The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the four sources of English pronunciation self-efficacy and English pronunciation proficiency of Chinese college learners of English. A sample of 429 English majors at a college in China was selected. The test scores from a read-aloud task were used as the measure of subjects’ English pronunciation proficiency. The questionnaire was used to collect the data of four English pronunciation self-efficacy sources. The Pearson correlations showed that the four sources were correlated significantly with English pronunciation proficiency. The multiple regression analysis showed that 45% variance in English pronunciation proficiency was explained by the linear combinations of the four sources; however, the nominal variable of gender was not statistically significant in explaining the variance in English pronunciation proficiency. Overall, the significant relationship between English pronunciation self-efficacy sources and English pronunciation proficiency was observed in the present study. Pedagogical implications for teaching English pronunciation were discussed based on the results.

The purpose of this study is to investigate affective factors that distinguish the high spoken English use group from the low spoken English use group among Korean EFL middle school students. This study focuses on the variables of communication strategy, willingness to communicate, self-concept, motivation, and anxiety. A questionnaire on communication strategy, willingness to communicate, self-concept, motivation, anxiety, and the use of spoken English was designed and administered to 112 students of eighth grade in a province. The findings of the study are as follows: (1) the middle school students’ levels of extrinsic motivation and speaking anxiety were high, while the levels of self-concept, intrinsic motivation, and the use of spoken English were low, (2) the highest positive relationship was found between willingness to communicate (WTC) and the use of spoken English, while the highest negative relationship was observed between speaking anxiety and the use of spoken English, (3) willingness to communicate (WTC), academic self-concept, and communication anxiety were statistically significant factors that distinguished the high spoken English use group from the low spoken English use group. Based on the findings, some suggestions were made in regard to helping students improve their use of spoken English.

The primary objective of this study was to explore the relationship between L2 reading motivation and L2 reading strategy use. 283 Chinese college EFL students participated in this study. They answered a questionnaire with 65 items that measured the three constructs of reading motivation, reading strategy use and their self-perceived reading proficiency. Confirmatory factor analyses were applied to check the validity of each construct. Based on their motivation scores, the subjects were divided into different clusters; 22.6% of the subjects to the most highly motivated cluster; 34.4% to the moderately motivated cluster; 43.1% to the least motivated cluster. Discriminant analysis showed that such variables as advanced comprehension strategies, repetition and comprehension enhancing strategies were statistically significant variables that distinguished the three groups from each other. These results imply that EFL learners may be instructed to be aware of the importance of L2 reading motivation and L2 reading strategies for improving their L2 reading proficiency.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between elementary school students’ self-confidence in English as a foreign language and their assessment of English teaching taught by native speaker English teachers. A total of 126 elementary school students were asked on a 5-point Likert scale instrument to assess their native English teachers in terms of their teaching ability, provision of opportunity to use English, classroom management, and language assessment ability. In addition, the subjects were asked to rate how much they were confident with their English. All of the responses were submitted to the SPSS 22 version for statistical analyses. Firstly, the subjects were divided into 3 groups based on how much they felt confident with their English. Secondly, a MANOVA was run to investigate any group differences in how they perceive their native speaker teachers’ teaching ability, provision of opportunity, and language assessment ability. The results indicated that language confidence was indeed an important variable not only in subjects’ learning English but also how they perceived their English learning experience as a whole. Pedagogical implications for improving elementary school children were also discussed.

This study explores whether there are any differences between the scores of amotivation, extrinsic motivation, and intrinsic motivation of a middle school group and a high school group. It examines the effects of two factors on the difference in the scores of each motivation subtype: whether students receive private education, and when students first start learning English. T-test results indicate higher scores for the middle school group in all the subtypes than for the high school group. Statistical significance was not obtained in support of the effect of private education. The group that started learning English in the third grade of elementary school showed a higher amotivation mean score than the group that started in the first or second grade. Also, amotivation was proven to be a viable variable to group subjects with in addition to extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation, supporting the motivation system proposed in Selfdetermination Theory. These results imply that teachers need to understand motivation as a dynamic construct and attempt to promote it through groupspecific approaches in English classrooms.

