Volume 61, Issue 2

The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives of ESOL teachers on the language learning experiences, challenges, and motivations that refugees and asylum seekers have when they learn the language of the host country. This information was collected using an online questionnaire, which was completed by 72 teachers from different institutions throughout the UK teaching English to refugees and asylum seekers. The results revealed teachers’ perspectives on the main language learning challenges (e.g. lack of first language literacy) and motivations (e.g. accessing education/jobs) experienced by these learners, as well as the main challenges faced (e.g. lack of equipment) and techniques used (e.g. tailored materials/methods) by our respondents. The present paper presents these findings and any correlations found between the teachers’ responses and their background or their students’ profile, and discusses some implications for language teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers to support refugee students’ language learning more successfully.

This paper examines Thai tonal confusion patterns in two sample groups of Chinese Zhuang Students with the research hypothesis that the experimental group who possess Zhuang language experience as native speakers (C+Z) would have better tonal performance in the process of assigning tone for each lexical word than the control group who have no experience of Zhuang (C−Z). The hypothesis focuses on the C+Z′ familiarity of tone split which is a common feature of the tonal system in Tai languages as their L1 positive transfer. The tone split patterns of their L1 and L2 were explored and contrasted in the comparative Gedney’s tone box. The C+Z and the C−Z were asked to pronounce 60 words of two wordlists, one of which contained Zhuang-Thai cognates to stimulate the familiarity of their L1 tone split pattern. The findings show that Thai tonal confusion patterns in the two groups present differently. The accuracy rate of the C+Z is significantly higher than that of the C−Z overall and especially in T3 and T5. Their confusion rate on the Zhuang-Thai cognate wordlist was not higher than the non-cognate wordlist. All of the aforementioned indicates the positive transfer of the L1 Zhuang in the students’ Thai L2 tonal acquisition.

In bilingualism research, language dominance has been conceptualized and operationalized in different ways. In this paper, we discuss this notion and investigate to what extent language dominance is congruent with vocabulary knowledge in each language. First, we summarize definitions and operationalizations of language dominance. We show that comparison of proficiency related measures is a common operationalization of language dominance. Yet, the importance of attitudinal, biographical, or use-related components is often stressed. Such components are included in survey instruments like the Bilingual Language Profile (BLP). Second, we analyze data on language profiles of 225 French/German and 70 Italian/German adult bilinguals. Correlation and regression models are fitted to investigate the relation between the multi-dimensional dominance metric (BLP) results and results based on lexical tests (LexTALE for German and French, the VSPT from Dialang for Italian). The results reveal a strong linear association between BLP and LexTale.

The extent to which the ability to use metaphor in a second language– metaphoric competence (MC) - relates to well-attested language proficiency components has implications both for understanding second language (L2) competence and for pedagogy. Building on previous enquiries (Azuma 2005) and extending a vocabulary size and depth research agenda (Qian 2002; Schmitt 2014) to the realm of MC, the present study sought to disentangle the relationships between six elicited MC constructs, reliably established by O’Reilly and Marsden (2021), two standardised L2 proficiency measures, and established vocabulary size and depth measures. With 108 Mandarin learners of L2 English, partial correlation analyses showed unique relationships between specific MC and proficiency measures, evidence of what these learners could do with metaphor at various proficiency levels, and how sparse references to metaphor in proficiency descriptors (e.g., CEFR) might be more precisely interpreted. Multiple regression analyses showed that Read’s (1993, 1998) Word Associates Test, a vocabulary depth measure, was closely linked to all types of MC, particularly productive control (Henriksen 1999) and Metaphor Language Play (O’Reilly and Marsden 2021). The findings point to the centrality of different (but related) types of associative thinking ability in metaphor use and language learning more generally (Carroll 1993; Littlemore 2001, 2002, and 2008; Littlemore and Low 2006a). Future research implications and pedagogical reflections are provided.

When written corrective feedback is provided via model texts, language learners notice and incorporate features from the models into their subsequent writings. However, little is known about the accuracy of these incorporations or about the impact of model texts on draft quality. Also, model texts have often been implemented with children working in pairs but, to date, studies including individual and collaborative conditions are extremely scarce. This study examines the impact of model texts among 33 EFL children (aged 11–12) divided into a pair ( N  = 22) and an individual ( N  = 11) group. Our findings do not reveal any significant differences between pairs and individuals. The students in both conditions noticed features, mainly lexical. They incorporated around 50% of these features from the model texts into their final drafts, with an accuracy rate of 60%. Regarding draft quality, the second draft was significantly better than the first one when rated holistically.

