Showing papers in "Applied Linguistics in 2013"

Lexical Coverage in L1 and L2 Listening Comprehension: The Same or Different from Reading Comprehension?

Abstract: Most research on L2 reading comprehension has indicated that 98 per cent lexical coverage provides adequate comprehension of written text. This figure has been transferred to listening comprehension and has been used to set vocabulary size targets for L2 learners. This study directly investigates coverage in regard to listening comprehension, to determine whether such transfer is reasonable. The coverage of four spoken informal narrative passages was manipulated, and participants’ (36 native and 40 non-native speakers) listening comprehension of factual information was measured. Results showed that most native and non-native participants could adequately comprehend the spoken texts with only 90 per cent coverage, although the non-natives showed considerable variation at this level. At 95 per cent coverage, non-native participants also demonstrated relatively good comprehension, but with much less variation. Based on a 95 per cent coverage figure, language users would need to know between 2,000 and 3,000 word families for adequate listening comprehension, compared with Nation’s (2006) calculation of 6,000–7,000 families based on a 98 per cent figure.

Translanguaging Identities and Ideologies: Creating Transnational Space Through Flexible Multilingual Practices Amongst Chinese University Students in the UK

Abstract: There are thousands of ethnic Chinese students from very different backgrounds in British universities today, a fact that has not been fully appreciated or studied from an applied linguistics perspective. For example, there are third- or fourth-generation British-born Chinese; there are students from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore who have received whole or part of their primary and secondary education in Britain; and there are Chinese students who completed their schooling in their home countries. To add to the diversity of the Chinese student population, several distinctive varieties of Chinese are spoken as well as different varieties of English and other languages. In terms of their choice of language and social networks, the Chinese students have several options, including, for example, staying with their own language variety group (e.g. Cantonese, Mandarin); staying with their own region-of-origin group (e.g. British-born, Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong); and creating new transnational and multilingual groupings. This article focuses on a group of Chinese university students who have chosen to create transnational and multilingual networks. Through analysis of narrative data and ethnographic observations, we explore issues such as their socio-cultural identification processes, the interactions between their linguistic and political ideologies; their multilingual practices and what they have learned from being part of this new social space.

Sketching Muslims: A Corpus Driven Analysis of Representations Around the Word ‘Muslim’ in the British Press 1998–2009

Abstract: This article uses methods from corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to examine patterns of representation around the word Muslim in a 143 million word corpus of British newspaper articles published between 1998 and 2009. Using the analysis tool Sketch Engine, an analysis of noun collocates of Muslim found that the following categories (in order of frequency) were referenced: ethnic/national identity, characterizing/differentiating attributes, conflict, culture, religion, and group/organizations. The ‘conflict’ category was found to be particularly lexically rich, containing many word types. It was also implicitly indexed in the other categories. Following this, an analysis of the two most frequent collocate pairs: Muslim world and Muslim community showed that they were used to collectivize Muslims, both emphasizing their sameness to each other and their difference to ‘The West’. Muslims were also represented as easily offended, alienated, and in conflict with non-Muslims. The analysis additionally considered legitimation strategies that enabled editors to print more controversial representations, and concludes with a discussion of researcher bias and an extended notion of audience through online social networks.

A Classification of Genre Families in University Student Writing.

Abstract: As demand for English-medium higher education continues to grow internationally and participation in higher education increases, the need for a better understanding of academic writing is pressing. Prior university wide taxonomies of student writing have relied on intuition, the opinions of faculty, or data from course documentation and task prompts. In contrast, our classification is grounded in analysis of all 2858 BAWE (British Academic Written English) corpus texts actually produced by undergraduate and taught postgraduate university students in England for assessment purposes. This builds on the American tradition of classifying university student writing tasks (e.g. Horowitz 1986; Hale et al. 1996; Melzer 2009) and the very different Australian tradition of classifying primary and secondary school children’s written texts as genres (e.g. Martin and Rothery 1986; Coffin 2006). Understanding our classification of 13 genre families enables more meaningful interrogation of the BAWE corpus by teachers and researchers. The diversity in student genres across disciplines and levels of study is noteworthy for academic writing materials developers and all interested in the nature of higher education.

