Second Language Research Articles

Is there a cost when predictions are not met? A VWP study investigating L1 and L2 speakers.

Research has found that both first language (L1) and second language (L2) speakers make predictions about upcoming linguistic information, with predictive behaviour being impacted by individual differences and methodological factors. However, it is not clear whether a cost is incurred when a prediction is made, but not met. L2 speakers have less experience with their L2 and parsing can be cognitively demanding, which together may lead L2 speakers to incur prediction costs differently relative to L1 speakers. In this study using the visual world paradigm, we test whether L1 and L2 speakers predict in the same way, within the same time frame, and incur the same costs if predictions are not met. We also explore the role of proficiency and speech rate. We found that both groups predict in a similar way and within a similar time frame. In addition, neither group incurred a prediction cost when the target was the most likely alternative, though L2 speakers take longer to shift their attention to the target object when predictions are not met. We argue that this reflects a slowing of lexical access rather than a specific cost of prediction. We only found prediction differences when speech rate was included in the analysis, highlighting the importance of attending to speech rate in studies using the visual world paradigm. Overall, this study supports research showing that both L1 and L2 speakers may make multiple partial predictions about upcoming information rather than predicting one specific lexical candidate while inhibiting less likely lexical candidates.

Audiovisual speech perception of multilingual learners of Japanese

ABSTRACT Due to the complex nature of languages and the way they are used, it is often difficult to research multilinguals because of the considerable variation in the ways their spoken languages may impact their perceptions. For this reason, foreign language education research has largely been focused on English L2 speakers, overlooking how different languages might impact perception in multilingual speakers. Focusing on Japanese as a Second Language (JSL) learners, this research investigated how multilinguals responded to audiovisual cues in Japanese and English. Utilising web-based eye-tracking technology facilitated by WebGazer.js. Participants were asked to complete a novel phonetic distinction task while their gaze behaviour was measured. Contrary to initial theoretical expectations, the findings did not reveal significant mediation by gaze behaviour on the relationship between multilingualism and task performance. However, the study found that when looking at the duration of fixation on the mouth, there's a significant difference between native English speakers and native speakers of Asian languages when listening to English or Japanese. These findings indicate that further research that explores the nuances of gaze behaviour among multilingual learners of non-English languages (such as Japanese) is necessary.

Using administrative early-years education data to identify children at risk of persistent absenteeism

In a post-pandemic world, school absence is an ever-increasing concern for governments, school leaders, and local authorities worldwide. School absence is associated with poor academic outcomes and long-term illness (physical and mental). Absenteeism increases the risk of financial difficulties in adulthood and involvement in the criminal justice system. As a result, the upstream costs to already overstretched public services are crippling. In England, all children are judged by teachers on their “school readiness” over their first year of formal education. We hypothesised that early childhood problems (i.e., not school ready) might be an antecedent of absenteeism. We tested this by investigating the pre-pandemic association between school readiness and persistent absenteeism using a population-linked dataset. Analyses included 62,598 children aged 5-13 years from the Connected Bradford database (spanning academic years 2012/13-2019/20). Special educational needs (SEN) status, English as an Additional Language status, socioeconomic status, sex, and ethnicity were covariates significantly associated with persistent absenteeism. Children who were not “school ready” had increased odds of being persistently absent later in their education journey after controlling for these covariates. School readiness was associated with even greater odds of being persistently absent over two or more years. These findings show: (i) the potential of using existing administrative data to identify children at risk of disengagement from the education system; (ii) absenteeism reflects stark structural inequities. As the rates of absence is still rising, schools can use these data to flag the children who may benefit from early intervention to keep them engaged in school.

