analysis recorded on the Scopus database from 2014 to 2023. Method: The study identified 7650 publications in the Scopus database when searching for the keyword "students, writing, and skills." Using the Prisma model, it selected 2214 publications as the sample. The data were analyzed using bibliometric analysis. Results: The analysis has revealed that Graham (f= 105) , Hwang (f= 102) , and Kent (f= 84) were the top three authors who investigated students' writing skills in their studies, showcasing the diversity of research in our field. Meanwhile, Reading and Writing, Asian EFL Journal, and International Journal of Instruction are the top three publishers with the most publications, further highlighting the breadth of our field. At the country level, the United States is the most productive country, with Arizona State University being the most productive university in research about students' writing. The study also found that writing in higher education contexts is the most widely researched area. Conclusion: More importantly, the bibliometrics analysis has also revealed that argumentative writing skills, collaborative writing, EFL learners, and writing attitude are some areas that need more research.
2024-09-29
Nazirah Mahmud, Mohd Haniff Mohd Tahir
Background : Plagiarism is a serious academic misconduct demanding mitigation to uphold the integrity of original work. Undeniably, with the advancement of technological age, plagiarising becomes easier and harder to detect. However, the reliance on technology significantly rises the likelihood of fostering academic dishonesty among the students. Therefore, it is imperative to disseminate explicit education on plagiarism reduction strategies, particularly on the importance of mastering correct referencing techniques. Purpose : The present study applied a mixed-method approach to explore the effectiveness of an intervention called Educational Intervention (EI) on enhancing ESL students’ academic referencing skills namely in in-text citation abilities, paraphrasing skills and writing reference list using APA style. Method : The EI consisted of explicit instruction that involved structured teaching sessions integrated with two primary instructional strategies: lectures and practical exercises on referencing in academic writing. A total of 70 participants participated in the study. Data collection involved administering tests, assigning exercises and assignments, and conducting focus group interviews. The study utilised a quasi-experimental design to analyse the effectiveness of the intervention. Quantitative data were analysed using one-way ANOVA and paired sample t-test to assess the effectiveness of the EI. Qualitative data were examined through thematic analysis to explore participants’ experiences and perceptions. Results : Data analyses of the plagiarism test indicated that the experimental group showed significantly greater improvements in referencing skills compared to the control group, with statistical significance at p <.05 for all assessed skills. However, findings for the gathered exercises and assignments demonstrated improvements but not statistically significant in their referencing skills except for paraphrasing. Nonetheless, feedback from focus group interviews indicated positive responses toward EI and its role in enhancing referencing skills. Conclusion : Overall, while EI proved effective in enhancing ESL undergraduates’ referencing skills, there remains room for improvement to fully realize its potential. The study holds a global importance of imparting explicit education on referencing skills, offering educators worldwide a strategic measure aimed at reducing plagiarism act.
2024-09-29
Elena Tikhonova, Lilia Raitskaya
Introduction: The modality of scholarly written communication offers verbal and visual modes that are supposedly to be interrelated. The verbal component is thoroughly studied whereas the visual, including tables, charts, graphs and others are mainly described from a technical perspective. The editorial review aims to synthesize research on data commentary as a comparatively new rhetorical genre. Method: The review adhered to the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews, and the PPC framework. The eligibility criteria include problem, concept, context, language, types of sources, Results: The searches and consequent screening by titles, abstracts, keywords and full texts identified 19 relevant publications – articles and books – mainly indexed in the Scopus and SpringerLink databases. The books on academic writing focused on the three themes: general guidelines on data commentary, functions, and rhetorical structure of such commentaries, figure legends and notes to tables. The functional analysis of the publications singled out a prevailing framework, including rhetorical, ontological, epistemological, and argumentative functions. The rhetorical steps in data commentaries follow patterns suitable for the type of a visual. The review outlines generic steps described and proved by the research publications included in the review. Conclusion: Though the research field is scattered, and no definite trends were specified, the potential of the field is rising as the implications of such studies are significant. A constant trend towards more visualization of the new knowledge requires more research on the interrelations between the verbal and the visual, with a special accent on data commentary.
2024-09-29
Olga Boginskaya
Background : Globalization has created the academic community’s need to learn English in order to publish internationally and caused intensive research into academic prose by non-native writers with the aim of revealing prevailing culture-and discipline-specific rhetoric structures and suggesting ways of improving academic writing skills. Purpose : This contrastive study explored preferences in the employment of stance features in English-medium research article abstracts by second language writers from two different cultural backgrounds (Russia and China) assuming that variations in stancetaking are culturally shaped. Method : Hyland’s (2005b) taxonomy of stance resources was adopted for the current study as the most comprehensive one including a wide range of writer-oriented features. This taxonomy can help identify pragmatic functions of linguistic markers used for stancetaking in academic prose. The methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis were applied. Results : A contrastive analysis of the findings showed that the Russian and Chinese academic communities manifest different stancetaking preferences. The quantitative analysis revealed that Chinese-authored RA abstracts contained considerably more stance features than those written by their Russian counterparts. Most quantitative differences between the application of stance features by Russian and Chinese authors were statistically significant. It was also revealed that while the Chinese academic writers seemed to be more careful in making claims, anticipating and acknowledging, the Russian scholars chose to create an impression of certainty and assurance, instilling confidence in their readers. The differences in the employment of stance features identified in the study are likely to reflect culture-specific writing peculiarities of the Chinese and Russian academic communities which favour slightly different discursive strategies. Conclusion: The findings carry pedagogical implications for academic writing course designers and can enhance L2 writers’ familiarity with the culture-specific academic writing conventions in the knowledge domain.
