Applied Linguistics Commons^™

Canadian Association Of Applied Linguistics (Caal) Annual Conference, Virginia David

Instructional Development Grants

The Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics Annual Conference was hosted in conjunction with the Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, from June 3rd to June 5th. As stated in the association’s website,

“The Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics / L’Association canadienne de linguistique appliquée, also known as ACLA/CAAL, is an officially bilingual scholarly association with approximately 200 members from across Canada and elsewhere. CAAL’s overarching objective is the promotion of research and teaching in all areas of applied linguistics across Canada.”

The conference included renown names in the field of …

American Association Of Applied Linguistics (Aaal) And Language Testing Research Colloquium (Ltrc), Magda Tigchelaar

Instructional Development Grants

My goal in attending these two conferences was to find papers that would be of interest to my Master’s level students in the MA TESOL and ESL Certificate programs. Specifically, I used some of the information presented at these conferences to share with students in my ESL Teaching Methods (TEL6310) and ESL Assessment (TEL6320), and Advanced Assessment (TEL6320) classes.

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 …

Weighing Up Exercises On Phrasal Verbs: Retrieval Versus Trial-And-Error Practices, Brian Strong, Frank Boers

Education Publications

EFL textbooks and internet resources exhibit various formats and implementations of exercises on phrasal verbs. The experimental study reported here examines whether some of these might be more effective than others. EFL learners at a university in Japan were randomly assigned to four treatment groups. Two groups were presented first with phrasal verbs and their meaning before they were prompted to retrieve the particles from memory. The difference between these two retrieval groups was that one group studied and then retrieved items one at a time, while the other group studied and retrieved them in sets. The two other groups …

Cruzar Fronteras Em Espaços Acadêmicos: Transgressing “The Limits Of Translanguaging”, Brendan H. O’Connor, Katherine S. Mortimer, Lesley Bartlett, María Teresa De La Piedra, Ana Maria Rabelo Gomes, Ariana Mangual Figueroa, Gabriela Novaro, Marjorie Faulstich Orellana, Char Ullman

Publications and Research

Scholarship on translanguaging and related concepts has challenged traditional assumptions about how people use their multiple languages, urging us to move beyond the boundaries of named linguistic codes and toward conceptualizations of multilingual language use as flexible use of a speaker’s whole linguistic repertoire. Critiques of this theoretical shift have included assertions of translanguaging’s conceptual and practical limits—limits to its transformative potential as well as limits to its practical use. This paper takes up, in particular, the question of why we academics may assert the value of translanguaging in schools and communities while still largely failing to move beyond monoglossic …

Expertise And Expression In Second Language Acquisition: An Embodied Perspective, Mia Burnett

Senior Theses

In directing our attention to mundane aspects of the human experience, we can discover new ways of interacting with and understanding the world. One such formative experience, regularly seen as mundane in much of the world, is learning a second language. It is no exaggeration to say that second language acquisition is one of the processes which most influences and drives our globalized world, and yet we understand and study this process relatively little.

Continuing the trends of naturalizing phenomenological inquiry, this project attempts to evaluate phenomenological approaches to skill acquisition alongside second language acquisition theory and research through an …

Defining Employer Supported Learning Opportunities, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

The 21st Century Learning Ecosystem Opportunities (21Cleo) research team has been hard at work! In our last two blog posts, we reported on a field review of learning opportunities from a process perspective (how we chose the literature we reviewed) and from a product perspective (what we are learning from this literature).

The Practice Of Mainland Chinese Students Adopting English Names And Its Motivations, T. Leo Schmitt

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the Chinese practice of adopting English names in the context of Chinese international students studying at American institutions of higher education. This work adopts the position of Bourdieu (1991) that there is a fundamental unity of the market, in that economic and political capital is connected to linguistic and cultural capital. Prosperity in one area is linked to others; people who have wealth and power tend to use language and have names that are similarly valued. In this situation, we are able to make choices about our linguistic and cultural stances based on our status within society. …

Learning Opportunities Available To Frontline Workers, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In our efforts to better understand the characteristics of learning opportunities available to frontline service workers, we've undertaken a comprehensive review of the work that has been published and distributed in the field. In our last post, we shared that we've collected and reviewed over 50 reports and publications from a variety of sources. This post focuses on our initial findings and insights from this review.

The Essence Of The Teaching/Learning Process: An Exploration Of The Perspectives And Lived Experiences Of University Spanish Language Teaching Assistants, Sarah Schulman

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

U.S. schools are emblematic of the increasingly linguistic and cultural diversity present in this country. Despite this well-documented shift, U.S. foreign language teacher education programs have yet to align learning outcomes with the cognitive and affective needs of linguistically and culturally diverse students. Providing educators with opportunities to learn about and prepare for the needs of these students is essential, but this alone will not address the essence of the underlying problem. If foreign language teacher education programs are to evolve, a deeper understanding of the teaching/learning process is critical.

