Volume 60, Issue 4

This study investigated the relationship between English aural vocabulary size and L2 listening comprehension among 288 Chinese tertiary EFL learners who had mastered the first 1,000-word frequency level and were at the intermediate level of language proficiency. The Listening Vocabulary Levels Test and College English Test Band 4 were employed to measure participants’ aural vocabulary size and L2 listening comprehension proficiency, respectively. Aural vocabulary size was found to be moderately correlated with L2 listening comprehension proficiency ( r  = 0.38, p  < 0.01). A step-wise regression analysis showed that the second 1,000-word frequency level could explain 12% of the variance in L2 listening comprehension proficiency, and academic words could add an additional 4% predictive capacity to the regression model. A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the most frequent 2,000-word families and academic words could predict 14.5% of the change in L2 listening comprehension proficiency for the relatively low L2 proficiency group. However, aural vocabulary size had little impact on L2 listening comprehension proficiency for the relatively high L2 proficiency group. Findings suggest that high-frequency and academic words significantly contribute to the prediction of L2 listening comprehension proficiency, but the predictive power of aural vocabulary size decreases with increased language proficiency.

This study explores how input-focused implicit learning through extensive reading (ER) facilitates construction development in Korean-speaking young EFL students. Twenty-four EFL students, 10–13 years old, participated in ER as an after-school activity for four weeks (ER group). Their construction development in writing was assessed using seven argument structure constructions. The ER group’s performance preceding and following ER activities was compared to 24 young EFL students who did not engage in ER (baseline group). The results showed that the ER group improved their production of ditransitive and caused-motion constructions. Compared to the baseline group, the ER group not only produced a greater number of these constructions, but also used a wider variety of verbs not observed prior to the ER experiences, indicating an expansion of their linguistic knowledge with the target constructions. We conclude by addressing the pedagogical implications for using ER with young EFL students.

This article examines the connections between ratings and measures of second language (L2) fluency based on dialogue data, extending previous studies on L2 individual fluency. The links between fluency and strategic competence are studied from a problem-solving perspective. Fifteen raters’ assessments and comments of individual fluency, interactional fluency, and strategic competence based on six samples of L2 peer interaction were examined. Fluency measures corresponded to the rated dimensions. In a mixed-methods analysis, correlational analyses across the ratings and between the ratings and fluency measures were performed. The raters’ comments were analyzed qualitatively. The results demonstrated correlations between the ratings and measures of fluency for individual and interactional fluency, but not for strategic competence. The mean length of turn pauses correlated strongly with interactional fluency ratings. The raters’ comments revealed a multifaceted conceptualization of interactional fluency and strategic competence. The results have implications for L2 fluency measurement and assessment.

Chinese allows both gapped and gapless topic constructions without their usage being restricted to specific contexts, while English only allows gapped topic constructions which are used in certain contexts. In other words, Chinese uses ‘topic prominence’, whereas English does not. The contrast between English and Chinese topic constructions poses a learnability problem for Chinese learners of English. This paper uses an empirical study investigating first language (L1) transfer in the case of Chinese learners of English and the extent to which they are able to unlearn topic prominence as they progress in second language (L2) English. Results of an acceptability judgment test indicate that Chinese learners of English initially transfer Chinese topic prominence into their English, then gradually unlearn Chinese topic prominence as their English proficiency improves, and finally unlearn Chinese topic prominence successfully. The results support the Full Transfer Theory (Schwartz, Bonnie & Rex Sprouse. 1996. L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model. Second Language Research 12. 40–72) and the Variational Learning Model (Yang, Charles. 2004. Universal Grammar, statistics or both? Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8. 451–456), but contradict the proposal that the topic prominence can never be transferred but may be unlearned from the beginning in Chinese speakers’ acquisition of English (Zheng, Chao. 2001. Nominal Constructions Beyond IP and Their Initial Restructuring in L2 Acquisition . Guangzhou: Guangdong University of Foreign Studies Ph.D. dissertation). In addition, the type of topic constructions that is used and whether or not a comma is added after the topic have an effect on learners’ transfer and unlearning of topic prominence. It is proposed that the specification of Agr(eement) and T(ense) as well as the presence of expletive subjects in English input can trigger the unlearning of topic prominence for Chinese learners of English.