This paper explored Indonesian EFL learners’ explicit knowledge, processing, and use of English periphrastic causative constructions make , have , and get . 20 English L1 speakers and 20 Indonesian intermediate level EFL learners majoring in English Language Education at an Indonesian university took part in this study. Data were collected through a cloze task, a sentence completion task, an interpretation task, and a set of open-ended questions asking learners to provide descriptions about their knowledge of the constructions. Results showed that learners did not always use the first noun strategy to identify the agent in a passive causative construction. Also, their suppliances of the causative verbs in most items did not significantly differ from L1 speakers. However, the syntactic patterns were mostly non-target-like. They demonstrated insufficient explicit knowledge that could enable them to verbalize the formal and functional aspects underlying the constructions. Pedagogical implications along with suggestions to improve instruction are discussed.

This study investigated Turkish EFL teachers’ beliefs and practices about the aspects of oral corrective feedback (OCF). It explored the impact of individual differences, namely educational background, special training, and teaching experience, on the relationship between the beliefs and practices. Data on teachers’ practices were collected via 153 h of classroom observations from 51 Turkish EFL teachers at two different universities, and teachers’ beliefs were gathered by a task about OCF. The results showed that teachers’ beliefs and practices were consistent on the aspects of perceived effectiveness, grammatical errors, implicit and explicit feedback. However, their beliefs and practices were inconsistent regarding lexical, phonological errors, and timing of OCF. The results also revealed that of the three individual differences, teaching experience most impacted the consistency between beliefs and practices, thus showing the greater role of teaching experience over special training and educational background on the consistency between beliefs and practices about OCF.

This study examines a learning experiment in which linguistic problem-solving tasks designed to increase students’ (aged 9–13) language awareness through collaborative dialogue were introduced in multilingual primary school classrooms in Finland. The aim was to analyse how the students ( N  = 126) reported what was happening during the linguistic problem-solving tasks, drawing on the method of languaging. Additionally, the study investigates how meaningful, relevant and novel the students with diverse backgrounds found the tasks. The data were collected via a survey. Students’ problem-solving reports were analysed via content analysis, with the Taxonomy of Cognitive Process applied. Statistical analysis was used to measure the experienced meaningfulness, relevance and novelty. The analysis resulted in an understanding of the multiple voices in which the students articulated their thinking regarding linguistic problem-solving. The study sheds light on how to develop language aware learning materials to engage all students, regardless of their backgrounds, in discussions on language.

Assigning stress to the appropriate syllable is consequential for being understood. Despite the importance, second language (L2) learners’ stress assignment is often incorrect, being affected by their first language (L1). Beyond the L1, learners’ lexical stress assignment may depend on analogy with other words in their lexicon. The current study investigates the respective roles of the L1 (English, French) and analogy in L2 German lexical stress assignment. Because English, like German, has variable stress assignment and French does not, participants included English- and French-speaking German L2 learners who assigned stress to German nonsense words in a perceptual preference and a production task. Results suggest a role of the L1, with English-speaking German L2 learners performing more like L1 German speakers. While French-speaking German L2 learners’ performance could not be predicted by other factors, L2 German proficiency and the ability to produce analogous words were predictive of English-speaking German L2 learners’ production performance.

This study expands upon research into task repetition effects by exploring the effect of task modeling between the performances of the same oral narrative task and its extension to a new task. Seventy-one advanced beginner English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were divided into three groups: task repetition with oral modeling (TR + OM), task repetition with written modeling (TR + WM), and task repetition with no modeling (TR). All groups enacted another oral narrative task (a new task of the same type), three days apart. Participants’ oral narrative task performances were analyzed in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency. Results revealed that TR + WM was more effective than the TR + OM, and both were significantly better than the control group in leading to subordination complexity in the repeated task and the new task. Whereas the percentage of error-free clauses remained unchanged over time, the accurate verb forms increased in TR + WM’s repeated task, but declined in the new task. Fluency in terms of articulation speed and mid-clause silent pauses was improved and maintained in the new task in all groups, with both the experimental groups particularly the TR + OM outperforming the TR regarding the significant reduction of repair in the repeated and new task performances. In conclusion, these significant developments induced by the modeling conditions speak to the strength of models in providing and extending linguistic features beyond learners’ current repertoires. Pedagogical implications of these findings are discussed.

This study examines the role of prior processing (understood as L2 use earlier in discourse) in moderating the contributions of foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) and proficiency to L2 utterance fluency. Two groups with comparable FLCA and proficiency scores performed the same narrative task. One group completed it in the absence of any other L2 task, and one group completed it immediately after responding to a similar but not identical prompt. The participants’ speech was analyzed using breakdown, speed, and repair fluency measures. Results showed that prior processing can reduce FLCA’s interference during L2 production. Unexpectedly, prior processing did not produce significant fluency gains associated with lexical retrieval and syntactic encoding. Instead, the patterns of variation revealed that more attention was paid to message conceptualization. This finding implies that prior processing can moderate FLCA’s role in L2 production because it alters the way attentional resources are allocated in subsequent performance.

