Zhengdong Gan

• PhD
• Associate professor at The University of Macau

Reading self-efficacy in both first language (L1) or second language (L2) contexts has attracted increasing attention from researchers and practitioners in the past decades. However, prior self-efficacy studies have mainly adopted variable-centered approaches, and a global index of reading self-efficacy was created in these studies. Individual diff...

While the term feedback engagement has become a buzzword in highereducation, the constructs of feedback engagement have remained inad -equately investigated, and research on the conceptualization and instru -mentation of feedback engagement in the literature is limited. This paperpresents the development and validation of a feedback engagementscale...

Drawing on recent theorizing of feedback in educational assessment and psychology, the current study aimed to examine the links between perceived teacher feedback practices, student feedback motivation and engagement in English learning. Seven hundred and sixty-four Chinese university students attending a tertiary-level English enhancement course (...

Given the preeminent role of students' reading motivation in their academic success in reading, which determines the quality and intensity of cognition and behaviors, it is important to investigate the predicative effects of different aspects of reading motivation on students' learning strategies particularly in a foreign language learning context...

While motivational regulation strategies (MRSs) both as a core facet of self-regulated learning and as a pedagogical issue have attracted increasing attention from researchers and practitioners, what motivational regulation strategies learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) or English as a second language (ESL) tend to use and how these str...

This comparative study investigated the associations between instructional practices and students’ reading performance among 10 top performing regions that participated in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018. A nationally representative sample consisting of 80,016 15-year-old students from 5 Asian regions (B-S-J-Z [China],...

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Motivational scale of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire in a sample of 656 Chinese secondary students in an English learning context. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis results suggested that a five-factor motivational structure fit the data better as...

Adopting a multi-theoretical perspective, this study examined how various motivational factors from three dominant motivational theories of volitional behaviors related to undergraduates' self-directed technology use for English learning, and how the relationships varied among high, average, and low achievers. Confirmatory factor analysis results s...

Drawing on Wigfield and Eccles’s motivational theory, which is acclaimed for explaining individual behavioral intentions, this study investigated the extent to which different forms of motivation (i.e., self-efficacy, task value, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivations) predicted student behavioral feedback engagement (i.e., action on teacher feedb...

While classroom feedback has been shown to be a key mediating factor in students’ learning process and performance, the bulk of current research on feedback in the field of foreign language education has largely focused on how teachers respond to students’ linguistic errors. Published research on how students in a foreign language context respond t...

This study explored how reading motivation, self-regulated reading strategies and English vocabulary knowledge influenced students’ English reading comprehension simultaneously in one model. A total of 543 students from five universities in Southern China completed a reading motivation questionnaire, a reading strategy questionnaire, two vocabulary...

This article presents the development and validation of the Pre-Service EFL Teachers’ Motivational Beliefs about Instructional Use of Technology scale (PTMB-EFL) using a randomly split sample. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a 23-item six-factor structure of the PTMB-EFL generated from exploratory factor analysis. Significant correlations be...

This study validated the Flipped English Learning Readiness Questionnaire, and examined its relationships with teacher instructional practices, English learning self-efficacy, and language learning beliefs. A total of 442 Chinese university EFL students voluntarily participated in this research. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis resulted...

This study investigated the effect of explicit reading strategy instruction on reading comprehension, reading strategy use, reading motivation, and reading self-efficacy in Chinese university EFL learners. A total of 117 first-year university students were randomly assigned to either the experimental group or the control group. Students in the expe...

While there has been much research detailing how English as a foreign language (EFL) students attending English for academic purposes (EAP) courses struggle with a wide array of challenges when adjusting to university English-medium instruction, how these students use feedback to self-regulate their academic English learning and what contributes to...

In the literature of learner characteristics in applied linguistics, learning attitudes, strategies and motivation have received most attention. These learner individual difference variables have usually been seen as background learner variables that modify and personalize the overall trajectory of the language acquisition processes (Dörnyei, 2009)...

Extroversion and group oral performance: A mixed quantitative and discourse analysis approach 24 Extroversion and group oral performance: A mixed quantitative and discourse analysis approach zhEngdong gan-the hong Kong Institute of Education AbstrACt This article reports on a data-based study that focuses on one particular personality dimension, ex...

In spite of much recent theorizing about teacher provision of feedback, relatively fewer studies look at the dynamic relationships between teacher feedback practices, student feedback experience, and their learning outcomes in higher education settings. To fill this gap, this study looked at 308 university students' perceived teacher feedback pract...

This paper presents the development and validation of the reading motivation questionnaire in an English as a foreign language context (RMQ‐EFL) with Chinese secondary students. Data were collected from a sample of 293 secondary students in grades 10–11. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses resulted in determination of five factors (i.e., r...

