Abstract Despite the well acknowledged importance of motivation in second language (L2) learning, longitudinal research regarding the effects of motivation on growth in L2 proficiency remains limited. Furthermore, limited investigation has been done on how motivation and L2 proficiency interactively develop and affect each other. Thus, this study examined the impact of motivation on growth in kanji proficiency and the dual developmental trajectories of motivation and kanji proficiency using the self-determination theory. Learners of Japanese with Chinese as their First language (L1) responded to a questionnaire and took kanji tests three times in one academic semester (n = 192). The results of the univariate latent growth curve (LGC) modeling identified intrinsic motivation and introjected regulation as positive and negative predictors, respectively, of kanji proficiency growth, suggesting the importance of enjoyment and the detrimental nature of introjected regulation in kanji learning by L1 Chinese learners. The results of multivariate LGC modeling demonstrated a lack of reciprocal developmental association between kanji proficiency and intrinsic motivation. Moreover, perceived competence rather than actual growth in kanji proficiency influenced the enhancement of intrinsic motivation, indicating the importance of subjective interpretations of L2 development in promoting motivation.
{"title":"Motivation and growth in kanji proficiency: a longitudinal study using latent growth curve modeling","authors":"Mitsuko Tanaka","doi":"10.1515/iral-2022-0210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0210","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Despite the well acknowledged importance of motivation in second language (L2) learning, longitudinal research regarding the effects of motivation on growth in L2 proficiency remains limited. Furthermore, limited investigation has been done on how motivation and L2 proficiency interactively develop and affect each other. Thus, this study examined the impact of motivation on growth in kanji proficiency and the dual developmental trajectories of motivation and kanji proficiency using the self-determination theory. Learners of Japanese with Chinese as their First language (L1) responded to a questionnaire and took kanji tests three times in one academic semester (n = 192). The results of the univariate latent growth curve (LGC) modeling identified intrinsic motivation and introjected regulation as positive and negative predictors, respectively, of kanji proficiency growth, suggesting the importance of enjoyment and the detrimental nature of introjected regulation in kanji learning by L1 Chinese learners. The results of multivariate LGC modeling demonstrated a lack of reciprocal developmental association between kanji proficiency and intrinsic motivation. Moreover, perceived competence rather than actual growth in kanji proficiency influenced the enhancement of intrinsic motivation, indicating the importance of subjective interpretations of L2 development in promoting motivation.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49095683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This study aimed to compare the comprehension of second language (L2) English articles by native speakers of Korean, an article-less language, and by Korean learners of English as an L2 and Spanish as a third language (L3). The participants were 22 adult learners with advanced overall proficiency in L2 English and L3 Spanish. They completed two tasks, an online self-paced reading task and an offline acceptability rating task. The findings showed that both the trilingual and the bilingual groups relied on definiteness in distinguishing English articles as native speakers do. The findings related to the trilingual group were predicted by the morphological congruency hypothesis, but those related to the bilingual group were against the predictions of the fluctuation hypothesis. A comparison between the two non-native groups showed that the trilingual group had a higher sensitivity to distinguish English articles than the bilingual group, which provides evidence for positive backward transfer from the L3 to the L2 in article comprehension by learners of English whose L1 is article-less, such as Korean.
