Applied Linguistics - Advance Access

This paper was published in error

2008-05-13

R. Rubdy and M. Saraceni: English in The World: Global Rules, Global Roles.

Firth, A. — 2008-05-08

Julian Edge: (Re)locating Tesol in an Age of Empire.

van der Walt, C. — 2008-05-06

English and a World of Diversities: Confrontation, Appropriation, Awareness

Mirhosseini, S.-A. — 2008-05-06

Textual Enhancement of Input: Issues and Possibilities

Han, Z., Park, E. S., Combs, C. — 2008-05-06

The input enhancement hypothesis proposed by Sharwood Smith (1991, 1993) has stimulated considerable research over the last 15 years. This article reviews the research on textual enhancement of input (TE), an area where the majority of input enhancement studies have aggregated. Methodological idiosyncrasies are the norm of this body of research. Seven major issues appear to be limiting the generalizability of the findings and holding up further progress in the understanding of the efficacy of TE for learning: (1) noticing and/or acquisition; (2) TE and comprehension; (3) simultaneous or sequential processing; (4) TE and the nature of the enhanced form; (5) TE and prior knowledge; (6) TE and input flood; and (7) TE and overuse. The existing research has nonetheless offered some important insights that future research should seek to build on.

Jonathan Fine: Language in Psychiatry: A Handbook of Clinical Practice.

Ramanthan, V. — 2008-04-30

June Luchjenbroers (ed.): Cognitive Linguistics Investigations: Across Languages, Fields and Philosophical Boundaries.

Steen, G. — 2008-04-29

'Not rocket science' or 'No silver bullet'? Media and Government Discourses about MRSA and Cleanliness

Koteyko, N., Nerlich, B., Crawford, P., Wright, N. — 2008-04-25

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), commonly called a superbug, has recently been a major political issue in the UK, playing a significant role in debates over health policy in the general election held in 2005. While science recognizes the lack of evidence with regards to the effectiveness of existing measures implemented to control and prevent MRSA, the UK media coverage is dominated by articles that appeal to common sense and practical experience calling for more government interventions to combat the bug. In this paper we explore how uncertainty surrounding the origin and spread of MRSA is portrayed in debates within the media and policy-circles to particular political ends. Using established techniques of discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, we examine the assumptions, judgements, and contentions that structure two discourses of MRSA: according to one discourse MRSA is ‘not rocket science’ and there are ‘simple’ ways of coping with the risk of infection, whereas according to another discourse MRSA is a more complex matter and there is ‘no silver bullet’. The analysis of different storylines through which specific ideas of ‘blame’, ‘responsibility’, and ‘urgency’ are attributed helps to explain how different ‘constructions’ of causes for the rise in MRSA emerged and led to discourses of blame and defence centred on cleanliness.

The Mnemonic Effect of Noticing Alliteration in Lexical Chunks

Lindstromberg, S., Boers, F. — 2008-04-16

If good proficiency in L2 entails the acquisition not only of many single words but of many lexical chunks as well, it must then be asked how all this additional lexis is to be committed to long-term memory in the limited time available on non-intensive classroom-based language courses. If it is the case that a significant fraction of conventionalized lexical chunks exhibit mnemonic phonological repetition—alliteration—for example, then the L2 learner's task may be less daunting. We note evidence that alliteration is relatively common in lexical chunks in English. Because of this evidence, three experiments were carried out involving advanced level young adult, Dutch-speaking language majors. Experiment 1 addresses the possibility that two-word alliterative phrases such as day dream are more memorable than ‘no repetition’ phrases such as phone call. Experiment 2 assesses the likelihood that alliteration in chunks will be autonomously noticed. Experiment 3 assesses the effect on the recall of alliterative chunks of very brief teacher-led noticing of the phonemic/orthographic repetition involved. Collectively, the results of the experiments suggest that alliteration has considerable mnemonic potential that could be exploited to facilitate chunk-learning, but also that learners are not very likely to unlock this potential autonomously.

