Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching
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Review of English language proficiency assessments for young learners; Editors: Mikyung Kim Wolf, Yuko Goto Butler; Publisher: Routledge, 2017; ISBN: 9781138940369; Pages: 295
Full text linkLanguage assessment has recently attracted a great deal of attention of both researchers and practitioners, which is evidenced, among other things, by a number of well-known monographs (Brown & Abeywickrama, 2010; Coombe et al., 2012; Gordon & Rajagopalan, 2016; Gottlieb, 2006; Komorowska, 2002; Tsagari & Banerjee, 2016, to name just a few), as well as a proliferation of journals oriented towards language testing and assessment (e.g., Language Testing, Assessing Writing, Language Assessment Quarterly, International Journal of Language Testing and Assessment, and Educational Assessment). In recent years, great popularity of computers and easy access to the Internet have made it possible to move testing to a new dimension, through enabling Web-based testing (delivered via the internet) as well as computer-adaptive testing (see Krajka, 2016; Malec, 2018; Marczak et al., 2016). The use of computers has enhanced the assessment of not only target language skills and subsystems, which could be easily predicted, but also more complex constructs, such as intercultural communicative competence (Marczak & Krajka, 2014; Wilczyńska et al., 2019). Formative assessment, often referred to as assessment for learning (Black et al., 2003), dynamic assessment (Shohamy, 2015) or alternative assessment (Alismail & McGuire, 2015; Tedesco et al., 2014) is redefining the way school teachers think about assessment, moving them away from testing towards more comprehensive ways of evaluation. At the same time, even though a great number of publications have appeared on teaching young learners, also with a focus on assessment, this does not necessarily translate into widespread awareness of these assessment issues among teachers. The question might arise, then, whether there is a need for a new publication dealing with the complex nature of language assessment, and if yes, what kind of reader to aim at, how to bridge the gap between what is available and what might be desired, and how to structure it to respond to the changing educational reality
Editorial
Full text linkThe present issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching is the last in the 2021 volume and concludes the eleventh year of the existence of the journal. Looking back, it has been an exceptionally good year for SSLLT. First, we have been receiving a constantly increasing number of submissions and, what is of paramount importance for any journal, most of these submissions have been of very high quality. Second, we are very happy with the scope and quality of the papers that have been published, including those comprising the special issue on teaching English reading and writing to young learners, which was guest-edited by Barry Lee Reynolds and Mark Feng Teng. Third, and perhaps most importantly, not only has SSLLT been finally indexed in the Web od Science, but it is also listed among the 20 best journals in linguistics (18/193), with the impact factor of 3.036 (Q1) (JCR). Achieving this status has been a long and arduous process but at the same time an extremely rewarding journey. Obviously, this undeniable success would not have been possible without all of those who have lent their support to the development of SSLLT from the get-go. My sincere thanks go to Associate Editors, all the guest editors of special issues, members of the Editorial Board, the many hundreds of reviewers and, first and foremost, to all the amazing authors who have chosen SSLLT as a venue for their work. I can assure all of you that we will not be resting on our laurels and will do everything in our power to keep up the good work to further enhance the position of SSLLT in the field. We are also hoping to be able to celebrate its success with a face-to-face conference to be held in Kalisz, Poland in October 2022. We are currently working on the call for papers and we are planning to send it out in the next month or so
Foreign language education in rural schools: Struggles and initiatives among generalist teachers teaching English in Mexico
Full text linkIn many countries, English as a foreign/second language (L2) teaching has become compulsory in urban and rural public schools. In rural areas, the challenges for the implementation of this state-sanctioned policy have been explored among L2 teaching specialists. However, this mixed-methods study considered a different teacher group and examined the struggles and initiatives of generalist teachers who are obligated to teach English in rural schools. To this end, data were collected from 115 teachers in 17 rural secondary schools in the Southeast of Mexico. First, the participants completed a survey with closed-ended questions that elicited information about teacher education, teaching experience and knowledge of the rural school system. Then, a subsample of participants completed an individual thematized semi-structured interview. They were selected on the basis of L2 teacher education involvement. In the survey data, response patterns were identified using frequency analyses. The interview data were analyzed using categorical aggregation. The data revealed that the generalist teachers struggle with L2 professionalization, sociocultural and instructional challenges. Nonetheless, only few participants have been engaged in L2 teacher education which could help them overcome these challenges. Instead, they rely upon limited strategies to counteract the day-to-day challenges at the expense of effective L2 teaching practices
Exploring learners’ understanding of technical vocabulary in Traditional Chinese Medicine