Research on a New Model of Cultivating Creative Thinking in the Language Discipline Based on ChatGPT--Taking Project-based Learning of Senior Secondary Language as an Example

This paper This paper discusses a new model of cultivating creative thinking in the language discipline based on ChatGPT, aiming to provide new ideas and methods for language teaching reform. ChatGPT, an advanced natural language processing technology with powerful language comprehension and generation capabilities, provides new means and methods for language teaching. The study presents a case study of the teaching practice of the new model of creative thinking cultivation in language discipline based on ChatGPT through the casestudy method, which provides guidance for the further improvement and optimization of the new model. The model takes ChatGPT as the core, combines the characteristics of language teaching and students' needs, and designs teaching processes and activities suitable for cultivating students' creative thinking. The study emphasizes the importance of changing teaching concepts when using the Humanistic Version of the senior secondary language textbook, as well as incorporating practical language activities to improve students' core literacy through personalized participation and practice.

Social annotation and dialogic teaching and learning in English language arts

AbstractThis research study explores the role of social annotation in supporting dialogic teaching in secondary English language arts. Grounded in Bakhtin's dialogism and building upon research into online discussion, this study describes how a high school English teacher and her students used a digital annotation tool to read and talk about texts. Analyzing student annotations based on discourse features associated with comprehension and high‐level thinking, the study examines the extent to which social annotation supports quality dialogue. Findings highlight the need for open‐ended prompts and teacher scaffolding of online discussions, and authors suggest that dialogue enhances comprehension of texts when students go beyond reporting on others' thoughts and instead share their own ideas, connections, and questions about the text.

The Impact of Teacher and Peer Support on Preservice EFL Teachers' Work Engagement in Their Teaching Practicum: The Mediating Role of Teacher L2 Grit and Language Teaching Enjoyment.

The academic study of work engagement among pre-service teachers during their practicum has been notably sparse, with even fewer investigations examining the influence of environmental stimuli on their engagement levels and the role of individual psychological and emotional factors throughout the practicum. To address this research gap, the present study, informed by the Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) theory, has developed a structural equation model. This model posits teacher support and peer support as stimuli, L2 grit and the foreign language teaching enjoyment as the organism, and the work engagement of pre-service teachers as the behavioral response. A quantitative survey was conducted among 516 preservice EFL teachers to examine the relationships among variables in the model. Findings showed direct predictions of work engagement by teacher support, L2 grit, and FLTE. L2 grit and FLTE sequentially mediated the relationship between teacher and peer support and work engagement. This study identified the factors influencing preservice EFL teachers' work engagement, contributing to a deeper understanding of their psychological characteristics and emotional experiences during the teaching practicum. Additionally, the study offers practical implications for universities and internship schools to enhance preservice teachers' work engagement during the practicum.

Brain markers of subtraction and multiplication skills in childhood: task-based functional connectivity and individualized structural similarity.

Arithmetic, a high-order cognitive ability, show marked individual difference over development. Despite recent advancements in neuroimaging techniques have enabled the identification of brain markers for individual differences in high-order cognitive abilities, it remains largely unknown about the brain markers for arithmetic. This study used a data-driven connectome-based prediction model to identify brain markers of arithmetic skills from arithmetic-state functional connectivity and individualized structural similarity in 132 children aged 8 to 15years. We found that both subtraction-state functional connectivity and individualized SS successfully predicted subtraction and multiplication skills but multiplication-state functional connectivity failed to predict either skill. Among the four successful prediction models, most predictive connections were located in frontal-parietal, default-mode, and secondary visual networks. Further computational lesion analyses revealed the essential structural role of frontal-parietal network in predicting subtraction and the essential functional roles of secondary visual, language, and ventral multimodal networks in predicting multiplication. Finally, a few shared nodes but largely nonoverlapping functional and structural connections were found to predict subtraction and multiplication skills. Altogether, our findings provide new insights into the brain markers of arithmetic skills in children and highlight the importance of studying different connectivity modalities and different arithmetic domains to advance our understanding of children's arithmetic skills.

