Extramural English (EE), referring to English-mediated leisure activities, has become a core part of English learning in many contexts. This prompts the need to explore how informal learning can best interact with English language teaching (ELT). To investigate possible ways of linking EE and ELT, we asked secondary school teachers in Austria, Finland, France, and Sweden in a survey to illustrate an activity they would do with students making extensive use of EE. We recruited teachers through convenience sampling and received responses from 239 teachers. Swedish teachers most frequently illustrated activities, followed by Austrian, Finnish, and French teachers. Austrian and French teachers mostly referred to activities based on authentic (i.e. non-pedagogic) material. Contrarily, Finnish and Swedish teachers more often illustrated activities raising learners’ awareness of register differences. The findings point to possible contextual variation in how EE is considered in instruction, potentially influenced by political and sociocultural factors, such as learners’ average EE use and dominant instructional priorities. The findings can inform stakeholders seeking to support teachers in effectively connecting classroom instruction with learners’ EE.
{"title":"Considering extramural English in class: Exploring teachers’ activity ideas in secondary school classrooms in four countries","authors":"Alexandra Schurz, Pia Sundqvist","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf078","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf078","url":null,"abstract":"Extramural English (EE), referring to English-mediated leisure activities, has become a core part of English learning in many contexts. This prompts the need to explore how informal learning can best interact with English language teaching (ELT). To investigate possible ways of linking EE and ELT, we asked secondary school teachers in Austria, Finland, France, and Sweden in a survey to illustrate an activity they would do with students making extensive use of EE. We recruited teachers through convenience sampling and received responses from 239 teachers. Swedish teachers most frequently illustrated activities, followed by Austrian, Finnish, and French teachers. Austrian and French teachers mostly referred to activities based on authentic (i.e. non-pedagogic) material. Contrarily, Finnish and Swedish teachers more often illustrated activities raising learners’ awareness of register differences. The findings point to possible contextual variation in how EE is considered in instruction, potentially influenced by political and sociocultural factors, such as learners’ average EE use and dominant instructional priorities. The findings can inform stakeholders seeking to support teachers in effectively connecting classroom instruction with learners’ EE.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145599238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Huiying Cai, Xun Yan, Ping-Lin Chuang, Yulin Pan, Mingyue Huo
Understanding what makes second language (L2) listening comprehension difficult is crucial for advancing language learning and assessment. In L2 listening assessment, a key challenge is developing items with targeted difficulty levels. This difficulty can be influenced by textual and acoustic features from different item segments (i.e. stimuli, stems, and options) embedded in a multi-layered structure, along with task-related features. This study explores a feature-based machine learning (ML) approach to predicting difficulty of multiple-choice listening items on a local language proficiency test. We extracted construct-relevant textual and acoustic features from item segments across five dimensions: lexical complexity, syntactic complexity, fluency, pronunciation, and similarities among item segments. Incorporating these features, we compared traditional and mixed-effects ML models for predictive accuracy and interpretability. The best-performing model—a mixed-effects Ridge model with twenty-three features—achieved high accuracy (R2 = 0.860) and showed meaningful feature-difficulty relationships. This study presents methodological innovations for item difficulty modeling and offers practical implications for human- and machine-mediated item development. It also demonstrates potential of incorporating computational linguistics and ML in enhancing L2 listening assessment.
{"title":"What makes listening comprehension difficult?: A feature-based machine learning approach to understanding item difficulty","authors":"Huiying Cai, Xun Yan, Ping-Lin Chuang, Yulin Pan, Mingyue Huo","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf079","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf079","url":null,"abstract":"Understanding what makes second language (L2) listening comprehension difficult is crucial for advancing language learning and assessment. In L2 listening assessment, a key challenge is developing items with targeted difficulty levels. This difficulty can be influenced by textual and acoustic features from different item segments (i.e. stimuli, stems, and options) embedded in a multi-layered structure, along with task-related features. This study explores a feature-based machine learning (ML) approach to predicting difficulty of multiple-choice listening items on a local language proficiency test. We extracted construct-relevant textual and acoustic features from item segments across five dimensions: lexical complexity, syntactic complexity, fluency, pronunciation, and similarities among item segments. Incorporating these features, we compared traditional and mixed-effects ML models for predictive accuracy and interpretability. The best-performing model—a mixed-effects Ridge model with twenty-three features—achieved high accuracy (R2 = 0.860) and showed meaningful feature-difficulty relationships. This study presents methodological innovations for item difficulty modeling and offers practical implications for human- and machine-mediated item development. It also demonstrates potential of incorporating computational linguistics and ML in enhancing L2 listening assessment.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"84 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145583217","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study investigates the evolutionary trajectory of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) in applied linguistics from a bibliometric perspective. Drawing on a dataset comprising 290 citing papers sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus (1997–2023), Citespace was employed to examine the major themes, seminal works, developmental phases, citation trajectories, academic venues, and transformative publications. Underpinned by Shneider’s (2009) evolutionary model, eight major clusters were identified, which map onto three developmental stages based on the timeline visualization of co-citation, namely the conceptualizing stage (1992-around 2005), the maturing stage (around 2005-around 2015), and the expansion stage (around 2015-now). The analysis indicates that CDST studies have a tendency to employ innovative research methodologies to address both well-researched topics and emerging challenges in applied linguistics across a variety of contexts. This study demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of CDST in applied linguistics by incorporating topics and methods from psychology, education, and social sciences. The findings also provide theoretical, methodological, and practical insights that can inform future research endeavors in applied linguistics and CDST.
