Applied Linguistics - current issue

A Dynamic Systems Account of Learning a Word: From Ecology to Form Relations

Churchill, E. — 2008-08-28

This paper responds to calls for studies that investigate multiple types of word knowledge and the processes of word learning. Focusing on a single word, this three-month diary study describes the micro-development of an adult male's Japanese L2 lexical knowledge. In contrast to most L2 vocabulary acquisition studies, this study posits a dynamic perspective on language and development. The theory of learning applied is based on Hutchins’ (1995) notion of coordination, supplemented by Gibson's (1979, 1986) theory of affordances. The findings suggest that the learning was non-linear, shaped in non-trivial ways by environmental affordances, and proceeded through several quasi-stable states attained in circuits of coordination. It is suggested that the learning in this case study behaved very much like a dynamic system.

A Longitudinal Study of ESL Learners' Fluency and Comprehensibility Development

Derwing, T. M., Munro, M. J., Thomson, R. I. — 2008-08-28

This longitudinal mixed-methods study compared the oral fluency of well-educated adult immigrants from Mandarin and Slavic language backgrounds (16 per group) enrolled in introductory English as a second language (ESL) classes. Speech samples were collected over a 2-year period, together with estimates of weekly English use. We also conducted interviews at the last data collection session. The participants’ fluency and comprehensibility at three points over 22 months were judged by 33 native speakers of English. We examine the learners’ progress in light of their exposure to English outside of their ESL class. The Slavic language speakers showed a small but significant improvement in both fluency and comprehensibility, whereas the Mandarin speakers’ performance did not change over 2 years, although both groups started at the same level of oral proficiency. These differences may be attributable in part to degree of exposure to English outside the ESL courses. Neither group had extensive exposure outside of their classes because of employment and familial responsibilities (although the Slavic language speakers reported more opportunities). Thus both groups may have been disadvantaged by a lack of oral fluency instruction. The findings, both quantitative and qualitative, are interpreted using the Willingness to Communicate framework; we also discuss implications for the language classroom.

Language Policy, Language Teachers' Beliefs, and Classroom Practices

Farrell, T. S. C., Kun, S. T. K. — 2008-08-28

The widespread use of a local variety of English, Singapore Colloquial English, or Singlish, has become somewhat of a controversial issue in Singapore especially in the eyes of the Singapore government. For example, in 2002 the Singapore government launched The ‘Speak Good English Movement’ (SGEM) with the objective of promoting the use of Standard English among Singaporeans. Furthermore, Singapore's newspapers have recently suggested that the responsibility for halting the deterioration (perceived or real) of the standards of English rests with Singapore's English language teachers. The case study presented in this paper offers one lens from which to view a policy-to-practice connection by outlining the impact of language policy on the beliefs and classroom practices of three primary school teachers concerning the use of Singlish in their classrooms. The results confirm those of previous studies that teachers’ reactions to language policy is not a straightforward process and as such it is important to understand the role teachers play in the enactment of language policy.

Toward a Learning Behavior Tracking Methodology for CA-for-SLA

Markee, N. — 2008-08-28

This paper is principally about methodology. It first summarizes five issues in the emerging research agenda of conversation analysis-for-second language acquisition (CA-for-SLA), and develops empirically based analyses of classroom talk that occurs over several days and months to illustrate how a longitudinal learning behavior tracking (LBT) methodology for CA-for-SLA works. LBT has two components: Learning object tracking (LOT) and learning process tracking (LPT). LOT involves tracking when participants deploy potential learning objects within a single conversation and in subsequent speech events. LPT involves carrying out conversation analyses of participants’ emerging grammar to understand how they orient to learning objects as resources for doing language learning behaviors that occur both in the moment and over time. The paper concludes with an overview of the methodological strengths and weaknesses of LBT.