Relative Effects of Explicit and Implicit Feedback: The Role of Working Memory Capacity and Language Analytic Ability

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of two cognitive factors (i.e. working memory capacity [WMC] and language analytic ability [LAA]) in the extent to which L2 learners benefit from two different types of feedback (i.e. explicit correction and recasts). Forty-eight adult native speakers of English, who had no previous exposure to the target language (i.e. Turkish), were randomly assigned into explicit correction, recast, and control (no feedback) groups. Learners performed two tasks with a native speaker of Turkish where their errors on two Turkish target structures (i.e. locative and plural) were treated according to their group assignment. Oral production, comprehension, and recognition tests were used to measure learners’ resulting performance. Learners’ WMC and LAA were measured with the operation span task (Turner and Engle 1989) and a subtest of the LLAMA Aptitude Tests (Meara 2005), respectively. Results showed that WMC and LAA moderated the effect of feedback group on both structures. Moreover, follow-up analyses revealed that explicit correction worked better than recasts only when the learners in the compared groups had high cognitive ability (high WMC or high LAA).

Silence in the Second Language Classrooms of Japanese Universities

Abstract: Japanese language learners’ proclivity for silence has been alluded to by various writers (e.g. Anderson 1993; Korst 1997; Greer 2000) and is supported by plenty of anecdotal evidence, but large-scale, empirical studies aimed at measuring the extent of macro-level silence within Japanese university L2 classrooms are notably lacking. This article responds to the gap in the literature by reporting on an extensive, multi-site study which used a structured observation methodology to investigate the classroom behaviour of 924 English language learners across nine universities. A total of 48 hours of data were collected using a minute-by-minute sampling strategy which resulted in some surprising results. Students were found to be responsible for less than one per cent of initiated talk within their classes, while over a fifth of all class time observed was characterized by no oral participation by any participants, staff, or students alike. These results are interpreted from a dynamic systems theory perspective, which suggests that silence emerges through multiple routes and has now formed a semi-permanent attractor state within the study’s L2 university classrooms.

Test-Takers' Strategic Behaviors in Independent and Integrated Speaking Tasks.

Abstract: This study investigated the strategic behaviors that test-takers reported using when responding to integrated and independent speaking tasks in an English oral proficiency test [the Speaking Section of the Internet-based Test of English as a Foreign Language™ (TOEFL iBT)] and the relationship between test-takers’ strategic behaviors and their test scores. Each of 30 Chinese-speaking engineering students responded to two independent and four integrated speaking tasks and provided stimulated recalls about the strategies they used when performing each task. The integrated tasks elicited a wider variety of reported strategy use than did the independent tasks. Additionally, the integrated tasks were more alike with respect to reported strategy use than were the independent and integrated tasks. Overall, we found no relationship between the total number of reported strategic behaviors and total test scores, regardless of task type. Our finding that the more skills involved in a task, the greater the reported strategy use supports the inclusion of integrated tasks in oral proficiency tests. However, the relationships between strategy use, task type, and task performance are varied and complex.

Willingness to Communicate and Cross-cultural Adaptation: L2 Communication and Acculturative Stress as Transaction

Abstract: Although much research has focused on the influence of second language (L2) proficiency on L2 use and on outcomes of intercultural adaptation, these two strands have remained largely separate. This study examines the impact of willingness to communicate in the L2 (L2 WTC) on the daily hassles and stress of international students, with the aim of demonstrating a conceptual overlap of the L2 WTC model with theories of stress and cross-cultural adaptation that focus on a transactional person–environment fit. Participants included 104 Chinese-speaking students attending a British university. Structural equation modeling supported a model in which L2 WTC played a significant role in the experience of daily hassles related to communication difficulties, social isolation, and time and financial constraints. A second, similar model is also advanced in which communication difficulties, in particular, are afforded a unique role. Results support the appropriateness of locating L2 WTC within a general transactional framework of cross-cultural adaptation.