Amazwi Amasha: New Approaches to Sustainable Poetry Teaching and Learning

At many South African schools poetry is considered to be a “problem genre”, with both teachers and learners viewing it as “difficult” and as a genre that lowers schools’ pass rates in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) (Matric) examination. For this reason, schools tend to shy away from prescribing poetry at the Further Education and Training (FET) level (that is, in Grades 10-12). This article argues that the poems that are prescribed for English First Additional Language (EFAL) classes are difficult for learners to relate to because of having been written in contexts that are temporally and geographically distant from the learners’ life-worlds. In addition, many learners may not understand the particular variety of English that is used in canonical poetry. A new teaching anthology, entitled Amazwi Amasha (New Voices), containing South African post-1994 poetry, is in the process of being compiled to address the problem of learners’ alienation from their prescribed poems. This anthology forms the topic of this article. The theory and methodology underpinning the selection of poems and the design of learning activities to accompany each poem are described, along with the selection of themes that are relevant to young South Africans. The argument concludes that a more multimodal, interactive approach to teaching and learning poetry can help tap into the resources of this capacious and fascinating genre.

Exploring stress encoding cues in English by Korean L2 speakers*

Exploring stress encoding cues in English by Korean L2 speakers*

Students’ language and subject learning attitudes in CLIL secondary education

ABSTRACT This study examines the attitudes of CLIL learners to both language and subject learning in the context of Madrid’s Spanish-English Bilingual Education Program. The research compared 70 students enrolled in two secondary school strands with differing CLIL exposure (high versus low) in terms of their attitudes towards the languages of instruction and their beliefs about how content subjects are taught in the L1 (Spanish) and the L2 (English). Their answers to two open-ended questions from a longer questionnaire were coded using thematic analysis. The results indicate that, whilst participation in either the high- or the low-exposure strand has an effect on students’ preferences regarding the language of instruction, it does not seem to influence their orientation towards the practical value of CLIL. In addition, students tend to attribute similarities and differences in the teaching of subjects in the L1 and the L2 to the content and to the change in language of instruction. These results are further discussed by addressing the amount of CLIL instruction across strands and by contextualising this approach in a primarily monolingual context and mindset, where certain expectations clash with fears and presuppositions concerning the effect on L1 literacy of learning in an additional language.

Educators’ adaptive assessment procedures in teaching English First Additional Language in Grade 6 inclusive classrooms in South Africa

Educators’ adaptive assessment procedures in teaching English First Additional Language in Grade 6 inclusive classrooms in South Africa

Freedom and constraints: English learners’ investment in writing through digital multimodal composing

In the field of teaching English as an Additional Language (EAL), digital multimodal composing (DMC) has been increasingly used as a pedagogical approach to support students' writing. While literature highlights DMC has the potential to encourage EAL learners' investment in writing afforded by digital tools, few studies have explored what contextual factors may shape EAL learners' identities in DMC and how they can impact their investment in English writing. This article reports on a qualitative study that investigates the contextual factors that come into play in EAL students' social identity and investment in English writing through DMC in an academic literacy course in China. Through thematic analysis, this study identifies that students' investment in English writing through the DMC project interacted with two major forces in the literacy classroom setting contextualized in the Chinese education system: freedom and constraints. Under such influence, students took on two conflicting identities: free composers and disciplined language learners. Further, I argue that they experienced tensions in these identities. However, the negotiation of the tensions tended to be productive in terms of students’ investment in English writing, which ultimately fostered an enriched understanding of writing.

Electrophysiology in the language classroom

Using electrophysiological methods, Second Language Acquisition researchers have uncovered significant information about the neural correlates of late-learned additional language (L2) processing. An overarching question in much of this research is whether L2 learners show ‘nativelike’ event-related potential (ERP) patterns for grammar and semantic processing. The conclusions from early work on this question indicated that L2 ERP patterns can change qualitatively over time, for example as L2 proficiency increases, and that L2 learners do tend to show ‘nativelike’ ERP responses for some linguistic structures, particularly at higher proficiency. Certainly, whether L2 learners can achieve native speaker-like processing and behaviour has implications for the L2 classroom. This paper presents a review of L2 ERP individual differences research on grammar and semantic processing and highlights implications for L2 research and teaching. We focus the review on recent work that has examined individual differences in L2 ERPs, an area of research that may be especially fruitful for advancing knowledge of L2 neurocognition in classroom learners.