In response to this need, this qualitative study explored how …

Investigating Arabic Pragmatic Markers In Teacher Talk: A Multi-Layered Analytical Approach, Yaseen Ali Azi

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Through this descriptive qualitative case study of three native speaking Arabic teachers in an L2 Arabic classroom in a private school setting in the U.S., this study presented a four-stage multi-layered analytical approach demonstrating functional, interactional and pedagogical analyses of the uses of Arabic PMs in teacher talk and also providing a detailed emic analysis of the phenomena by incorporating teachers’ perceptions of their uses of those elements in their classroom talks. Findings of the functional analysis clearly showed that Arabic PMs perform different micro functions at four macro levels (structural, interpersonal, referential and multi- functional). Moreover, …

Bilingual Family Literacy Programming In West Michigan: Points Of Alignment And Disconnect Among Learners, Instructors, And Local Partners, Thomas J. Rogers

Masters Theses

This research explores the beliefs and experiences of stakeholders in a family literacy program through the Literacy Center of West Michigan and Head Start for Kent County. The program is currently developing a curriculum to improve outcomes for learner specific goals. Therefore, one motivation behind this research is to analyze the goals, needs, and understandings for the multiple stakeholders within the program. On a national scale, there exists a need to better define the goals of family literacy programming in general. Points of alignment and disconnect for the participants in this study reflect realities that extend beyond the program at …

The Effects Of English Pronunciation Instruction On Listening Skills Among Vietnamese Learners, Nguyet Nguyen

Masters Theses

Listening has been a neglected skill in both second language research and teaching practice (Khaghaninejad & Maleki, 2015; Nowrouzi, Tam, Zareian & Nimehchisalem, 2015) and recent research has shown that second language (L2) listening difficulties might relate to phonological problems besides syntactic and lexical knowledge (e.g., Suristro, 2018). There have been some empirical studies examining the effects of phonetic instruction on perceptual skills showing promising results (e.g., Aliaga-Garcia & Mora, 2009; Linebaugh & Roche, 2013). This study contributes to this area with a focus on investigating the impacts of English pronunciation instruction on listening skills among Vietnamese English as a …

Swearing In A Second Language, Grace Irwin

Masters Theses

Second language learners often lack knowledge of L2 swear words, their appropriateness, and pragmatic function. Competence in L2 swearing is important for L2 learners to be able to express themselves expertly and understand others’ emotional expressions precisely. However, taboo language is rarely included explicitly in L2 curricula due to its controversial nature. This paper addresses a gap in the literature concerning what second language users actually know about swearing in their L2. Some studies have attempted to determine learners’ receptive swearing competence (Jay & Janschewitz, 2008; Kapoor, 2016); however, the present study employs an updated measure of L2 pragmatic swearing …

Influences On International Saudi Students’ Sojourner Acculturation In The U.S., Abdulah Shaban Alasiri

Masters Theses

Research on international students’ experiences in tertiary institutions abroad suggest they face difficulties related to culture, language, and socialization (e.g., Andrade, 2006; Hellsten, 2002). To encourage more successful socialization and English language development, the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission established a cap on the enrollment of Saudi students in any institutions abroad since 2014. The effectiveness of these quotas in promoting socialization is not known, but anecdotal evidence and an exploratory study conducted by the author suggest other (perhaps more influential) factors affecting Saudi students’ opportunities for socialization (in this study defined more specifically as sojourner acculturation) and subsequent language development. …

Language Attitudes Of Writing Center Consultants: Perception And Expectation, Benjamin John Sparks

Masters Theses

This master’s thesis explores the results of research into the language attitudes of peer consultants working in a writing center at a large regional public university in the American Midwest. A survey was administered to writing center staff in which they were asked to evaluate the sociopolitical relationship between standard and nonstandard English dialects, the perceived relative grammaticality of these dialects, and the traditional concept of appropriateness in academic writing. Also included were questions pertaining to how consultants manage the practical responsibilities of their positions and the expectations of students and professors with the writing center’s stated policy of linguistic …

Acquiring Native-Like Norms Of Making A Request In Spanish During Short-Term Study Abroad In Argentina And Spain, Christine H. Song

LSU Master's Theses

The current study examines if L2 learners of Spanish acquire native-like norms of making a request during short-term study abroad in Argentina and Spain via Discourse Completion Tasks (DCT). The investigation included 3 groups of the participants: an experimental group of 15 U.S. students who studied in Argentina or Spain; a control group of 12 U.S. students who had not studied abroad; and a control group of 7 native speakers of Spanish. The results show that students in the study abroad group became more native-like in making a request to a certain extent. Firstly, the students in the experimental group …

21cleo Research Team Introduces Early Work At Coabe, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

21CLEO Research Blog Post No.05