The present research investigates the role of L1 script directionality and L2 proficiency on the learning of Hanzi (Chinese characters) by pre-intermediate and intermediate adult Arabic (right to left) and English (left to right) learners of L2 Chinese who studied at their home country. The tasks included reading Hanzi for pronunciation, writing Hanzi according to Pinyin and meaning, and naming pseudo-Hanzi to examine phonetic radical application skills. The results showed that (1) L1 script directionality background only predicted the performance in Hanzi writing, (2) L2 proficiency was a significant predictor in Hanzi reading and Hanzi writing, and (3) L2 proficiency interacted with L1 script directionality background in phonetic radical application skills. These findings suggest that L1 script directionality background and L2 proficiency play different roles in the development of Hanzi literacy skills and orthographic awareness. The theoretical implications for the influence of L1 writing system on L2 learning and the threshold level for the development of orthographic awareness in Hanzi, and the practical implications for Hanzi instruction are discussed.

In task-based language teaching, various types of tasks are developed from different scenarios in daily communication. Different kinds of tasks encourage oral production of different generic features and can impose different degrees of information-processing pressure on second language (L2) learners. Therefore, the functions and nature of task types are worth considering when designing tasks. Although the effects of task types on L2 oral output have been explored in the current literature, L2 learners’ engagement in different types of tasks is relatively under-explored. Since engaging L2 learners in task performance can facilitate L2 learning, it is important for us to attend to learner engagement in task-based research. This study investigated the effects of two types of tasks, opinion-exchange tasks and storytelling tasks, on the oral performance of 20 English as a foreign language learners in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency and their engagement in L2 use. They performed two opinion-exchange tasks and two storytelling tasks. The analysis of their oral discourse revealed that the learners spent longer time, had more turn-taking, and more frequently negotiated language-related issues when co-constructing stories than in opinion-exchange tasks. The results reinforce the importance of considering task types in teaching L2 speaking.

This study explores the effects of instruction on the acquisition of motion event construal among learners of English as a second language. The challenge for learners with Verb-framed first languages is that they need to ‘unlearn’ the boundary-crossing constraint and conflate manner and motion in the main verb, as in she ran into the bank , however, there is little research on how this domain can be taught. We evaluate performance on story-telling productive tasks using three experimental treatments involving 1) an input-only approach based on the principles of Processing Instruction, 2) combined input and output training and 3) explicit information only about the target construction. The findings show that boundary-crossing constructions expressing manner can be taught and learning effects generalised to non-boundary-crossing structures not included in the training material. The effectiveness of input-only instruction persists over a two-week period, and compares positively with that of an input+output teaching package.

South African Sign Language (SASL) has become an increasingly popular language that hearing university students want to learn as a second language. This requires more qualified SASL instructors and new curricula at South African universities. This paper considers ways in which challenges associated with the teaching and learning of SASL can be overcome. Krashen’s Comprehension Input Hypothesis and Swain’s Output Hypothesis form the theoretical framework as reference to our own independent experience, praxis, and reflection. This study considered different teaching methods and pedagogies and found the post-method approach suggested by Kumaravadivelu (2003) a viable method for teaching SASL as a second language. This method aligns with the method we had independently identified as the most empowering for teachers to create their own strategies focused on their intuition, experiences and pedagogy. Therefore, we do not favour one specific method above another, but rather adopt an integrated approach. We make a few suggestions regarding sign language curriculum content and further research in sign language as an L2, which need urgent attention.

This article suggests a method to appraise L2 morphemes productivity in longitudinal learner data. Traditionally, morpheme productivity is believed to depend on type frequency and on proportion between inflected and uninflected lexemes. However, such measures cannot distinguish between rote-learning and rule-learning of target-like forms. In contrast, the association measure Δ P (delta pi) can quantify the extent to which a morpheme is contingent upon a limited number of lexemes. Decreasing contingency might parallel learners’ increasing awareness of asymmetrical morpheme-lexeme distribution in the input and this might be a cue of developing L2 grammatical competence beyond appearances. The paper presents the rationale and procedure for analyzing within-item variance – or the ‘intra-language’ – and illustrates a case-study concerning the perfective morpheme in L2 Italian.

