International Journal of Applied Linguistics最新文献

There is broad consensus that a reader's background knowledge on a reading topic affects both their reading processes and comprehension in their first language and also in a second language. However, it is unclear whether a reader's background knowledge specifically affects reading comprehension accuracy and reading rate. The extent to which background knowledge facilitates second language reading when compared to a reader's L2 linguistic knowledge is also unclear. Moreover, the mental process accounting for the interaction between general background knowledge, type of linguistic knowledge such as vocabulary or writing system, and L2 reading abilities also need to be identified. Using texts in Mandarin Chinese, this paper investigates these problems with an eye-movement study administered to 40 L2 Chinese learners with Indo-European L1s. Results illustrate that an L2 reader's background knowledge about the text can positively impact both their reading comprehension and reading rate; however, the influence on the latter could be topic-dependent. In more challenging topics, the contribution of background knowledge to reading comprehension could outweigh any single type of linguistic knowledge, even if the target language uses a more cognitively demanding writing system. The connectionist account proposed by the construction–integration theory is suggested to be currently the best theoretical explanation for the mental process behind developing second-language reading abilities. Pedagogical implications are also considered based on these findings.

While emerging research has contributed significantly to our understanding of the efficacy of parallel corpora in translation education, specifically concerning student performance and perception, however, there remains a noticeable gap in the literature regarding the examination of student engagement with parallel corpora during the translation process. To address this research gap, the present study seeks to comprehensively analyse the behavioural, cognitive, and affective engagement of three MA students when utilizing parallel corpora in Chinese–English translation tasks. A multiple case study design was implemented, drawing upon a diverse range of data sources, including screencasts capturing students’ translation processes, the resultant translation outputs, corpus search logs, and in-depth interviews. The findings of this investigation reveal distinct engagement patterns exhibited by individual students and underscore the intricate interplay of these three dimensions of engagement. Furthermore, student engagement with the parallel corpus significantly influences their translation performance. This research also unveils various factors that impact student engagement patterns, including the perceived affordances of the parallel corpus, students’ self-perception, and learning motivation.

Teacher contingency, in which teachers adapt their support to the learner's level of understanding is assumed to be the distinguishing characteristic of scaffolding. Yet, classroom studies on the topic scarcely exist. The current study examined the process of contingency in classroom settings. Three novice and three experienced English language teachers were video-recorded to compile a 9-h corpus. The model of contingent teaching was used to code the different stages of scaffolding. Conversation analysis was applied to provide an emic perspective of each stage. The results indicated different contingent and non-contingent teaching patterns for novice and experienced teachers. The non-contingent teaching of novice teachers was characterized by skipping the diagnosis stage, failing to adapt the support to the learners' level of understanding by using high-support moves, and failing to check learners' understanding. The experienced teachers mainly diagnosed their learners' understanding, checked their diagnosis, and used a wider array of strategies to provide interventions. Their non-contingent teaching stemmed from maladjustment of support to their learners' level of understanding. The implications for theory and practice are then discussed.

Phrase-frames (i.e., p-frames) are a type of discontinuous formulaic language that have long been of interest to linguists in L2 writing research. Studies have explored p-frames in different types of texts, but few have investigated p-frames in learners’ essays, and it remains unclear at which level learners will begin to use p-frames in native-like ways. Drawing on a self-compiled corpus of 1061 learner essays, this study explores the four-word p-frames used by Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners across four proficiency groups (pre-B1, B1, B2, C1&C2) and analyzes the p-frames regarding their variability, structures, and functions. The study also compares the p-frames used by learners with those used by L1 English-speaking students in terms of the three characteristics mentioned above. The results show that: (1) learners at more advanced proficiency levels use more varied p-frames and more function word frames; (2) when learners have achieved C1&C2 levels they can use p-frames in similar ways to L1 English-speaking students regarding variability and structure; and (3) pre-B1 learners are less skilled in using referential and discourse organizing expressions, probably due to a lower capability in the use of function word structures and cohesive devices. The findings help to advance our understanding of p-frame development across proficiency levels, and offer some pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of formulaic language.

Idiomatic expressions are not just neutral equivalents of their literal counterparts, but exert some sort of evaluative force. This study employed the appraisal system (AS) to explore the functions of idiomatic expressions and their variations in English as a lingua franca context, and to compare different academic domains in terms of use of evaluative language in the form of idiomatic expressions. To this end, the corpus of English as a lingua franca in academic settings and the Vienna–Oxford International Corpus of English were searched for idiom tokens through whole-phrase and keyword search. The idioms and their variations were classified based on the AS. The findings indicated that social and behavioral scientific texts included higher proportions of evaluative idiomatic expressions whereas medical and natural scientific texts generated lower percentages of appraisal idioms. There was a stronger tendency in both corpora toward using idioms as appreciation as compared to judgment and affect. Given the employed methodology, the AS could not be applied to some idioms for their compositionality nature.