Western perceptions of Hong Kong ten years on: A corpus-driven critical discourse study

Abstract: This article studies the Western perceptions of and relations with Hong Kong a decade after the reversion of the sovereignty from Britain to China in 1997. Previous studies have demonstrated that the West had a significantly negative view on the future of Hong Kong with respect to the handover. According to recent observations, however, the perceptions of the West have undergone a noticeable change. This article aims at investigating the West's understanding, opinions and positions regarding Hong Kong today compared with those in 1997. The possible reasons for any changes are also investigated. Through the integration of the theories and methods of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis and the use of two corpus linguistic software, ConcGram and Wmatrix, the present article examines a range of Western public discourse of Hong Kong concerning the handover. The purpose of the article is to yield insights into the New Hong Kong in the eyes of the West, which in turn contributes to a re-examination of the relations and power balance between the West and China.

Skill-based L2 Anxieties Revisited: Their Intra-relations and the Inter-relations with General Foreign Language Anxiety

Abstract: Recently, research in foreign language anxiety has extended to the examination of more language-skill-specific anxieties. Existing research findings on the language-skill-specific anxieties indicate a consistent negative relationship between individual skill-based anxieties (e.g. listening anxiety) and more general foreign language classroom anxiety. Regardless of the rich documentation surrounding this issue, some important questions remain unanswered. The present study was conducted to provide empirical answers to the following two unresolved issues: (i) the relationship between the four skill-based anxieties, and (ii) the relation of the skill-based anxieties to general foreign language classroom anxiety. A series of chi-square difference tests based on a sample of 229 Korean English as a foreign language students evidenced that all four skill-based L2 anxieties were statistically distinguishable from each other. Moreover, multiple regression analyses demonstrated that all four made an independent contribution to general classroom anxiety. Implications for researchers and practitioners are presented.

What Do We Mean by Writing Fluency and How Can It Be Validly Measured

Abstract: Fluency is an essential component in writing ability and development. Writing fluency research is important to researchers and teachers interested in facilitating students’ written text production and in assessing writing. This calls for reaching a better understanding of writing fluency and how it should be measured. Although fluency is the construct with the most varied definitions and measures in writing research, such large variance in conceptualizing the construct is rarely discussed. In an attempt to demystify the what of this construct, the present article reviews its definitions, shows how its measurement has been influenced by oral production research, and discusses some issues related to the validity of the varied measures used for assessing it.

Measurements of development in L2 written production: The case of L2 Chinese

Abstract: This study investigates measures for second language (L2) writing development. A T-unit, which has been found the most satisfactory unit of analysis for measuring L2 development in English, is extended to measure L2 Chinese writing development through a cross-sectional design in this study. Data were collected from three L2 Chinese learner groups (n = 116) at different proficiency levels determined by institutional status, namely year of study and a native control group (n = 66). A T-unit in Chinese is firstly defined and then solutions for questions of practicality faced in extending T-unit analysis to Chinese are provided. In order to confirm the reliability of T-unit length as a measure for Chinese, T-unit analysis is applied to L1 Chinese before it is used to measure L2 Chinese development. With T-unit length being established as a reliable measure in L1 Chinese, three specific T-unit measures, namely T-unit length, error-free T-unit length, and percentage of error-free T-units, are extended to measure L2 Chinese writing development. Percentage of error-free T-units is found to be the only measure that discriminates between all levels of this learner cohort. Significance of the findings and relevance to measurements of L2 writing development in general are discussed.