Metaphor Use in Three UK University Lectures

Low, G., Littlemore, J., Koester, A. — 2008-08-28

It has been claimed in recent years that, on the one hand, metaphor occurs in UK university lectures in ways that are likely to confuse ESL learners (Littlemore 2001, 2003) and on the other hand that US lecturers use it in highly structured ways, particularly involving linked clusters, to help organize the lecture and indicate the opinions of the speaker (Corts and Pollio 1999; Corts and Meyers 2002). Both sets of claims are potentially useful to teachers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). However, they both derive from studies with fairly narrow foci. There have to date been few studies examining at a more general level where metaphor occurs and how it is used in lectures. The present paper reports part of a small-scale study to develop a viable methodology for analysing metaphor use generally in lectures. It examines the incidence and use of metaphor in three UK university lectures in the BASE corpus, using a version of the MIP procedure developed by the Pragglejaz Group (2007). The main findings are that metaphor is used repeatedly throughout all three lectures, but that there are few elaborated or developed metaphors; those there are tend to be short, unconnected with later metaphors and used primarily to solve local, rather than global purposes. The implications for EAP teaching are discussed.

Integrating Grammar in Adult TESOL Classrooms

Borg, S., Burns, A. — 2008-08-28

This paper examines the beliefs and practices about the integration of grammar and skills teaching reported by 176 English language teachers from 18 countries. Teachers completed a questionnaire which elicited beliefs about grammar teaching generally as well as specific beliefs and reported practices about the integration of grammar and skills teaching. Teachers expressed strong beliefs in the need to avoid teaching grammar in isolation and reported high levels of integration of grammar in their practices. This study also examines how teachers conceptualize integration and the sources of evidence they draw on in assessing the effectiveness of their instructional practices in teaching grammar. The major findings for this paper stem from an analysis of these two issues. A range of ways in which teachers understood integration are identified and classified into two broad orientations which we label temporal and contextual. An analysis of the evidence which teachers cited in making judgements about the effectiveness of their grammar teaching practices showed that it was overwhelmingly practical and experiential and did not refer in any explicit way to second language acquisition theory. Given the volume of available theory about L2 grammar teaching generally and integration specifically, the lack of direct reference to such evidence in teachers’ accounts is noteworthy.

In the Same Boat? On Metaphor Variation as Mediating the Individual Voice in Organizational Change

Argaman, E. — 2008-08-28

This paper discusses the notion of metaphor variation, and argues that it may play a significant role as a linguistic tool for positioning the subjects in a given organizational change. More specifically, it is argued that metaphor variation enables the subject to corroborate the organization's centripetal forces on the one hand, and to express the centrifugal forces that make room for individuality and divergence from the organization's official voice, on the other. This thesis is theoretically developed and illustrated by examples drawn from the context of organizational change in education.

Language Creativity and the Poetic Function. A Response to Swann and Maybin (2007)

Widdowson, H. G. — 2008-08-28

The current renewal of interest in language creativity raises a number of intriguing problems, as is evident from the stimulating papers in the recent special issue of Applied Linguistics. According to the editors of this issue, however, these papers are not concerned with creativity in a general pragmatic sense but more specifically with poetic creativity, which they define, following Jakobson, as ‘a focus on the message for its own sake’. I argue that this formalist definition is misleading and that one needs to consider other factors in Jakobson's account of the speech event, and crucially how they inter-relate with each other, and that this, in turn, brings up general pragmatic issues as discussed in Searle's speech act theory and Grice's co-operative principle that are directly relevant to an understanding of how creativity is achieved. I conclude that there is no distinctively poetic way of being creative by focusing on the message form, but that creativity is a function of how the message form interacts with other speech act conditions and so has to be accounted for in general pragmatic terms.

Word Frequency Estimates Revisited--A Response to Alderson (2007)

McGee, I. — 2008-08-28

Alderson's (2007) paper investigated whether subjective frequency counts for words might be a reliable substitute for corpus data. Alderson is critical of previous research which has found high correlations between corpus data and subjective estimates, and he argues that his own research, ‘has failed to show that frequency judgements can substitute for objective word frequency counts derived from corpora’ (p. 407). In what follows, I question whether Alderson has really established his case, and also refer to some previously published research which has attempted to unravel the ‘mystery’ of intuitions in this area.

A. Tsui and J. Tollefson (eds): Language Policy, Culture, and Identity in Asian Contexts.

Mooney, A. — 2008-08-28

T. R. Trautmann: Languages and Nations: The Dravidian Proof in Colonial Madras.

Joseph, J. E. — 2008-08-28

Luke Prodromou: English as a Lingua Franca: A Corpus-Based Analysis.

Maley, A. — 2008-08-28

Jette G. Hansen: Acquiring a Non-Native Phonology. Linguistic Constraints and Social Barriers.

Simon, E. — 2008-08-28

Notes on Contributors

2008-08-28