This study investigated Chinese university students’ technology-assisted self-regulated learning (SRL) strategies and whether the technology-based SRL strategies mediated the associations between English language self-efficacy, English enjoyment, and learning outcomes. Data were collected from 525 undergraduate students in mainland China through th...

This article reports the development and validation of an instrument, the Technology-Based Self-Regulated English Learning Strategies Scale (TSELSS), in terms of its multifaceted structure of self-directed use of technology in English learning among Chinese university EFL students. TSELSS was developed through a three-phase process, focusing on the...

This article reports the development and validation of an instrument, the Technology-Based Self-Regulated English Learning Strategies Scale (TSELSS), in terms of its multifaceted structure of self-directed use of technology in English learning among Chinese university EFL students. TSELSS was developed through a three-phase process, focusing on the...

This study explored how 26 Chinese EFL teachers perceived community-based, technology-supported professional development practices. The methods of data collection in this study blend quantitative and qualitative techniques: 1) questionnaire survey of teachers' satisfaction about community-based technology-supported professional development practice...

Drawing on the argument that students’ different learning behaviors, including their perceptions of and engagement with feedback, could have roots in learners’ fundamental motivational characteristics, this study examines how different second language learning motivational variables may predict university EFL (English as a foreign language) student...

There has been an increasing professional and policy interest in using formative assessment as part of the learning process in the classroom, with increasing numbers of educators regarding it as an effective means of closing the gap between students’ current and desired performance. However, there is a range of different views on what actually cons...

Although oral corrective feedback (CF) has long been considered advantageous in instructed second language (L2) acquisition, the effectiveness of CF for learning has been shown to depend on a combination of learner factors (e.g. learning beliefs and motivation), teacher differences (e.g. experienced or less experienced teacher), and instructional c...

While promotion of self-regulated learning (SRL) as an important educational innovation has elicited much interest in recent years, SRL researchers have paid relatively little attention to issues concerning the competence required for teachers to create self-regulated learning environments in the second language classroom particularly in the practi...

This article presents the results of questionnaire surveys on the impact of teacher’s formative feedback on students’ self-reflection behavior, self-reflection strategy and learning motivation conducted with 152 English major students from a teacher-education-oriented university in China. The study found the significant impact of teacher’s formativ...

While assessment for learning (AfL) has gained increasing international prominence, and has been strongly promulgated by an increasing number of education systems, current instruments designed to measure students’ assessment for learning experience show a number of methodological shortcomings, such as lacking construct validity and low internal con...

This study aims to provide an understanding of English as foreign language (EFL) university students’ perception and experience of participating in extracurricular English contests in China. In this study, the extrinsic factors and intrinsic beliefs that contribute to university students’ motivation to participate in extracurricular English contest...

While assessment for learning (AfL) has been strongly promulgated by an increasing number of education systems internationally, little research is available that investigates students’ responses to such AfL innovations, particularly in a Chinese learning context. There is a need to research and evaluate the AfL practices introduced and their impact...

This paper reports on findings from an ongoing research project exploring Chinese EFL teachers’ conceptions of assessment and their classroom assessment practices, as well as to examine the relationship between these two. The sample for the study consisted of 107 EFL teachers from 18 secondary schools who completed a Chinese version of the Teachers...

A central component in pre-service teacher training is teaching practice and feedback (Copland, 2010). The study reported in this paper examined the experience of ESL trainee teachers in Hong Kong during the practicum. In total, 74 field experience feedback forms and 74 classroom language use evaluation sheets were collected and analyzed. Data anal...

While different theoretical frameworks have been proposed to characterise the nature of feedback and the conditions under which feedback contributes to student learning, few empirical studies have examined the usefulness of these theoretical frameworks to understand student feedback experiences in classrooms particularly in a pre-service context. T...

This is a qualitative longitudinal study of the lived experience of four mainland Chinese ESL teachers engaged in their first year of employment in Hong Kong secondary schools. Based on multiple interviews and email contact conducted over the course of one academic year, the research explores the adaptive processes these beginner ESL teachers exper...

Background The English language school-based assessment (SBA) component of the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination is innovative in that the assessment tasks involve assessing English oral language skills in a high-stakes context but they are designed and implemented in the ESL classroom by school teachers in light of a reg...

This study examines how prospective EFL teachers conceive of assessment for learning (AfL) practices and how these perceptions relate to their learning approaches. The study evaluated, in three teacher training universities’ in China, 692 prospective EFL teachers’ responses to a self-report instrument regarding assessment for learning practices and...

Although the importance of practicum for preservice teachers goes almost unchallenged, specific empirical evidence of growth in language teachers’ practical knowledge in the under-researched context of preservice language teacher education is limited. Informed by both the reflective approach to teaching and an activity theory perspective, this qual...

This study investigated the effects of first language (L1) congruency, second language (L2) proficiency, and the collocate-node relationship (i.e., verb-noun, adjective-noun, noun-noun) on collocation processing by logographic L1-Chinese learners of English.