Doing Being Playful in the Second Language Classroom

Abstract: Much work on classroom interaction has been devoted to the IRF or IRE structure as well as pair or group work. Relatively little is known about less “legitimate” moments such as humor or off-task talk, and existing studies on playful interaction have been limited to EFL or foreign language classrooms. Based on 16 hours of videotaped interactions from eight different adult ESL classrooms, I provide a conversation analytic account of how participants mobilize identity as a key resource for doing being playful. In particular, I show that it is through ascribing, displaying or invoking situational, relational, and personal identities that the participants manage to enter an alternative universe unfettered by the roles and the setting of the classroom. Under the mask of play, the learners perform a range of subversive acts and experience the equality and contingency of conversation. Findings of this study contribute to illuminating the nature of pragmatic play and provide further empirical support for the legitimacy and utility of playful talk in language learning from a previously unexamined context (i.e., ESL classrooms).

Life as a Chord: Heterogeneous Resources in the Social Identification of One Migrant Girl

Abstract: The social and natural worlds provide heterogeneous resources that contribute both to instances of social identification and to life trajectories. One might claim or be assigned membership in various groups, which emerge at different spatial and temporal scales, and resources for social identification are often combined in novel ways to yield unexpected identities. To account for the trajectories of identification that any individual travels, analysts must determine which configurations of resources become relevant in a given case. Of the many resources that might be relevant to identifying an individual, event, or setting, a few generally become salient—somewhat like several musical notes coming together to constitute a chord. We illustrate this contingent process by describing one young Mexican migrant in the USA, sketching relevant aspects of family interactions, educational practices, local community characteristics, and national discourses. This girl, her family, and other actors combine heterogeneous resources in contingent ways as they navigate and establish an emerging trajectory of identification through which she becomes a ‘good reader’.

Ironic Blackness as Masculine Cool: Asian American Language and Authenticity on YouTube

Abstract: This article examines the cultural significance of cross-racial embodiments of linguistic signs that may be legible as ‘black’ within mainstream US discourses but, in YouTube’s transnational space, may be subject to alternative interpretations. It specifically explores ideologies of race, gender, and authenticity that underlie signs stereotypically linked to symbolic blackness and embodied by a young Chinese American YouTube star named Kevin Wu, whose performance is further complicated by his ironic footing. I argue that although Wu’s stance recognizes certain contradictory values of his racialized performance, his humor never challenges stereotypes of black hypermasculinity. At the same time, my examination of how viewers collaboratively interpret Wu suggests that although they may largely reproduce widely circulating ideologies of race, gender, and linguistic authenticity in the USA, their collaborative praise participates in the reshaping of widely circulating imagery of Asian masculinity in transnational space.

Cognitive Contributions to Plurilithic Views of English and Other Languages

Abstract: Monolithic views of languages predominate in linguistics, applied linguistics, and everyday discourse. The World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, and Critical Applied Linguistics frameworks have gone some way to counter the myth, highlighting the iniquities it gives rise to for global users and learners of English. Here, I propose that developing an understanding of ‘plurilithic’ Englishes informed by cognitively oriented linguistics (including generativism), can complement and consolidate valuable but often divisive socially oriented efforts to ‘disinvent’ named languages. I acknowledge problems associated with mainstream generativism, but argue that a complete repudiation of mentalistic notions of language is unhelpful. I suggest that a modified ‘polylingually constituted’ version of the Chomskyan I-language concept may be useful, capturing the bottom-up nature of individual language resources and drawing a clear contrast with folk ontologies of English as a named monolithic system (N-language). The emerging epistemological integration suggests that learning and use are determined by individuals’ local experiences as non-conformist mental appropriators of external social practices, rather than by top-down notions of proficiency in monolithic national, foreign, international, or supranational varieties.

Lexical Bundles in Discourse Structure: A Corpus-Based Study of Classroom Discourse.

Abstract: The present study applies corpus-based methods to document the distributional patterns of previously reported lexical bundle functions as they relate to discourse structure. Specifically, 84 lexical bundles and their discourse functions (Biber et al. 2004a) were tracked in 1,176 discourse units extracted from the initial phases of 196 university class sessions. The findings show that in the opening phase of class sessions bundles conveying stance are most frequent while bundles articulating reference are least in number. With the start of the instructional phase, however, stance bundles sharply drop and referential bundles start rising. Discourse organizing bundles are least prominent overall, although with some rise at the very beginning of the instructional phase. These findings indicate that lexical bundle functions correspond well to the communicative functions in discourse structure found through linguistic variation (Csomay 2005) and suggest that there is a strong relationship between grammar and lexis on the discourse level.