Full text linkThis study explores English for specific purposes learners’ understanding of technical words in a previously-developed technical word list in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The principal aim was to estimate what kind of technical terms pose problems to TCM learners and might therefore merit special attention in instruction. Of particular interest was the question whether there is a divergence in the understanding of technical vocabulary in TCM between Chinese and Western background learners. To achieve these aims, a combination of word association tasks and retrospective interviews was implemented with 11 Chinese and 10 Western background TCM learners. The data showed that both Chinese and Western learners encountered certain difficulties in understanding technical vocabulary in their study. However, their sources of difficulty were different. Comparisons of typical word associations between Chinese and Western learners indicated that there was a degree of divergence in the way these two participant groups understood TCM terms
Review of Understanding formulaic language: A second language acquisition perspective; Editors: Anna Siyanova-Chanturia, Ana Pellicer-Sánchez; Publisher: Routledge, 2019; ISBN: 9781138634978; Pages: 278
Full text linkThe discussion of mechanisms enhancing the acquisition of formulaic language (FL) has been flourishing in recent decades, progressing from describing the concept to revealing its use in various registers: spoken, written, and hybrid. With each domain of linguistics approaching FL in a distinct way, the book Understanding Formulaic Language: A Second Language Acquisition Perspective by Anna Siyanova-Chanturia and Ana Pellicer-Sánchez presents a more inclusive view of recent research contributions emerging from different fields, in addition to pointing to critical gaps that need to be addressed in future research. The appeal of the book is that it covers a broad range of topics related to FL, from theoretical perspectives to practical applications. This breadth of coverage is the first effort to foster mutual understanding among linguists and to emphasize its connection with second language acquisition (SLA)
Editorial
Full text linkIt is my immense pleasure to share with you the first 2021 issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. It brings together five papers reporting the findings of empirical studies as well as two reviews of very recent publications. The issue opens with the contribution by Mariusz Kruk, Mirosław Pawlak, and Joanna Zawodniak, who investigate changes in the levels of boredom experienced by 13 Polish university students majoring in English during four EFL classes as well as factors responsible for such fluctuations. Multiple sources of data were applied which included boredom-grids, where participants indicated the intensity of this negative emotion on a 7-point Likert scale at 5-minute intervals, class evaluation forms, narratives, semi-structured interviews with four students after each class, and lesson plans. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis demonstrated that boredom was indeed subject to between- and within-class variation, which resulted from various constellations of variables, with repetitiveness, monotony and predictability playing a key role. In the second paper, Xiaowan Yang and Mark Wyatt report a qualitative case study which examined teachers’ beliefs about learners’ motivation and their own motivational practices, and the actions they actually took in this respect in the classroom in the context of teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in China. The analysis of the data collected from three university-level teachers of business English by means of pre-observation interviews, in-class observations and stimulated recall interviews yielded evidence for tensions between participants’ cognitions and practices they engaged in, showing that such mismatches negatively affect their self-determination. The existence of this cognitive disharmony is attributed to scarce opportunities for professional development, outdated knowledge about motivation and cultural influences. The theme of ESP also features in the following paper by Cailing Lu, Frank Boers and Averil Coxhead, who explored understanding of technical terms included in a list of technical words related to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) with the aim of determining which of these terms should be emphasized during instruction. The requisite data were collected by means of a word association task, drawing on Read’s (1998) Word Association Test, as well as retrospective interviews from 21 BA students in China and New Zealand. The analysis showed that although the students manifested good understanding of the targeted items, especially high-frequency ones, some Chinese participants experienced difficulty understanding mid- and low-frequency words. By contrast, the Western learners mainly struggled with Chinese loan words, but their comprehension was not impacted by cultural differences. In the fourth paper, Bryła-Cruz reports the findings of a study which looked into the role of gender in the perception of English segments by Polish learners of English as a foreign language. The data were collected from 40 male and 40 female secondary school students who were asked to indicate the sound they heard in 20 sentences containing minimal pairs. The differences between males and females failed to reach statistical significance for most targeted segments and while the hierarchy of perceptual difficulty was not identical for both groups, it was similar, which suggests that differences between the sound systems of the first and second language might trump the mediating role of gender. In the final paper, Jesús Izquierdo, Silvia Patricia Aquino Zúñiga, and Verónica García Martínez shift the focus to the context of foreign language education in rural schools in southeast Mexico, zooming in on the challenges faced by generalist teachers, or non-language specialists, tasked with the job of teaching English. The data were collected by means of questionnaires administered to 155 such teachers in 17 schools and semi-structured interviews with those who manifested the greatest involvement in professional development. Using frequency analysis and categorical aggregation, the researchers show that generalist teachers are confronted with a wide array of problems related to their professional preparation, instructional techniques used as well as the sociocultural realities of L2 instruction in rural communities. In addition, only a few teachers are prepared to develop professionally, relying instead on limited strategies that help them combat the challenges they encounter. The issue also includes two book reviews by Jarosław Krajka and Mirosław Pawlak. The first book deals with the assessment of English proficiency among young learners while the second is devoted to research into learning and teacher psychology from the perspective of complex dynamic systems theory (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2007). I am hopeful that all the contributions will provide food for thought to our readers and inspire them to further disentangle the intricacies of second language learning and teaching
