Applied Linguistics Commons^™

Elise: Juggling Work, Required Training, And Long-Term Goals, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In past posts we talked about how we are using persona as a research tool and our process for creating personas. In our last post we described Neberu, who is working to feel comfortable interacting with English speakers. In the next several posts we will continue to present the personas we have created.

Washback Of An English Language Assessment System In A Malaysian University Foundation Programme, Umed Bokiev, Arshad Abd. Samad

The Qualitative Report

Washback refers to the influence of language assessment on teaching and learning. In contrast to the wealth of studies involving external large-scale language examinations, scant research has been conducted to explore the influence of internal language assessment on instruction, particularly in the context of a university foundation programme. This qualitative study investigated the washback effects of an English language assessment system (ELAS) on the teaching and learning of English in a Malaysian university foundation programme. Apart from an in-depth analysis of official documents on the ELAS, we conducted individual semi-structured interviews with three curriculum and assessment developers, three English language …

Neberu: Working To Feel Comfortable Interacting With English Speakers, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In the next several biogs we will continue to present the personas we have created based on our interviews with working learners.

Music, Our Human Superpower, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

Research about music pervades every discipline because music touches every area of life. Studies revealing the salutary effects of music can be found not only in music educator research, but in research in psychology, speech and hearing, child development, neuroscience, and increasingly, health and wellness, aging, rehabilitation and recovery. Since my focus is especially in the areas of language and literacy, I research the positive effects of music on reading, writing, and learning languages - and of this, there is no shortage. In this brief Academia article, I share what I’d like to call an “homage-with-references” to our great Superpower, …

Alimayu: College-Educated Retail Worker Learning English, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In past blogs we talked about how we are using persona as a research tool and our process for creating personas. In the next several biogs we will present the personas we have created based on our interviews with working learners.

Financial Literacy For Latino Immigrants: A Guidebook For Esl Teachers, Anna Braden

Master's Projects and Capstones

Latino immigrants face many financial challenges in the United States. Language barriers exclude them from jobs as well as financial and consumer markets. Lack of familiarity with the U.S. financial system or bad experiences with financial systems in their home countries can create mistrust and lead to Latino immigrants being unbanked or underbanked. Consumer vulnerabilities may also be exploited as immigrants turn to nonbank financial services such as predatory lenders (check cashers, payday lenders, etc.). Lack of access to jobs and marketplaces results in lower income and less wealth accumulation. Over time this results in wealth inequality between Latino immigrants …

An Acoustic Analysis Of The Monophthongs Of Penang Malay, Muhamad Farid Abdul Latiff

Student Works (2020-2029)

The study aims to examine acoustically the production of monophthongs of Penang Malay by five (5) selected female participants who are of the Jawi Peranakan community. Two (2) female participants of Standard Malay were also selected as a comparator to Penang Malay. The first research question focuses on the acoustic features of Penang Malay and Standard Malay based on their formant frequencies of F1 and F2, while the second research question examines the similarities and differences between Penang Malay and Standard Malay based on their acoustic properties. The target vowels are: [a], [i], [u], [ɛ], [ɔ], [ə], [e], and [o]. …

Noun Animacy As A Factor In The Production Of L2 English Passives By L1 Mandarin Learners, Shanshan Duan

UM Graduate Student Colloquium in Applied Linguistics and TESOL

Shanshan investigates whether there is a greater likelihood of producing passives with animate (as opposed to inanimate) patients being placed in the grammatical subject position during syntactic priming activities.

50 Anos De Evolução Nos Estudos Linguísticos Transculturais: Da Retórica Contrastiva À Retórica Intercultural, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

Este trabalho apresenta um panorama histórico dos estudos linguísticos transculturais, discorrendo sobre o surgimento da retórica contrastiva por meio do trabalho seminal de Robert Kaplan em 1966 e as contribuições de Ulla Connor ao rebatizar tais estudos como retórica intercultural. Explana-se também sobre as críticas endereçadas à retórica contrastiva feitas durante os anos 1980, 1990 e 2000 e de que maneira tais críticas redefiniram o quadro teórico-metodológico e o objeto de estudo da disciplina. Conclui-se com exposição de uma crítica à homogeneização das distintas culturas retóricas causada pela globalização e internacionalização do inglês no âmbito acadêmico e nas atividades profissionais.

Persona Development: Unpacking The Process, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In our last post, we introduced the concept of personas and discussed how we are using personas to create a compelling and approachable representation of our aggregated interview data with working learners. Our hope is that the personas we develop will help practitioners and program developers better understand the working learners' experiences. We have found that personas help us illustrate who working learners are and situate our findings within the existing instructional design paradigm. In this post, we discuss our process for creating person as.

