The field of computer-assisted language learning has recently brought about a notable change in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing. Starting from October 2022, students across different academic fields have increasingly depended on ChatGPT-4 as a helpful resource for addressing particular challenges in EFL writing. This study aimed to investigate the use and acceptance of ChatGPT-4 in students’ EFL writing. To this end, an experiment was conducted with 76 undergraduate students from a private school in Algeria. The participants were randomly allocated into two groups: experimental group (n = 37) and control group (n = 39). Additionally, a questionnaire was administered. The results showed that the experimental group (EG) outperformed the control group (CG). Besides, the findings revealed that students in the EG in post-test outperformed their pre-test scores. The findings also revealed substantial improvements in the EG’s views of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitudes, and behavioral intention. According to the results, ChatGPT-4 helped boost students' EFL writing skills, which ultimately led to their acceptance. Students appear particularly interested in ChatGPT-4 because of its potential usefulness in putting what they learn about EFL writing into practice. Some suggestions and recommendations were provided.
The recent growth and sustainability in online education have led to a greater demand for language teachers to accept online teaching and a heightened focus on language teachers’ emotions in an online setting. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this study attempted to investigate the relationship between English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ acceptance of online teaching and their emotional labor in online teaching. A questionnaire was distributed to 338 EFL teachers working at 19 middle schools and 24 high schools in China, and 10 teachers were interviewed. Following a series of analyses of the data, a structural relationship model integrating acceptance of online teaching and online teaching emotional labor strategies was developed and tested. The results indicate that EFL teachers’ acceptance of online teaching significantly predicts three emotional labor strategies in online teaching. Specifically, EFL teachers’ acceptance of online teaching positively influences deep acting and expression of naturally felt emotions, while negatively affecting surface acting. The obtained results address important theoretical, methodological, and practical gaps by examining the interplay between acceptance of online teaching and emotional labor in the context of online language education, a dimension that previous studies have largely overlooked.
Research in the field of language attrition suggests that the use of a foreign language (FL) diminishes among language learners when it ceases to be actively employed. The present study aimed to investigate whether similar patterns of lexical attrition occurred among FL teachers, who were generally considered to possess a strong resistance to FL attrition. Specifically, this study sought to explore issues related to lexical attrition in the FL competence of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers within Chinese educational contexts. A questionnaire consisting of 34 items and a self-report scale on vocabulary were administered to a sample of 105 EFL teachers from 43 junior high schools in China, accompanied by interviews with 10 participants. The results revealed that five factors, namely teachers’ language contact, initial language proficiency, teachers’ concerns about maintaining language proficiency, teachers’ attitudes toward language learning, and artificially-intervened language use, accounted for 42% of the total variance and significantly influenced EFL teachers’ lexical attrition. Notably, initial language proficiency and language contact emerged as the most influential predictors of lexical attrition among teachers. These findings indicated that EFL teachers’ lexical attrition closely resembled that observed in other FL learner groups in China, which might have adverse implications for FL education in diverse ways. This research would provide valuable insights for improving the professional development of EFL teachers and enhancing FL education in such contexts.