The Effect of Language Learning Aptitude, Strategy Use and Learning Context on L2 Pronunciation Learning

Abstract: This study examined whether learning context (ESL versus EFL) and language learning aptitude (high versus low) affected the use of second-language pronunciation strategies and pronunciation achievement. The top and lowest scorers (n = 60) on the Pimsleur Language Learning Aptitude Battery (PLAB) Test were asked to complete a pronunciation strategies inventory and participate in pronunciation proficiency tests at the beginning and end of a 10-week speaking class. Pronunciation scores in global foreign accent, fluency, comprehensibility, and accuracy were compared with both overall and individual section PLAB scores and pronunciation strategies use. Results indicated that neither types of learning strategies nor degree of language gains differed over EFL and ESL contexts. However, participants’ post-test pronunciation scores in global foreign accent, fluency, and accuracy were positively correlated with auditory aptitude and motivation, while comprehensibility post-test scores were correlated with pronunciation strategies use. The findings for this study suggest that learning context plays a limited role in strategy use and that aptitude affects pronunciation accuracy and pronunciation strategies affect comprehensibility. Thus, strategy and aptitude affect different aspects of pronunciation.

‘Co-constructing’ Explicit L2 Knowledge with High School Spanish Learners through Guided Induction

Abstract: This article documents how second language (L2) Spanish learners in an American high school formulated explicit grammar rules during three inductive lessons on the pronominal clitic se. Following Adair-Hauck et al. (2010), each lesson first presented a property of se within a narrative text, and then had learners inductively ‘Co-construct’ grammar rules in groups of 2–3. Groups then reported back to the class, with the teacher guiding them toward a consensus. Recordings of four small groups and the whole-class discussions revealed that although successful rule formulation occurred in all three lessons, outcomes varied according to: (i) time spent on task, (ii) the distribution of turn-taking, and (iii) participants’ familiarity with pertinent linguistic concepts. Variability in learners’ comprehension of peer explanations was also evident, as many requested clarification from the teacher or peers. Thus, learner-generated rules were often only ‘subjectively accessible’ to others, depending on whether references to previously learned grammatical concepts and improvised linguistic terminology could be understood. Implications for L2 pedagogy and the role of explicit knowledge in L2 acquisition are discussed.

Scraping the Barrel with a Shower of Social Misfits: Everyday Creativity in Text Messaging

Abstract: Scholars generally accept that spelling variation in texting is a creative practice. This article shows that texters can also be creative in other ways. Examples of repetition, idiom manipulation, wordplay, and punning are drawn from a corpus of almost 11,000 text messages. These include: ‘They can try! They can get lost, in fact!’ and ‘see ya not on the dot’, as well as the mixed idioms cited in the title of the article. The article explores the extent to which these creative practices reflect the creativity identified in spoken and online interaction and it finds that, despite the speech-like nature of creative practices across the corpus, some texted creativity differs in interesting ways from other contexts. The article shows how creative practices emerge from a particular configuration of technology- and user-related features to play a significant evaluative role in texting, as well as providing cohesion across texts. The study suggests that research into the implications of texting for literacy should be extended to take into account these forms of creativity.

Korean EFL Learners’ Indefinite Article Use with Four Types of Abstract Nouns

Abstract: The study investigates Korean-speaking EFL learners’ article use with four different categories of abstract nouns. The categories, which are based on boundedness and countability, are state nouns, continuous-action nouns, non-continuous action nouns, and bounded independent nouns. Fifty Korean intermediate-level learners of English participated in a forced choice task in which they chose an indefinite article (a/n) or null article with these nouns in context. A one-way analysis of variance compared accuracy rates across the four different types of abstract nouns. The results showed that learners’ article use is influenced by noun type. The accuracy rate was highest for the bounded independent and lowest for the non-continuous action nouns. We propose that the heterogeneous nature of the category of abstract nouns should be addressed in research and pedagogy.

