International Journal of Applied Linguistics最新文献

Despite the abundance of pedagogical reforms conducted in task-based language teaching (TBLT), few studies have fully explored the adaptation of TBLT to cater to the specific language learning requirements and cultural contexts of local communities. It is important to consider localized TBLT, referring to a context-specific adaptation of the classical TBLT approach, tailored to meet the unique needs and circumstances of a particular teaching environment. This study seeks to bridge this gap by examining the effects of a localized TBLT approach on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ oral production in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency in examination-oriented contexts. A total of 101 Chinese secondary school students participated in this study and were divided into two groups, namely, an experimental group (N = 50), which was taught employing the localized TBLT approach, and a comparison group (N = 51), which received traditional presentation–practice–production (PPP) instruction. The intervention spanned 15 weeks, with three instructional sessions per week. The results revealed that localized TBLT instruction had a significantly larger effect on fluency and complexity than traditional PPP instruction. The study has implications for localizing TBLT to better suit local contexts and achieve improved student learning outcomes in other similar EFL settings characterized by a focus on examination preparation.

This study investigates how different modes of a memorization activity in paired-associate learning (PAL), namely pair work and individual work, can affect learners’ short- and long-term retention of newly learned vocabulary items. In the aforementioned activity, two groups of Japanese college students studying English as a foreign language (EFL) learned 20 novel English vocabulary items using a second language–first language (L2–L1) list. First, the pair group worked in pairs; one member asked the other to state the L1 equivalent of the target items aloud for 2.5 min, and vice versa. Second, the members of the individual group memorized the L1 meanings of the target words for 5 minutes using their own methods. Subsequently, an immediate posttest and questionnaire survey regarding their preferred learning styles and strategies were conducted after the study session. Furthermore, a surprise delayed posttest was administered 3 weeks after the session. The results revealed that the individual group outperformed in the immediate posttest. However, the pair group scored significantly better in the delayed posttest. These results suggest that individual work is superior for memorizing a larger number of words in a short time but that memory can decay relatively quickly. Conversely, pair work may be superior for long-term retention.

The current study investigates the effect of three foreign language learner emotions on the amount of gain in oral proficiency over one school year of 159 eleven-year-old pupils starting English foreign language classes in France. Previous cross-sectional studies have shown positive relationships between foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and various performance and achievement measures, as well as negative relationships between foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA), foreign language classroom boredom (FLCB), and FL performance and achievement measures. A common finding is that negative emotions explain more variance in Foreign Language (FL) performance and achievement measures at a single point in time than positive emotions. Correlation analyses revealed that the amount of gain was positively linked to FLE and negatively linked FLCA and FLCB. A first multiple regression analysis showed that, surprisingly, FLE was the only (positive) predictor of gain in oral proficiency. A second multiple regression analysis revealed that the FLE teacher dimension was the only predictor of gain in oral proficiency. This suggests that positive emotions, and especially the ability of teachers to meet the psychological needs of their students, have a stronger long-term effect while negative emotions are more likely to disrupt performance in the moment. Pedagogical implications are presented.

Students’ development of multilingual competence has attracted increasing attention from language researchers and educators. However, research on students’ interaction strategy use in group discussions across different language settings remains scarce. In this study, therefore, we examined interaction strategy use in Cantonese as a first language (L1) and Putonghua as a second language (L2) during group discussion tasks among 42 primary school students in Hong Kong. We also investigated the effects of interaction strategy use on performance in respective tasks. We discovered that students employed significantly more interaction strategies in L1 than in L2, with a higher contribution to L1 task performance. Specifically, three of the five strategies identified—Strategy 2 (S2) asking for opinions, S3 expressing attitude, and S5 non-verbal language—were employed more frequently in L1 than in L2. Furthermore, we found that strategy use had various effects on oral performance between the two languages. In the L1 task, S1 expressing actively, S3 expressing attitude, and S4 giving clarification significantly predicted students’ group discussion performance, whereas this effect was only observed in S1 expressing actively in the L2 task. Pedagogical implications for primary students’ learning of interaction strategies for group discussions in both L1 and L2 are discussed.

This article studies the use of lexical hedges and boosters in English-medium Master's theses by L2 (Czech) graduates in English language and literature programmes. Drawing on the metadiscourse framework and adopting a corpus-based approach, the study analyses the frequency, realisations, and function of hedges and boosters in a corpus of 48 Master's theses in linguistics, literature, and education. The results are also compared to a reference corpus representing L1 English published academic discourse in the same disciplines. The analysis shows that the Master's theses of Czech students use fewer hedges and slightly more boosters than L1 expert writers and thus display a somewhat less cautious stance. The results also indicate that Czech graduates show a strong preference for content-oriented hedges and emphatics as boosters. This suggests that the rhetorical choices of Czech graduates bear features of learner discourse and may be affected by the merging of L1 and L2 academic conventions and the power relations between the student-writer and the examiners inherent to the Master's thesis. Based on these findings, the article draws some implications for L2 writing pedagogy.

In second language education, the pairing of students for interaction, particularly based on peer familiarity, has garnered considerable attention from researchers. Despite this focus, studies examining the impact of peer familiarity on language learning during peer interactions have produced varied results, with limited exploration in the context of collaborative writing tasks. This study seeks to investigate the effects of peer familiarity on Chinese English learners’ language learning in collaborative writing. Two groups of participants were recruited, including five familiar pairs and five unfamiliar pairs. Their interactive dialogues throughout the collaborative writing process were recorded; transcribed; and then analyzed for the number, type, and outcome of language-related episodes (LREs). Our findings revealed that the familiar pairs exhibited a significantly higher production of LREs and a greater success rate in solving these episodes compared to the unfamiliar pairs. Furthermore, all participants demonstrated a higher retention rate for successfully solved LREs compared to unsolved ones, although no significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of language learning retention. The findings offer pedagogical implications for student grouping in collaborative work.

This study delves into the acceptance of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) for English language learning among Chinese postgraduate students, examining how individual, social, and technological factors influence this process. Utilizing an extended technology acceptance model, the research collected data from 497 students via a survey, analyzed through partial least square-structural equation modeling. Key findings underscore personal innovativeness, subjective norms, and trust as significant predictors of GenAI adoption, with an intricate interplay between perceived ease of use and usefulness affecting behavioral intentions. The insights offer theoretical and practical implications for enhancing GenAI's educational integration, emphasizing the importance of fostering innovation, peer influence, trust, and support infrastructure. This contribution enriches the understanding of GenAI's educational potential, particularly in non-native English contexts, paving the way for further exploration in this evolving domain.

This study investigated the gap between receptive and productive knowledge of second language (L2) collocations across different L2 proficiency levels and whether the two types of knowledge constitute distinct constructs or not. Four groups of adult learners of English (n = 205) and two groups of native speakers of English (n = 85) completed four written tasks: a sentence writing task, fill-in-the-blank task, multiple-choice task, and Yes/No acceptability judgment task. Each task addressed 64 academic English collocations, including verb–noun, adverb–adjective, adjective–noun, and adverb–verb collocations. Results showed that the gap between receptive and productive knowledge gradually decreased as learners’ L2 proficiency increased. Implicational scaling analysis showed an acquisition order of four different types of collocation knowledge and suggested that recall mastery of collocations should not be considered equivalent to productive mastery of collocations. Results from confirmatory factor analysis showed that receptive and productive knowledge of L2 collocations are two distinct constructs.