International Journal of Applied Linguistics最新文献

Based on self-determination theory, the present study investigated the moderation of teacher-student relationships (TSR) in the association between anxiety and willingness to communicate (WTC) among foreign language (FL) learners and further examined potential gender differences. A total of 11,130 Chinese secondary students (51.2% female), ranging from grades 7 to 12 (mean age = 14.601, SD = 1.360), participated in the study, providing self-reported measures as data sources. Moderation analysis revealed that TSR exhibited a negative moderation effect on the connection between anxiety and WTC. Specifically, when TSR was supportive, it could mitigate the detrimental impact of anxiety on FL learners’ WTC. Moreover, it was observed that supportive TSR had a more significant impact on reducing anxiety-related barriers and enhancing WTC, particularly among female students. These findings illuminate the importance of self-determination theory in FL teacher education, highlighting the critical role of fostering supportive TSR to promote communication willingness in FL learners.

This longitudinal study investigated the dynamic relationship between mindfulness and English-speaking anxiety among 259 Bangladeshi undergraduates over a semester. Data were collected at three-monthly intervals using the English Language Speaking Anxiety Scale and the Langer Mindfulness Scale, addressing four research objectives: (1) the cross-sectional correlation between mindfulness and speaking anxiety at each time point, (2) temporal changes in this correlation across the semester, (3) Bayesian evidence for an inverse relationship, and (4) the association between mindfulness and speaking anxiety. Correlation analyses revealed a progressively strengthening, negative association, supported by Bayesian evidence that shifted from anecdotal (Month 1) to moderate/strong (Months 2–3). Cross-lagged analyses further demonstrated that high mindfulness in one month was associated with lower speaking anxiety in the following month. These findings highlight mindfulness as a modifiable factor for mitigating language anxiety and provide empirical support for integrating mindfulness-based interventions into university EFL curricula to enhance oral communication skills. Practical recommendations are proposed for educators, policymakers, and mental health professionals to foster psychologically supportive language-learning environments.

Despite a surge of studies on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ professional identity over the past two decades, insufficient attention has been paid to how they pursue their professional development along distinct identity trajectories in a changing higher education with policy changes and uncertainties. No single pathway fully captures how EFL teachers develop their teacher-researcher identities amid such changes and challenges. Informed by a multidimensional framework for understanding teacher identity, this study examines how a group of EFL academics in China developed their teacher-researcher identities along different trajectories. Drawing on data from semistructured interviews, drawings of participants’ trajectories, narrative frames, and document analysis, this study identifies three identity trajectories: striving to become research-oriented EFL academics, represented as upward lines with zigzagging turns; maintaining separate teacher and researcher identities, depicted as parallel lines; and integrating both roles, symbolized by ascending stairs. The findings further reveal that EFL teachers’ enactment of agency in identity (re)construction is embedded within the sociocultural and institutional contexts and influenced by a range of contextual factors (e.g., national and institutional research policies) and personal factors (e.g., professional values and beliefs). This study has implications for teacher education in terms of how to facilitate EFL teachers’ continuing professional development in complex and changing higher education environments.

This study focuses on the potential relationship between working memory and lexical complexity and the moderating effect of proficiency on this relationship across two task types. One hundred and forty-eight Chinese college students completed integrated and independent writing tasks from the test of English as a foreign language (TOEFL) iBT. Natural language processing tools were used to measure lexical complexity (lexical diversity, sophistication, and density). Participants also completed a working memory test and had their English proficiency assessed using the Band 6 College English Test (CET-6). On the integrated task, working memory was not significantly correlated with any measures of lexical complexity. However, proficiency moderated the relationship between working memory and one measure of lexical sophistication. On the independent task, weak but statistically significant correlations emerged between working memory and three measures of lexical sophistication. No moderation effects were observed on the independent task. These findings suggest that the role of working memory in second language (L2) lexical complexity may be task-dependent, offering tentative insights that could inform the teaching of L2 writing.

Research evaluating the effects of spaced versus massed practice on grammar learning has shown a superiority of the spaced schedule due to the existence of a distributed learning effect. However, these studies were conducted in a laboratory setting in a decontextualized manner. The present study therefore targeted contextualized grammar learning, where two target structures, the possessive adjective and the past tense in French, were practiced in an information-gap activity. The aim was to analyze the possible interaction between linguistic difficulty and spacing schedule. Unlike decontextualized practice, the production of the structures here required the production of personal ideas, making the activity more cognitively demanding. Two groups (N = 32 and N = 33) from two classes of Chinese learners studying French practiced the structures three times, either without spacing or with a spacing of 1 day. A fourth session took place 1 week later. The massed practice group showed greater fluency, especially for the complex structure, whereas the spaced practice group used the structures more accurately. An interaction between linguistic difficulty and spacing schedule was found: spacing practice presents an undesirable difficulty for the fluent use of the complex structure, but it is desirable for accurate use.

This study represents a continued effort to explore focused training in pragmatics for L2 Chinese teachers. From a Vygotskian sociocultural perspective, the study observed a Chinese graduate teaching assistant (GTA) who served as the teacher of record at a U.S. university and documented her development of pragmatic knowledge and application during a 6-week online course on pragmatics. The training provided the Chinese GTA with instruction that engaged her with concepts across different areas related to pragmatics in a focused manner. Additionally, she had the opportunity to participate in an online languaging task using a shared OneDrive file. The coding and analysis of the languaging data show that the Chinese GTA developed an improved conceptual understanding of pragmatics and increased her readiness and ability to apply these concepts in her teaching over time. Lastly, the value of examining L2 teachers' pragmatic development from a sociocultural perspective and the benefits of incorporating languaging into pragmatics training for L2 teachers are discussed.