‘Veneto out of Italy? Dialect, Migration, and Transnational Identity’

Abstract: In recent years, new efforts have been made to revitalize and promote local dialects in northern Italy. This project of dialect promotion has occurred side by side with new political restrictions on illegal immigrants in Italy, and both projects—dialect revitalization and anti-immigrant legislation—have been led by the influential federalist political party called Lega Nord. This revitalization is part of a larger set of political initiatives launched by two main political parties in Veneto, Liga Veneta, a subdivision of the Lega Nord, and the new, independently born Veneto Stato. Using a variety of discourse data collected in the Veneto region, this article shows how the promotion of Veneto dialect is intimately related to Veneto speakers’ defense against migrants and the Italian state. This link between local linguistic revitalization and anti-immigration efforts is not just a case of ‘regionalization’ within the Italian state, however. On the one hand, Veneto speakers emphasize their regional belonging rather than their national one by promoting dialect over Standard Italian; on the other hand, they construct a transnational identity as Veneti nel mondo (‘Veneto people in the world’)—reaching out especially to Veneto speakers in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and the USA. Through an analysis of style shifting between Veneto dialect and Standard Italian in a corpus of naturally recorded data among Veneto speakers, I investigate how they foster and solidify a Veneto identity through opposition to foreigners and the Italian state, and how they build a Veneto transnational identity that stretches beyond regional and national boundaries.

Top-Down and Bottom-Up Strategies of Identity Construction in Ethnic Media

Abstract: In this article, I investigate the construction of Latin@ identities within a Spanish language radio station broadcasting to a Latin American audience in the Washington–Baltimore area. I argue that ethnic media such as this radio station provide a channel for the enactment of interests and strategies at different local and translocal scales and that therefore the analysis of discourse and communication processes within such media provides a glimpse into the complexities that underlie identity construction among transnational communities. I focus on the contrast between top-down strategies used by the radio owners, advertisers and other agents to build a Latin@ identity and bottom-up processes of identity negotiation among hosts within the radio. While top-down strategies converge in proposing an image of local Latin@s as a homogeneous, culturally and linguistically united transnational community, concrete identity negotiations among hosts complicate this picture, illustrating potential divisions within such imagined community. I focus on exchanges involving English and Spanish by Spanish- or English-dominant hosts to illustrate diverging perceptions about the significance for identity claims of using hybrid English–Spanish talk and accented or unaccented varieties of English.

‘Use the active voice whenever possible’: The Impact of Style Guidelines in Medical Journals

Abstract: Medical writing is sometimes criticized for excessive use of the passive voice. The purpose of this study is twofold: (i) to provide quantitative descriptions of how the passive voice is used in medical journals and (ii) to assess the impact of style guidelines encouraging use of the active voice. From a corpus of 297 primary research articles published in the top five medical journals, we extracted 19,691 passive constructions. Analyses show that guidelines have a significant effect on use of the passive voice, and that this is highly localized in the ‘Methods’ and ‘Results’ sections. Analyses also identify a core set of verbs which are strongly associated with the passive voice, and which play a central role in structuring the discourse. We argue that current guidelines influence author’s linguistic choices, and that although paraphrasing a sentence in the active voice may be possible, a passive alternative is sometimes preferable. Findings demonstrate the need for formative guidelines which better reflect the reality of conventionalized usage.