This study explored the pragmatic strategies that advanced L2 learners of Chinese produced in greeting responses (GRs). Data were collected through roleplays and retrospective verbal reports (RVRs) from 11 advanced learners of Chinese who were studying in China. To obtain comparison data, 20 Chinese students were recruited to complete the same roleplays. The GRs were coded into openings, head acts and closings, and classified into ten strategies: phatic phrases, address terms, corresponding answers, reciprocal compliments, disagreeing, seeking confirmation, thanking, reciprocity questions, introducing another topic and reasons. The findings revealed that compared with Chinese native speakers (NSs), advanced learners produced non-target-like GRs, although their GRs were acceptable based on two NSs’ evaluation. The RVR data indicated that the learners’ non-target-like GRs might result from their idiosyncratic perceptions of Chinese greetings, pragmatic knowledge deficits, effects of instruction and learner agency. Implications for future research and teaching Chinese pragmatics are also discussed.

The learning environment is an important factor in both learner motivation and learning outcomes. As second language (L2) classrooms frequently employ group work, clarifying the environmental effects in group work settings is important to improve pedagogical application in this context. This study examined the cross-sectional structural relations among the factors of work environment, motivation, and learning outcomes for L2 learners at various English proficiency levels. Japanese university students ( N  = 200) were engaged in group work activities for one semester. Self-reported data on motivation, the group work environment, course grades, and standardized English proficiency test scores were analyzed using path and moderation models. Results revealed that the group work environment significantly affected motivation. Learners who perceived stronger group cohesion and greater group engagement were likely to find learning more enjoyable and were less prone to amotivation. However, those perceiving weaker group cohesion and lesser group engagement tended to display the opposite motivational pattern. Further, this environmental effect on motivation was evident regardless of English proficiency level. Results further showed that motivation was significantly associated with achievement, thereby indicating that the group work environment indirectly influenced learning outcomes via motivation.

This article demonstrates how Cognitive Grammar and Construction Grammar can prevent Chinese students learning Spanish from fossilizing mistakes in restrictive relative clauses at the A2-B1 level of the European Framework of Reference for Languages. To address this issue, first, relative clauses in Spanish and Chinese were contrasted and, second, tailored solutions based on Cognitive Grammar were proposed. Among the cognitive based tailored solutions, certain geometry forms, colours and basic mathematics metaphors were compared with syntactic characteristics such as noun order, subordination hierarchy or resumption. To elucidate the impact of such teaching methods, an experiment with 74 Chinese students was performed. The results indicate that the efficacy of the proposed materials is statistically significant and as such, the Chinese students avoid fossilized mistakes while producing subject, object and locative relative clauses in Spanish.

Although it is widely acknowledged that phrasal verbs constitute a major difficulty for language learners, only a few studies have examined how to best learn phrasal verbs in the EFL context. With the aim of addressing this gap in the literature, the current study compared the influence of different learning conditions on phrasal verb knowledge development. The 77 EFL participants were divided into two experimental groups (incidental learning vs. enhanced exposure) and a control group. While the incidental learning group read the target phrasal verbs within restaurant reviews, the enhanced exposure group had the phrasal verbs bolded and underlined in the same texts and the control group did not receive any treatment. The participants’ performance on the post-test revealed a clear advantage for enhanced exposure over incidental learning. The results also revealed a significant relationship between the participants’ prior vocabulary knowledge and their phrasal verb knowledge, and that opacity and vocabulary knowledge modulated learning gains. The results are discussed in light of the existing literature. Pedagogical implications and directions for future research are highlighted.

This mixed-methods study investigates how Mandarin L1 and L2 speakers use final-utterance particles to negotiate difference and affect. Utilizing a corpus consisting of spontaneous conversations between American study abroad students and their Chinese peers in shared dorm rooms, the focus here is a set of utterance-final pragmatic particles that are multifunctional in Mandarin spoken discourse. This study combines a corpus-based approach with qualitative discourse analysis to reveal differences between L1 and L2 speakers in terms of frequency and pragmatic functions in the discourse context. The findings show that utterance-final pragmatic particles were among the most silent lexical differences between L1 and L2 speakers. Significant differences between the two groups are found in the use of every particle. Qualitative results reveal how L1 speakers use the particles to negotiate intercultural differences and manage interpersonal relationship, while L2 learners’ use of them was limited in terms of variety and function.