Volume 41, Issue 2

Task-planning studies have mostly been conducted using quantitative methods, not qualitative. However, the actual planning behaviors by learners could be overlooked by quantitative research which focuses mostly on planning outcomes rather than the processes. This study aims to bridge this gap by exploring learner behavioral patterns in pre-task planning as well as the under-investigated area of topic familiarity by drawing upon interview data. This consists of a comparison between the task-external and task-internal readiness constructs proposed in Bui’s (2014) task-readiness framework. Eight undergraduate students in Hong Kong completed two speaking tasks (a familiar and an unfamiliar task), followed by retrospective interviews. Though largely confirming previous (but parsimonious) research on task planning behaviors, this study discovered three major findings that had not been covered well in previous literature. First, while past studies focused on the psycholinguistic processes of task planning, these participants extensively reported its affective influences. Next, most participants reported their overall intended emphasis was on accuracy. These reports contradict general quantitative research results which suggest that task planning often leads to complexity, not accuracy. Finally, the lack of planning time as task-external readiness can be partly compensated for by topic familiarity as task-internal readiness. These issues along with their relevant implications in teaching and learning are discussed in this study.

The present study examined how students’ intrinsic and extrinsic value promotes their foreign language proficiency via the mediation effect of self-efficacy beliefs. A total of 1,036 Chinese eighth graders answered an English proficiency test and questionnaires assessing motivational beliefs. Structural equation modelling results with bootstrapping procedures revealed that intrinsic value can directly and indirectly influence foreign language proficiency via partial mediation effect of self-efficacy while extrinsic value can only directly influence foreign language proficiency with a small magnitude. Moreover, there is no gender difference in the mediation model. Our findings suggested that intrinsic value can help students improve foreign language proficiency by improving their self-efficacy beliefs. The findings contribute to the documents of self-determination theory and hold substantive theoretical and practical implications for foreign language teachers.

This study examined the effects of either listening or reading input on 88 first-year non-English-major Chinese university EFL students’ incidental acquisition in vocabulary form, meaning and production. The students were put into a Listening Group (n = 47) and a Reading Group (n = 41), each of which finished either two listening activities (each consisting of a dialogic text and an information transfer task) or two reading activities (each consisting of a reading text and five multiple-choice questions). The four texts all contained five low-frequency target words which a revised Vocabulary Knowledge Test had shown to be only slightly known by the participants before the activities. The results of the post-tests showed that the Reading Group had general acquisition advantage over the Listening Group in terms of all the three vocabulary aspects, and due to the fact of rich target word contexts and repeated access to the texts, the Listening Group manifested vocabulary meaning acquisition nearly equal to the Reading Group. Overall, the study shows the notably advantageous effects of reading input on incidental vocabulary acquisition, and concerning facilitating vocabulary acquisition through listening, it points out the importance of increasing opportunities for learners to process listening input with rich contextual clues through task repetition.

Needs analysis as the central force of EAP has received insufficient practice, resulting in dissatisfactory pedagogy. This study proposes a framework of CEAPNA (comprehensive EAP needs analysis), and illustrates how the framework helps to shape learning-centered EAP pedagogy. The CEAPNA survey covered 452 undergraduates and 83 faculty members from science and engineering departments, and was triangulated with the researchers’ retrospection of seven years of pedagogical practice. Major findings in the study suggest multiple sources as a must in a comprehensive and accurate analysis of EAP learner needs. In the meantime, the specificity of learner needs addresses EAP practitioners’ endeavors to specify these needs in various dimensions, so as to negotiate a satisfactory balance between language, cognition and affect in EAP pedagogy. Due to realistic constraints in specifying and balancing the needs, this paper wishes to oblige with a conceptual interpretation as well as a pedagogical retrospection.

Verb-argument relation is a very important aspect of syntax-semantics interaction in sentence processing. Previous ERP (event related potentials) studies in this field concentrated on the relation between the verb and its core arguments. The present study aims to reveal the ERP pattern of Chinese applied object structures (AOSs), in which a peripheral argument is promoted to occupy the position of the patient object, as compared with the patient object structures (POSs). The ERP data were collected when participants were asked to perform acceptability judgments about Chinese phrases. The result shows that, similar to the previous studies of number-of-argument violations, Chinese AOSs show a bilaterally distributed N400 effect. But different from all the previous studies of verb-argument relations, Chinese AOSs demonstrate a sustained anterior positivity (SAP). This SAP, which is very rare in the studies related to complexity of argument structure operation, reflects the integration difficulty of the newly promoted arguments and the progressive nature of well-formedness checking in the processing of Chinese AOSs which is in accordance with the metonymic mechanism of non-patient objects in the relevant cognitive study. It shows that, in Chinese, which is a paratactic language, semantics (thematic roles) plays a more important role in the syntax-semantics interface than that in hypotactic languages.

This study relies on a contrastive analysis to underscore the functions of stress as a shift in translation, especially when phonological specifications can have an impact on translation. In the original model of translation shifts proposed by Catford, only segmental linguistic elements are taken into consideration, while the model totally ignores stress as a supra-segmental linguistic element. Including stress within the analytic procedures of the model can bring about a new type of shift. This implies that Catford’s categorization of shifts must be developed in order to increase its applicability, especially when phonological specifications in the source text can have an impact on grammar and lexical items in the target text. As a result of the inclusion of stress into Catford’s original mode, a revised version of the translation shift model is suggested. The study further emphasizes the various dimensions of stress and the functions it can have in oral aspects of translation and drama translation.