2024-09-29
Antoaneta Angelova-Stanimirova, Maya Lambovska
Background. Academic writing for publication (AWforP) has recently come to the fore because of the critical importance of scholarly publication to academia. A review of the scientific literature on AWforP found that it is underdeveloped and lacks comprehensive frameworks and models for AWforP challenges, AWforP strategies, or both. Purpose. To contribute to bridging these gaps, this article aims to summarize and map the AWforP challenges and AWforP strategies identified in the scholarly empirical literature. Method. A systematic Scopus/WoS literature review was used for data collection, identifying 15 relevant sources ( n , sample size). Data were analyzed and summarized by deduction and meta-analysis based on chi-square heterogeneity test and meta-regression, then mapped by induction and K-means clustering. Results. First, 31 challenges to AWforP and 36 strategies for AWforP were detected. Second, an original classification of AWforP challenges was introduced. The taxonomy of academic writing strategies was expanded with AWforP strategies. Third, AWforP challenges/strategies were ranked based on their frequency of mention in the sample. Semantic difficulties were the most prevalent challenge, and attending academic writing courses was the most advised strategy. Fourth, through meta-analysis, the sample was found to be moderately statistically heterogeneous (I 2 =60.97%), and the summary effect size was positive and statistically significant. Fifth, the sampled sources were mapped into five clusters based on the country of researchers studied (SSE=10.511). Conclusion. This article conceptualizes empirical research on AWforP challenges and AWforP strategies by identifying, comprehensively systematizing, summarizing, and mapping them. Implementing the proposed taxonomy of AWforP challenges/strategies under the identified cluster specifics in strategic research planning and control practices would improve researchers’ publication activity and research management effectiveness at the university and national levels.
2024-06-16
Marjon Moiinvaziri
Background: Exploring the impact of various reading methods - such as oral reading, silent reading, and the relatively understudied subvocalization method - on the comprehension abilities of language learners with different cognitive styles, including reflective and impulsive learners, can contribute significantly to understanding how different reading techniques enhance comprehension across diverse cognitive styles. Purpose: To investigate the role of three reading methods, including oral, silent, and subvocalization, on the comprehension performance of a group of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, considering the cognitive styles of impulsivity and reflectivity. Method: In this study, 60 female students studying in first-grade senior high school were selected based on purposive sampling. Employing a counterbalanced quasi-experimental design with three treatments, the research investigated how different reading methods influenced the impulsive and reflective learners' reading performance. The impulsivity and reflectivity of the participants were determined by Eysenck's Impulsiveness Questionnaire (I.7). Results: The results revealed that all participants, both reflective and impulsive, demonstrated better comprehension performance with oral and subvocalization methods compared to silent reading. The oral and subvocalization methods had a similar effect on their performance. Reflective learners outperformed impulsive learners across all three methods, showing significantly higher performance. Additionally, most participants expressed a preference for oral reading over the other two methods. Conclusion: The outcomes suggest the importance of teachers' increased flexibility in utilizing diverse reading methods and considering learners' diverse characteristics, including their cognitive style, in classroom instruction
2024-06-16
Humairah Fauziah, Yazid Bashtomi
Background: The prevalence and impact of passive voice (PV) structures in research articles have garnered attention, particularly within the context of academic publishing guidelines. Some journals’ writing style guideline, for example, explicitly advises authors to eliminate passive voice instances from their manuscripts, prompting an examination of the extent to which this guideline influences authors' choices in different journal contexts. Purpose: This study aimed at comparing the frequency of passive voice (PV) structures used in research articles published by journals originating in Indonesia (henceforth, JOI) to those in research articles published by journals originating in English-speaking countries (henceforth, JOE). Method: Data were gathered from respected journals in Indonesia and the United Kingdom, both renowned for their excellence in language education and applied linguistics. After reviewing relevant literature and considering journal origins and author affiliations, we selected 34 articles (17 from each group) out of 66. We focused our analysis on the 'Introduction' and 'Method' sections, as these sections typically contain active voice in the former and passive voice in the latter. Other sections and peripheral elements were excluded. The analysis involved exporting PDFs to text files to count words and passive voice occurrences. We utilized a passive voice detector tool and manual analysis for accuracy. A t-test was conducted to compare the frequency of passive voice between the two journals. Results: The results indicated three main findings with respect to the research questions: 1) PVs in JOI occurred more frequently in the ‘Method’ than in the ‘Introduction’ section, 2) similarly, PVs in JOE occurred more frequently in the ‘Method’ than in the ‘Introduction’ section, 3) JOI comprised fewer sentences than JOE but the frequency of PVs in JOI was significantly higher than that in JOE. Conclusion: We inferred that the current guidelines seemingly affected the authors' choices of using PV. We also provided some suggestions on how to use AV and PV appropriately in the manuscript.
