Abstract This paper explores agency fluctuations and identity transformations in Chinese English-majors and how they are related to the process of English learning. By tracing a group of students for four years in a Chinese university and conducting qualitative analyses to their oral narrations of learning experiences at different periods, the study has found that most participants started and ended their university life at relatively high levels of agency, with inevitable ups and downs in between. Agency fluctuations in the learners are the result of their identity positioning and repositioning within a complex and ever-changing context. Concordant or conflicting identities may co-exist within an individual learner and keep changing across different situations. Learner identities will cause increase or reduction in their investment in English learning, while their learning experience will in turn reinforce or undermine their identities. The study sheds light on the intricate relationships between agency, identity and language learning and therefore has important implications for English learning and teaching in China.
{"title":"Agency Fluctuations and Identity Transformations in Chinese English-Majors on Their Learning Trajectories","authors":"Qiuming Lin","doi":"10.1515/CJAL-2021-0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0031","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper explores agency fluctuations and identity transformations in Chinese English-majors and how they are related to the process of English learning. By tracing a group of students for four years in a Chinese university and conducting qualitative analyses to their oral narrations of learning experiences at different periods, the study has found that most participants started and ended their university life at relatively high levels of agency, with inevitable ups and downs in between. Agency fluctuations in the learners are the result of their identity positioning and repositioning within a complex and ever-changing context. Concordant or conflicting identities may co-exist within an individual learner and keep changing across different situations. Learner identities will cause increase or reduction in their investment in English learning, while their learning experience will in turn reinforce or undermine their identities. The study sheds light on the intricate relationships between agency, identity and language learning and therefore has important implications for English learning and teaching in China.","PeriodicalId":43185,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46186620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract It is difficult for L2 English learners in general, and especially Chinese learners of English, to form idiomatic collocations. This article presents a comparison of the use of intensifier-verb collocations in English by native speaker students and Chinese ESL learners, paying particular attention to verbs which collocate with intensifiers. The data consisted of written production from three corpora: two of these are native English corpora: the British Academic Written English (BAWE) Corpus and Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP). The third one is a recently created Chinese Learner English corpus, Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners (TECCL). Findings suggest that Chinese learners of English produce significantly more intensifier-verb collocations than native speaker students, but that their English attests a smaller variety of intensifier-verb collocations compared with the native speakers. Moreover, Chinese learners of English use the intensifier-verb collocation types just-verb, only-verb and really-verb very frequently compared with native speaker students. As regards verb collocates, the intensifiers hardly, clearly, well, strongly and deeply collocate with semantically different verbs in native and Chinese learner English. Compared with the patterns in Chinese learner English, the intensifiers in native speaker English collocate with a more stable and restricted set of verb collocates.
{"title":"Intensifier-Verb Collocations in Academic English by Chinese Learners Compared to Native-Speaker Students","authors":"Junyu Wu, Heli Tissari","doi":"10.1515/CJAL-2021-0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0030","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract It is difficult for L2 English learners in general, and especially Chinese learners of English, to form idiomatic collocations. This article presents a comparison of the use of intensifier-verb collocations in English by native speaker students and Chinese ESL learners, paying particular attention to verbs which collocate with intensifiers. The data consisted of written production from three corpora: two of these are native English corpora: the British Academic Written English (BAWE) Corpus and Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP). The third one is a recently created Chinese Learner English corpus, Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners (TECCL). Findings suggest that Chinese learners of English produce significantly more intensifier-verb collocations than native speaker students, but that their English attests a smaller variety of intensifier-verb collocations compared with the native speakers. Moreover, Chinese learners of English use the intensifier-verb collocation types just-verb, only-verb and really-verb very frequently compared with native speaker students. As regards verb collocates, the intensifiers hardly, clearly, well, strongly and deeply collocate with semantically different verbs in native and Chinese learner English. Compared with the patterns in Chinese learner English, the intensifiers in native speaker English collocate with a more stable and restricted set of verb collocates.","PeriodicalId":43185,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41972571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This study explored the distribution of three types of English formulaic language, which involves four categories in L1 Chinese L2 English learners’ speaking performance. In addition, it investigated the relationship between the English learners’ use of formulaic language and their spoken English fluency. A CCA (canonical correlation analysis) was conducted to examine the correlations between two sets of fluency variables (dependent variables) and linguistic variables of English formulaic language use (independent variables). The fluency variable set consists of: (1) temporal indices such as SR (speech rate), AR (articulation rate), MLR (mean length of run), and PTR (phonation time ratio); (2) linguistic variables of English formulaic language like F2R (two-word formulaic sequences/run ratio, B3R (three-word lexical bundles/run ratio), and B4R (four-word lexical bundles/run ratio). These are calculated according to the frequency of the English formulaic language in the speech samples of the participants (n = 86) across three academic levels. The results indicate that the learners’ spoken English fluency is highly related to their use of English formulaic language. Its limitations and future research directions are also discussed.
