International Journal of Applied Linguistics最新文献

Although several studies have examined the speech act of complaint on mainstream social media platforms, few have investigated complaints on university students’ online discussion forums. Therefore, this study examines the linguistic (in)directness in complaints made by Chinese university students on an online discussion forum based on Depraetere et al.’s (2021) taxonomy. It focuses on the formal realization of the four constitutive components (component A = complainable, component B = dissatisfaction, component C = complainee, and component D = wish for remedy) in Chinese and the component combinations realized in complaints on the online discussion forum. The data comprises a sample of 200 complaints compiled through random sampling from an online discussion forum of a Chinese university. The results revealed the realization devices of the four components on the online discussion forum in the Chinese context, highlighting both similarities and platform-specific/language-specific features. Additionally, the findings showed that all complaints in our dataset were linguistically direct. More specifically, the two-component combination AB was preferred over other alternatives. The study further discusses the possible factors underlying the linguistic directness and the preference for the specific combination in complaints.

Recent studies have evidenced numerous benefits of continuation writing in supporting second language (L2) learning. However, research specifically addressing the impact of collaborative continuation writing on lexical learning is limited and has produced conflicting results, with no exploration of the relationship between lexical alignment and lexical learning. This study compares dyadic and individual continuation writing performed by L2 learners, examining lexical alignment, lexical learning, and the relation between lexical alignment and learning. Data analyses revealed that dyadic learners demonstrated superior lexical alignment and lexical learning over individual learners, that neither group's lexical alignment was significantly correlated with their word form or meaning retention on posttests, but that individual learners’ lexical alignment was correlated with their word use in posttests. These findings are discussed with reference to the collaborative dynamics in dyadic interactions, the lexical processing involved in collaborative writing, the different sources and nature of lexical alignment and learning, and transfer-appropriate processing. The study highlights the discrepancy between lexical processing and lexical alignment and their respective roles in lexical learning. The study concludes by suggesting that prioritizing lexical processing quality over lexical alignment enhances lexical learning in continuation writing.

Research on attitudes toward English varieties has been identified as a crucial contextual issue that is relevant to the implementation of the Teaching English as an International Language approach. Thus, the current study explores the attitudes of 400 Bosnian respondents toward different English varieties, employing a verbal guise technique for attitude elicitation. It also examines the respondents’ perceived intelligibility of these varieties and their conative responses and recognition rates. The results consistently showed that inner-circle varieties, Standardised British in particular, were rated more favourably than expanding-circle varieties and were perceived as more desirable and better understood. Their correct recognition rates were also much higher than those for expanding-circle varieties. Expanding-circle varieties were rated much less favourably, with the exception of moderately accented Bosnian English. All the other expanding-circle varieties, heavily accented Bosnian English, Arabic and Turkish English, were not perceived as desirable. They were also considered less easily understood, and their recognition rates were low.

This study draws on data gleaned from multimodal identity tasks in an eight-week telecollaboration project involving 120 pre-service teachers from two teacher education programs in Türkiye and the United States. The authors explore what emotions teachers expressed during their participation in telecollaboration and how their emotions intersected with their teacher agency and identity construction. The intersectionality of language teachers’ identities and teachers’ emotions as agency informed the study's conceptual framework. Utilizing multimodal critical discourse analysis, the authors found that pre-service teachers asserted projective agency by expressing emotions through multimodal and narrative identity tasks. The findings showed that the pre-service teachers’ identity work was influenced by ecologically contextualized psycho-emotional circumstances throughout the project. Underscoring that teacher identity work cannot be conceptualized without attending to teachers’ emotions and agency, the authors argue that when intentionally integrated into teacher education courses, identity tasks open experiential dimensions for pre-service teachers to engage in agentive and emotionally laden identity work. The study contributes to language teacher education research, highlighting the supranational, multicultural, and multilingual nature of the pre-service teachers' interactions while engaging in online synchronous and asynchronous activities.

In today's globalized world, the importance of intercultural understanding and interpersonal skills is increasingly emphasized. This study focuses on linking foreign language education with intercultural effectiveness and investigates the impact of using anime as a tool for cultural understanding and the development of intercultural competence. The course is an introductory Japanese culture course for non-Japanese learners, designed to introduce Japanese culture and values while encouraging students to deepen their understanding of their own thoughts, values, and culture. The intercultural effectiveness scale conducted before and after the 16-week anime course indicates significant changes in students' self-awareness, world orientation, relationship development, and emotional resilience—four of the six dimensions of the intercultural effectiveness scale. The results suggest that anime is not just a form of entertainment but also a valuable educational resource that enhances students' intercultural competence.

Decision-making and pedagogical reasoning are two of the underlying skills in language teaching. Integrating sociocultural theory (SCT) into teachers’ classroom decisions can be one novel way to inform their decisions with pedagogical reasoning. This study adopted peer coaching as an SCT-oriented inquiry-based approach to professional development and drew on the concepts of the zone of proximal development and mediation. Two novice teachers of English participated in the study. The data were collected through documentation, classroom observation, teachers’ self-reflection, and video-stimulated recall within the context of online teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic. Conversation analysis and qualitative content analysis of the data showed that the peers scaffolded each other's decisions, actively applying the key tenets of mediation using each other, the video recordings, and the metalanguage they had mastered as mediational resources to achieve their goals in language teacher learning. The findings offer practical implications for teacher educators to implement this mediational approach to professional development in their teacher education programs.