Learning and using multiple languages: Experiences of adults with ADHD

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impacts many areas of a person's life. So far little is known on how ADHD affects the learning and usage of additional languages. The present study investigates what potential challenges and benefits adults with ADHD experience in second language (L2) learning, and what strategies they have developed to offset ADHD-related differences in cognition and behaviour. As part of a larger questionnaire, 59 participants with ADHD provided written responses, answering questions on how ADHD has influenced their learning and use of multiple languages. After a multiple-step classification process, three overarching topics were identified: (1) the effects of cognition on language learning and use; (2) how different language components and language modalities are affected by ADHD; and (3) what language learning strategies adults with ADHD apply. In our analysis, we present authentic quotes from individuals with ADHD and place them into the larger context of research on neurodivergence and L2 acquisition. Our results highlight the great heterogeneity in learning experiences and pathways in adults with ADHD. Interestingly, many respondents embrace their neurodiversity and develop individual strategies to enhance L2 proficiency. Our research aims to contribute to a better understanding of multilingualism within neurodiverse populations.

Effective practice in EAL education: enacting distributed school leadership

ABSTRACT This article reports on research conducted in New South Wales, Australia, which investigated why students from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds in some schools achieve consistently higher levels of educational growth than students in other schools with similar demographics. The purpose of this research was to learn more about high growth schools, and the factors that contributed to their students’ educational success. Based on analysis of data from six high growth schools, the article argues that the intersecting elements of building constructive relationships within and between staff and students; of valuing expertise in English as an Additional Language (EAL) education; building teacher professional knowledge; and promoting systematic school-wide implementation of EAL pedagogical principles were pivotal to students’ successful educational outcomes. However, it also argues that the effective implementation of these factors is dependent on the nature and quality of leadership in the schools – a leadership that recognises and values these factors in school-wide programs and provides space and support for their implementation.

Helping mentors address scientific communication in STEM research training helps their mentees stay the course

BackgroundScientific communication (SC) has important social-cognitive, behavioral, and career-related benefits for emerging researchers, but both mentors and mentees find development of SC skills challenging. Whether training mentors to effectively mentor development of SC skills could have a meaningful impact on mentees was not clear. The Scientific Communication Advances Research Excellence (SCOARE) project has conducted faculty training workshops in techniques for mentoring SC skills since 2018. To study indirect workshop effects of mentors’ attendance at the SCOARE workshop on their matched PhD and postdoctoral mentees (N = 477), we surveyed mentees before and 6 months after their mentors attended and measured their social-psychological and behavioral outcomes. To examine the effectiveness of the workshop and to explore whether workshop effects vary based on mentee demographic characteristics, including home language variety (speaker of standardized English [STE], non-standardized English [NSTE], or another language [L2]), we conducted multilevel models.ResultsAfter adjusting baseline scores, mentees of mentors who attended SCOARE workshops (W +) were more engaged in speaking activities (β =0 .30, p = 0.016), had higher science identity (β = 0.20, p = 0.048), and were less likely to reconsider their career due to SC skills (β = – 0.39, p = 0.004) than mentees in the W– group. Across demographic groups, mentees of mentors who attended SCOARE workshops showed similar improvements in SC outcomes. Postdoctoral mentees, compared to doctoral mentees, had higher science identity and lower intention to pursue a non-research-intensive career. Comparing mentees of the 3 categories of home language variety, both the NSTE and L2 groups, compared to the STE group, were more likely to reconsider their careers due to SC skills and had a higher intention to pursue non-research-intensive careers both at baseline and post-workshop, suggesting the possibility of language background as a barrier to mentee career progression.ConclusionMentor training for SC skill development can improve social-psychological and behavioral outcomes for mentees, including science identity, frequency of speaking, and reconsideration of research careers due to concerns about SC.