本研究从文献计量学的角度探讨了复杂动态系统理论在应用语言学中的发展轨迹。利用来自Web of Science核心文集和Scopus（1997-2023）的290篇引用论文的数据集，Citespace研究了主要主题、开创性作品、发展阶段、引用轨迹、学术场所和变革性出版物。在schneider（2009）进化模型的基础上，基于共被引的时间轴可视化，我们确定了8个主要集群，并将其映射到三个发展阶段，即概念化阶段（1992- 2005年前后）、成熟期（2005- 2015年前后）和扩展阶段（2015年前后）。分析表明，CDST研究倾向于采用创新的研究方法来解决各种背景下应用语言学中研究充分的主题和新出现的挑战。本研究结合心理学、教育学和社会科学的主题和方法，展示了CDST在应用语言学中的跨学科性质。这些研究结果也为今后应用语言学和CDST的研究提供了理论、方法和实践上的见解。
{"title":"The development and trends of complex dynamic systems theory in applied linguistics: A bibliometric analysis from 1997 to 2023","authors":"Jihua Dong, Ye Liu, Louisa Buckingham","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf076","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf076","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates the evolutionary trajectory of complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) in applied linguistics from a bibliometric perspective. Drawing on a dataset comprising 290 citing papers sourced from the Web of Science Core Collection and Scopus (1997–2023), Citespace was employed to examine the major themes, seminal works, developmental phases, citation trajectories, academic venues, and transformative publications. Underpinned by Shneider’s (2009) evolutionary model, eight major clusters were identified, which map onto three developmental stages based on the timeline visualization of co-citation, namely the conceptualizing stage (1992-around 2005), the maturing stage (around 2005-around 2015), and the expansion stage (around 2015-now). The analysis indicates that CDST studies have a tendency to employ innovative research methodologies to address both well-researched topics and emerging challenges in applied linguistics across a variety of contexts. This study demonstrates the interdisciplinary nature of CDST in applied linguistics by incorporating topics and methods from psychology, education, and social sciences. The findings also provide theoretical, methodological, and practical insights that can inform future research endeavors in applied linguistics and CDST.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145553555","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Seth Wiener, Adam A Bramlett, Bianca Brown, Jocelyn Dueck
This study examines the acquisition of Italian lexical stress by adult L2 learners. L1 Italian speakers and beginner L2 Italian speakers were recorded reading aloud trisyllabic Italian words, e.g. COdice with antepenultimate syllable stress (“code”), moMENto with penultimate syllable stress (“moment”). We analyzed four acoustic-phonetic cues: duration, fundamental frequency (pitch is the perceptual correlate), amplitude, and spectral tilt (a measure of energy change over frequencies). We corroborated previous findings: L1 speakers used all four cues to differentiate between antepenultimate (strong-weak-weak) and penultimate (weak-strong-weak) stressed words. We found evidence of L2 speakers producing inconsistent patterns for all four cues. We then played these L1 and L2 recordings for L1 Italian speakers (N = 50) and asked them to rate the utterances using a visual analog scale (VAS). As expected, the L1 speech was rated higher (more fluent stress) than the L2 speech (less fluent stress). We modeled how the acoustic cues predicted VAS responses. Our findings highlight the roles of duration and pitch for L2 learners. We conclude with implications for learners and teachers of Italian.
