International Journal of Applied Linguistics最新文献

The earlier starting age for learning English is apparent in the non-Anglophone world. However, in China, kindergartens are banned from delivering subjects that are designated for primary school level, including English language lessons, as part of reforms to eliminate “schoolification” of preschool education. This qualitative study takes a multi-level approach to language-in-education planning to explore how local education authorities and different types of kindergartens in the city of Hefei, China, interpret and respond to this macro-level policy. The findings reveal a disparity between officials and school participants in their attitudes toward preschool English language education, as well as divergence between public and private kindergartens in their current English provision. The study probes these disparities and their links to the interplay between the meso-level local education authority and the different types of kindergartens, as well as the relationship between the government and the market.

Learner-to-learner (peer) interaction has been integral to the second language (L2) classroom since the advent of communicative-oriented pedagogies. Despite the well-documented benefits of peer interaction, the extent to which learners benefit may be impacted by a range of factors, particularly their peers’ proficiency levels. Yet studies on the influence of peers’ proficiency have shown contradictory findings and are extensively focused on pairs rather than small groups. Furthermore, although low-proficiency (LP) learners experience greater impacts from interaction with peers of different proficiency levels, their interactional patterns and perspectives are underexplored. This study investigates how six Latin American learners of English (core learners) co-created learning opportunities as they interacted with non-core learners (n = 33) in three proficiency small-group interactions. A total of 18 group interactions were analysed for language-related episodes (LREs) and turn-takings. The results showed that core learners’ (CLs) LREs and turns diminished as their peers’ proficiency increased. However, fewer incorrect LRE resolutions were found when CLs were grouped with high-proficiency (HP) peers. The CLs also perceived the interaction with HP peers as challenging but important for their L2 development. Additionally, aside from the proficiency level, CLs acknowledged the importance of their peers’ positive attitudes for the success of their interactions. These findings provide important insights into employing mixed-proficiency groups to create more optimal learning conditions, particularly for LP learners.

Language teachers deal with different groups of learners as a natural aspect of their professional careers. However, little is known about how teachers construct their identities in response to various learner groups. This study relies on the concept of identities-in-practice and explores how six English-L2 teachers construct their identities across beginner and advanced levels of teaching. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, stimulated recalls, and classroom observations to examine teacher identities across the two practice levels. Data analyses revealed similarities and differences in teacher identities across the two levels, which involved three components: agentic variations, discursive realisations, and extended identities. These findings provide novel implications for understanding language teacher identity construction across different learner groups. The study also provides implications for teachers and teacher educators to pay focal attention to the role identity plays in teachers’ work across different practice levels.

This paper aims to understand the state-of-the-art of research on sustainability discourse in applied linguistics. The paper adopts a systematic two-stage review approach. In the first stage, 114 articles were classified into environment, social, and governance (ESG) according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) categories. The second stage involves annotating the dataset using an open-coding system based on data types explored in the studies, methodologies used, findings, and implications. The findings lead to a comprehensive review of diachronic changes in the investigation of sustainability topics, data types, sampling, frameworks, analytical tools, findings, and implications to ultimately set the grounds for future research on sustainability discourse in applied linguistics and related disciplines—for example, communication studies.

In today's multilingual society, students often learn two or more languages simultaneously. Despite a wealth of research on writing attitudes, few studies have explored the relationship between student attitudinal variables from a cross-linguistic perspective, particularly in the field of integrated writing (IW). This study included 239 first-year English majors from a normal university in southeastern China. Path analysis revealed clear relationships between cognitive and affective attitudes, with self-efficacy being a significant negative predictor of anxiety (β = −0.391 for L1 and β = −0.258 for L2) and a positive predictor of enjoyment (β = 0.531 for L1 and β = 0.380 for L2), irrespective of the language. The study identified statistical evidence of transfers from L1 attitudes to L2 attitudes, across cognitive and affective attitudes, with various patterns. The study provides a cross-linguistic perspective on the relationship between L1 Chinese and L2 English IW attitudes in Chinese higher education and highlights the critical contribution of psychological transfer in compensating for the limitations of previous theories and empirical studies that focused solely on linguistic ability and writing strategy transfer.

