Language Teaching Research

Volume 25, Issue 4, July 2021

    Language Teaching Research 2021年第4期共发文7篇，评论2篇。研究论文涉及智能CALL中的工作记忆、听力理解中的语言知识与策略使用、任务复现、手势-强化重铸、DMC项目中的教师投入、TBLT教学创新、教师社会公平信念培养等方面。

目录

Editorial

■Second language pedagogy: Learners and teachers, by María del Pilar García Mayo, Pages 503.

■Notes on Contributors, Pages 507.

ARTICLES

■ The effects of working memory and declarative memory on instructed second language vocabulary learning: Insights from intelligent CALL, by Simón Rui, Patrick Rebuschat, Detmar Meurers , Pages 510.

■ Exploring the relationship between linguistic knowledge and strategy use in listening comprehension, by Daniel Fun, Ernesto Macaro, Pages 540.

■The influence of task repetition type on young EFL learners’ attention to form, by María Ángeles Hidalg, María del Pilar García Mayo, Pages 565.

■ Gesture-enhanced recasts have limited effects: A case of the regular past tense, by Kimi Nakatsukasa, Pages 587.

■Teacher engagement with digital multimodal composing in a Chinese tertiary EFL curriculum, by Lianjiang Jian, Shulin Yu, Yi Zhao, Pages 613.

■Finding success with pedagogical innovation: A case from CSL teachers’ experiences with TBLT， by Yue Peng, Jamie S. Pyper, Page 633.

■Second language teachers learn to teach for social justice through community field experiences, by Chinh Duc Nguye, Kenneth Zeichner, Page 656.

摘要

The effects of working memory and declarative memory on instructed second language vocabulary learning: Insights from intelligent CALL

Simón Rui, Patrick Rebuschat, Detmar Meurers

Abstract Extensive research has demonstrated the impact of working memory (WM) on first language (L1) reading comprehension across age groups (Peng et al., 2018), and on foreign language (FL) reading comprehension of adults and older adolescents (Linck et al., 2014). Comparatively little is known about the effect of WM on young FL readers’ comprehension, and even less within testing contexts. Young FL readers are still developing their L1 reading skills and general cognitive skills (e.g., attentional regulation abilities). Completing FL reading tests might be particularly taxing on their WM, and differences in WM capacity – as well as other learner and task characteristics – might create construct-irrelevant variance in test performance.

In this study, we investigate the effects of WM, grade level, and reading task on young learners’ FL reading test performances. Ninety-four young English language learners (Grades 6–7) in Hungary completed the TOEFL® Junior™ Comprehensive’s reading test and a WM test battery. Our mixed-effects model predicted significantly higher comprehension accuracy among learners with higher WM capacity, and among learners in Grade 7 compared to learners in Grade 6. Reading task differences were not associated with significant comprehension accuracy differences. We discuss the implications of our findings for testing young learners’ FL reading comprehension.

Exploring the relationship between linguistic knowledge and strategy use in listening comprehension

Daniel Fun, Ernesto Macaro

Abstract The language learner strategies research field has often tried to identify the good language learner (GLL) by distinguishing more proficient from less proficient learners. However the notion of ‘good’ may be problematic without taking into account an individual’s linguistic knowledge (LK). This article foregrounds LK in relation to strategy use in the context of ‘listening to the teacher’: a language use task relatively under-researched. Secondary school students in Hong Kong (n = 646) completed a questionnaire and tests of LK including vocabulary and grammar. Lower LK learners reported using more translation strategies, whereas those with higher LK reported using a range of additional strategies. A further cluster analysis, however, indicated that a sub-group of lower LK learners were comparably strategic with the higher LK group perhaps compensating for low LK via strategy deployment. This article provides evidence that strategy deployment when listening to the teacher is not wholly constrained by levels of LK. Pedagogical implications are suggested.

The influence of task repetition type on young EFL learners’ attention to form

María Ángeles Hidalg, María del Pilar García Mayo

Abstract Task repetition (TR) is a valuable tool to direct learners’ attention from meaning to language form. The first time learners perform a task their focus is on conveying meaning, whereas during the second enactment they tend to focus on the form of their message. Collaborative writing also promotes learners’ focus on form, allowing extra time to pay attention to language use, and providing multiple opportunities for learners to pool their linguistic resources and co-construct meaning. Despite the increasing body of research on young learners’ (YLs) second language acquisition process, few studies have addressed the effect of the repetition of collaborative writing tasks on this population’s output. The present study aims to fill this gap by analysing the impact of TR on YLs’ (age 11–12) attention to form, operationalized as language-related episodes (LREs). Forty (n = 40) beginner learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) worked with two types of TR: exact TR (ETR), where the participants repeated exactly the same task, and procedural TR (PTR), where the participants repeated task type but with different content. Contrary to most previous research, most LREs were form-focused, and resolved target-like in both groups. The results also revealed a statistically significant decrease in the number of LREs at time 3 in the ETR group, whereas the LREs in the PTR group remained stable. Pedagogical implications of these findings will be discussed.

