A convergent parallel mixed-methods approach was used to explore teacher care, teacher-student rapport, and engagement in pursuing academic goals in a foreign language (L2) context, as perceived by ...223 Iranian and 208 Polish L2 students. Quantitative data were obtained through three scales, the cross-cultural validity and factor structure of which were ensured through testing measurement invariance and confirmatory factor analysis, respectively. The structural equation modeling results obtained through running Mplus approved that care and rapport predicted Iranian and Polish students' engagement in pursuing academic goals in an L2 context. For checking the equality of the structural path coefficients, the Omnibus Wald test was employed. Group differences in factor means were tested, showing that Iranian and Polish students differed significantly regarding their levels of engagement. Qualitative data, obtained through running interviews with 30 Iranian and 24 Polish students, selected from the initial sample, approved the predictive links of care and rapport with Iranian and Polish students' engagement in pursuing academic goals in an L2 context. However, the students' qualitative reports revealed how their perceived country's cultural and instructional contexts influenced their engagement, empirically supporting the supposition that engagement is the by-product of the dynamic interaction between the individual factors and the instructional context, necessitating the examination of the role of sociocultural values and home culture in accomplishing this educational objective.
This study investigates how teachers use language and bodily-visual practices, and particularly facial gestures, to initiate repair of problems in students’ utterances in Chinese as a Second Language ...classroom interactions. We identify two multimodal practices used by teachers for other-initiation of repair. First, teachers use a “visual repair initiator” of eyebrow raises and head tilts to address apparent language errors in students’ utterances without specifying the trouble-source. Second, teachers use full or partial repeats with marked prosody and eyebrow raises to display problems with accepting a student’s response. We argue that the two practices are deployed to deal with different types of problems in students’ utterances.
This study investigates how teachers use language and bodily-visual practices, and particularly facial gestures, to initiate repair of problems in students’ utterances in Chinese as a Second Language ...classroom interactions. We identify two multimodal practices used by teachers for other-initiation of repair. First, teachers use a “visual repair initiator” of eyebrow raises and head tilts to address apparent language errors in students’ utterances without specifying the trouble-source. Second, teachers use full or partial repeats with marked prosody and eyebrow raises to display problems with accepting a student’s response. We argue that the two practices are deployed to deal with different types of problems in students’ utterances.
The research observed the role of the first language (L1) use in the second language (L2) classrooms in various Englishlanguage teaching (ELT) contexts. Among the many roles that L1 use played in L2 ...classrooms, which had been recognized, some drawbacks interfered due to unbalanced uses of both L1 and L2. To complement insightful findings presented in the existing literature on this L1 use topic, the research aims to explore L1 uses in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) L2 classrooms in a teacher training program in Indonesia. Applying a qualitative research approach, the research collected data from three English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher educators teaching an English speaking subject in an Indonesian university using a semi-structured interview protocol and a classroom observation fieldnote. Results show that all the participants share the same views on L1 in their L2 classrooms that its use is tolerated and mainly related to cognitive and pedagogical aspects. The research suggests that formal training seeking to arouse awareness on the role that L1 can play in L2 classroom is of necessity in the context of the EFL teacher training program in order to foster learners’ optimal L2 output.
This article reports on a multiple case study that investigated the dynamic and situated nature of learners' willingness to communicate (WTC) in second language (L2) classrooms. Framed within a ...sociocognitive perspective on L2 learning which draws together social, environmental, and individual factors, this study traced WTC among six learners of English as a second language enrolled in an English for academic purposes programme in New Zealand for 5 months. Data were collected through classroom observations, stimulated-recall interviews, and reflective journals. Analysis of the data suggests that the classroom WTC construct is best described as a dynamic situational variable rather than a trait disposition. This article argues that situational WTC in class results from the interdependence among individual characteristics, classroom environmental conditions, and linguistic factors. These three strands of factors interdependently exert either facilitative or inhibitive effects on an individual student's WTC in class at any point in time. The effect of the combinations of factors differs between individuals, and the interrelationship is too complex to be predicted.
The Challenge
Multiword sequences are difficult for second language (L2) learners to acquire. What factors influence L2 learners' learning of Chinese multiword sequences? The grammar patterns for ...such constructions in Chinese presented in the textbooks are complicated, and some are not accurate. How should L2 instructors teach multiword sequences?
Chinese directional complement (DC) constructions, as a subtype of Chinese multiword sequences, are challenging to acquire for second language (L2) learners. However, little is known about L2 Chinese learners' acquisition of figurative DCs and their comprehension of literal and figurative DCs. This study investigated whether the acquisition of Chinese DCs by English learners of Chinese was influenced by the syntactic and semantic complexity of DC constructions, and learners' first language (L1) experience, through a situation‐cued sentence completion test and grammaticality judgment test. Analysis of the performance by 58 L1 English learners of Chinese on the tests revealed that learners' acquisition of DCs was affected by the syntactic complexity of DC constructions, whether DCs were used literally or figuratively, and the L1 experience of English learners of Chinese. The findings of this study have implications for teaching Chinese DC constructions, and potentially other Chinese multiword sequences.
Second language trainee teachers need to use effective classroom language, or 'teacher talk', otherwise opportunities for second language learning can be reduced. However, trainees are often not ...aware of how their teacher talk influences opportunities for language development in the classroom. This study explores teacher talk data collected from lesson transcripts of teaching practice recordings and from stimulated recall interviews with nine trainee teachers who were studying on a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Master's programme at a UK university. It encourages the trainees to look up-close at their teacher talk in order to raise their awareness of its impact on second language learning. The findings of this research show that trainee teachers use teacher talk features which close down learner interaction and that this may be due to their concern with getting through and moving on with the lesson rather than with supporting learning.
This article provides an empirically based perspective on the contribution of conversation analysis (CA) and sociocultural theory to our understanding of learners' second language (L2) practices ...within what we call a strong socio-interactionist perspective. It explores the interactive (re)configuration of tasks in French second language classrooms. Stressing that learning is situated in learners' social, and therefore profoundly interactional, practices, we investigate how tasks are not only accomplished but also collaboratively (re)organized by learners and teachers, leading to various configurations of classroom talk and structuring specific opportunities for learning. The analysis of L2 classroom interactions at basic and advanced levels shows how the teacher's instructions are reflexively redefined within courses of action and how thereby the learner's emerging language competence is related to other (interactional, institutional, sociocultural) competencies. Discussing the results in the light of recent analyses of the indexical and grounded dimensions of everyday and experimental tasks allows us to broaden our understanding of competence and situated cognition in language learning.
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