2024-06-16
Diem-Ha Nguyen Thi
Background: Intrinsic motivation (IM) is not far from a new research topic in English teaching. However, the relationship between this learning construct and the 5Ts framework, proposed by Renandya (2014) as a teacher-induced motivational agent, has not been explored. Purpose: This work scrutinised the relationship between IM and perceptions towards five components of the 5Ts framework in an attempt to provide a simple means for effective teaching Method: 110 English majors responded to a self-questionnaire containing two scales measuring IM and perceptions towards the 5Ts as a motivational agent. Besides descriptive statistics and Cronbach’s alpha, the present study employed other necessary techniques, such as Pearson’s correlation and regression, to analyse the obtained data to draw results which had pedagogical implications. Results: The research questionnaire reached acceptable reliability, and the students expressed positive levels of IM and perceptions of the 5Ts framework. The results also revealed a positive relationship between these two variables, and students’ perceptions of the 5Ts components predicted their IM. Conclusion: The findings support the hypothesis that the 5Ts framework enhances motivation. In addition, the teacher might need an added approach to enhance the learning motivation in the students with low levels, parallel with the 5Ts implementation for the entire class.
2024-06-16
Spyridon Bouras, Panagiotis Barkas, Eleni Griva
Purpose: The purpose of this study, which was part of a broader research on Greek minority education in Albania, was the evaluation of a training program tailored to language teachers’ needs who teach Greek in bilingual/intercultural environments. In particular, the study attempted to contribute the development of an integrated framework for the training of language teachers in the modern educational process. Specifically, distance training was carried out, in modern and asynchronous environments through a training platform. According to the mapping of the needs of the Greek Language teachers in bilingual educational environments throughout Albania and based on the specifications dictated by the international literature, 10 thematic modules were designed with modern methods in the instruction of Greek. Method: The training program was implemented in 43 language teachers of Greek minority education in Albania from the area of Argyrokastro, Delvino and Agioi Saranda. For the evaluation of the program four forms were utilized that were carried out at different stages of the program: a) Initial, b) Formative, c) Final and d) Follow-up Evaluation. To collect the quantitatively data, four questionnaires were distributed at all stages of the training program to trainees. Results: The results indicated the effectiveness of the training program and highlighted the active involvement of trainees in all stages of the program. It revealed the development of teachers’ ability to take decisions in order to improve daily teaching routines with the ultimate goal of achieving a quality language education in bilingual/intercultural environments. The trainees acquired, through digital learning processes, the ability to implement innovative language activities in their classrooms, laying the foundations for the consolidation of a modern way of thinking of language teachers. Implications: The collection of data will contribute to the implementation of more effective training programs in the region and the application of modern teaching methods by teachers who teach in bilingual/intercultural environments in general.
2024-03-29
Javier Perez-Guerra, Elizaveta Smirnova
Background: Mastering verbal tenses, especially those expressing aspect, in a second language presents a challenge as learners frequently link the semantic nuances of verbal forms in their second language (L2) to the characteristics of the verbal systems in their native languages (L1). This study explores the impact of L1 on the usage of the English Present Perfect (PP) among non-native speakers. Purpose: In an effort to contribute to the ongoing research on the mechanisms governing the acquisition of English tenses, this study focuses on the variations that affect the usage of the PP in the writing of English learners. The investigation is particularly centered on university students whose L1 is Russian and Spanish, seeking to delve into the ways in which their first language influences the utilisation of the PP in their English writing. Method: Analysis of L2 English by Russian and Spanish learners, based on corpora of argumentative essays written by undergraduate Russian and Spanish learners of English, controlled by a corpus of essays produced by native speakers of English; frequency and distribution of the PP in learner writings; examination of semantic contexts; identification of error types. Results: The findings indicate that, despite a higher occurrence of the PP in texts produced by Spanish learners compared to Russian learners, the rate of errors in its application is nearly identical in both learner corpora. These errors are likely attributable to challenges in comprehending the functions of the PP and in distinguishing its semantics from those of other English tenses, particularly the Past Simple. Conclusion: The study suggests that the increased prevalence of PP usage by L2 learners may be attributed to positive transfer from their L1 when it exhibits structures analogous to the English PP. Conversely, patterns indicative of, for example, undergeneralisation of semantic contexts suggesting the relevance of an action, or of overgeneralisation of adverbs compatible with the PP can be interpreted as evidence of negative transfer. The results of this study hold significance for language pedagogy, as they highlight potential challenges in acquiring the PP that learners from diverse L1 backgrounds may encounter.