{"title":"On L2 English Learners’ Formulaic Language Use and Spoken English Fluency","authors":"Junlei Xuan, Huifang Yang, Jae-woo Shim","doi":"10.1515/CJAL-2021-0034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0034","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study explored the distribution of three types of English formulaic language, which involves four categories in L1 Chinese L2 English learners’ speaking performance. In addition, it investigated the relationship between the English learners’ use of formulaic language and their spoken English fluency. A CCA (canonical correlation analysis) was conducted to examine the correlations between two sets of fluency variables (dependent variables) and linguistic variables of English formulaic language use (independent variables). The fluency variable set consists of: (1) temporal indices such as SR (speech rate), AR (articulation rate), MLR (mean length of run), and PTR (phonation time ratio); (2) linguistic variables of English formulaic language like F2R (two-word formulaic sequences/run ratio, B3R (three-word lexical bundles/run ratio), and B4R (four-word lexical bundles/run ratio). These are calculated according to the frequency of the English formulaic language in the speech samples of the participants (n = 86) across three academic levels. The results indicate that the learners’ spoken English fluency is highly related to their use of English formulaic language. Its limitations and future research directions are also discussed.","PeriodicalId":43185,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46481931","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This study investigated the efficiency of learning the Chinese numeral classifiers by L2 Chinese learners by means of an alignment-oriented task. Participants were a total of 96 intermediate learners of L2 Chinese, who were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group, with each group consisting of 32 participants. The continuation task used in this study consisted of a picture-based Chinese text depicting a room with an array of objects, which necessitates the use of classifiers. The two experimental groups were both required to first read the text and then write to describe their own rooms in comparison with the one in the text. One group was instructed to use the classifiers from the text as much as possible in their writing, whereas the other was not required to do so. Participants in the control group were first given the picture to look at in the absence of the text and then asked to describe their own rooms. The results showed that the continuation task significantly enhanced participants’ retention of the Chinese numeral classifiers, suggesting that the alignment-based approach is an effective way to learn difficult linguistic categories such as the Chinese classifiers.
{"title":"An Alignment-Based Approach to L2 Learning of Chinese Numeral Classifiers","authors":"Chuming Wang, Wei Hong","doi":"10.1515/CJAL-2021-0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0021","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study investigated the efficiency of learning the Chinese numeral classifiers by L2 Chinese learners by means of an alignment-oriented task. Participants were a total of 96 intermediate learners of L2 Chinese, who were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group, with each group consisting of 32 participants. The continuation task used in this study consisted of a picture-based Chinese text depicting a room with an array of objects, which necessitates the use of classifiers. The two experimental groups were both required to first read the text and then write to describe their own rooms in comparison with the one in the text. One group was instructed to use the classifiers from the text as much as possible in their writing, whereas the other was not required to do so. Participants in the control group were first given the picture to look at in the absence of the text and then asked to describe their own rooms. The results showed that the continuation task significantly enhanced participants’ retention of the Chinese numeral classifiers, suggesting that the alignment-based approach is an effective way to learn difficult linguistic categories such as the Chinese classifiers.","PeriodicalId":43185,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44388868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Although the story continuation writing task (SCWT) has attracted much research attention, few studies have investigated the construct of the task, particularly with respect to which language competence it focuses on. In addition, although some studies have demonstrated that China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE) provides comprehensive insights into the development of Chinese learners’ English language proficiency, little research has investigated the relationship between CSE and SCWT. This study drew upon the CSE to develop an SCWT language use inventory to address the above research gaps. A total of 358 high school students were asked to complete the questionnaire, of which 277 valid responses were analyzed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the CSE-based questionnaire revealed the presence of six factors, namely language correctness, language variety, task planning, connecting-and-generating, selecting-and-mining, and organizing. The strategy of connecting-and-generating was the only significant predictor of the learners’ SCWT scores. The paper also discusses the findings relating to the SCWT rating and other integrated writing tasks.
