This study modeled vocabulary trajectories in 91 English language learners (ELLs) with Punjabi, Tamil, or Portuguese home languages, and 50 English monolinguals (EL1) from Grades 1 to 6. The ...concurrent and longitudinal relationships between phonological awareness and phonological short-term memory and vocabulary were examined. ELLs underperformed EL1s on vocabulary across all grades. Although vocabulary grew faster in ELLs than in EL1s in the primary grades, they did not close the gap after 6 years of English schooling. Mutual facilitation was found between phonological awareness, English-like nonwords, and vocabulary. A unidirectional relationship was found between Hebrew-like nonwords and vocabulary suggesting that the relationship between phonological short-term memory and vocabulary can be more accurately captured when using nonwords based on a remote, unfamiliar language.
This study introduces an innovative approach to improving speaking proficiency among Korean EFL learners through the use of vlogs, further evaluating their impact on learners' foreign language ...speaking anxiety (FLSA) and willingness to communicate (WTC). In this semester‐long experiment, 49 university students were divided into an experimental group (n = 25) and a control group (n = 24). The former engaged in vlogging activities, while the latter received traditional instruction devoid of social networking. Data were collected via pre‐ and post‐questionnaires on FLSA and WTC, coupled with pre‐ and posttests assessing speaking skills. Vlogging significantly decreased FLSA and bolstered WTC in Korean EFL learners, demonstrating a marked improvement when contrasted with the control group. Additionally, the experimental group, engaged in vlogging, displayed superior advancement in vocabulary, comprehension, fluency and task proficiency. However, no discernible enhancements were observed in speaking accuracy when compared to the control group. With the evidence of reduced anxiety, increased communication willingness and enhanced speaking proficiency in the vlogging group, this study provides a concrete foundation for EFL teachers to consider integrating vlogging and similar social media‐based activities into language instruction. This approach could contribute to creating more engaging and comfortable learning environments, aiding learners in overcoming affective barriers and improving their language skills.
Practitioner notes
What is already known about this topic
Prior research in second language acquisition probed the impact of social media on diverse language learning areas: vocabulary, intercultural learning, speaking skills, pronunciation and writing skills.
Social media‐integrated language learning demonstrated potential in enhancing oral proficiency among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners.
Limited research exists exploring the influence of social media, especially vlogging, on EFL learners' speaking skills and affective factors such as Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and speaking anxiety.
What this paper adds
This study demonstrates that a learning environment cultivated via social media, particularly vlogging, improves speaking proficiency and positively influences affective factors like Foreign Language Speaking Anxiety (FLSA) and WTC.
The findings suggest that social media‐integrated speaking activities, specifically vlogging, offer a beneficial and effective pedagogical strategy to ameliorate speaking proficiency, FLSA, and WTC in supportive and non‐intimidating contexts.
Implications for practice and/or policy
This study offers crucial insights for EFL teachers planning courses to enhance speaking proficiency:
The integration of vlogging and similar social media‐based activities into language instruction is strongly supported by the evidence of reduced anxiety, increased communication willingness and enhanced speaking proficiency in the vlogging group. This study provides a concrete foundation for such innovative approaches.
The creation of an engaging, interactive and stress‐free learning environment is essential, enabling learners to practice speaking English without anxiety. This approach can also aid learners in overcoming affective barriers and enhancing their language skills.
EFL educators should prioritize improving key attitudinal factors, such as anxiety and WTC. These factors significantly contribute to the holistic development of oral proficiency.
When incorporating social media‐based speaking activities like vlogging, teachers' targeted feedback on recurring learner mistakes can foster improvements in speaking accuracy.
EFL teachers must recognize their critical role in nurturing a supportive, non‐intimidating environment, paving the way for learners to effectively enhance their speaking proficiency.
Although it remains an official language, Israel has made continued attempts to marginalize Arabic on the one hand and securitize it on the other. Camelia Suleiman delves into these tensions and ...contradictions, exploring how language policy and language choice both reflect and challenge political identities of Arabs and Israelis.