Metaphor Use in Three UK University Lectures

Low, G., Littlemore, J., Koester, A. — 2008-04-03

It has been claimed in recent years that, on the one hand, metaphor occurs in UK university lectures in ways that are likely to confuse ESL learners (Littlemore 2001, 2003) and on the other hand that US lecturers use it in highly structured ways, particularly involving linked clusters, to help organize the lecture and indicate the opinions of the speaker (Corts and Pollio 1999; Corts and Meyers 2002). Both sets of claims are potentially useful to teachers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). However, they both derive from studies with fairly narrow foci. There have to date been few studies examining at a more general level where metaphor occurs and how it is used in lectures. The present paper reports part of a small-scale study to develop a viable methodology for analysing metaphor use generally in lectures. It examines the incidence and use of metaphor in three UK university lectures in the BASE corpus, using a version of the MIP procedure developed by the Pragglejaz Group (2007). The main findings are that metaphor is used repeatedly throughout all three lectures, but that there are few elaborated or developed metaphors; those there are tend to be short, unconnected with later metaphors and used primarily to solve local, rather than global purposes. The implications for EAP teaching are discussed.

Toward a Learning Behavior Tracking Methodology for CA-for-SLA

Markee, N. — 2008-02-25

This paper is principally about methodology. It first summarizes five issues in the emerging research agenda of conversation analysis-for-second language acquisition (CA-for-SLA), and develops empirically based analyses of classroom talk that occurs over several days and months to illustrate how a longitudinal learning behavior tracking (LBT) methodology for CA-for-SLA works. LBT has two components: Learning object tracking (LOT) and learning process tracking (LPT). LOT involves tracking when participants deploy potential learning objects within a single conversation and in subsequent speech events. LPT involves carrying out conversation analyses of participants’ emerging grammar to understand how they orient to learning objects as resources for doing language learning behaviors that occur both in the moment and over time. The paper concludes with an overview of the methodological strengths and weaknesses of LBT.

Soliciting Teacher Attention in an L2 Classroom: Affect Displays, Classroom Artefacts, and Embodied Action

Cekaite, A. — 2008-02-14

This paper explores L2 novices’ ways of soliciting teacher attention, more specifically, their summonses. The data are based on detailed analyses of video recordings in a Swedish language immersion classroom. The analyses illuminate the lexical shape of summonses in conjunction with prosody, body posture, gestures, and classroom artefacts. As demonstrated, a simple structure of summoning provided a handy method for soliciting and establishing the teacher's attention, and facilitated the novices’ participation in classroom activities from early on. Importantly, however, the local design of the summonses was influenced by the competitive multiparty classroom setting. The analyses illustrate how the novices upgraded their summonses by displaying a range of affective stances. Different aspects of the students’ embodied actions were employed as ways of indexing affective stances, for example ‘tired’, ‘resigned’, or ‘playful’, that in the local educational order created methods that invited the teacher's attention and conversational uptake. These locally available resources allowed children to upgrade their summonses and to indicate their communicative projects, in spite of their limited Swedish (L2) resources. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding participation in L2 classroom interactions as being a matter of delicately calibrated collaborative accomplishments.

Symmetries and Asymmetries of Age Effects in Naturalistic and Instructed L2 Learning

Munoz, C. — 2008-01-31

The effects of age on second language acquisition constitute one of the most frequently researched and debated topics in the field of Second Language Acquisition. Two different orientations may be distinguished in age-related research: one which aims to elucidate the existence and characteristics of maturational constraints on the human capacity for learning second languages, and another which purports to identify age-related differences in foreign language learning, often with the aim of informing educational policy decisions. Because of the dominant role of theoretically-oriented ultimate attainment studies, it may be argued that research findings from naturalistic learning contexts have somehow been hastily generalized to formal learning contexts. This paper presents an analysis of the symmetries and asymmetries that exist between a naturalistic learning setting and a foreign language learning setting with respect to those variables that are crucial in the discussion of age effects in second language acquisition. On the basis of the differences observed, it is argued that the amount and quality of the input have a significant bearing on the effects that age of initial learning has on second language learning. It is also claimed that age-related studies in foreign language learning settings have yielded significant findings that contribute to the development of an integrated explanation of age effects on second language acquisition.