{"title":"The Construct of the Story Continuation Writing Task: Insights From the China’s Standards of English Language Ability","authors":"W. Ye, W. Ren, Shan Zheng","doi":"10.1515/CJAL-2021-0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Although the story continuation writing task (SCWT) has attracted much research attention, few studies have investigated the construct of the task, particularly with respect to which language competence it focuses on. In addition, although some studies have demonstrated that China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE) provides comprehensive insights into the development of Chinese learners’ English language proficiency, little research has investigated the relationship between CSE and SCWT. This study drew upon the CSE to develop an SCWT language use inventory to address the above research gaps. A total of 358 high school students were asked to complete the questionnaire, of which 277 valid responses were analyzed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on the CSE-based questionnaire revealed the presence of six factors, namely language correctness, language variety, task planning, connecting-and-generating, selecting-and-mining, and organizing. The strategy of connecting-and-generating was the only significant predictor of the learners’ SCWT scores. The paper also discusses the findings relating to the SCWT rating and other integrated writing tasks.","PeriodicalId":43185,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43005836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract The present study employed a quantitative and network approach to detect alignment effects in second language (L2) continuation tasks designed on the xu-argument (Wang, 2016). The materials used in this study were 6 sub-corpora consisting of two selected input stories and two groups of L2 written production based on two continuation tasks. During continuation, the participants were required to continue in English a story with its ending removed, with one group reading and continuing the Chinese version and the other group the English version, and then switching their roles in the two tasks. Results show that the alignment effect differs across the two versions of continuation. Specifically, compared with the Chinese-version continuation, L2 learners produced more use of unigrams and bigrams similar to the input story in terms of lexical items, frequency and ranking correlations in the English-version task; on the other hand, the English-version continuation can facilitate generating linguistic networks that are much closer to the native English networks. Moreover, this research corroborates that written production in L2 continuation tasks can be influenced by input content.
{"title":"A Quantitative and Network Approach to Alignment Effects in L2 Continuation Tasks","authors":"Heng Chen","doi":"10.1515/CJAL-2021-0025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0025","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The present study employed a quantitative and network approach to detect alignment effects in second language (L2) continuation tasks designed on the xu-argument (Wang, 2016). The materials used in this study were 6 sub-corpora consisting of two selected input stories and two groups of L2 written production based on two continuation tasks. During continuation, the participants were required to continue in English a story with its ending removed, with one group reading and continuing the Chinese version and the other group the English version, and then switching their roles in the two tasks. Results show that the alignment effect differs across the two versions of continuation. Specifically, compared with the Chinese-version continuation, L2 learners produced more use of unigrams and bigrams similar to the input story in terms of lexical items, frequency and ranking correlations in the English-version task; on the other hand, the English-version continuation can facilitate generating linguistic networks that are much closer to the native English networks. Moreover, this research corroborates that written production in L2 continuation tasks can be influenced by input content.","PeriodicalId":43185,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43077152","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Based on the xu-argument, this study investigated the use of translation continuation tasks in commercial translation instruction. Forty-four second-year Business English majors at a Chinese university participated in the study. They were divided into equal-sized control and experimental groups. Members of the experimental group were asked to read Chinese-English parallel texts from a user manual, while those of the control group were asked to read the Chinese text only. Subsequently, both groups were required to translate the continued Chinese text into English. The results indicated the following: 1) the experimental group’s translated text was of significantly higher quality than that of the control group; and 2) the experimental group’s translations were well-aligned with the original text in their use of terminology, sentence structure, and stylistic features. The study concludes by suggesting that translation continuation tasks can improve commercial translation instruction and hence should be further applied in practice.