This paper addresses language anxiety and monolingual mindsets not only as they relate to family language use, but also to divergent social, cultural, and emotional domains of family language policy ...(FLP) decisions. It explores associations between language practices within the family, beliefs about multilingualism and language ability (language mindsets), family relations, and negative emotions such as anxiety. Based on interview data from two Turkish families in the Netherlands with high levels of language anxiety, this paper demonstrates how anxiety plays a central and unavoidable role in FLP, influencing family language practices and language development unfavourably. Furthermore, it illustrates how parental anxiety about monolingual language norms among first- and second-generation immigrants affects children's language use and development. The transmission of anxiety across generations can be prevalent in multilingual, transcultural families due to 'fixed monolingual mindsets', negatively influencing multilingual language practices in and outside the family. Anxiety and pressure in regard to monolingual mindsets influence family communication and bonding as well as immigrants' social interaction both in the host and so-called home country. FLP, when it is built on monolingual mindsets, pressure and anxiety, therefore, has not only linguistic but also social and psychological costs for individuals, families, and society.
This study examined Americans' attitudes toward standard American English (SAE) and nine, non-Anglo foreign accents: Arabic, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Hispanic, Mandarin, Russian, and Vietnamese. ...Compared to SAE speakers, all foreign-accented speakers were rated as harder to understand, more likely to be categorised as foreign (rather than American), and attributed less status and solidarity. However, not all foreign accents were equally denigrated on status and solidarity traits. Instead, an evaluative hierarchy emerged, with speakers of some varieties (e.g. French, German) consistently rated more favourably than speakers of others (e.g. Arabic, Farsi, Vietnamese). This variation in language attitudes was associated with variation in social categorisation - i.e. the higher the percentage of nonstigmatized foreign categorizations (i.e. Anglosphere, Western Europe) for a given foreign variety, the more favourably speakers of that variety were rated - and listeners' processing fluency - i.e. the easier speakers of a given foreign variety were to understand, the more favourably they were rated.
This is a thoroughly revised, updated and expanded edition of a practical introduction to intercultural education for teachers of English as a second language. This new edition addresses developments ...in the field since the publication of the 1st edition, including the impact of online resources for English language education.
Purpose: This study was designed to derive cut scores for English testing for use in identifying specific language impairment (SLI) in bilingual children who were learning English as a second ...language. Method: In a 1-gate design, 167 children received comprehensive language assessments in English and Spanish during their first-grade year. The reference standard was identification by a team of expert bilingual speech-language pathologists. Receiver operating curve (ROC) analyses were used to identify the optimal prediction model for SLI. Results: The original, English EpiSLI criteria (Tomblin, Records, & Zhang, 1996) yielded a sensitivity of 0.95 and a specificity of 0.45 (LR+ = 1.73, LR- = 0.11, and AUC = 0.79) for our bilinguals. Revised cutoff scores yielded a sensitivity of 0.86 and a specificity of 0.68 (LR+ = 2.67, LR- = 0.21, and AUC = 0.77). An optimal prediction model yielded a sensitivity of 0.81 and a specificity of 0.81 (LR+ = 4.37, LR- = 0.23 and AUC = 0.85). Conclusion: The results of English testing could be used to make a reasonably accurate diagnostic decision for bilingual children who had attended public school for at least 1 year and were using English at least 30% of the time.
Although there is a wealth of research on the use of the first language (L1) in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms, there is as yet very little research of this kind in classrooms where ...the prime pedagogical objective is to teach academic content through English as a second language (English medium instruction; EMI). It is important to begin filling this gap because a purported aim of content-based programs is to expose students to large quantities of the target language. We investigated the practices of five EMI teachers in a Chinese university and measured the reactions of their students both quantitatively and qualitatively. Our findings show that these teachers switched to the L1 rarely (although with considerable differences among the teachers) and mostly to explain both simple and complex concepts in their academic disciplines. Although students were unperturbed by the switches to the L1, some felt that the teacher could have made more of an effort to explain it in L2 first.
Standard English has evolved and developed in many ways over the past hundred years. From pronunciation to vocabulary to grammar, this concise survey clearly documents the recent history of Standard ...English. Drawing on large amounts of authentic corpus data, it shows how we can track ongoing changes to the language, and demonstrates each of the major developments that have taken place. As well as taking insights from a vast body of literature, Christian Mair presents the results of his own cutting-edge research, revealing some important changes which have not been previously documented. He concludes by exploring how social and cultural factors, such as the American influence on British English, have affected Standard English in recent times. Authoritative, informative and engaging, this book will be essential reading for anyone interested in language change in progress, particularly those working on English, and will be welcomed by students, researchers and language teachers alike.
PDF