Emotional support on social media has become a popular way for people to seek comfort when facing failures and frustrations. This paper investigates the social practice of comforting strangers on the Chinese social media platform Douban. The emotional labour framework was adopted to examine the ways in which the comforting practice managed the emotions of both the comfortee and the comforter. A dataset of 400 replies was collected from Douban to analyse the use of comforting strategies and whether the conversation topic influenced their use. The study showed that comforters employed various strategies to manage distressed others’ emotions and their own emotions. The results showed a dichotomy between explicit and implicit comfort in managing comfortee emotions. Three types of replies for managing the comforter's emotions were observed, namely, a concealed reply, a projective reply, and a comparative reply. The study also revealed a correlation between conversation topics and the use of these replies.

The effect of emotional valence in word retrieval is well-established in native languages, but findings in a foreign language remain inconsistent. This study investigated the impact of emotional valence on free word recall in English as a foreign language after video exposure. Participants were upper-intermediate English speakers with Spanish as their mother tongue who watched eight emotionally valenced and four neutral videos, followed by an immediate free recall task and a delayed recall task after 2 weeks. Generalized linear mixed models showed that word valence influenced recall, with neutral words being less easily recalled than negative words, and a decline in recall between sessions. These findings support the Motivated Attention Account, which suggests that motivationally significant stimuli capture more attention than neutral stimuli, regardless of their polarity. Furthermore, the results align with previous evidence in native language research and some studies in foreign language contexts. This study highlights the robust effect of emotional valence on word recall at different time intervals, using authentic input with upper-intermediate English speakers who have Spanish as their mother tongue and who learned English later in life.

Narrative inquiry has gained traction in applied linguistics as a complementary approach to positivistic research, focusing on the subjectivities of individuals’ lived experiences and using stories as data, analytical tools, and reporting practice. Although numerous methodologically oriented publications on narrative inquiry in the field reflect its vitality, scholars have raised questions about the complexity and ambiguity underlying what exactly constitutes narrative inquiry. While methodological diversity within narrative inquiry can signal innovation, it can also create uncertainty for novice and experienced scholars engaging with the methodology for the first time. To address these concerns, we conducted a systematic methodological synthesis of narrative inquiry studies in applied linguistics published from 2012 to 2022. Specifically, we searched 12 top-tier applied linguistics journals and developed a corpus of 291 articles. We coded our corpus according to four areas: (a) theoretical framing, (b) demographic characteristics, (c) methodological design, and (d) reporting of ethics, researcher positionality, and funding status. We discuss our results in light of previous thematic reviews of narrative inquiry in applied linguistics, and we offer empirically grounded recommendations for scholars engaging with narrative inquiry. Our study responds to calls for greater methodological transparency in applied linguistics in general and methodological investment in narrative inquiry in particular.

Listening comprehension (LC) occurs when listeners can reasonably interpret a speaker's intention; therefore, reducing foreign language listening anxiety (FLLA) among EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners significantly facilitates their comprehension. Accordingly, the present study was designed to determine the effect of metacognitive intervention (MI) and metacognitive intervention through dialogic interaction (MIDI) on EFL learners’ FLLA. A mixed methods approach was used to hire 90 all-male, advanced undergraduate students majoring in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), ranging from 18 to 22 years of age, who participated in three groups. The first two groups (N = 60) were experimental groups that received 8 weeks of intervention programs within an 11-session study focusing on MI and MIDI. Simultaneously, the control group (N = 30) listened to the same audio files the same number of times but without any attention paid to MI or MIDI, and there was no discussion of strategy use after each session. To fulfill the aim of the study, a validated questionnaire on the FLLA scale, IELTS listening recordings along with listening guide sheets and IELTS listening samples, and semi-structured interviews to investigate learners’ attitudes toward intervention sessions’ effect on their LC and anxiety level were used. The results provided some empirical support that learners benefit from MI and specifically MIDI to reduce the level of their FLLA and further improve LC.

This study investigates how prepositional phrases within English noun phrases (e.g., the student of physics from Italy) are represented and processed by advanced Chinese-speaking learners of English (henceforth L2ers). Using grammaticality judgment tasks and self-paced reading tasks, we aim to examine the offline performance and the real-time processing of English NP-internal PPs in relation to the head nouns. To this end, two groups of participants were instructed to provide judgments of testing materials and to respond on-line to experimental stimuli containing the proform one. Results indicate that highly proficient L2ers processed English NP-internal PPs utterly differently from English controls in that they demonstrated almost no sensitivity to the existence of PPs as complements following one, mostly without consciously distinguishing them from PP adjuncts. To account for L2ers’ response patterns, we propose a partial representation hypothesis (PRH), claiming that L2ers tend to disregard intermediate categories containing PP-complements in English NPs, thus only partially representing syntactic constituents of the target language. As a structural explanation, PRH awaits further corroboration and/or falsification from more empirical studies.