Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2013, vol. 3, no. 4
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://repozytorium.amu.edu.pl/handle/10593/10307
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Item Reviewers for Volume 3/2013(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12)Item Editorial(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12) Pawlak, MirosławItem Linguistic and Cultural Acquisition in a Migrant Community Editors: David Singleton, Vera Regan and Ewelina Debaene. Book review(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12) Waniek-Klimczak, EwaLinguistic and Cultural Acquisition in a Migrant Community Editors: David Singleton, Vera Regan and Ewelina Debaene Publisher: Multilingual Matters, 2013 ISBN: 9781847699893Item Reverse discourse completion task as an assessment tool for intercultural competence(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12) Kanik, MehmetThis paper proposes a prototypic assessment tool for intercultural communicative competence. Because traditional discourse completion tasks (DCTs) focus on illocutionary competence rather than sociolinguistic competence, a modified version of a DCT was created to target sociolinguistic competence. The modified DCT em- ploys speech acts as prompts and asks respondents to write about a situation in which a given speech act would be appropriate. This new tool is named a reverse discourse completion task (R-DCT). The task was given to learners of Turkish as a second language. Data from 12 participants were analyzed for their provision of sociopragmatic factors such as power, distance and imposition and also with respect to whether the situation was relevant to a given speech act. Responses from the participants show that R-DCTs can be used to assess intercultural competence as they help reveal respondents’ knowledge of sociolinguistic context in which a given speech act may be appropriate. By removing the need for comparison with native speaker data and the limitations that emerge from the lack of linguistic formula at respondents’ disposal, R-DCT is a promising elicitation task to assess socio- linguistic competence, an integral part of Byram’s (1997) model of intercultural communicative competence.Item Teaching the English active and passive voice with the help of cognitive grammar: An empirical study(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12) Bielak, Jakub; Mystkowska-Wiertelak, Anna; Pawlak, MirosławFunctionally-oriented linguistic theories, such as cognitive grammar (CG), offer nu- anced descriptions of the meanings and uses of grammatical features. A simplified characterization of the semantics of the English active and passive voice grounded in CG terms and based on the reference point model is presented, as it is the basis of the instructional treatment offered to one of the groups in the quasi-experimental study reported in the paper The study compares the effects of feature-focused grammatical instruction covering the form and meaning/use of the English voices based on CG with those of teaching based on standard pedagogical grammar rules. The results point to relatively high effectiveness of both instructional options in fostering the use of the target structures in both more controlled and more spontaneous performance, with traditional instruction being more successful than that based on CG with respect to the latter. A possible explanation of this superiority is that the subset of the participants (n = 27) exposed to the traditional explanations found them simple and easy to apply, contrary to the situation in the other group.Item Acquisition of German pluralization rules in monolingual and multilingual children(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12) Zaretsky, Eugen; Lange, Benjamin P.; Euler, Harald A.; Neumann, KatrinExisting studies on plural acquisition in German have relied on small samples and thus hardly deliver generalizable and differentiated results. Here, overgeneralizations of certain plural allomorphs and other tendencies in the acquisition of German plural markers are described on the basis of test data from 7,394 3- to 5-year- old monolingual German and bi/multilingual immigrant children tested with a modified, validated version of the Marburger Sprachscreening (MSS) language test and 476 children tested with the SETK 3-5 language test. Classified correct and wrong answers to MSS and SETK 3-5 plural items were compared. The acquisition patterns of immigrants corresponded to those of younger German children. Both monolingual German and immigrant children demonstrated generally the same universal frequency and phonetically/phonologically based error patterns, irrespective of their linguistic background, but with different tendencies such as over-generalization of -s by German children only.Item L2 motivation, anxiety and self-efficacy: The interrelationship of individual variables in the secondary school context(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12) Piniel, Katalin; Csizér, KataOur study describes the relationship of second language learning motivation, self-efficacy, and anxiety; that is, how motivation, cognition, and affect might interact during the process of second language learning. Questionnaire data were collected from 236 Hungarian students studying at various secondary schools. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the proposed circular relationship of students’ motivated learning behavior, language learning experience, self-efficacy beliefs, and both debilitating and facilitating anxiety. Our results indicate that: (a) the process of motivation is complex and influenced by other individual difference (ID) variables, and (b) the investigation of ID variables in constellations rather than in isolation seems to be more fruitful in understanding language learner differences.Item Academic and linguistic gains during a semester-long study abroad: A cohort case study(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12) Cai, Wei; Li, Xiangrong; Liu, MeihuaThe present case study investigated university students’ academic and linguistic gains during a semester-long exchange program abroad. Thirty three third-year English majors from a Chinese university answered a battery of questionnaires and 13 of them participated in semi-structured interviews both prior to and after the program. Analyses of the data showed that the participants gained greatly from the exchange program both academically and linguistically. Based on the findings, some implications about exchange programs are discussed.Item Is there ELF in ELT coursebooks?(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12) Vettorel, Paola; Lopriore, LucillaThis article aims to explore whether well-attested findings in the fields of World Englishes (WE) and of English as a lingua franca (ELF) have determined a shift in perspective in the overall approach to English language teaching (ELT), and how far this shift has permeated teaching materials and coursebooks. The research study was carried out in Italy, a country where ELT coursebooks have often played a relevant role in introducing innovations in language teaching method- ology. The research design included a corpus of ten coursebooks that have been published and adopted in Italian secondary schools in the last 6 years. The coursebooks were evaluated in terms of the presence or absence of references to WE and/or ELF, of awareness-raising activities, of the promotion of using English outside the school environment and of the use of effective English communication and intercultural strategies among nonnative speakers. Findings show that there have been no significant changes in the inclusion of WE- and ELF-oriented materials and related tasks, apart from the area of promotion of cultural and intercultural awareness.Item Content and Notes on Contributors(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12)Item Multilingualism: Its open and hidden agendas(Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu, 2013-12) Komorowska, HannaThe author analyses tendencies presented in recently launched EU reports claiming that newly published data reveal a need to rethink approaches to individual and social multilingualism. In the first part of the article approach- es to individual as well as to societal multilingualism are discussed from a historical perspective. In the second part meanings ascribed to the promo- tion of multilingualism are analysed from the language perspective together with the use made of them in the field of social and political activity. Pro- moting multilingualism is then looked at from the perspectives of the learner and the teacher. Implications are finally sought for teaching, learning and assessment in language education.