{"title":"Acoustic analysis and perception ratings of first and second language speakers’ Italian lexical stress","authors":"Seth Wiener, Adam A Bramlett, Bianca Brown, Jocelyn Dueck","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf075","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf075","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines the acquisition of Italian lexical stress by adult L2 learners. L1 Italian speakers and beginner L2 Italian speakers were recorded reading aloud trisyllabic Italian words, e.g. COdice with antepenultimate syllable stress (“code”), moMENto with penultimate syllable stress (“moment”). We analyzed four acoustic-phonetic cues: duration, fundamental frequency (pitch is the perceptual correlate), amplitude, and spectral tilt (a measure of energy change over frequencies). We corroborated previous findings: L1 speakers used all four cues to differentiate between antepenultimate (strong-weak-weak) and penultimate (weak-strong-weak) stressed words. We found evidence of L2 speakers producing inconsistent patterns for all four cues. We then played these L1 and L2 recordings for L1 Italian speakers (N = 50) and asked them to rate the utterances using a visual analog scale (VAS). As expected, the L1 speech was rated higher (more fluent stress) than the L2 speech (less fluent stress). We modeled how the acoustic cues predicted VAS responses. Our findings highlight the roles of duration and pitch for L2 learners. We conclude with implications for learners and teachers of Italian.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"155 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145498241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study investigated 104 English language learners’ longitudinal development of syntactic complexity across the A1 to C1 levels on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) scale. Using a derivative corpus of the EFCAMDAT, the study analyzed changes in judiciously selected measures—mean length of clause (MLC), coordinate phrases per clause (CP/C), dependent clauses per clause (DC/C), and complex nominals per clause (CN/C)—via negative binomial regression. The study also qualitatively analyzed essays whose syntactic complexity measures were not well predicted by the regression models. Results suggested that MLC divided the CEFR levels into two bands (i.e. A1/A2/B1 and B2/C1), while DC/C and CN/C distinguished adjacent CEFR levels. CP/C exhibited non-linear growth, potentially reflecting its construct ambiguity. Learners’ unanticipated performance was characterized as the absence of dependent clauses at the B2 to C1 levels. Two case studies indicated that such unanticipated performance was potentially caused by learners’ ongoing transition from subordination to phrasal complexity, different communicative needs demanded by different tasks, and the computational tool’s limited capability to analyze learner language.
{"title":"Examining English language learners’ longitudinal development of syntactic complexity across five CEFR levels with a robust measurement design: A mixed-methods approach","authors":"Taichi Yamashita","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf074","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigated 104 English language learners’ longitudinal development of syntactic complexity across the A1 to C1 levels on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) scale. Using a derivative corpus of the EFCAMDAT, the study analyzed changes in judiciously selected measures—mean length of clause (MLC), coordinate phrases per clause (CP/C), dependent clauses per clause (DC/C), and complex nominals per clause (CN/C)—via negative binomial regression. The study also qualitatively analyzed essays whose syntactic complexity measures were not well predicted by the regression models. Results suggested that MLC divided the CEFR levels into two bands (i.e. A1/A2/B1 and B2/C1), while DC/C and CN/C distinguished adjacent CEFR levels. CP/C exhibited non-linear growth, potentially reflecting its construct ambiguity. Learners’ unanticipated performance was characterized as the absence of dependent clauses at the B2 to C1 levels. Two case studies indicated that such unanticipated performance was potentially caused by learners’ ongoing transition from subordination to phrasal complexity, different communicative needs demanded by different tasks, and the computational tool’s limited capability to analyze learner language.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"98 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145472911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper examines the use of hyperbolic and promotional language, or ‘hype’, in the impact case studies submitted to the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), a major research evaluation exercise for UK higher education institutions. With substantial funding and institutional reputations at stake, REF submissions are high-stakes texts that may incentivize rhetorical embellishment to demonstrate research impact. We conducted a corpus-based analysis of 6,361 case studies, focusing on the extent and nature of hype across different academic fields and impact types. The findings reveal a pervasive use of hyping language, with significantly higher frequencies compared to typical academic genres. Disciplines oriented towards ‘pure knowledge’ exhibited the highest levels of hype, especially in attempts to assert certainty and contribution. Cultural and technological impact types were particularly characterized by claims of novelty and potential. The results highlight how the competitive pressures of research assessment foster exaggerated representations of impact, which may compromise the integrity of research communication. We argue for a more measured approach to promoting research impact to preserve the objectivity of assessment processes. This study contributes to the understanding of academic communication under high-stakes evaluation conditions and provides insights for policymakers, assessment panels, and researchers.
