Automated feedback (AF) has been extensively investigated by L2 researchers, but in-depth research on English learners’ use of AF to revise their English essays is still limited. Moreover, whether there exist individual differences in essay revision remains underexplored. To address these gaps, this cross-sectional study, by adopting a qualitative research method, mainly reports on two Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners’ use of the feedback provided by Pigai, an AWE (automated writing evaluation) system. First, both researchers analyzed learners’ different writing drafts to see where changes were made. Then, learners participated in a retrospective interview regarding their revision behaviors. The writing drafts and the interview data reveal individual differences between both writers’ revision behaviors. Specifically, one writer accepted only a tiny portion of Pigai’s suggestions. In contrast, the other not only took up automated feedback but actively made self-initiated revisions. Such differences might be attributed to their gender difference, English proficiency, interest and motivation levels in English learning, stances on automated feedback, and writing experiences in secondary school.

Driven by advances in multimedia technologies, digital multimodal composing (DMC) has gained growing scholarly interests. DMC affords language learners a new experience in language learning and use. While completing DMC projects, L2 learners construct meanings by assembling both linguistic and non-linguistic resources (e.g., visuals, audio, videos, etc.). This is largely in line with their out-of-class text composing experiences. To understand the state-of-the-art developments in DMC research, this article reviewed the empirical studies published between January 2011 and October 2022. It provides a general overview of these studies regarding the overall trends, theoretical underpinnings, research contexts, research methods, and major research strands. The research findings indicate: (1) DMC has been increasingly attended to by L2 researchers with the number of research articles showing an ascending trend; (2) These empirical studies were grounded in a variety of theories, including the social semiotic theory of multimodality, multiliteracies, task-based language teaching, social/cultural construction, meta-functions of systemic-functional linguistics, translanguaging, and others; (3) The bulk of research has been investigated in tertiary schools, although the research contexts were diversified; (4) Most studies were conducted qualitatively; (5) Scholarly attention has been paid to four major strands: composing process, teachers' and learners' perceptions of DMC, DMC's impact on L2 development, and assessment of DMC artifacts. The major research strands and sample studies were discussed in detail. This article ends with recommendations for future studies.

Introduction: Boredom is a negative psychological and emotional experience prevalent in foreign language classrooms. However, it has long been neglected by researchers and foreign language teachers. In this context, the present study investigated boredom experienced by college English majors in a blended English reading course. Research efforts revolved around students’ overall boredom level, gender differences, and dynamic changes in boredom. Methodology: This study adopted a quantitative research method, and the instrument was a quantitative questionnaire adapted from the Foreign Language Learning Boredom Scale. A total of 174 EFL learners (60 males and 114 females) in the second year of English majors from a private university in Southwest China filled out the online version of FLLBS in weeks 3, 9, and 15 during the fall semester of 2022-2023 academic year. Results: The findings demonstrated that participants’ boredom was at a moderate level. Moreover, except in foreign language class boredom at Time 2 and over-challenging or meaningless task boredom at Time 3, there existed no significant gender differences. Finally, a complicated picture was painted regarding the dynamic changes in boredom levels over time, and different patterns were found. Conclusion: College EFL learners do feel bored in the learning process, which should not be neglected by language teachers and researchers. This study enriched the research on foreign language boredom and can provide enlightenment to EFL teaching.