Published by De Gruyter Mouton

Volume 13 Issue 6

Issue of Applied Linguistics Review

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Contents
Journal Overview

Publicly Available November 3, 2022

Frontmatter

Page range: i-iv

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Research Articles

November 4, 2022

Choreographing linguistic landscapes in Singapore

Tong King Lee

Page range: 949-981

Abstract

This paper proposes the notion of choreographed multilingualism to describe the top-down dimension of Singapore's linguistic landscape. Using a range of examples of official multilingual discourse, including public signage, exhibition artefacts, and print texts, it identifies a quadrilingual constellation that reiterates across different modalities, stabilizing into a visual-spatial formula. As a semiotic feature, the quadrilingual formula is an indexical that calls up the trope of neat multilingualism, whereby the four official languages of Singapore (English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil) are construed in a relation of equilibrium and equitability, while nonofficial/nonstandard languages, language varieties, and Chinese dialects are relegated to oblivion. The trope of neat multilingualism in turn evokes a larger sociolinguistic ambiance shaped by the official language policy and the language education system in Singapore. The paper theorises this situation in respect of Michel de Certeau's spatial theory, arguing that official discourses in Singapore corroborate the multilingual “place” produced by technologies of choreography.

September 21, 2020

“Do you understand (me)?” negotiating mutual understanding by using gaze and environmentally coupled gestures between two deaf signing participants

Nina Sivunen, Elina Tapio

Page range: 983-1004

Abstract

In this paper we explore the use of multimodal and multilingual semiotic resources in interactions between two deaf signing participants, a researcher and an asylum seeker. The focus is on the use of gaze and environmentally coupled gestures. Drawing on multimodal analysis and linguistic ethnography, we demonstrate how gaze and environmentally coupled gestures are effective semiotic resources for reaching mutual understanding. The study provides insight into the challenges and opportunities (deaf) asylum seekers, researchers, and employees of reception centres or the state may encounter because of the asymmetrical language competencies. Our concern is that such asymmetrical situations may be created and maintained by ignoring visual and embodied resources in interaction and, in the case of deaf asylum seekers, by unrealistic expectations towards conventionalized forms of international sign.

November 4, 2022

Written corrective feedback, learner-internal cognitive processes, and the acquisition of regular past tense by Chinese L2 learners of English

Jinshi Shao, Yongcan Liu

Page range: 1005-1028

Abstract

This article reports on a mixed methods study that investigated the extent to which written corrective feedback (WCF) contributes to L2 learners’ acquisition of regular past tense in English and the cognitive processes that underpin the corrective feedback provided. The study adopted a pretest-posttest-delayed posttest design and involved 113 intermediate-level Chinese learners of English who were assigned to four conditions: indirect WCF, direct WCF, metalinguistic WCF, and control. A picture description task and a grammaticality judgement test were used to measure gains in the target structure. To explore how learners process feedback, nine learners, three from each treatment group, were selected to produce think aloud protocols. The study found that all three types of WCF had a positive effect on the picture description task, though none of them had a clear impact on the grammaticality judgement test. In addition, indirect WCF was found to have an advantage over direct and metalinguistic WCF on the delayed posttest, when compared to the control group. Think aloud data suggested that indirect WCF induced deeper cognitive processes than the other two kinds of feedback, which may account for the superiority of indirect WCF.

November 4, 2022

Transfer of learning, fear of failure, procrastination, and self-efficacy in learning English: Any evidence from the arts?

Min-Chen Tseng

Page range: 1029-1053

Abstract

This study examined the potential of “transfer of learning” for arts students and the relationships among students’ fear of failure, procrastination, and self-efficacy when learning English. Two studies were conducted; in the first study, we investigated transfer of learning for arts students between their majors and the English language. In Study 2, we explored the influence of the fear of failure, procrastination, and self-efficacy on students’ English proficiency levels. We implemented a structural equation model (SEM) to ascertain whether the fear of failure and procrastination played a mediating role between students’ self-efficacy and English proficiency levels. The participants consisted of 501 students majoring in arts. The research tools included the online General English Proficiency Test and a questionnaire. The results indicated that both hugging and bridging strategies were significantly correlated with students’ English language achievements. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that hugging strategies, such as setting expectations, matching, simulating, modeling, and practicing problem-based learning, were positive predictors. The SEM results indicated that self-efficacy had a negative effect on students’ procrastination, and both the fear of failure and procrastination played mediating roles between students’ self-efficacy and English language achievement.