{"title":"Hype and the manufacture of impact in REF submissions","authors":"Ken Hyland, Feng (Kevin) Jiang","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf065","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the use of hyperbolic and promotional language, or ‘hype’, in the impact case studies submitted to the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), a major research evaluation exercise for UK higher education institutions. With substantial funding and institutional reputations at stake, REF submissions are high-stakes texts that may incentivize rhetorical embellishment to demonstrate research impact. We conducted a corpus-based analysis of 6,361 case studies, focusing on the extent and nature of hype across different academic fields and impact types. The findings reveal a pervasive use of hyping language, with significantly higher frequencies compared to typical academic genres. Disciplines oriented towards ‘pure knowledge’ exhibited the highest levels of hype, especially in attempts to assert certainty and contribution. Cultural and technological impact types were particularly characterized by claims of novelty and potential. The results highlight how the competitive pressures of research assessment foster exaggerated representations of impact, which may compromise the integrity of research communication. We argue for a more measured approach to promoting research impact to preserve the objectivity of assessment processes. This study contributes to the understanding of academic communication under high-stakes evaluation conditions and provides insights for policymakers, assessment panels, and researchers.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"94 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145295585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study examines how an applied linguistics graduate course instructor socializes students into academic concepts and norms in a graduate TESOL class in the U.S. through (trans)bordering, a semiotic process in which individuals create, negotiate, and contest boundaries that define acceptable academic practices, identities, and modes of communication. While translanguaging as a political act seeks to deconstruct linguistic borders, this article argues that bordering remains necessary for individuals to make sense of the world. This multimodal conversation analysis (CA) study draws data from a larger linguistic ethnography examining international students’ communicative practices in a U.S. university. Findings reveal that spatiality, the dynamic use of physical and imagined space to shape communication and meaning-making, is crucial in (trans)bordering. By examining how a graduate course instructor leverages existing and imagined space with other semiotic resources, we learn that (trans)bordering functions as a holistic process that socializes students into academic concepts and norms and provides a flexible framework that instructors use to mediate understanding of academic discourse.
{"title":"Rethinking translanguaging: (Trans)bordering, spatiality, and academic discourse socialization in a graduate TESOL classroom","authors":"Gengqi Xiao","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf062","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines how an applied linguistics graduate course instructor socializes students into academic concepts and norms in a graduate TESOL class in the U.S. through (trans)bordering, a semiotic process in which individuals create, negotiate, and contest boundaries that define acceptable academic practices, identities, and modes of communication. While translanguaging as a political act seeks to deconstruct linguistic borders, this article argues that bordering remains necessary for individuals to make sense of the world. This multimodal conversation analysis (CA) study draws data from a larger linguistic ethnography examining international students’ communicative practices in a U.S. university. Findings reveal that spatiality, the dynamic use of physical and imagined space to shape communication and meaning-making, is crucial in (trans)bordering. By examining how a graduate course instructor leverages existing and imagined space with other semiotic resources, we learn that (trans)bordering functions as a holistic process that socializes students into academic concepts and norms and provides a flexible framework that instructors use to mediate understanding of academic discourse.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145246404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Teachers are increasingly being recognized as active agents whose in situ pedagogical decisions are socially manifested. Relatedly, teacher education cycles, including collaborative pedagogical design work and reflective conversations on the pedagogical outcomes of design decisions, gained momentum in preservice language teacher education to explore the affordances of these decisions for teacher learning in talk-in-interaction across multiple pedagogical events. Using multimodal conversation analysis, this study describes how transnational groups of preservice language teachers, within the scope of a Virtual Exchange project, reflect on their experiences of teacher education activities such as collaborative task design, teacher educator feedback, and critically analyzing the implementation of their designs by actual L2 learners. A close examination of the video-mediated interactions of preservice teachers (PSTs) shows that small-group reflective conversations create opportunities to identify the interactional practices and teacher education activities that lead to claims of teacher learning. We present a collection of cases that include the PSTs’ claims of teacher learning (e.g. I learned X) as a learning-relevant discursive construction and retrospectively trace the moments of claimed teacher learning across earlier teacher education events.