The Effects of Input-Based Tasks on the Development of Learners' Pragmatic Proficiency

Takimoto, M. — 2008-01-28

The present study evaluates the relative effectiveness of three types of input-based approaches for teaching English polite request forms to sixty Japanese learners of English: (a) structured input tasks with explicit information; (b) problem-solving tasks; and (c) structured input tasks without explicit information. Treatment group performance was compared with control group performance on pre-tests, post-tests, and follow-up tests consisting of a discourse completion test, a role-play test, a listening test, and an acceptability judgement test. The results revealed that the three treatment groups performed significantly better than the control group. However, the group that received the structured input tasks with explicit information did not maintain the positive effects of the treatment between the post-test and follow-up test on the listening test component.

Metalinguistic Knowledge and Language Ability in University-Level L2 Learners

Roehr, K. — 2008-01-22

Existing research indicates that instructed learners’ L2 proficiency and their metalinguistic knowledge are moderately correlated. However, the operationalization of the construct of metalinguistic knowledge has varied somewhat across studies. Metalinguistic knowledge has typically been operationalized as learners’ ability to correct, describe, and explain L2 errors. More recently, this operationalization has been extended to additionally include learners’ L1 language-analytic ability as measured by tests traditionally used to assess components of language learning aptitude. This article reports on a study which employed a narrowly focused measure of L2 proficiency and incorporated L2 language-analytic ability into a measure of metalinguistic knowledge. It was found that the linguistic and metalinguistic knowledge of advanced university-level L1 English learners of L2 German correlated strongly. Moreover, the outcome of a principal components analysis suggests that learners’ ability to correct, describe, and explain highlighted L2 errors and their L2 language-analytic ability may constitute components of the same construct. The theoretical implications of these findings for the concept of metalinguistic knowledge in L2 learning are considered.

Routine Trouble: How Preschool Children Participate in Multilingual Instruction

Bjork-Willen, P. — 2008-01-10

This paper examines the turn-by-turn organization of social actions during educational activities at a multilingual preschool in Sweden. Specifically, it focuses on instructional exchanges within two commonplace activities: ‘sharing time’ and ‘Spanish group’. The study builds on earlier research arguing that interactional routines facilitate children's participation in social activities, and therefore promote language learning. Several instances of interactional trouble are identified and discussed in terms of the teachers’ elaboration of some routine features of these activities, resulting in a mismatch between the teachers’ local aims and the children's projections of relevant next actions. The analysis further highlights a range of interactional means through which the participants act to come to terms with the trouble. These findings are discussed in terms of the participants’ local concerns as well as the children's orientations to the routine features of preschool activities. Some educational implications are finally proposed on the basis of these findings.

Language Policy, Language Teachers' Beliefs, and Classroom Practices

Farrell, T. S. C., Kun, S. T. K. — 2007-12-24

The widespread use of a local variety of English, Singapore Colloquial English, or Singlish, has become somewhat of a controversial issue in Singapore especially in the eyes of the Singapore government. For example, in 2002 the Singapore government launched The ‘Speak Good English Movement’ (SGEM) with the objective of promoting the use of Standard English among Singaporeans. Furthermore, Singapore's newspapers have recently suggested that the responsibility for halting the deterioration (perceived or real) of the standards of English rests with Singapore's English language teachers. The case study presented in this paper offers one lens from which to view a policy-to-practice connection by outlining the impact of language policy on the beliefs and classroom practices of three primary school teachers concerning the use of Singlish in their classrooms. The results confirm those of previous studies that teachers’ reactions to language policy is not a straightforward process and as such it is important to understand the role teachers play in the enactment of language policy.

'Because She Made Beds. Every Day'. Social Positioning, Classroom Discourse, and Language Learning

Menard-Warwick, J. — 2007-12-12

This paper discursively analyzes two events of gendered positioning that took place during a unit on employment in an adult English as a Second Language program in California. Because the program primarily served Latina immigrant women, the teacher focused in this unit on the needs and goals of full-time homemakers who might want to transition into paid employment. This paper contends that it was the tensions inherent in the teacher's assumptions about her students’ identities which led to the events of positioning discussed in this paper. In one of these events, a learner contests being positioned as primarily a homemaker; in the other, a more-advanced learner appropriates this positioning to her own ends in the classroom. Arguing that events of language learning and social positioning often occur simultaneously in the L2 classroom, the paper concludes with a discussion of the significance of such events for longer term processes of language socialization.