November 4, 2022

What does translanguaging-for-equity really involve? An interactional analysis of a 9th grade English class

Anna Mendoza

Page range: 1055-1075

Abstract

While much research on translanguaging is in bilingual and heritage language classrooms, it is under-researched in K-12 English-medium education. To better understand translanguaging in this context, this study applied interactional sociolinguistics, including analytical categories adapted from Conversation-for-Learning (Kasper and Kim, 2015; Kim, 2019), to a ninth grade English class in Honolulu with students from diverse linguistic backgrounds. The study examined interactional sequences as students did literary analysis of novels and poetry over 13 weeks. These sequences involved appropriation of others’ lexical phrases, collaborative word searches, miscommunication repair, and knowledge checks. Translanguaging, when it occurred, indicated joint meaning-making across linguistic asymmetries, and was not only a means of thinking aloud using an integrated language repertoire, but a form of helping peers as students signaled to each other to adopt language, teach them something, or work through a problem together, creating opportunities to learn. These findings suggest that equity hinges not only on allowing students to learn using their whole linguistic repertoires but on social and ethical dispositions made apparent through interactional analyses.

Open Access November 4, 2022

Affiliation and negative assessments in peer observation feedback for foreign language teachers professional development

Jaume Batlle, Paul Seedhouse

Page range: 1077-1101

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Abstract

The growing use of peer observation in teacher professional development has created an interest in understanding how it is carried out and what the benefits are. Post-observation feedback is a crucial component of peer observation practices. This study seeks to contribute to a better understanding of peer observation feedback in foreign language teacher’s professional development. Adopting a conversation analysis perspective, we aim to establish how the interactional infrastructure is developed between observers and observees after a negative assessment during peer observation feedback. The results show that, when the observer is assessing a specific teaching action negatively and the observee expresses alignment with the observer’s position, the observer adopts an affiliative stance through the use of his/her epistemic expertise in two ways: either putting his/her self in the shoes of the observee or, in other cases, expressing the affiliative stance by appealing to the epistemic community to which they both belong.

Open Access November 4, 2022

Language policy in the internationalisation of Higher Education in Anglophone countries: The interplay between language policy as ‘text’, ‘discourse’ and ‘practice’

Florence Bonacina-Pugh, Elisabeth Barakos, Qi Chen

Page range: 1103-1125

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Abstract

In order to better compete in an increasing neoliberalised education system, many Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have developed an internationalisation strategy that aims at incorporating an intercultural and global dimension into curricula and learning environments for all. This internationalisation agenda raises important language policy issues that are often side-lined in the UK and other Anglophone countries where an English monolingual ethos prevails. Centrally, the question arises indeed as to whether internationalisation processes have an impact on HEIs’ language policies in Anglophone countries. This paper takes the case of a Russell Group University in the UK and focuses on two masters programmes that attract annually a ‘multilingual elite’ (Barakos and Selleck 2019). It examines the institution’s language policy adopted at the levels of ‘texts’, ‘discourses’ and ‘practices’ (Bonacina-Pugh 2012), using a critical discourse analysis of policy documents and a conversation analysis of classroom interactions. We argue that language policy is at the core of HEIs’ internationalisation processes even in Anglophone countries and that, methodologically, the articulation of findings from critical discourse and conversational analyses represents a step forward in the field of language policy.

November 4, 2022

Learners’ attitudes to first, second and third languages pronunciation in structuring multilingual identity

Magdalena Szyszka

Page range: 1127-1147

Abstract

This paper investigates multilingual learners’ attitudes to native (L1 – Ukrainian), second (L2 – Polish) and foreign (L3 – English) languages’ pronunciation, and discusses them from the perspective of structuring multilingual identity. In the study, the choice of the sample has been controlled in terms of the participants’ nationality and the context in which they acquire their second and foreign languages – variables that are interwoven in shaping identities. More specifically, the 40 Ukrainian individuals, taking part in the study, are in the process of a foreign language acquisition, English, embedded in the context of their second language, Polish. The attitudes to L1, L2 and L3 pronunciation of the 40 multilinguals have been measured quantitatively and analysed with the aim of providing more insight into understanding how individuals construe their multilingual identities. Negative relationships were found between those who reported an L1 accent as an important factor involved in the perception of their selves and the desire to sound native-like in L2 – Polish ( r = −0.37, p < 0.05), and L3 – English ( r = −0.43, p < 0.05). The latter variable, however, correlated positively with having native-like pronunciation as a goal in learning Polish ( r = 0.75, p < 0.05) and English ( r = 0.89, p < 0.05).

About this journal

Objective
Applied Linguistics Review (ALR) is an international, peer-reviewed journal that bridges the gap between linguistics and applied areas such as education, psychology and human development, sociology and politics. It serves as a testing ground for the articulation of original ideas and approaches in the study of real-world issues in which language plays a crucial role. ALR brings together critical reflections of current debates and new theoretical and empirical research.

Topics
Aspects of the linguistic and communicative competence of the individual:

bilingualism and multilingualism
first or second language acquisition
literacy
language disorders

Language and communication related problems in and between societies:

linguistic discrimination
language conflict
communication in the workplace
language policy and language planning
and language ideology

Articles that not only report new research findings but also engage in philosophical and methodological debates and point to directions of future research are particularly welcome.