Youngcheol Kim and Jaewoo Shim. 2017. Discriminant Analysis of Satisfaction Levels with Native Speaker Instructors Held by Elementary School Pre-service Teachers of English. Studies in Modern Grammar 96, 235-251. The current study investigated the levels of satisfaction with native speaker teachers of English that were perceived by a group of elementary school pre-service teachers of English in a teachers college. 79 subjects responded to a Likert-type questionnaire with 15 items aimed to assess their satisfaction with their current and former native speaker teachers on their campus. The questionnaire measured the four aspects of teaching: the ability to teach, the ability to offer learning opportunities, the ability to manage and create friendly classroom climate, and the ability to assess their performance. The discriminant analysis was used to identify aspects that separated satisfied from unsatisfied groups of students. The results of the discriminant analysis showed that two independent variables (i.e., the native speaker teachers’ ability to offer learning opportunities and their ability to teach) were statistically significant variables in separating the two groups. These findings indicated that native speaker teachers of English need to make efforts to design lessons that may prompt active student participation, while keeping high levels of teaching ability congruent with students’ expectations.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the motivational factors of Korean middle and high school students in learning English. Additionally, the current study examined whether there were any differences between high school students and middle school students in therms of the motivational subtypes. 172 middle and high school students participated in this study. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to address the research questions. For analysis, data was collected through a questionnaire adopted from the Language Learning Orientation Scale (LLOS) of Noels et al. (2003). The results indicated that the hypothesized model, which includes seven motivational sub-types of self- determination theory, was acceptable to measure Korean secondary students’ motivational factors, showing good fits in most fit indices. The seven dimensions of motivation that the current study explored were amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, intrinsic motivation-accomplishment, intrinsic motivationknowledge, and intrinsic motivation-stimulus. Also, the study found that the difference between the middle school group and the high school group was not significant in terms of their motivational orientation. A meaningful implication of this study was the scale’s possible use by secondary English teachers.

A role of students' affective factors in assessing their non-native teachers of English. Studies in Modern Grammar This study investigated the relationship between non-native English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ perceptions of their non-native teachers and their own affective variables. A total of 189 subjects in this study responded to a Likert-type scale instrument that measured their self-directed learning behavior, anxiety, class participation, their perceived teachers’ teaching ability, closeness with their teachers, and anxiety aroused in the presence of their teachers. Following principal factor analyses to check the construct validity of each construct, canonical correlation analysis was performed to understand to what extent subjects’ perceptions of their non-native teachers of English can be related to their affective states are related. The results indicated that the two sets were moderately correlated in two functions with canonical coefficients 0.52 and 0.37, suggesting that perceptions of non-native teachers may be related to learners’ affective states. Further analyses showed that students who reported high on self-regulatory learning behavior and classroom participation were likely to feel that their teacher was close to them, were still likely to feel anxious, and tended to feel positive about their teacher’s teaching ability. In addition, this study found that students with low foreign language anxiety were likely to manifest low belief in their teacher’s teaching ability, were likely to feel distant from their teacher, and likely to have the fear of negative evaluation.

The primary objective of this study was to investigate English midterm test items through the application of the Rasch measurement modeling. The teacher-constructed 21 multiple choice test items to which 190 subjects responded as their midterm summative test were submitted to Winsteps 7, a Rasch measurement model program. The Rasch analysis results showed six out of 21 items misfitted the model. The qualitative analysis of those six items revealed that most of those items had more than two correct answers. The other analysis of the equivalency between item difficulties and subjects’ abilities indicated that most items matched only with mid-level ability groups of subjects, lacking items for both upper and lower levels of subjects. It was also found that items related to text organization were among the easiest items, giving support for the efficacy of text-based instruction. The findings of this study also implied that more training of constructing and banking items may be necessary for inservice English teachers, who should take the responsibilities for introducing positive washback effects to their students.