The Influence Of Psychological Captial And Classroom Management On Teachers Well-Being: A Case Study Among English University Teacher In Zhejiang Province, China, Yong Wu

Student Works (2020-2029)

This study aims to investigate the associations among EFL teachers’ psychological capital, well-being (PERMA), and their College English classroom management in Chinese universities of Zhejiang province. This study is a non-experimental quantitative research which used a questionnaire to collect data. comprised four sections: teachers’ demographics, psychological capital, well-being (PERMA) and EFL classroom management. A total of 486 EFL teachers from 19 universities in Zhejiang province, China, were randomly selected. Following the filtering of data which involved the missing data, normality, outliers and multicollinearity issues, only 478 samples were found suitable for analysis. The descriptive statistics analysis derived from this study …

English Academic Vocabulary Of Dual Language Programme And Non-Dual Language Programme Secondary School Pupils In Selangor, Ek Ying Wong

Student Works (2020-2029)

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is regarded as a fertile ground for target language acquisition. However, there is a growing skepticism towards the novelty of CLIL due to various methodological flaws in the past studies. The purpose of this study is to investigate if CLIL approach truly contributes to English academic vocabulary learning when three confounding factors: selection effect, total English instruction hours and extramural English exposure are controlled. This study employs cross-sectional research design using both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods by comparing the academic vocabulary performance between secondary students in two different learning environments — regular …

The Effect Of Semantic Neighborhood Density On Vocabulary Learning In Spanish As A Second Language And Spanish As A Heritage Language, Marián Giráldez Elizo

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This dissertation reviews the results from an online survey created to identify and compare how second language (L2) learners and heritage language (HL) learners of Spanish, enrolled in beginning-level coursework at the college level, acquired and built vocabulary. A total of 451 participants completed the survey. The purpose of the online survey was to serve as a baseline for pedagogical purposes, since it provided information about participants’ language profiles and the way they build vocabulary based on sematic relatedness. Overall, the findings from the survey showed that HL and L2 learners differ in the way they build semantic neighborhoods and, …

Persona Development As A Research Tool, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In order to make our description of working-learners who participate in employer-supported educational activities more vivid, we have taken a unique approach to better represent why characteristics of a particular learning opportunity may or may not align with working-learners' needs. This approach involves creating personas from interview data we've gathered in three areas: mandated courses and training, basic education, and degree or certificate attaining courses/programs.

Direct And Indirect Written Corrective Feedback On The Use Of Past Tense Amongst Esl Learners, Tuck Mun Tang

Student Works (2020-2029)

For decades, a considerable amount of attention has been given to written corrective feedback (WCF) in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). In the early development of WCF, Truscott (1996) raised a few theoretical issues which led studies on WCF to be carried by researchers opposing his claims. He claimed that 1) a simple transfer of information cannot be expected to be beneficial due to the well-established SLA insights about the complex and gradual nature of the process of acquisition, 2) if WCF approach is employed at a time that is not consistent with the natural order, it could …

All In One Place: References Cited In 21 Cleo Work, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

We have created a Google sheet that contains the resources that we've used in our blog posts so far. You can sort or filter the sheet by author, title, keyword, etc. to easily find what you're looking for. We've also included a brief summary of each article. You can download or save the sheet to your drive. We will continue to update it as we discover new materia I, so be sure to check back on occasion. We hope that you find it useful!

The Effects Of Mobile-Assisted Problem-Based Language Learning On Speaking Proficiency Of Iranian Language Learners In The Second Language, Ansarian Loghman

Student Works (2020-2029)

Problem-Based Language Learning (PBLL) is a cognitive and collaborative approach to language learning which has gained attention of language educators in the last two decades. Although previous researches have revealed that PBLL is a promising approach to language learning, a detailed look at the effects of mobile-assisted PBLL on linguistic features of speaking proficiency of the learners and the learners' views with regard to this approach are absent. In an attempt to shed light on this issue, a confirmatory sequence mixed-methods study in the EFL context of Iran was conducted. The effects of mobile-assisted PBLL was compared to the conventional …

Kinesthetic Language: A Dialect Of Kinesics, Terrill Suzanne Corletto

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Human communication requires the disciplines regarding physical fitness, codified language, and the performing arts to overlap, and exist symbiotically. Within the realm of artistic performance, the three disciplines working together deliver a deliberate message in a way unique to performing artists. The general tendency to compartmentalize sports, communication, and the performing arts into their pigeonhole categories of Kinesiology, Linguistics, and Theatre Arts is impractical, particularly for performing artists simply because all of the disciplines are mutually dependent in the context of all kinesthetic communications.

