Affordances and influences of multiple technologically-stimulated recognitions for EFL descriptive writing in authentic contextual learning

Abstract

Different recognitions become more mature and have been widely applied for EFL learning. Each recognition also has its specific features useful for EFL descriptive writing. The pictorial and verbal representations and current context found in image-to-text recognition (ITR), translated speech-to-text recognition (TSTR), and location-to-text recognition (LTR) respectively could be beneficial for EFL descriptive writing concerning enriching lexical language resources, developing writing ideas, and the others. This study investigated the influences of multiple recognitions and their affordances for EFL descriptive writing in authentic context learning via their generations and usages. An experiment had been conducted for twelve weeks in a vocational high school in Taiwan. Three tests, 1291 essays, and open-ended questionnaires were collected and analyzed. The results revealed that multiple recognitions in the context improve the reasoning, organization, communication, and convention aspects of EFL descriptive writing. Although the ITR affordance is less than TSTR, it significantly influences the appropriate vocabulary usage, the detailed content developments, and the various sentence elaboration of the writing. The TSTR affordance is better than the other recognitions because of its convenience for making more sentences; however, it does not immediately influence EFL descriptive writing. The LTR affordance is similar to ITR, and it can be useful for the usage of other recognitions concerning the direction of the general ideas, main subjects, and related objects addressed in the writing. Although the recognition accuracy needs to be improved, the integration of multiple recognitions has big potential and should be widely applied for EFL writing considering the affordances and significant influences.

Keywords

• adaptive learning
• authentic learning
• efl descriptive writing
• multimedia learning
• technology adaption