Gesture-enhanced recasts have limited effects: A case of the regular past tense

Kimi Nakatsukasa

Abstract This study investigates whether gesture-enhanced recasts lead to better production of the English regular past tense. Fifty-nine low-intermediate ESL students at a US university took part in communicative activities in class, during which they received, respectively, no feedback, verbal recasts, or gesture-enhanced recasts, the latter being a verbal recast accompanied by a point-back gesture indicating the non-target-like use or absence of the past tense. All learners also completed two assessments, a grammar test about the regular past tense and an oral production test that was designed to elicit the regular past tense, as a pre-test, an immediate post-test, and a delayed post-test a week later. Then, a repeated-measure ANOVA was used to analyse the linguistic development, using the obtained test scores. The results showed that there was no difference across the conditions in the grammar test, owing to the ceiling effect. On the other hand, learners significantly improved from the pre-test to the post-test in the oral production test, but there were no differences across the conditions. This contradicts a previous finding that teachers’ pedagogical gestures during recasts better facilitated the development of locative prepositions. Further, this study discusses how learning types (rule-based vs. item-based) involved in two different linguistic targets and different gestures used in the two studies may affect the efficacy of recasts.

Teacher engagement with digital multimodal composing in a Chinese tertiary EFL curriculum

Lianjiang Jian, Shulin Yu, Yi Zhao

Abstract While previous studies have examined the impact of digital multimodal composing (DMC) as a new literacy activity on second language (L2) learners’ language development, L2 teachers’ engagement with DMC is under-conceptualized and underexplored. Based on a qualitative analysis of five teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) who implemented in their curriculum a year-long DMC program within which students produced multimodal videos, this study presents three forms of teacher engagement with DMC. In the first form, the teachers used DMC as an instrument for traditional exercises of speaking and writing with incidental attention to the multimodal aspects of DMC, while in the second, the teachers manifested ambivalence about the means and the ends of using DMC. The teacher in the third form used DMC as integral to pedagogy with attention to not only students’ language use, but also strategic use of multiple resources. These results suggest that teacher engagement with DMC can be conceptualized as a multifaceted continuum. The findings also reveal that these individualized engagements were directed by teachers’ conceptions of themselves, students, and language and mediated by contextual factors associated with the prescribed curriculum and high-stakes testing regimes. The paper concludes with implications regarding ways to promote teacher engagement with DMC in digitalized instructional landscapes.

Finding success with pedagogical innovation: A case from CSL teachers’ experiences with TBLT 

Yue Peng, Jamie S. Pyper

Abstract This study uncovers the under-explored influences that encourage teachers to incorporate task-based language teaching (TBLT) for teaching Chinese as a second language, and the process of teachers’ pedagogical attempts at a Chinese university. Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987) was adopted as the conceptual framework. As a qualitative study, the analysis drew on data from interviews and classroom observations with eight teachers, and complemented by interviews with two directors and 17 students. The study reveals that teachers’ pedagogical practice results from a process of negotiating the possible pedagogical tools to reach their teaching objectives in their context of teaching. In particular, teachers depart from the traditional teaching approach to incorporate tasks as a personal initiative in response to the perceived challenges in the effort to achieve their objectives. The study argues that compared to the constraints from the local education context, teacher beliefs and knowledge play a more critical role in shaping the extent to which teachers choose to adopt TBLT, as teacher beliefs and knowledge directly creates tension between TBLT as a tool and the desired objectives. The study proposes that the Problem-Solving Model (Havelock, 1969) for introducing pedagogical change gives teachers agency and ownership over TBLT, which may serve as a possible direction for realizing the pedagogical innovation.

Second language teachers learn to teach for social justice through community field experiences

Chinh Duc Nguye, Kenneth Zeichner

Abstract The current study explores how pre-service teachers of English as a foreign language in Vietnam developed their belief about social justice teaching through community field experiences in their teacher education programs. Participants of the study were a cohort of 38 pre-service teachers in a TESOL program in a Vietnamese university. Based on multiple sources of data, the findings indicate that community field experiences helped the cohort of pre-service teachers discover inequalities among families, geographical areas, and ethnic groups inherent in children’s schooling opportunities and their access to English learning. The cohort therefore developed their belief about social justice teaching appropriate to the sociocultural context of Vietnam.

期刊简介

Language Teaching Research is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes research within the area of second or foreign language teaching. Although articles are written in English, the journal welcomes studies dealing with the teaching of languages other than English as well. 

The journal is a venue for studies that demonstrate sound research methods and which report findings that have clear pedagogical implications. 

A wide range of topics in the area of language teaching is covered, including:

• Programme

• Syllabus

• Materials design

• Methodology

• The teaching of specific skills and language for specific purposes

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https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ltr

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