You might want to tone down your advice: An experimental investigation of the speech act of advice in French

Abstract We present experimental results from a web-based study on the speech act of giving advice in French. 86 L1 speakers of French had to continue short and written fictitious interactions we created, in which we manipulated the adviser’s level of experience (explicitly experienced, explicitly inexperienced, or no precision) and the hierarchical relationship between adviser and advisee (top-down, bottom-up, and equals). Participants had to choose between four types of continuations, from indirect strategies to direct prototypical imperative strategies, with variations of the face-threatening value in some continuations, as per Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory. Main results from Bayesian regression analyses indicate an overall preference for indirect strategies in French, but also suggest influences from the level of experience and hierarchical relationship. These results will allow for a better understanding of advice as a speech act and contribute to a growing body of work in experimental pragmatics.

Perceptual Benefits of Linguistic Diversity and Language Background: Evidence from Auditory Free Classification of English Dialect Accents and Asian-Accented English

Non-linguistic factors leave a distinct thumbprint on our speech production that is perceptible to listeners. A steadily growing line of research demonstrates that listeners can perceive a contrast between native and non-native (L2) speakers based on accents and further classify these speakers according to dialectal variation, even when they are not native speakers of a language. Most of these studies have focused on dialectal variation within US English speakers, a combination of US and International English dialects, or L2 speakers representing a wide range of languages. Most have also featured listeners who are monolingual native speakers of the target language coming from a homogenous background, or a contrast between these and a targeted set of L2 speakers. We therefore lack knowledge of how exposure to, or familiarity with, diverse accents and languages, or specific native language competence of the native language of L2 speakers, can guide listeners’ accent perception and categorization. In this research, we employed a free classification task, presenting listeners with speech samples of native speakers with accents representing multiple English dialects, and L2 speakers of nine Asian languages across three geographic regions speaking Asian-accented English. There were six groups of listeners: monolingual US English listeners in a diverse linguistic context, monolingual US English listeners in a homogeneous linguistic context, native speakers of a non-Asian language and English (bilinguals), and native speakers of each of the three target Asian language groups who are L2 speakers of English. The results reveal that nearly all listeners are sensitive to accents capturing native/L2 contrasts and dialectal variation in English. While regular exposure to a diversity of accents results in increased classification accuracy, classification of Asian L2-accented English speakers is best performed when there is alignment of similar language family and geographic area, as demonstrated by South Asian listeners.

Intermodal Bilinguals: Acquisition of Sign Language as L1 and Written Language as L2

Based on a bibliographical review and re-readings of different authors, we aim to bring visibility to the discussion regarding inter modal bilingualism and, consequently, to present a reflection on the acquisition of the first and second languages (L1 and L2) by deaf children. We aim to highlight the importance of the first language, in this case, sign language, as a means for developing competence in the second language, the oral language, in its written modality. We divided the article into an explanation of the contact of deaf children with sign language (SL) as their first language. It discusses the development of oral language (OL) as the second language: first addressing writing and then moving on to issues related to reading. Finally, it reflects on using visual resources and how these visual modes can enhance the second language teaching and learning process for deaf children.

ZOLTÁN DÖRNYEI’S IMPACT ON LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND EDUCATION STUDIES: A SCOPUS-BASED BIBLIOMETRIC STUDY (1991-2023)

Previous literature reviews and bibliometric studies have paid much attention to the scientific outputs of Zoltán Dörnyei, a leading figure in the field of second language acquisition and education. However, little attention has been paid to his scholarly impact. This study aims to analyze all publications citing his 87 works in Scopus. Bibliometrix, a comprehensive bibliometric tool, was run to analyze 7,621 documents published in 1,970 sources by 9,226 authors of 2,652 institutions across 99 countries between 1991 and 2023. The analyses include the publication trend, research contributors, including authors, document elements including keywords, collaboration networks of research contributors, shared references, and frequently used keywords. Although most documents were written in English in the fields of social sciences as well as arts and humanities, his impact could be observed across other subject areas and languages. Further discussion elaborated on four major themes of the publications, including motivation, L2 motivational self-system, language learning, and positive psychology. This study could provide researchers and educators with valuable insights into understanding and improving language acquisition processes based on Dörnyei’s incalculable intellectual contribution. As this study focused on quantitative citation analysis, future research on how Dörnyei’s works were cited could provide deeper insights into his impact.