Although the importance of practicum for preservice teachers goes almost unchallenged, specific empirical evidence of growth in language teachers’ practical knowledge in the under-researched context of preservice language teacher education is limited. Informed by both the reflective approach to teaching and an activity theory perspective, this qual...

Although research reveals that pre-service student teachers often regard their relationships with their significant others as an important element of their initial teaching practice experience, much remains unknown about the influence of significant others on non-native English as a Second Language (ESL) student teachers’ professional learning proc...

This study aims at examining how learner L2 oral performance may vary across two different task types in the current school-based assessment initiative being implemented across secondary schools in Hong Kong. The study is innovative in that the tasks in this study involve speaking in a high-stakes language assessment context but they also build on...

Compared with reading, writing and listening, there has been a paucity of empirical data documenting learners' experiences of speaking English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) in different learning contexts in spite of the fact that developing the ability to speak in a second or foreign language is widely considered...

This study investigates the challenges sixteen nonnative preservice ESL teachers in a Bachelor of Education (English Language) (BEdEL) programme from Hong Kong experienced in an eight-week teaching practicum. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and reflective journals were collected from all 16 participants to obtain a detailed descrip...

Leung and Lewkowicz remind us that the debate over the past two decades that is most relevant to ELT (English languge teaching) pedagogy and curriculum concerns test-task authenticity. This paper first reviews how the authenticity debate in the literature of second language acquisition, pedagogy and testing has evolved. Drawing on a body of researc...

This study, which is part of a large-scale study of using objective measures to validate assessment rating scales and assessment tasks in a high-profile school-based assessment initiative in Hong Kong, examined how grammatical complexity measures relate to task type and analytic evaluations of students' speaking proficiency in a classroom-based ass...

This paper reports the result of a study that aimed to identify the problems with oral English skills of ESL (English as a second language) students at a tertiary teacher training institution in Hong Kong. The study, by way of semi-structured interview, addresses the gap in our understanding of the difficulties ESL students encountered in their ora...

This study investigates one dimension of personality, extroversion-introversion, and examines its potential impact on learner L2 oral performance. The study is innovative in that it analyzes not only the correlation between degree of extroversion and assessment scores based on analytic scoring but also the correlation between degree of extroversion...

One of the unresolved issues currently being debated not only in the area of second language (L2) pedagogy but also in language testing and assessment community is what makes an L2 task difficult or complex. This paper serves three purposes. It first presents a review of historical perspectives on task difficulty, and discusses the recent developme...

This paper reports on a microanalysis of gestural behavior in classroom assessment situations. Videotaped excerpts of secondary school ESL students engaged in a peer group oral assessment task were transcribed to represent the gestures that occurred during the interaction. Using conversation analysis as a central tool for analysis, this study explo...

This article examines the interactional work in which two groups of secondary ESL students engaged to achieve and sustain participation in group oral assessment, which is designed to assess a student's interactive communication skills in a school-based assessment context. The in-depth observation of the ways in which participants co-constructed tal...

This study examines the production of topical talk in peer collaborative negotiation in an interactive assessment innovation context. The ability to stay on topic, to move from topic to topic and to introduce new topics appropriately is at the core of communicative competence. Applying conversation analysis (CA), we describe and analyze how one gro...

Since the University Grants Committee (UGC) selected the academic module of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as the common English proficiency assessment for graduating undergraduate degree students in 2002, almost all the tertiary institutions in Hong Kong have offered IELTS preparation courses that aim at providing studen...

Although cultural stereotypes of Asian students as being prone to rote learning, passive and teacher-dependent have been under criticism, the issue of the extent to which Asian heritage culture impacts on Asian students’ learning attitudes and behaviour warrants further investigation. This paper reports on an empirical study which compares self-dir...

This article reports on a case study of negotiation that occurred in peer group oral interactions under assessment conditions. Discourse analysis was used to illustrate how participants negotiated and co-constructed the assessment format itself as well as meaning exchange sequences. Analyses of the data point to the advantage of using peer group di...

This article reports on a case study of negotiation that occurred in peer group oral interactions under assessment conditions. Discourse analysis was used to illustrate how participants negotiated and co-constructed the assessment format itself as well as meaning exchange sequences. Analyses of the data point to the advantage of using peer group di...

The article reports on a study that examined self-directed language learning (SDLL) attitudes and strategies that may be characteristic of Chinese EFL students. A description of the development of the instrument used to measure these attitudes and strategies in an EFL context is provided, the results of which showed that SDLL strategies seem to be...

Unlike success in first language acquisition, success in learning a second or foreign language is considerably more variable. Recently, second language acquisition researchers have called for more integrative research on individual difference factors. With this goal in mind, this study followed a larger, quantitative study of the links between self...