bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Language ego, language fear and regression in adult language learning
Authors: Cohen Yaier (Gerry) , Norst Marlene
Published: October 2016

The affective aspects of language learning have been the subject of much discussion in literature, both in their positive and negative manifestations.

This paper is concerned with negative affect in formal classes, upon English-speaking adults learning foreign languages in the adult education mode, as a compulsory element of a higher degree. The paper is based on diaries which students were required to keep as part of the course.2 The diaries were primarily intended to facilitate deliberate introspection and explicit consideration by the students of their own learning process and the various factors, linguistic and non-linguistic, which affected their learning.

Diary and introspective studies as a qualitative, rather than a quantitative tool for research into language learning, have been undertaken by Bailey (1983), Schumann (1977 and 1980), McDonough (1978) and Rivers (1983).

They do not however deal with the quite startling fears and anxieties manifested in our study nor with the consequences for their success or otherwise in language learning.

This paper sets out to provide details of student perceptions, especially the sometimes extreme manifestations of fear and anxiety they reveal. The authors hypothesize, on the basis of the diaries, that it is the individual’s “language boundary” or “language ego” which is severely threatened by public exposure in the foreign language classroom and which results in these manifestations of fear, anxiety and regression.
Cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions
Authors: Collins Peter
Published: October 2016

This paper reports findings from a study of clefts and pseudo-clefts in two standard corpora of English, one spoken and one written. The distributional patterns of the constructions across the various genres of the two corpora are explored, and explanations offered in terms of their distinctive communicative functions. Pseudo-clefts, which were considerably more popular in the spoken genres than in the written, attach special status to given information, presented in the form of a subordinate clause which is at the same time presupposed and, in the unmarked construction, thematic. Clefts, which were marginally more frequent in the written genres, are oriented towards newness. In both unmarked clefts and one type of marked cleft new information is highlighted via thematic predication.
Re-reading readability
Authors: Goodrich R.A.
Published: October 2016

This brief article critically examines the assumptions and shortcomings of lexico-syntactically based measures of readability, using the popular Fry’s readability scale as its prime example. Thereafter, it explores an alternative semantic approach to the issue by re-focusing upon three crucial cohesive factors in the development of textual meaning that Fry’s formula ignores, to its cost.
Vietnamese refugees acquiring proficiency with Australian-English vowels
Authors: Pittam Jeffery , Ingram John
Published: October 2016

This paper presents data from a longitudinal study of Vietnamese refugee families acquiring Australian-English. Specifically, the paper is concerned with Vietnamese acquiring proficiency with vowels. It documents the progress made by four members of a Vietnamese family across their first year in the country, reporting on two areas of production known to be difficult for Vietnamese: the long-short vowel distinctions, and diphthongs before a final consonant. It also reports on the subjects’ discrimination of the monophthongal vowels of Australian-English. It is shown that, for this family, the long-short distinctions are particularly problematic in terms of both production and discrimination. The report is presented as a family case study. Psycho-social factors influencing the development of the four family members are discussed. It is stressed that we as teachers and researchers need to be aware of these factors, particularly those relating to the family – the most important social unit in Vietnamese culture.
Cross-cultural pragmatics and different values
Authors: Wierzbicka Anna
Published: October 2016

The author argues that the differences in the ways of speaking prevailing in different societies and different communities are profound and systematic, and reflect the different cultural values. In the past, the extent of the differences between different language communities in their ways of speaking was often underestimated. In particular, the search for universals in language use inspired by language philosophers such as Paul Grice (1975, 1981) and John Searle (1969, 1979) often led to the identification of the mainstream American English with the “normal human ways of speaking”. The last decade has witnessed a growing reaction against this kind of misguided universalism,resulting in the birth of a new discipline: cross-cultural pragmatics. The progress of this new discipline, however, has been hampered by the lack of a suitable metalanguage. Researchers in this field tend to rely heavily on vague and undefined terms such as “directness”, “indirectness”, “harmony”, “solidarity”, which are used differently by different authors, or by the same authors but on different occasions. This leads to confusion, and to a lack of consensus and clarity even on the most basic points. The author argues that to compare cultures in a truly illuminating way we need a culture-independent perspective, and that one can reach such a perspective by relying on a natural semantic metalanguage, based on universal semantic primitives. These claims are illustrated in the paper with numerous examples.
Latent trait estimates of rater reliability in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS)
Authors: Griffin Patrick
Published: October 2016