{"title":"Comprehension of English articles by Korean learners of L2 English and L3 Spanish","authors":"Minjun Park, María del Pilar García Mayo","doi":"10.1515/iral-2022-0152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0152","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study aimed to compare the comprehension of second language (L2) English articles by native speakers of Korean, an article-less language, and by Korean learners of English as an L2 and Spanish as a third language (L3). The participants were 22 adult learners with advanced overall proficiency in L2 English and L3 Spanish. They completed two tasks, an online self-paced reading task and an offline acceptability rating task. The findings showed that both the trilingual and the bilingual groups relied on definiteness in distinguishing English articles as native speakers do. The findings related to the trilingual group were predicted by the morphological congruency hypothesis, but those related to the bilingual group were against the predictions of the fluctuation hypothesis. A comparison between the two non-native groups showed that the trilingual group had a higher sensitivity to distinguish English articles than the bilingual group, which provides evidence for positive backward transfer from the L3 to the L2 in article comprehension by learners of English whose L1 is article-less, such as Korean.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42574547","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract British higher education institutions attract a large number of international students, especially Chinese students, to pursue degrees in the UK every year. This longitudinal mixed-methods study tracked the informal language contact and social networks of Chinese foundation program students in the UK for two terms. A Language Contact Questionnaire and a Study Abroad Social Network Survey were administered to 84 students and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 participants in the first term and the second term of study. Data revealed that the participants generally had a high percentage of L1 use, high academic L2 contact, and mainly L1 social networks during studying abroad, with little variation over the two terms. Their relationships with international friends were superficial and a vibrant international student community was not found. L2 topic multiplexity and online L2 contact frequency weakly predicted the total informal L2 contact at Term 1 and Term 2. This study underscores that degree-oriented SA participants may have different prioritization and leisure time routines compared with summer school participants or exchange students abroad. Thus, with an extra foundation year in the host country, the current sample seemed to prioritize academic preparation, rather than social integration.
{"title":"“Am I really abroad?” The informal language contact and social networks of Chinese foundation students in the UK","authors":"Siyang Zhou, H. Rose","doi":"10.1515/iral-2022-0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0042","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract British higher education institutions attract a large number of international students, especially Chinese students, to pursue degrees in the UK every year. This longitudinal mixed-methods study tracked the informal language contact and social networks of Chinese foundation program students in the UK for two terms. A Language Contact Questionnaire and a Study Abroad Social Network Survey were administered to 84 students and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 participants in the first term and the second term of study. Data revealed that the participants generally had a high percentage of L1 use, high academic L2 contact, and mainly L1 social networks during studying abroad, with little variation over the two terms. Their relationships with international friends were superficial and a vibrant international student community was not found. L2 topic multiplexity and online L2 contact frequency weakly predicted the total informal L2 contact at Term 1 and Term 2. This study underscores that degree-oriented SA participants may have different prioritization and leisure time routines compared with summer school participants or exchange students abroad. Thus, with an extra foundation year in the host country, the current sample seemed to prioritize academic preparation, rather than social integration.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44326853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This study examines Japanese complaint responses appearing in naturally occurring interaction and textbook dialogues. The comparative analysis highlights that complaint responses in textbooks differ from those in mundane conversation. The inevitable difficulty for textbooks to reflect temporal and multimodal features of interaction results in the designs of affiliative responses being minimal and disaffiliative responses being more explicit. In contrast, conversation data indicates that complaint response turns are more intricately designed with multimodal semiotic resources and are precisely positioned according to the sequential development of complaints. By conducting empirical analyses, the study identifies interactional repertoires that are not observed in textbooks but employed in actual conversations. In doing so, it aims to expand the variety of the analysis of textbook dialogues to help calibrate the input for Japanese language pedagogy, while presenting a reference point for Japanese language learners to better understand the interactional organization of complaint sequences in mundane conversations.