Review of Teacher development for immersion and content-based instruction; Editors: Laurent Cammarata, T.J. Ó Ceallaigh; Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2018; ISBN: 97890272074877; Pages: 201
Full text linkSearching for ways to expand the spectrum of methods of teaching and learning foreign languages triggers valuable initiatives and offers support for both students and teachers. Programs such as French immersion in Canada, content-based instruction (CBI), and content and language integrated learning (CLIL) have become popular across the world (Harrop, 2012), which is rapidly becoming a global village where the role of languages is crucial. In an integrated world, teaching content through language is viewed as a modern form of educational delivery; therefore, as the editors emphasize “teacher preparation and professional development endeavors are key drivers of successful I/B and CBI programs across a variety of models” (p. 3). Teacher Development for Immersion and Content-Based Instruction is a key contribution to the field, which offers valuable insights into the complexity of teacher preparation as well as further professional development in the case of immersion/bilingual contexts
Editorial: Introduction to the special issue on teaching English reading and writing to young learners
Full text linkWe aimed for this special issue to offer up empirically supported advice to teachers for tackling some of the challenges in teaching reading and writing to young English as a second (L2) or foreign language (FL) learners. These challenges teachers face when providing instruction to young learners include cognitive development, motivation, attention, strategy use, and assessment (Nunan, 2011). It is now well understood that the teaching of reading and writing to young learners can no longer be equated with the teaching of adult learners (Cameron, 2001). In terms of cognitive development, language learners need to go through significant developmental changes in their learning journey from infancy to adulthood (Richardson, 2019). These differences in language learners’ cognitive development call for a need to design language learning tasks and materials that can fit the developmental stages of learners (Teng, 2020a). Language learner motivation can decline over time due to a lack of clarity in the goals of language learning and potential feelings that effort invested in learning the language has not paid off (Linse & Nunan, 2006). Furthermore, as young learners tend to have short attention spans, activities that can maintain their motivation and involvement are essential (Fenyvesi, 2020). Language learning strategy researchers have focused their attention on adult learners; however, we believe they should begin considering young learners’ language use and learning preferences, as this knowledge could help inform teachers’ instruction (Plonsky, 2019). To provide proper instruction, an educator of young learners must understand these needs. This requires the construction of appropriate language assessment tools, which will allow teachers to gauge learners’ strengths and weaknesses; doing so can further facilitate teacher scaffolding and other forms of feedback (Ma & Bui, this issue). Despite the acknowledged impact that these issues have on the teaching of reading and writing to young learners, we are still lacking in empirical evidence to support many creative and pedagogical decisions made in the young learner classroom (Cameron & McKay, 2010). Our intention in this special issue was to further focus language researchers’ attention on the young learner classroom and to encourage a rethinking of classroom practices for teaching reading and writing
Creative writing for publication: An action research study of motivation, engagement, and language development in Argentinian secondary schools
Full text linkThere has been much research on the connections between second language (L2) writing and learner motivation. However, few studies have focused on contexts in which L2 learning is mandatory, rather than elective. This technical action research-based study evaluated a project in which teenage learners in Argentina were engaged in creative writing tasks, with the goal of including their final written pieces in a formal publication. Through focus group interviews and group discussions, it was found that the project had increased the motivation not only of the learners, but also of the teachers. Further, the study highlights the importance of making such writing tasks student-centered, and calls attention to the role played by the teachers in motivating and engaging students. The study suggests that effort should be made to develop more initiatives in formal education settings in order to motivate and engage learners involved in mandatory language study
Exploring the importance of vocabulary for English as an additional language learners’ reading comprehension
Full text linkThis exploratory study represents an attempt to investigate the factors that may affect the reading comprehension abilities of English as an additional language (EAL) learners. For this study, we examined a participant group of 31 (25 EAL and 6 first language English) learners studying at an international school in Japan. We assessed the participants according to four factors shown to influence reading comprehension: vocabulary knowledge, word decoding skills, reading fluency, and general linguistic ability. Our results show that differences in vocabulary knowledge show more variance in reading comprehension scores than the other factors examined in this study, highlighting the importance of vocabulary knowledge for reading comprehension. However, other factors such as reading fluency and general linguistic knowledge are also shown to be moderate to strong predictors of reading comprehension. Based on these results, we suggest that EAL learners need targeted language support to enhance academic text comprehension