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doi: 10.1111/ijal.12099pmid: N/A
This paper addresses the issue of writing for publication in English to elucidate, on the one hand, how writing styles of scholars from two cultural regions – Polish and Anglo‐American – differ at the level of article structure. On the other, it explores the extent to which internationalizing forces inside one discourse community (specialists in linguistics) can override differences. For this purpose, a qualitative, cross‐linguistic and cross‐cultural study was conducted to compare texts written in English by native speakers with such articles by Polish authors. The issue is increasingly significant because current scientific progress and globalization has stimulated the need to share research findings in all fields of science using English as the main language of international publication.
Appel, Randy; Trofimovich, Pavel
doi: 10.1111/ijal.12100pmid: N/A
Formulaic sequences (FSs), or prefabricated multi‐word structures (e.g. on the other hand), are often difficult to identify objectively, and current corpus‐driven methods yield structurally incomplete, overlapping, or overly extended structures of questionable psychological validity and pedagogical usefulness. To address these limitations, this study evaluated transitional probability as a potential metric to improve the identification of FSs by presenting 100 four‐word sequences from the British National Corpus, varying in transitional probabilities between words, to native and non‐native speakers of English (N = 293) in a sequence completion task (e.g. for the sake__). Results revealed that the application of transitional probability reduces many of the problems associated with current approaches to FS identification and can produce lists of FSs that are more functionally salient and psychologically valid.
Hendriks, Berna; Meurs, Frank; Groot, Elizabeth
doi: 10.1111/ijal.12101pmid: N/A
In a verbal guise experiment, 178 listeners with three nationalities (58 French, 59 German and 61 Spanish) listened to samples recorded by female speakers with three degrees of accentedness (strong/slight accented‐Dutch and native) in English, French, German and Spanish. Findings indicate that a strong accent had a detrimental effect on understanding and attitudinal evaluations, while a slight accent hardly led to negative effects. A speaker with a strong Dutch accent in English was evaluated as less competent than speakers with a slight or native accent. Speakers with a strong Dutch accent in French, German or Spanish were evaluated as less friendly and less competent than speakers with a native accent.
doi: 10.1111/ijal.12102pmid: N/A
Narratives play an important role in education, both as a genre which is used to test language proficiency and as a way of transmitting educational context. Therefore, it is important to have a clear idea of how children approach narrative tasks. In this study, we focused on children between 8 and 10 years of age. We investigated whether children with a Flemish background told stories in a different way from children with a non‐Western background. Second, we looked into the way both groups of children adapted their stories to the assumed knowledgeableness, i.e. the communal common ground (Clark 1996) they attributed to their audience. Our study shows that children with a non‐Western background did not differ greatly from children with a Flemish background in the way they told stories to an adult, but that significant differences could be found in the way they adapted their stories to a peer listener. Whereas children with a Flemish background elaborated more when telling to a peer, children with a non‐Western background showed no significant adaptations. We briefly discuss some of the implications of this finding for education.
Hall, Christopher J; Wicaksono, Rachel; Liu, Shu; Qian, Yuan; Xu, Xiaoqing
doi: 10.1111/ijal.12107pmid: N/A
This study presents a conceptual framework for exploring teachers' ontologies of English and investigates how a group of Chinese university teachers of English conceive of, and orient to, the language. Interview data suggest that participants orient to both a monolithic view as well as the ‘plurilithic’ reality. The data reveal that monolithic ontologies are associated primarily with classroom contexts, whereas plurilithic ontologies are activated when usage is in focus. Particularly significant is teachers' monolithic conception of grammar, compared to plurilithic conceptions of lexis and pronunciation. We propose that usage‐based approaches to grammar might offer teachers a way to reconcile their apparently contradictory ontologies and help them challenge the deficit view of learning inherent in the monolithic approach.
Sato, Masanobu; Tanaka, Shigenori
doi: 10.1111/ijal.12108pmid: N/A
This study deals with the process of lexical development by Japanese learners of English in instructional settings. A test was designed to measure their inter‐lexical competence (i.e. the ability to use semantically related words differently) about the English basic verbs of sensory perception (e.g. see, listen, smell), which constitutes a conceptual lexical network. Three hundred nineteen university students of different levels of English proficiency participated in this study. The overall results showed that Japanese university students had difficulty in the selective use of basic verbs of perception, and we identified some specific problematic areas. The performance of the participants was discussed in terms of a learning strategy – i.e. the search‐translation‐equivalent strategy. Pedagogical implications were discussed with reference to core schemas and lexical networks.
Müller, Mareike; Schmenk, Barbara
doi: 10.1111/ijal.12109pmid: N/A
This paper discusses the findings of an empirical study that explores the relationship between study‐abroad experiences, learner identity, and pronunciation. We argue that the role of pronunciation as a personal domain of meaning‐making warrants more attention than it has hitherto received. To this end, we investigate the narratives of Canadian learners, studying abroad in Germany, in relation to discourses of language learning, culture, and identity, using a Critical Discourse Analysis approach. Our data, which we gained from semi‐structured interviews and e‐journals, shows that learners’ perceptions of pronunciation are closely linked to their views of the native‐speaker ideal, impacting their self‐constructions and interpretations of learning experience. In conclusion, we argue for a more differentiated understanding of pronunciation and its implications for language teaching and study abroad.
McKenzie, Robert M.; Gilmore, Alexander
doi: 10.1111/ijal.12110pmid: N/A
Previous research indicates that evaluations of speech forms reflect stereotypes of, and attitudes towards, the perceived group(s) of speakers of the language/variety under consideration. This study, employing both implicit and explicit attitude measures, investigates 158 Japanese university students' perceptions of forms of UK, US, Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Indian English speech. The results show a general convergence between students' explicit and implicit attitudes, for instance, regarding US and UK English as the most correct, and solidarity with Japanese speakers of English. The findings are discussed in relation to intergroup relations between the traditional Japanese cohort and specific groups of overseas students, particularly in light of recent internationalisation policies adopted by many Japanese universities, and the resultant increase in international students from South and East Asia.
Enkin, Elizabeth; Mejías‐Bikandi, Errapel
doi: 10.1111/ijal.12112pmid: N/A
Studies on the effectiveness of online language teaching have generally centered on basic or intermediate language courses. The present study examines the effectiveness of an advanced‐level online Spanish grammar course. Two sections of the course are compared: one is offered face‐to‐face, and the other is offered fully online. The goals are both to measure students' achievement in the two sections, and to better understand specific challenges faced by online teaching. The study shows that there was significant improvement (learning) in the online section, and that learning is indeed comparable to that shown in the face‐to‐face section. However, we identify and discuss one specific challenge faced by an online format: the different nature of the interaction between the learner and the learning environment.
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