{"title":"Japanese complaint responses in textbook dialogues and ordinary conversations: learning objects to expand interactional repertoires","authors":"Y. Arita, Akiko Imamura","doi":"10.1515/iral-2022-0109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0109","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study examines Japanese complaint responses appearing in naturally occurring interaction and textbook dialogues. The comparative analysis highlights that complaint responses in textbooks differ from those in mundane conversation. The inevitable difficulty for textbooks to reflect temporal and multimodal features of interaction results in the designs of affiliative responses being minimal and disaffiliative responses being more explicit. In contrast, conversation data indicates that complaint response turns are more intricately designed with multimodal semiotic resources and are precisely positioned according to the sequential development of complaints. By conducting empirical analyses, the study identifies interactional repertoires that are not observed in textbooks but employed in actual conversations. In doing so, it aims to expand the variety of the analysis of textbook dialogues to help calibrate the input for Japanese language pedagogy, while presenting a reference point for Japanese language learners to better understand the interactional organization of complaint sequences in mundane conversations.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48222466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract We present a thematic review and analysis of the variables affecting language learning motivation (LLM) (2008–2022). The second-language motivational self-system (L2MSS) model was found to be the most applied construct in measuring LLM. Complex systems theory was also another method gaining prominence in LLM research to explain the interactions between micro- and macro-structures surrounding the learner in influencing motivation. Other factors such as socioeconomic status, dialogism and anagnorisis were also identified as variables relating to LLM. For instance, research on dialogism and dialogue has indicated the role of conversation in shaping identity, motivation, and meaning for learners. However, our review found that much of the focus in LLM research has been on the L2MSS learning or teaching experience, while daily living has been largely neglected. We further conducted a reliability generalization meta-analysis. Our analysis found an average reliability of 0.84 (CI = 0.816–0.856), with 34% of reliability coefficients falling below the lower bound of CI. A meta-regression analysis revealed that 16% of the variance in the reliability coefficients was predicted by the number of items in the instruments. Questionnaires with an internal consistency below the lower bound of 0.816 had an average of 4.14 items, while the rest had an average of 5.71 items. We further found significant publication bias. Based on our findings, we suggest areas for future research in LLM.
{"title":"Exploring the state of research on motivation in second language learning: a review and a reliability generalization meta-analysis","authors":"Vahid Aryadoust, Yu Xuan Natalie Soo, Jiayu Zhai","doi":"10.1515/iral-2022-0115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0115","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract We present a thematic review and analysis of the variables affecting language learning motivation (LLM) (2008–2022). The second-language motivational self-system (L2MSS) model was found to be the most applied construct in measuring LLM. Complex systems theory was also another method gaining prominence in LLM research to explain the interactions between micro- and macro-structures surrounding the learner in influencing motivation. Other factors such as socioeconomic status, dialogism and anagnorisis were also identified as variables relating to LLM. For instance, research on dialogism and dialogue has indicated the role of conversation in shaping identity, motivation, and meaning for learners. However, our review found that much of the focus in LLM research has been on the L2MSS learning or teaching experience, while daily living has been largely neglected. We further conducted a reliability generalization meta-analysis. Our analysis found an average reliability of 0.84 (CI = 0.816–0.856), with 34% of reliability coefficients falling below the lower bound of CI. A meta-regression analysis revealed that 16% of the variance in the reliability coefficients was predicted by the number of items in the instruments. Questionnaires with an internal consistency below the lower bound of 0.816 had an average of 4.14 items, while the rest had an average of 5.71 items. We further found significant publication bias. Based on our findings, we suggest areas for future research in LLM.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43318727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract In this introduction, we focus on three approaches to motion event construal, and explain how the papers in this special issue contribute to ongoing discussions in different fields of research. First of all, in second language (L2) acquisition, researchers ask to what extent L2 learners can separate the different conceptual systems that underpin motion in both languages, and whether there is crosslinguistic influence from the first language (L1) on the L2 or vice versa in the expression of motion. In particular research on gestures in SLA can throw new light on this issue. Second, linguists and psychologists are interested in finding out whether crosslinguistic differences might have an influence on non-linguistic cognition in the motion domain. This might be revealed in experimental tasks where speakers are asked to judge the similarity of film clips in contexts where no overt language is used. The third relevant question is to what extent this conceptually complex domain can be taught. This pespective on motion event construal has received very little attention from researchers interested in Instructed Second Language Acquisition. In the current SI, insights from cognitive grammar are used to explore the teaching of motion event construals to L2 learners, but we hope that the current SI will inspire researchers working in different frameworks to explore the teachability of motion in the classroom.
