Phonological-based instruction, namely phonological awareness instruction (PA) and phonics instruction, has shown to be effective on early literacy skills among young children in western countries. Children who learn English as a foreign language (EFL) learn to read English differently from children in English-dominant societies. Effectiveness of the instruction in the EFL context is much less ...

This paper, as part of an ongoing study, reports a qualitative case study in investigating pre-writing activities among three English as Foreign language (EFL) learners in an online community via a facebook group. The data were collected from the learners’ interactional exchanges, observation notes of their interaction and responses to online written interview questions. Based on a qualitative ...

In our previous research a linear readability formula was developed through a series of multiple regression analyses using four independent variables: (1) sentence length, (2) word length, (3) textbook-based word difficulty and (4) textbook-based idiom difficulty, and one dependent variable: year level of EFL textbook. The present study attempts to develop a new readability formula that include...

The present study aimed at furthering the understanding of the potential effects of e-learner characteristics on e-learner satisfaction in an EFL context. Specifically, it examined the collective impact of computer anxiety, computer-mediated communication (CMC) apprehension, metacognitive self-regulation strategy use, mastery goal orientation, and performance goal orientation on EFL e-learner s...

The role of mobile technology has significantly increased and been emphasized in English education. However, research investigating EFL teachers’ attitudes and behaviors related to mobile technology has been limited in descriptive aspects of the technology, leading to misunderstandings about EFL teachers’ needs. Furthermore, many prior studies have examined various aspects of electronic learnin...

Proper coordination of oogenesis, ovulation, and fertilization is essential for successful reproduction. In Caenorhabditis elegans, a strong loss-of-function mutation in dpl-1, which encodes a subunit of the E2F heterodimeric transcription factor EFL-1/DPL-1, causes severe defects during ovulation and fertilization. Here we demonstrate that the somatic gonad structure and sheath cell contractio...

Writing in English might be one of the most difficult tasks for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners. This paper presents FLOW, a writing assistance system. It is built based on first-language-oriented input function and context sensitive approach, aiming at providing immediate and appropriate suggestions including translations, paraphrases, and n-grams during composing and revising pro...

Storytelling is a practical and powerful teaching tool, especially for language learning. Teachers in language classrooms, however, may hesitate to incorporate storytelling into language instruction because of an already overloaded curriculum. English foreign language (EFL) teachers in Taiwan report additional problems such as having little prior experience with integrating storytelling into la...

Vocabulary learning and teaching has been one of the main issues in ESL/EFL learning and teaching research. EFL teachers in China, in particular, are grappling with the effective vocabulary teaching methods. This paper is doing part of this job in a different way. It discusses three principles based on Cognitive Linguistics (CL), namely the study of categorization, prototype, and metaphor, and ...

When students in Taiwan enter into higher education, the reading demands placed upon them often lead them to select ineffective and inefficient strategies with little strategic intent. To investigate how reading strategy use affects the development of Taiwanese EFL learners’ reading comprehension, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship and differences of four reading strategy...