Drawing on the explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the present study aims to investigate the relationship, if any, between self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy use and task engagement. The participants of the study were 361 Iranian EFL students majoring in English language teaching or English language and literature for the B.A. degree, with a B1 English language proficiency level, based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Questionnaire surveys, narrative frames, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of quantitative data analysis showed that SRL strategy use is a significant predictor of task engagement. The results of the qualitative analysis also pointed to the importance of SRL strategies, including (meta)cognitive, (meta)affective, (meta)motivational, and (meta)social strategies, to maintain task engagement. The results of the study may be used to inform English language teachers, learners, materials developers, and measurement instrument developers.

هدف از انجام مطالعه حاضر، بررسی رابطه بین استفاده از راهبردهای یادگیری خودتنظیمی و مشارکت در تمرین زبان آموزان است. شرکت کنندگان در این پژوهش 361 دانشجوی ایرانی زبان انگلیسی در حال تحصیل در مقطع کارشناسی رشته آموزش زبان یا ادبیات انگلیسی بودند. مهارت های زبانی انگلیسی آنها در سطح متوسط بود. جمع‌آوری داده در طول دوره همه‌گیری کووید-19 و با استفاده از پرسشنامه و مصاحبه نیمه ساختاریافته انجام شد. نتایج تجزیه و تحلیل داده‌های کمی به وجود رابطه معنادار بین استفاده از راهبردهای یادگیری خودتنظیمی و مشارکت در تمرین زبان آموزان اشاره کرد. به عبارت دیگر، می توان از میزان استفاده راهبردهای یادگیری خودتنظیمی زبان آموزان برای پیش بینی میزان مشارکت در تمرین آنها استفاده نمود. نتایج تجزیه و تحلیل داده های کیفی نیز به اهمیت راهبردهای یادگیری خودتنظیمی از جمله راهبردهای (فرا)شناختی، (فرا) عاطفی، (فرا) انگیزشی و (فرا) اجتماعی برای مشارکت بیشتر در فعالیت های آموزشی اشاره کرد. از پیامدهای این مطالعه می توان برای توسعه محتوای آموزشی و ابزار اندازه گیری میزان مشارکت در تمرین زبان آموزان استفاده کرد.

Despite the growth of research on teachers’ emotional vulnerability in recent years, little research has explored this issue among student teachers. Drawing on the lens of the community of practice (CoP), in this study, we report on the emotional vulnerability and coping strategies of Turkish student teachers during a teacher education course. Data were collected before, during, and after the course using semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and narrative frames. Data analysis revealed that across the engagement, imagination, and alignment dimensions of the CoP, the student teachers experienced emotional vulnerability that not only influenced their present membership but also negatively shaped their future perceptions. Additionally, the student teachers adopted various personal and interpersonal coping strategies to regulate their negative emotions, which reduced the negative effects of emotional vulnerability on their CoP membership. We conclude the study with implications for teacher educators in how to use the findings to deal with student teachers’ emotional vulnerability, especially through drawing on their coping strategies.

The present study focuses on the influence of L2 learners’ attitudes toward and perception of sexual taboos on their comprehension of metaphorical taboo expressions. Other aspects such as the presence of contextual information and the L2 learners’ stay-abroad experience were also included in the study design. A total of 53 students of Spanish as a foreign language were presented with metaphorical taboo expressions from the MadSex corpus. They also were asked to rate their reticence to talk about sex and to use sexual taboo expressions. The results show that a higher degree of reticence to talk about sex is associated with a worse performance on the metaphor comprehension test. Furthermore, learners with a stay-abroad experience outperformed their counterparts on the comprehension test, but they did not guess the meaning from the context more successfully. Finally, participants with stay-abroad experience found it more acceptable to use sexual taboo expressions.