{"title":"Approaching motion in a second language: how bilinguals restructure motion event expressions inside and outside the classroom","authors":"J. Treffers-Daller, Fraibet Aveledo","doi":"10.1515/iral-2023-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2023-0006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this introduction, we focus on three approaches to motion event construal, and explain how the papers in this special issue contribute to ongoing discussions in different fields of research. First of all, in second language (L2) acquisition, researchers ask to what extent L2 learners can separate the different conceptual systems that underpin motion in both languages, and whether there is crosslinguistic influence from the first language (L1) on the L2 or vice versa in the expression of motion. In particular research on gestures in SLA can throw new light on this issue. Second, linguists and psychologists are interested in finding out whether crosslinguistic differences might have an influence on non-linguistic cognition in the motion domain. This might be revealed in experimental tasks where speakers are asked to judge the similarity of film clips in contexts where no overt language is used. The third relevant question is to what extent this conceptually complex domain can be taught. This pespective on motion event construal has received very little attention from researchers interested in Instructed Second Language Acquisition. In the current SI, insights from cognitive grammar are used to explore the teaching of motion event construals to L2 learners, but we hope that the current SI will inspire researchers working in different frameworks to explore the teachability of motion in the classroom.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":"61 1","pages":"1 - 12"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45201617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Previous studies on prosodic disambiguation have found Chinese EFL learners capable of using prosodic cues for both boundary marking and focus encoding in English, but somewhat differently from native English speakers. No clear understanding has yet been obtained about their overall use of prosodic strategies in speech production for disambiguation. In this study, we conducted a contextualized production task followed by perception judgments and acoustic analyses to investigate their prosodic disambiguation, with native English speakers as the contrast group. We considered three types of prosodic cues (duration, pitch, and intensity), and examined ambiguities in both syntactic structure and information structure. We found that Chinese EFL learners did alter their prosodic cues to disambiguate two readings, but differently from native English speakers in both cue number and cue combination. Specifically, they used a narrower range of cues and provided insufficient prosodic information, consequently leading to poor perception by native listeners. Our findings argue for prosodic disambiguation training in foreign language teaching.
{"title":"Discrepancy in prosodic disambiguation strategies between Chinese EFL learners and native English speakers","authors":"Liya Xue, M. Yue","doi":"10.1515/iral-2022-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0004","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Previous studies on prosodic disambiguation have found Chinese EFL learners capable of using prosodic cues for both boundary marking and focus encoding in English, but somewhat differently from native English speakers. No clear understanding has yet been obtained about their overall use of prosodic strategies in speech production for disambiguation. In this study, we conducted a contextualized production task followed by perception judgments and acoustic analyses to investigate their prosodic disambiguation, with native English speakers as the contrast group. We considered three types of prosodic cues (duration, pitch, and intensity), and examined ambiguities in both syntactic structure and information structure. We found that Chinese EFL learners did alter their prosodic cues to disambiguate two readings, but differently from native English speakers in both cue number and cue combination. Specifically, they used a narrower range of cues and provided insufficient prosodic information, consequently leading to poor perception by native listeners. Our findings argue for prosodic disambiguation training in foreign language teaching.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45379053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This study compares two instruction methods (cognitive and traditional) for teaching complex metaphorical motion constructions in Spanish and developing A2+ learners’ metaphoric competence in the L2. The cognitive instruction combined insights from the Conceptual Metaphor Theory with multimodal content and cognitive parameters, whereas the traditional package followed a communicative and formalist approach to language based on most current L2 textbooks. A group of 33 university students from a North American-based College participated in the experiment. Assessment tests were designed inspired by cognitive linguistics tenets and measured learners’ general metaphor comprehension (Task 1) and original production (Task 2), as well as performance in the comprehension (Task 3) and production (Task 4) of change-of-state constructions, thus breaking with the pervading assessment typology for empirical studies in applied cognitive linguistics. The cognitive methodology proved to be significantly more beneficial for all four tasks. Although students who received a traditional instruction improved over time, those from the cognitive group showed statistically higher performance in metaphoric competence and in the comprehension and production of the target constructions. These findings clearly suggest that a cognitive-based instruction, when followed by a consistent assessment, is an effective approach to teaching and learning difficult constructions in the L2.
