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Predicting English word concreteness through its multidimensional perceptual and action strength norms
No full textMany datasets resulting from participant ratings for word norms and also concreteness ratios are available. However, the concreteness information of infrequent words and non-words is rare. This work aims to propose a model for estimating the concreteness of infrequent and new lexicons. Here, we used Lancaster sensory-motor word norms to predict the word concreteness ratios of an English word dataset. After removing the missing values, we employed a stepwise multiple linear regression (SW-MLR) procedure for choosing an optimum number of norms to develop a predictive multiple regression model. Finally, we validate our model using 10-fold cross-validation. The final model could predict concreteness by Residual Mean Standard Error equal to 0.723 and R-Square of 0.515. Also, our results showed that all 11 variables of this dataset except the Head-mouth parameter are useful predictors. In conclusion, as a growing demand to know the concreteness values of non-words and also infrequent words is evident, our statistical method can pave the way for controlled experiments when choosing non-words as a stimulus is critical
Review of New Directions in Second Language Pragmatics
No full textNew Directions in Second Language Pragmatics edited by J. César Félix-Brasdefer and Rachel L. Shively, Berlin/Boston, 2021, 342 pp., €129 (Hardcover). ISBN 9783110721638
“I start to doubt myself when I am watching this”: Moments of (self)-reflexivity in a virtual exchange project between China and Finland
No full textAlthough virtual exchange has been widely discussed during the (post-)pandemic era, how students do (self-)reflexivity in this context has yet to be fully explored. This study examines interviews with Chinese and Finnish university students about how they reflect on their virtual exchanges by presenting them with videoclips of their encounters. Grounded in Foucault’s (1988) technologies of the self and Clark and Dervin’s (2014) multidimensions of (self-)reflexivity, the study examines how (self-)reflexivity is co-constructed by individuals, the media and researchers (e.g., ways of doing (self-)reflexivity adopted by students). Further, we investigate how they conceptualize interculturality based on their own (self-)reflexivity. Recommendations for (online) intercultural education are given based on the findings, inviting scholars and researchers to rethink and unthink the notion of (self-)reflexivity in intercultural education
Critical literacy in the language classroom: Possibilities for intercultural learning through symbolic competence
No full textThis article provides a theoretical exploration of the connections between critical literacy and symbolic competence. More specifically, we argue that critical literacy can be utilised as an approach to develop symbolic competence, and, by extension, encourage intercultural learning. Our interest is in teasing this out through a synthesis of ways of approaching intercultural learning through critical literacy. Drawing on four major critical literacy models, the article attempts to show how critical literacy can address some of the challenges identified within the field of intercultural learning over the last few decades, particularly related to the increasingly complex and super-diverse societies people are currently navigating. The article concludes with some specific pedagogical implications for using critical literacy in the language classroom to foster the type of intercultural learning which takes into account the diversity between and within cultures and the role of meaning-making in the creation and re-creation of cultures
Dissonance and self-reflections: Decentering assumptions to foster learners’ cognitive flexibility
No full textThe process of developing intercultural competence requires students to decenter from their existing frames of interpretation. Dissonance creates opportunities to question assumptions by challenging the primacy of perspectives, fostering skills to grapple with new knowledge and the ability to think more dialectically about the world. The present study examines how reflecting on dissonance engages skills and dispositions that support the development of cognitive flexibility, the ability to switch between emic and etic perspectives. In an advanced French course focused on marketing and communication, embodiments of economic patriotism in advertising and marketing practices in France aimed to disrupt and destabilize assumptions about the impact and role of globalization on local product consumption and consumer behavior. The analysis of students’ self-reflections collected in two sections of the course shows that dissonance acted as a sensitizing device, signaling to students the limits of their own perspectives. The juxtaposition of multiple perspectives through the angle of marketing prompted reinterpretation, questioning, and awareness of the subjectivities of interpretation, fostering dialectical thinking skills. Imagination, interest, and curiosity were key in sustaining the decentering process and developing a readiness for cognitive flexibility
Prioritizing and addressing perceived listening challenges of IELTS test takers in Bangladesh