A Longitudinal Study of ESL Learners' Fluency and Comprehensibility Development

Derwing, T. M., Munro, M. J., Thomson, R. I. — 2007-12-12

This longitudinal mixed-methods study compared the oral fluency of well-educated adult immigrants from Mandarin and Slavic language backgrounds (16 per group) enrolled in introductory English as a second language (ESL) classes. Speech samples were collected over a 2-year period, together with estimates of weekly English use. We also conducted interviews at the last data collection session. The participants’ fluency and comprehensibility at three points over 22 months were judged by 33 native speakers of English. We examine the learners’ progress in light of their exposure to English outside of their ESL class. The Slavic language speakers showed a small but significant improvement in both fluency and comprehensibility, whereas the Mandarin speakers’ performance did not change over 2 years, although both groups started at the same level of oral proficiency. These differences may be attributable in part to degree of exposure to English outside the ESL courses. Neither group had extensive exposure outside of their classes because of employment and familial responsibilities (although the Slavic language speakers reported more opportunities). Thus both groups may have been disadvantaged by a lack of oral fluency instruction. The findings, both quantitative and qualitative, are interpreted using the Willingness to Communicate framework; we also discuss implications for the language classroom.

Changing Bilingual Self-Perceptions from Early Adolescence to Early Adulthood: Empirical Evidence from a Mixed-Methods Case Study

Caldas, S. J. — 2007-10-26

In the emerging tradition of language socialization research, this study examines the changing bilingual self-perceptions of three children, identical twin girls and their older brother, from early adolescence through early adulthood. The children were reared in a predominantly French-speaking home in south Louisiana by French/English bilingual parents, but spent summers in French-speaking Québec. When the children were aged 12;10 and 10;10 respectively, they completed two author-constructed instruments: one which allowed self-reporting of various dimensions of their French-proficiency, and the other designed to gauge their perceptions of their bilingualism and biculturalism. At two subsequent intervals, approximately five years and eight years later, respectively, the subjects completed the same two instruments. The children's responses at Time1, Time2 and Time3 were compared and analyzed to gauge how their perceptions of their proficiency in French had changed over the course of their adolescence. Both paired-sampled t-tests and correlations were generated between and among the children at Time1, Time2, and Time3. The author's ethnographic field notes, interviews with the children, and a quantitative measure of French preference are used to help interpret the results. In general, the children valued their bilingualism and biculturalism much more as older adolescents and young adults than as younger adolescents. This seems to be at least partly the result of the greater exertion of peer pressure in early adolescence, which in the US venue in particular did not place high value on bilingualism. The children also exhibit greater bilingual self-confidence and diminished self-consciousness as older adolescents, as they moved toward identity-achievement.

A Dynamic Systems Account of Learning a Word: From Ecology to Form Relations

Churchil, E. — 2007-07-01

This paper responds to calls for studies that investigate multiple types of word knowledge and the processes of word learning. Focusing on a single word, this three-month diary study describes the micro-development of an adult male's Japanese L2 lexical knowledge. In contrast to most L2 vocabulary acquisition studies, this study posits a dynamic perspective on language and development. The theory of learning applied is based on Hutchins’ (1995) notion of coordination, supplemented by Gibson's (1979, 1986) theory of affordances. The findings suggest that the learning was non-linear, shaped in non-trivial ways by environmental affordances, and proceeded through several quasi-stable states attained in circuits of coordination. It is suggested that the learning in this case study behaved very much like a dynamic system.

Writing Differences in Teacher Performance Assessments: An Investigation of African American Language and Edited American English

Szpara, M. Y., Wylie, E. C. — 2007-05-10

Differential performance results occur when a specific population subgroup achieves a passing rate which is significantly lower than that of the normative reference group. African Americans do less well, in general, on all types of assessments, including constructed-response tests. The present study examined the writing styles of African American test takers in a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) portfolio entry from the Middle Childhood/Generalist Certificate, as compared with the writing styles of European American test takers. The use of features other than Edited American English was examined as a possible source of construct-irrelevant variance in assessors’ scoring judgments. Thirty-two written commentaries, 18 from African American candidates and 14 from European American candidates, were coded for grammatical, lexical, and discourse features. The coding frame identified features of African American Language (AAL) and Speech Code Errors (SCE). Instances of AAL were fewer than instances of SCE and clustered according to potential users of AAL.