{"title":"Developing L2 learners’ metaphoric competence: a case study of figurative motion constructions","authors":"Beatriz Martín-Gascón","doi":"10.1515/iral-2022-0043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0043","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study compares two instruction methods (cognitive and traditional) for teaching complex metaphorical motion constructions in Spanish and developing A2+ learners’ metaphoric competence in the L2. The cognitive instruction combined insights from the Conceptual Metaphor Theory with multimodal content and cognitive parameters, whereas the traditional package followed a communicative and formalist approach to language based on most current L2 textbooks. A group of 33 university students from a North American-based College participated in the experiment. Assessment tests were designed inspired by cognitive linguistics tenets and measured learners’ general metaphor comprehension (Task 1) and original production (Task 2), as well as performance in the comprehension (Task 3) and production (Task 4) of change-of-state constructions, thus breaking with the pervading assessment typology for empirical studies in applied cognitive linguistics. The cognitive methodology proved to be significantly more beneficial for all four tasks. Although students who received a traditional instruction improved over time, those from the cognitive group showed statistically higher performance in metaphoric competence and in the comprehension and production of the target constructions. These findings clearly suggest that a cognitive-based instruction, when followed by a consistent assessment, is an effective approach to teaching and learning difficult constructions in the L2.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":"61 1","pages":"79 - 109"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42233522","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract 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.
{"title":"Factor structures of speed and breakdown fluency in EFL learners’ story retelling performances","authors":"G. Bao","doi":"10.1515/iral-2022-0125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0125","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract 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.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":"61 1","pages":"631 - 654"},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46993240","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Context or the teaching/learning environment has only recently been recognized as a mediating variable in L2/FL written performance. These studies are multisite and have not yet targeted another feature of context: the sociolinguistic status of the target language. Likewise, scarce research exists examining the prolonged effects of collaboration. The present classroom-based study fills this void by investigating the effects of collaboration on the (a) jointly written texts; (b) subsequent individual texts; and (c) texts written in two distinct sociolinguistic status target languages of two groups of 11–12-year-old Spanish primary education students. Distributed into a control (CG) (N = 17) and an experimental group (EG) (N = 10 pairs), they wrote three descriptive texts in each language, L2 Basque and FL English: the first and third individually and the second one individually by the CG and in pairs by the EG. The texts were examined qualitatively with a rubric and quantitatively for fluency and accuracy measures. Immediate and prolonged effects of collaboration were observed on accuracy, while fluency decreased and global qualitative scores varied very little. Additionally, unlike in the CG, language-dependent differences were not attested in the EG which suggests that collaborative writing is an expedient tool to increase attention to language and limit the mediating effects of the learning context.
{"title":"Exploring immediate and prolonged effects of collaborative writing on young learners’ texts: L2 versus FL","authors":"Izaskun Villarreal, Amaia Martínez-Sánchez","doi":"10.1515/iral-2022-0062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2022-0062","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Context or the teaching/learning environment has only recently been recognized as a mediating variable in L2/FL written performance. These studies are multisite and have not yet targeted another feature of context: the sociolinguistic status of the target language. Likewise, scarce research exists examining the prolonged effects of collaboration. The present classroom-based study fills this void by investigating the effects of collaboration on the (a) jointly written texts; (b) subsequent individual texts; and (c) texts written in two distinct sociolinguistic status target languages of two groups of 11–12-year-old Spanish primary education students. Distributed into a control (CG) (N = 17) and an experimental group (EG) (N = 10 pairs), they wrote three descriptive texts in each language, L2 Basque and FL English: the first and third individually and the second one individually by the CG and in pairs by the EG. The texts were examined qualitatively with a rubric and quantitatively for fluency and accuracy measures. Immediate and prolonged effects of collaboration were observed on accuracy, while fluency decreased and global qualitative scores varied very little. Additionally, unlike in the CG, language-dependent differences were not attested in the EG which suggests that collaborative writing is an expedient tool to increase attention to language and limit the mediating effects of the learning context.","PeriodicalId":46778,"journal":{"name":"Iral-International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45460279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}