The affective benefits of a pre-sessional course at the start of study abroad IN EUROSLA Monographs Series 4 Social interaction

Abstract: The present study focuses on the effect that a 2 to 4 week pre-sessional course at the Aix-Marseille University (Aix-en-Provence) had on Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) and Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in the French as a foreign language of 93 learners of Western European, Eastern European and Asian origin. They were tested at the start and at the end of the course. They ranged from beginners to intermediate learners. Results showed a significant decrease in levels of FLA and a significant increase in WTC. Length of stay had no effect on FLA but was positively linked to difference in WTC. Level of proficiency had no effect on difference in FLA but had a positive effect on difference in WTC, with lower-intermediate learners showing the biggest increase in WTC. Students' cultural background had a marginal effect on FLA but a significant effect emerged for WTC at time 1, with the Asian group displaying the lowest mean. This group incidentally made the biggest gain in WTC.

Learner-Generated Noticing Behavior By Novice Learners: Tracing the Effects of Learners’ L1 on Their Emerging L2

Abstract: This study examines novice learners’ self-generated input noticing approaches and strategies. It is motivated by previous research on input enhancement which yielded insights that learners are naturally prone to notice certain aspects of L2 input on their own without any external means to channel their attention. Two L1 groups (Japanese and English) with no prior experience with the L2 (Korean) were exposed to written L2 input and probed for their noticing behavior under the ‘zero-knowledge’, and ‘some-knowledge’ conditions. The results indicate that under the zero-knowledge condition, both groups exhibited a form-oriented noticing behavior, prompted largely by perceptual properties of L2 input. Under the some-knowledge condition, however, the two groups exhibited divergent noticing patterns: the Japanese group adopted a more meaning-oriented approach, employing comprehension-based strategies, whereas the English group maintained their form-oriented approach to input processing, focusing on the formal properties of the L2. The two groups’ input noticing patterns are discussed in light of their L1 knowledge and its interaction with their emerging knowledge of the L2.

What’s On Your Mind? How Private Speech Mediates Cognition During Initial Non-Primary Language Learning

Abstract: Vygotskian sociocultural theory of mind holds that language mediates thought. According to the theory, speech does not merely put completed thought into words; rather, it is a tool to refine thought as it evolves in real time. This study investigated from a sociocultural theory of mind perspective how nine beginning learners of Latin used private speech to supplement different types of computer-based learning support in their efforts to self-regulate, or internalize and apply new linguistic knowledge, at the initial stages of learning how to distinguish thematic agent/patient roles in Latin. Analysis of features of participants’ private speech in combination with their learning outcomes showed that successful self-regulation is possible in the context of independent, computer-based learning, and with minimal support from the learning environment, but that for some learners to gain control of the learning task, more responsive, adaptable learning support appeared to be a sine qua non condition of successful self-regulation.

In Pursuit of Intercultural Communicative Competence in EFL Context: Exploring Iranian English Teachers’ Perceptions

Abstract: The current study attempted to cast light on the status quo of Iranian EFL teachers' perceptions of ICC. It further attempted to see if their experience would influence their conceptualizations of ICC. To this end, a total of 100 EFL teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire survey adapted from Han & Song's (2011) study. The results of both quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed a number of commonalities and discrepancies among the participants' conceptualizations of International Communication Competence (ICC) and its relevance to ELT considering their teaching experience. The findings point to the prominence of intercultural teacher education in the Iranian context.

A Reappraisal of Lexical Cohesion in Conversational Discourse

Abstract: Cohesion, or the connectedness of discourse, has been recognized as playing a crucial role in both language production and comprehension processes. Researchers have debated about the ‘right’ number and classification of cohesive devices, as well as about their interaction with coherence and/or genre. The present study proposes an integrative model of lexical cohesion that extends previous models and argues for the difference between ‘associative cohesion’ and ‘(lexical) collocation’. Its evaluation against a corpus of 14 conversations, 7 broadcast discussions and 7 phone calls, reports the former to show almost six times as many instances of lexical ties as the latter, a difference that is attributed to the divergent features of these two genres. Apart from quantitative findings supported by statistical significance tests, qualitative analyses also show that lexical cohesion is involved in turn-taking behaviors and topic management patterns, thereby contributing to the establishment of interpersonal relationships and the expansion of generic stages in these two kinds of spoken interactions.