{"title":"Investigating the Use of Translation Continuation Tasks in Commercial Translation Teaching: A Study on Translating User Manuals","authors":"Qi Xu, L. Deng","doi":"10.1515/CJAL-2021-0023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0023","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Based on the xu-argument, this study investigated the use of translation continuation tasks in commercial translation instruction. Forty-four second-year Business English majors at a Chinese university participated in the study. They were divided into equal-sized control and experimental groups. Members of the experimental group were asked to read Chinese-English parallel texts from a user manual, while those of the control group were asked to read the Chinese text only. Subsequently, both groups were required to translate the continued Chinese text into English. The results indicated the following: 1) the experimental group’s translated text was of significantly higher quality than that of the control group; and 2) the experimental group’s translations were well-aligned with the original text in their use of terminology, sentence structure, and stylistic features. The study concludes by suggesting that translation continuation tasks can improve commercial translation instruction and hence should be further applied in practice.","PeriodicalId":43185,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42097755","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper reports on a study on the effects of reading-writing integrated tasks on vocabulary learning and explored the differential roles of creative construction and non-creative construction in promoting lexical learning. Participants were 90 first-year English majors, randomly assigned to two experimental groups (continuation and retelling) and one control group, with 30 students in each group. Results showed that the continuation group generated a substantial amount of creative construction and produced significantly more instances of creative imitation than the retelling group. The continuation group outperformed the retelling group for both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge gain and retention, but differences were only significant in terms of productive vocabulary retention. Finally, productive vocabulary knowledge retention among the continuation group was significantly and positively correlated with creative imitation (meaning creation coupled with language imitation), but not with linguistic alignment per se. As productive vocabulary knowledge constitutes the learner ’ s ability to use lexical knowledge to express ideas in dynamic contexts, the findings afforded evidence that creative imitation could be the answer to the fundamental issue of L2 learning (i.e., mapping static language onto dynamic idea expression). The pedagogical implications as well as future research directions are also discussed.
{"title":"Creative Imitation: An Answer to the Fundamental Issue of L2 Learning","authors":"Xiao Zhou","doi":"10.1515/CJAL-2021-0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper reports on a study on the effects of reading-writing integrated tasks on vocabulary learning and explored the differential roles of creative construction and non-creative construction in promoting lexical learning. Participants were 90 first-year English majors, randomly assigned to two experimental groups (continuation and retelling) and one control group, with 30 students in each group. Results showed that the continuation group generated a substantial amount of creative construction and produced significantly more instances of creative imitation than the retelling group. The continuation group outperformed the retelling group for both receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge gain and retention, but differences were only significant in terms of productive vocabulary retention. Finally, productive vocabulary knowledge retention among the continuation group was significantly and positively correlated with creative imitation (meaning creation coupled with language imitation), but not with linguistic alignment per se. As productive vocabulary knowledge constitutes the learner ’ s ability to use lexical knowledge to express ideas in dynamic contexts, the findings afforded evidence that creative imitation could be the answer to the fundamental issue of L2 learning (i.e., mapping static language onto dynamic idea expression). The pedagogical implications as well as future research directions are also discussed.","PeriodicalId":43185,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49124684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This special issue provides an overview of the xu-argument, a newly emerging view on language acquisition. The view is new in that it makes two key points: i) language is acquired through xu, a Chinese word with a composite meaning of completion, extension and creation (CEC) (Wang, 2016), and ii) high efficiency in learning a language is achieved by xu. Using a single word to capture the highly complex human endowment of language learning might be too ambitious an attempt. Convincing justifications and supporting evidence are needed to verify this claim, as the papers in this issue are intended to do.
{"title":"The Xu-Based Approach to Second Language Learning","authors":"Chuming Wang","doi":"10.1515/CJAL-2021-0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/CJAL-2021-0017","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This special issue provides an overview of the xu-argument, a newly emerging view on language acquisition. The view is new in that it makes two key points: i) language is acquired through xu, a Chinese word with a composite meaning of completion, extension and creation (CEC) (Wang, 2016), and ii) high efficiency in learning a language is achieved by xu. Using a single word to capture the highly complex human endowment of language learning might be too ambitious an attempt. Convincing justifications and supporting evidence are needed to verify this claim, as the papers in this issue are intended to do.","PeriodicalId":43185,"journal":{"name":"Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45001733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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