{"title":"Claims of teacher learning and retrospective tracing of claimed events in video-mediated transnational virtual exchange interactions","authors":"Gülşah Uyar, Ufuk Balaman","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf055","url":null,"abstract":"Teachers are increasingly being recognized as active agents whose in situ pedagogical decisions are socially manifested. Relatedly, teacher education cycles, including collaborative pedagogical design work and reflective conversations on the pedagogical outcomes of design decisions, gained momentum in preservice language teacher education to explore the affordances of these decisions for teacher learning in talk-in-interaction across multiple pedagogical events. Using multimodal conversation analysis, this study describes how transnational groups of preservice language teachers, within the scope of a Virtual Exchange project, reflect on their experiences of teacher education activities such as collaborative task design, teacher educator feedback, and critically analyzing the implementation of their designs by actual L2 learners. A close examination of the video-mediated interactions of preservice teachers (PSTs) shows that small-group reflective conversations create opportunities to identify the interactional practices and teacher education activities that lead to claims of teacher learning. We present a collection of cases that include the PSTs’ claims of teacher learning (e.g. I learned X) as a learning-relevant discursive construction and retrospectively trace the moments of claimed teacher learning across earlier teacher education events.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"86 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145254514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This study presents the first comparative analysis of appraisal patterns in academic book reviews generated by ChatGPT and those authored by humans. Utilizing the Appraisal Framework, we identify distinct evaluative profiles across three subsystems: Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation. Findings indicate that while both artificial intelligence and human authors primarily employ Appreciation resources, significant differences exist in their use of Affect and Judgment, with human-authored reviews showing a richer and more nuanced expression of emotion and evaluation. Human writers also demonstrate greater flexibility in employing Engagement strategies and Graduation resources, fostering a more dynamic reader relationship. Conversely, ChatGPT-generated reviews, though structurally coherent, reveal a limited capacity for skilled interpersonal Engagement, resulting in a more impersonal and less persuasive evaluative stance. These insights underscore the limitations of current large language models in replicating the rhetorical depth of human writing, highlighting implications for English writing pedagogy.
{"title":"Exploring artificial intelligence appraisal: Appraisal patterns in GPT-generated and human-authored book reviews","authors":"Guangyuan Yao, Zhaoxia Liu","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf064","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf064","url":null,"abstract":"This study presents the first comparative analysis of appraisal patterns in academic book reviews generated by ChatGPT and those authored by humans. Utilizing the Appraisal Framework, we identify distinct evaluative profiles across three subsystems: Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation. Findings indicate that while both artificial intelligence and human authors primarily employ Appreciation resources, significant differences exist in their use of Affect and Judgment, with human-authored reviews showing a richer and more nuanced expression of emotion and evaluation. Human writers also demonstrate greater flexibility in employing Engagement strategies and Graduation resources, fostering a more dynamic reader relationship. Conversely, ChatGPT-generated reviews, though structurally coherent, reveal a limited capacity for skilled interpersonal Engagement, resulting in a more impersonal and less persuasive evaluative stance. These insights underscore the limitations of current large language models in replicating the rhetorical depth of human writing, highlighting implications for English writing pedagogy.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145254610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In conversation, speakers routinely bulldoze through to a new topic using idioms such as ‘plenty more fish in the sea’, which invoke clichéd, proverbial truths. This study investigates what happens when second language (L2) learners are given the keys to the proverbial bulldozer. To further understand the quality and nature of this aspect of L2 metaphoric competence (MC), forty first language (L1) Japanese L2 English learners of elementary-to-intermediate proficiency completed receptive and productive idiom topic transition and other MC tests, and a subset of twenty-five participated in prompted discussions as part of a topic transition classroom role-play activity. Extending previous research to this L1 and proficiency of learner, descriptive statistics, and regression analysis showed that as elicited abilities, receptive, and productive idiom topic transition were among the easiest and most difficult areas of MC respectively, while thematic analysis revealed rich linguistic and conceptual themes in both datasets, including many skilful idiom topic transitions. Discussion, limitations, and implications for future research and pedagogy are provided.
{"title":"‘She’s [the] only fish!’: Investigating the idiom topic transitions of elementary-to-intermediate proficiency Japanese learners of English","authors":"David O’Reilly","doi":"10.1093/applin/amaf053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaf053","url":null,"abstract":"In conversation, speakers routinely bulldoze through to a new topic using idioms such as ‘plenty more fish in the sea’, which invoke clichéd, proverbial truths. This study investigates what happens when second language (L2) learners are given the keys to the proverbial bulldozer. To further understand the quality and nature of this aspect of L2 metaphoric competence (MC), forty first language (L1) Japanese L2 English learners of elementary-to-intermediate proficiency completed receptive and productive idiom topic transition and other MC tests, and a subset of twenty-five participated in prompted discussions as part of a topic transition classroom role-play activity. Extending previous research to this L1 and proficiency of learner, descriptive statistics, and regression analysis showed that as elicited abilities, receptive, and productive idiom topic transition were among the easiest and most difficult areas of MC respectively, while thematic analysis revealed rich linguistic and conceptual themes in both datasets, including many skilful idiom topic transitions. Discussion, limitations, and implications for future research and pedagogy are provided.","PeriodicalId":48234,"journal":{"name":"Applied Linguistics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.6,"publicationDate":"2025-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145182996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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