No full textListening comprehension is an essential part of L2 learning. However, listening skills are neither taught nor assessed in the mainstream secondary and higher secondary public exams in Bangladesh. As a result, higher secondary students do not face a test of their listening skills until they attempt an IELTS test. For this reason, the listening test for the IELTS is challenging for post-higher secondary students. The purpose of this study is to explore the difficulties in the IELTS listening test perceived by Bangladeshi test takers; how test takers are prepared for the test and how experienced test takers report on the preparation for the test. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been adopted for the research. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six IELTS preparatory-course trainers. In addition, five experienced IELTS test takers were also interviewed who scored a band score of 7.0 or above. All the participants were selected through purposive sampling. As a part of the quantitative research approach, 224 participants from the IELTS preparatory course were surveyed. The findings show that the primary challenge for the test takers is their inability to recognize known words as well as new vocabulary while listening to the audio in the IELTS test. The findings of the study may help IELTS trainers assist the potential test takers to deal with the difficulties of the IELTS listening test
Which vocabulary learning strategies are important and useful for Japanese university students? A text-mining approach
No full textA growing body of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) studies focuses on accumulating empirical evidence on the relationship between frequency of VLS use and vocabulary acquisition by using the frequency-based measures of VLSs. Our study by contrast, examined which VLSs are perceived as important and useful, and how they are employed by Japanese university students learning English as a foreign language (N = 40). Further, we investigated whether university students’ perceptions and use of strategies vary between higher- (n = 16) and lower-proficiency groups (n = 24). To this end, we used the KH Coder software and produced co-occurrence networks to categorize the words extracted from the results of an open-ended questionnaire. The results revealed that Japanese university students perceived cognitive strategies related to word form, sound, association learning, and metacognitive strategies as important and useful, and employed them frequently. Results from the two proficiency groups showed that while the higher-proficiency group perceived the importance of metacognitive strategies, these tendencies were not observed in the lower-proficiency group. Given the possibility that learners’ proficiency influences the use of VLSs in the vocabulary learning process, considerations and suggestions for future VLSs studies and teaching are discussed
Identity negotiations of a Mexican transnational in the Rio Grande Valley: Crossing the border daily
No full textThis narrative case study examines the cultural affiliations of one transnational US-born Mexican American college student, and her various intersecting veins of identity. The aim was to capture the bordered existence in the many criteria of her being. Her linguistic identity, pop culture identity, spiritual identity, as well as her general cultural affiliations are examined as intersecting rays of influence. Utilizing Anzaldúa’s (2012) bordered identity as theoretical grounding for her partitioned selves, along with Bakhtin’s (1986) notion of cultural and linguistic dialogue, we analyzed the complexities in this one bicultural, bilingual young woman venturing into adulthood. This study sheds light on the experiences and identifications of transnational young people living on the US-Mexico border. In particular, the participant seemed to continuously challenge fixed notions of identity, which contest current academic labels and frameworks that scholars have used to examine the identity of transnational students
Review of Global Citizenship Education in Praxis: Pathways for Schools
No full textReview of Schultz, A. & Blom, M. (Eds.) (2023). Global Citizenship Education in Praxis: Pathways for Schools. Multilingual Matters
Utilizing digitally mediated warm-up activities for developing intercultural literacy in young EFL students: An exploratory study
No full textAccording to recent research, incorporating intercultural elements into digital learning resources used in English-language activities is considered one of the most efficacious approaches for improving intercultural literacy among young learners. However, there is limited knowledge available regarding the utilization of digital materials in developing intercultural literacy during lead-in phrases for young learners. The present study aims to fill this gap by investigating how technology can be used to create intercultural literacy among young EFL students in typical Vietnamese international elementary schools during EFL warm-up activities. This study was carried out in three stages: (1) an informal interview conducted by the researcher with two EFL teachers from two different internal schools about their teaching contexts and knowledge of intercultural literacy; (2) sixteen observations of English lessons over a semester using warm-up activities to enhance young learners’ intercultural literacy (n=65), and (3) in-depth interviews with the same two teachers. The teachers’ interactionally oriented narratives derived from the interviews and the intervened-lesson observations in their classrooms were thematized to specify the types of warm-up activities using digital resources and their functions on activating young learners’ prior knowledge of intercultural features. Meanwhile, the observation checklist was employed to determine whether these embedded features had made changes to the teachers’ teaching methodology. The paper also discussed the implications for enhancing EFL young learners’ intercultural literacy via digital learning paths informed by the teacher’s intercultural language communicative teaching approach