Foreign Language Annals最新文献

This study explores translanguaging practices in a K-5 Mandarin Foreign Language in Elementary School (FLES) program in the United States. Using an ethnographic case study approach, it examined how a Mandarin teacher enacted translanguaging practices in two fourth-grade Mandarin classrooms and explored the affordances these practices provided for her multilingual students. The analysis of classroom video-recordings and artifacts revealed that by leveraging students' home languages (e.g., Spanish), multimodal and semiotic resources, and peer collaboration, the teacher created opportunities for students to express their understanding in various ways, challenged monolingual ideologies, and empowered multilingual identities. The study highlights how teachers can enact translanguaging by making intentional pedagogical choices that harness available resources in the classroom. It also challenges the assumption that exclusive target-language use is the most effective route to proficiency, advocating instead for pedagogical approaches that recognize and build upon students' multilingual identities as assets in world language learning.

Research on L2 acquisition of the Spanish perfective and imperfective past has suggested that order-of-instruction (preterite before imperfect) may significantly contribute to learners' difficulty with mastering the imperfect. We sought to empirically test the effect of order-of-instruction by implementing a program-wide intervention in a beginner Spanish program at a large US university (N = 697 students) which reverted the timing of teaching the preterite and imperfect (imperfect before preterite). Except for the order in which the tenses were taught, all aspects of the curriculum remained identical across the preterite-first and the imperfect-first groups. Results from a cloze test and an analysis of student narrative texts demonstrate that teaching the imperfect first had neither a significant effect on suppliance nor on appropriate use of preterite-imperfect forms, thus rejecting the hypothesis that order-of-instruction plays a central role in L2 Spanish tense-aspect development.

Past studies have shown that first language and second language (L2) listeners can adapt to unfamiliar L2 pronunciation. However, little is known about the process of adaptation, especially by L2 listeners. The present study examined the degree to which L2 listeners' adaptation process is influenced by speaker intelligibility and input variability. In a 2-day experiment, L2 listeners heard and transcribed short sentences five times without feedback in seven groups that differed in speaker intelligibility and input variability (between-subject). Adaptation was measured by transcription accuracy. Findings showed greater improvements for groups with high intelligibility and high input variability. In particular, exposure to multiple speakers of the same variety resulted in the largest gain. Thus, to facilitate adaptation to unfamiliar L2 pronunciation, high-intelligibility speakers and/or multiple speakers of the same language background should be used.

World Language (WL) teacher supply has been a pervasive threat to the sustainability of K-12 WL programs for decades; however, few studies have examined the factors that contribute to the leaky bucket. This paper presents the stories of six WL teachers in the southern United States who decided to leave the classroom despite years of experience in their schools. Their stories uncovered the interactions between teacher identity and professional agency, revealing three metaphors of high-risk WL teachers—spare part, jack-of-all-trades, and Lone Ranger. Implications for patching the leaky bucket are provided, including actions needed by stakeholders at multiple levels to ensure access to quality WL programs for all K-12 learners.

With the popularity of Spanish for Specific Purposes courses growing at U.S. universities, research that can underpin effective teaching practices and material development is greatly needed. This project focuses on task-based language teaching in the context of Medical Spanish courses, drawing from studies carried out for Business Spanish and Spanish for nurses. The objectives were (1) to conduct a needs analysis of Medical Spanish students, and (2) to create a task-based curriculum for a general Medical Spanish course. The data collection included interviews to identify relevant tasks performed in the medical field, followed by an anonymous questionnaire in which participants rated the frequency and importance of the tasks identified in the interviews. The most frequent and important tasks will serve as learning objectives for a Medical Spanish course.

Some learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) face difficulties learning Chinese characters (hanzi), particularly if they are from alphabetic language backgrounds such as English. Many CFL students need to develop the ability to self-regulate their learning to cope with the learning of hundreds of characters in the beginner and intermediate stages of learning. This mixed-methods study explored these strategic actions through a multi-dimensional lens of self-regulation. Eight CFL university students at an Irish university were interviewed six times each throughout the course of an academic year to track their self-regulation as their learning of Chinese characters developed. In addition, 108 students across universities in Ireland were surveyed on their self-regulation. Learners with higher hanzi knowledge demonstrated stronger self-regulation, particularly in terms of meeting the commitments of their studies. Metacognitive control was problematic for all learners. Emotion control was more problematic at the earlier levels of hanzi knowledge.

Language classrooms in North America have changed significantly in the past decades. They no longer serve only mainstream second language learners whose primary exposure to the target language is in the classroom; instead, they now often include heritage language learners, whose exposure to the language began at home and who arrive at college-level language programs with varying degrees of general proficiency and variably developed literacy skills. Heritage speakers are a valuable resource in fostering national expertise in world languages and cultures (Rivers & Brecht, 2018) and may help boost dwindling university enrollment numbers. To better understand how institutional approaches and policies impact the success of heritage learners, this descriptive survey-based study examined responses from experienced Russian language instructors representing 43 Russian language programs across the United States. The online survey provided data for quantitative analysis, including raw numbers, percentages, descriptive statistics, and confidence intervals, as well as insights from open-ended responses. The results show that Russian heritage language learners often remain invisible to institutions and administrators. Institutionalized spaces for heritage students, such as specialized courses, appropriate placement tests, and customized pathways to the completion of a minor or major are not always available.

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) chatbots has created opportunities and challenges for higher education. Extant scholarship has explored GenAI's capabilities and topics involving teachers' and students' perceptions of these tools. However, there is limited research exploring (1) whether second language (L2) learners actively leverage GenAI tools on their own for writing purposes in languages other than English (LOTEs), and (2) whether learners believe GenAI tools are ethical for L2 writing in educational settings. This study explores these gaps by adopting a sequential mixed methods design. First, a survey examined L2 learners (N = 287) of five LOTEs, exploring students' uses of GenAI tools for L2 writing and their beliefs about its ethicality. Second, a case study was conducted with three learners, in which interviews and video screen capture were leveraged to further understand issues of usage and ethics. The findings suggest that although many students have used GenAI tools, only 14.6% actively reported using them for L2 writing purposes. Still, such writers reported using GenAI in 12 distinct ways. Finally, 82.2% of students believed GenAI tools are ethical for different purposes. These findings are discussed with an eye toward future writing research and pedagogy.