Applied Linguistics - current issue

Topic Negotiation in Peer Group Oral Assessment Situations: A Conversation Analytic Approach

Gan, Z., Davison, C., Hamp-Lyons, L. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

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 group of secondary ESL students orient to and construct what they take to be relevant to the assessment task as interaction proceeds. We found that in the context of group oral discussion described in our study, in the course of turn-by-turn interaction which was characterized by intensive engagement and active participation between peer participants, this group of students were able to pursue, develop, and shift topics to, on the one hand, ensure the successful completion of the assigned task, and on the other, to display individual contributions. Topical transitions appeared to be the result of participants constantly monitoring the content of talk for relevance to the assessment task agenda. Such negotiation of topical talk among the participants indicates that peer group discussion as an oral assessment format has the potential to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate ‘real-life’ interactional abilities to relate to each other in spoken interaction.

Constructing another Language--Usage-Based Linguistics in Second Language Acquisition

Eskildsen, S. W. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

The general aim of this article is to discuss the application of Usage-Based Linguistics (UBL) to an investigation of developmental issues in second language acquisition (SLA). Particularly, the aim is to discuss the relevance for SLA of the UBL suggestion that language learning is item-based, going from formulas via low-scope patterns to fully abstract constructions. This paper examines how well this suggested path of acquisition serves ‘as a default in guiding the investigation of the ways in which exemplars and their type and token frequencies determine the second language acquisition of structure’ (N. Ellis 2002: 170). As such, it builds on and further discusses the findings in Bardovi-Harlig (2002) and Eskildsen and Cadierno (2007). The empirical point of departure is longitudinal oral second language classroom interaction and the focal point is the use of can by one student in the class in question. The data reveal the formulas, here operationalized as recurring multiword expressions, to be situated in recurring usage events, suggesting the need for a fine-tuning of the UBL theory for the purposes of SLA research towards a more locally contextualized theory of language acquisition and use. The data also suggest that semi-fixed linguistic patterns, here operationalized as utterance schemas, deserve a prominent place in L2 developmental research.

English Language Teachers' Conceptions of Research

Borg, S. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

This article examines the conceptions of research held by 505 teachers of English from 13 countries around the world. Questionnaire responses supplemented by follow-up written and interview data were analyzed to understand teachers’ views on what research is and how often they read and do it (and why or why not in each case). An understanding of these issues is central to the development of informed policies for promoting teacher research engagement, but relevant systematic evidence is lacking in the field of English language teaching (ELT). The study shows that the teachers held conceptions of research aligned with conventional scientific notions of inquiry. The teachers also reported moderate to low levels of reading and doing research, with a lack of time, knowledge, and access to material emerging as key factors which teachers felt limited their ability to be research-engaged. Teachers engaged in research reported being driven largely by practical and professional concerns rather than external drivers such as employers or promotion. Overall, the findings of this study point to a number of attitudinal, conceptual, procedural, and institutional barriers to teacher research engagement. Understanding these, it is argued here, is an essential part of the broader process of trying to address them and hence to make teacher research engagement a more feasible activity in ELT.

The Three Circles Redux: A Market-Theoretic Perspective on World Englishes

Park, J. S.-Y., Wee, L. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

While Kachru's Three Circles model of World Englishes (Kachru 1985, 1986; Kachru and Nelson 1996) has been highly influential in highlighting the changing distribution and functions of English, it has also been criticized for its inability to account for the heterogeneity and dynamics of English-using communities, and for perpetuating the very inequalities and dichotomies that it aims to combat. By combining Bourdieu's (1984, 1986, 1990) notion of linguistic markets with the insights of the model's critics, this article deconstructs the Three Circles model by reinterpreting it as a model for the system of ideological forces that delimit local creativity and utility of English in the world. Such a reinterpretation can be a useful way of explicating the performativity of English in different sociolinguistic communities around the world, foregrounding dominant assumptions about the prevailing structure of the global linguistic market.

The Lexical Coverage of Movies

Webb, S., Rodgers, M. P. H. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

The scripts of 318 movies were analyzed in this study to determine the vocabulary size necessary to understand 95% and 98% of the words in movies. The movies consisted of 2,841,887 running words and had a total running time of 601 hours and 33 minutes. The movies were classified as either American or British, and then put into the following genres: action, animation, comedy, suspense/crime, drama, horror, romance, science fiction, war, western, and classic. The results showed that knowledge of the most frequent 3,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words provided 95.76% coverage, and knowledge of the most frequent 6,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words provided 98.15% coverage of movies. Both American and British movies reached 95% coverage at the 3,000 word level. However, American movies reached 98% coverage at the 6,000 word level while British movies reached 98% coverage at the 7,000 word level. The vocabulary size necessary to reach 95% coverage of the different genres ranged from 3,000 to 4,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words, and 5,000 to 10,000 word families plus proper nouns and marginal words to reach 98% coverage. The implications for teaching and learning with movies are discussed in detail.

A Critical Stance in Language Education: A Reply to Alan Waters

Simpson, J. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

In his recent Forum article on ideology in applied linguistics, Alan Waters (2009) takes up arms against what he perceives as a damaging critical tendency. Ideas about language teaching, he claims, are promoted (e.g. learner centredness) or proscribed (e.g. artificial texts) ‘on the basis of ideological belief rather than pedagogical value’. By making this distinction, Waters fails to recognize that the relationship between ideology and pedagogy is inextricable: ideologies are constructed, reproduced, and made manifest in social practices, such as language teaching. Furthermore, in certain language learning and teaching situations, an uncritical stance—one which views language teaching as a neutral and value-free activity—is incompatible with students’ language learning and broader life concerns. In this response article, I maintain that in such contexts, the field of applied linguistics has an obligation to mediate in a way that is both critical and pedagogically relevant.

A G-Theory Analysis of Rater Effect in ESL Speaking Assessment

Kim, Y.-H. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

The current status of English as an international language has come with challenges to the native speaker norms and raised the relevance of localized varieties in language assessment. This preliminary study investigates whether native English-speaking (NS) and non-native English-speaking (NNS) raters differ in their effect on score reliability in ESL speaking assessment. A generalizability theory analysis indicated that, although NS and NNS raters exhibited similar severity patterns across all students, they interacted with the students in different ways. This article also discusses the implications for assessment practice and directions for future research.

Mike Levy and Glenn Stockwell: Call Dimensions: Options and Issues in Computer-Assisted Language Learning. * Philip Hubbard and Mike Levy (eds): Teacher Education in Call.

Murray, D. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

P. Li, L. Tan, E. Bates and P. Tzeng (eds): The Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics: Volume 1: Chinese.

Mishra, R. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

Geoff Thompson and Susan Hunston (eds): System and Corpus: Exploring Connections.

Gardner, S. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini, Catherine Nickerson, and Brigitte Planken: Business Discourse. * Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli: The Language of Business Studies Lectures: A Corpus-Assisted Analysis.

Jacobs, G. — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT

Notes on Contributors

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:31:26 PDT