Japanese EFL learners’ difficulty with accurately decoding connected English speech motivated this mixed methods study. The aural decoding capacities of 63 first-year Japanese university students, with low to intermediate level English proficiency, were first measured with a battery of paused transcription tests (PTT). The transcriptions were clusters of three-words that each possessed attributes typical of co-articulated speech. In addition, after each test, a subgroup of 10 participants individually listened to the same PTT and recounted introspective self-observations of their perceived difficulties with the aural decoding tasks in their L1. These quantitative and qualitative data were used to identify four trends in decoding errors which were categorized as follows: limited collocation familiarity, syntactic knowledge constraints, difficulties utilizing co-text, and L1 phonological influence . This study investigates some of the difficulties associated with aural decoding, highlights the challenges of identifying the origins of decoding errors and suggests that more focus is needed on developing decoding skills as well as knowledge of formulaic language in L2 listening education.

This study investigates whether task complexity improves L2 English learners’ ability to write contrast and argumentative essays as measured by the use of rhetorical moves and linguistic forms characteristic of these essays. The participants were 62 students in an undergraduate-level composition class in a private university in the U.S. The study involved a first phase that targeted contrast writing and a second phase that targeted argumentative writing. In both phases, students were assigned randomly to a simple or complex task group and wrote an essay in dyads. In terms of rhetorical moves, the complex task group outperformed the simple task group in the immediate and delayed post-test of contrast essays. For argumentative essays, this superiority of the complex group was only found in the immediate post-test. As per linguistic forms, the complex task group outperformed the simple task group in the immediate and delayed post-test of both contrast and argumentative essays.

Considering the relationship between reading and incidental vocabulary learning, in this study the effects of electronic glosses as well as working memory (WM) capacity on readers’ intake of new words were investigated. One hundred twenty users of English read an electronic text annotated with either lexical or topic-level glosses placed in either a pop-up window or a separate window. Upon reading, they took immediate and delayed form recognition and meaning recall tests as well as a subjective rating of cognitive load (CL). The results showed that lexical annotations led to a better performance on the unannounced immediate meaning recall test. In the pop-up window condition, high capacity readers were able to supply more definitions for the target words than low capacity readers on the delayed post-test. While no effects of WM, gloss type, or gloss location emerged for the reported CL, pop-up window annotations were the most frequently accessed ones.

Utterance fluency is widely acknowledged to be three-dimensional (i.e., speed, breakdown and repair), but little direct evidence has been offered in support of its dimensionality. This study examines the factor structures of speed and breakdown fluency and their relationships with EFL proficiency by evaluating 162 EFL learners’ retelling performances with respect to commonly used speed measures as well as pause length and frequency measures. Findings from structural equation modeling show that speed fluency was represented by articulation rate and mean length of utterance, and breakdown fluency by mid-clause pause length and frequency as well as end-of-clause pause length. Although speed and breakdown fluency were strongly related, EFL proficiency had a direct effect on speed fluency but not on breakdown fluency. When articulation rate was replaced with speech rate as the sole measure of speed fluency, the factor structure of breakdown fluency was changed and EFL proficiency contributed a little more to speed fluency. These findings help to better understand how EFL learners make pauses and how measures of speed and breakdown fluency differ from but simultaneously relate to each other.

The study examines the acquisition of L3 French present form by advanced L2 English learners of L1 Chinese within the framework of the Typological Primacy Model (TPM) of Rothman (2011) and the Interpretability Hypothesis of Tsimpli and Dimitrakopoulou (Tsimpli, Ianthi-maria & Maria Dimitrakopoulou. 2007. The Interpretability Hypothesis: Evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition. Second Language Research 23. 215–242. The meaning-form distinction of the present form in relation to habitual and event-in-progress interpretations varies between French, English, and Chinese, but is constrained by the presence/absence of tense and agreement features. Thirty-two adult L1 Chinese speakers of high proficiency L2 English/low proficiency L3 French and thirty adult L1 Chinese speakers of low proficiency L2 English together with a native English control group and a French control group were invited to take part in an acceptability judgement test. The results provide partial support to the TPM, which posits that the perceived typological similarity between L3 and the previously acquired languages conditions transfer in L3 initial state. The findings are, instead, more consistent with the Interpretability Hypothesis , which assumes the inaccessibility of uninterpretable syntactic features in subsequent language acquisition. What remain available in adult multilingual acquisition are interpretable syntactic features, computational devices, and other aspects of Universal Grammar (UG).