The purpose of this paper is to define and discuss several concepts and the ways in …

Critical Period Controversies For Second Language Acquisition: Implications For Language Teaching, Randy Lucio

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

It was proposed by Eric Lenneberg (1967) in Biological Foundations of Language that implicit first language (L1) acquisition was only possible during a critical period (CP) spanning from infancy to puberty. The critical period hypothesis (CPH) has since been a topic of controversy among L1 and second language (L2) scholars, whose studies have produced varying results that argue for and against a CP. It is suggested in this paper, however, that these often-varying results offer important insight that can serve to inform current and future L2 educational policy and instruction within K-12 education in the U.S. Thus, it is imperative …

Student Perceptions Regarding The Use Of Purposive English In A Spanish As A Foreign Language Classroom, Kacey Booth

Dissertations

In modern American society, diversity is both challenged and celebrated, and inclusion is imperative. This ideology begins in the classroom. Oftentimes, this celebration of diversity, more specifically linguistic diversity, is most visible in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) classes and similar bilingual educational programs. In TESOL programs, students’ international identities are highlighted and students are often instructed using multilingual educational resources to scaffold their acquisition of English. Historically, foreign language teaching also utilized dual-language instructional methodologies. Such archaic teaching methodologies have since been replaced by more modern and immersive sociopsycholinguistic approaches such as Communicative Language Teaching. Such …

Spatial Distribution Of Chinese Language Education And Historical Development Of Chinese Language Pedagogy In Higher Education In The United States, Jing Zhao

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project includes two major components: an interactive digital map that displays the geographical distribution of Chinese language programs in colleges and universities in the United States, their program starting years, the types of such universities and colleges, and their names and states; and a multimedia essay on the evolution of Chinese language pedagogy in colleges and universities in the United States. Data has been collected on the program start year, school names, states where schools are located, school types, and whether the school had been funded by two federal sponsored language programs: the National Defense Education Act in …

21cleo: First Year Recap, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In this post, we recap our experiences, accomplishments, and challenges. We hope that by reviewing the past year, we can provide a sense of where we've been and set the stage for things to come.

Using Literal Underpinnings To Help Learners Remember Figurative Idioms: Does The Connection Need To Be Crystal-Clear?, Xinqing Wang, Frank Boers, Paul Warren

Education Publications

No abstract provided.

Teachers And Research Practices: Perspectives From English Language Educators In A Philippine University, Veronico N. Tarrayo, Philippe Jose S. Hernandez, Judith Ma. Angelica S. Claustro

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Given the paucity of studies regarding research practices of teachers, particularly English language teaching (ELT) practitioners in the ASEAN region and in the Philippines, this study explores the research practices of English language teachers in the Philippines. Using purposive-convenience sampling, a total of 49 teachers of English from a Philippine university were asked to answer a survey. To validate the data, pertinent public university documents were examined, and interviews with the university research heads were conducted. Findings suggest that the teachers were cognizant of the link between teaching and their own and their schools’ research practices. This research also reports …

What Is A Learning Ecosystem?, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

During the past year, we've come to realize that the term learning ecosystem is widely used, but not usually defined or widely understood. Rather than taking the term for granted, we crafted this blog post to

• explore the origins of the term,

• discuss what it has come to mean, and its limitations

• explain how and why we are using the term in our study despite its limitations.

Curriculum-Making And Development In A Pakistani University, Said Imran, Mark Wyatt

The Qualitative Report

Despite frequent calls for increased teacher engagement in curriculum-making and development, there are still many English language teachers worldwide who are required to work with materials that are either culturally inappropriate or inadequate. A related concern is that such materials may deprive teachers of their creative and professional capabilities to address students’ needs and interests, so that, weighed down by contextual challenges, the teachers then simply deliver the materials, adhering to the textbook closely. Contextual challenges faced by teachers may be more acute in the developing world. However, it is unclear to what extent teachers in under-resourced contexts cope. In …

All About The American Flap, Kristin Lems

Faculty Publications

In this column, I am going to talk about the American flap, a phonological feature of the American English dialect. Those of us with backgrounds in ESL/EFL learn about this in our master’s programs, but I have found that even teachers who have taken a course in linguistics may not be aware of the flap and its important implications for listening, reading, and spelling in English (Lems, Miller, & Soro, 2017)

Barriers To Learning, Part 2, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In this post we write about the dispositional barriers adult learners face, as well as how important perseverance and a positive mindset are when learning and changing one's career trajectory.

Barriers To Learning, Part L, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

This blog post is the first in a two-part series that focuses on barriers to learner participation and persistence in employersupported educational opportunities. In this framing of past research and reports, the 21 CLEO Research team draws on Margaret Patterson's categories of learning and persistence barriers as an analytic lens to situate literature reviewed in our landscape scan.

The Semantics Of Article Acquisition, Emily G. Renie

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

Accurately using articles has consistently been a difficult task for English language learners as articles are often treated as solely grammatical forms rather than also recognizing as representatives of complex semantic properties. This paper aims to synthesize individual research on semantic factors which influence article acquisition and explore how they interact with each other. This paper especially focuses on how native and second language speakers of English acquire and understand the concepts of definiteness and specificity and explores these features within the framework of Chomsky’s theory of Universal Grammar. This paper examines the Fluctuating Hypothesis (FH) and its use as …