The study examined the effects of fixed criteria, training and moderation on reliability of ratings assigned to written scripts. Using an item response analysis, consistency of inter and intra rater reliability of scoring patterns were examined under changing conditions. Ratings were assigned twice under workshop conditions and once under unsupervised isolated conditions. The workshops were used to identify criteria used by raters and then to obtain an agreed set of criteria using a consensus moderation approach. Results indicate that raters are influenced by their backgrounds, the moderation procedure and by the criteria depending on the circumstances under which the ratings were assigned. However a lack of fit of the ratings to a single dimension model over time, suggests that the raters may change their criteria under different conditions. Although similar ratings may be assigned different criteria are employed by the same rater over time. The results seriously question the use of classical measurement approaches in the assessment of rater reliability.
Latent trait estimates of rater reliability in the international English Language Testing System (IELTS)
Authors: Griffin Patrick
Published: October 2016

The study examined the effects of fixed criteria, training and moderation on reliability of ratings assigned to written scripts. Using an item response analysis, consistency of inter and intra rater reliability of scoring patterns were examined under changing conditions. Ratings were assigned twice under workshop conditions and once under unsupervised isolated conditions. The workshops were used to identify criteria used by raters and then to obtain an agreed set of criteria using a consensus moderation approach. Results indicate that raters are influenced by their backgrounds, the moderation procedure and by the criteria depending on the circumstances under which the ratings were assigned. However a lack of fit of the ratings to a single dimension model over time, suggests that the raters may change their criteria under different conditions. Although similar ratings may be assigned, different criteria are employed by the same rater over time. The results seriously question the use of classical measurement approaches in the assessment of rater reliability.
Bilingual professionals in the workforce
Authors: Borland Helen
Published: October 2016

The National Policy on Languages (Lo Bianco 1987) seeks to promote the importance and benefit of the the learning and maintenance of languages other than English for Australia’s economic development and achievement of greater social justice and equity in service delivery. In response to the policy this paper reports on research undertaken to assess the use of languages other than English (LOTE) and attitudes to their use in the professional workforce in Australia. Data collected focuses on organizations in sectors where interaction with non-English speaking clients takes place. Two groups of professionals (professionals within organizations and recent graduates with language majors) and one of management of organizations were surveyed. Results reported cover languages and how they are used and the extent of recognition of the value of LOTE. Whilst findings indicate considerable levels of use of LOTE, they also highlight inconsistencies in the views of management, a lack of awareness of the extent and nature of LOTE use and a devaluing of LOTE skills.
A review of bilingual education in Aboriginal Australia
Authors: Gale Mary-Anne
Published: October 2016

This paper reviews the state of bilingual education in Aboriginal Australia today. Critical issues associated with the current bilingual debate are raised and discussed in relation to existing and past programs with evidence presented from both sides. The paper addresses the issue of Aboriginalization of schools and the positive impact this will have on bilingual education in Australia in the future. Aboriginal people themselves are now making the decisions about their own school language programs. The fate of bilingual education is, to a large extent, in their hands.
The use of English among Italo-Australians in Sydney
Authors: Rubino Antonia , Bettoni Camilla
Published: October 2016

This article presents the first results of a research project which investigates patterns of language use in the Italo-Australian community in Sydney. All three languages spoken by the majority of Italo-Australians are taken into account: Italian, dialect and English. This article focusses on English. Use of English by 202 subjects (of different generations, Italian regions, age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds) is explored in 46 situations in four domains (family, friendship, work/school and transactions), taking into account congruent and incongruent situations with regard to three main factors: interlocutor, topic of conversation and place where it takes place.

The data show a widespread shift to English which starts among younger subjects of the first generation and increases dramatically among the second generation. Furthermore, use of English by Italo-Australians depends more on personal characteristics of speakers and addressees (such as age and generation) than on topic or place of conversation.
Reading picture books on television
Authors: Liddicoat Anthony
Published: October 2016

Television plays a major role in the lives of children. This studies examines one aspect of children’s television – the reading of picture books. Interaction centred around picture books has been shown to be an important element in the acquisition of literacy. Mediated picture books and “live” picture books encourage different patterns of interaction between reader and child. The reading of a television picture book, unlike that of a live picture book, is a text, not an interaction centred about a text. Such texts can form the basis of useful interactions between children and others, but exposure to mediated picture books alone does not appear to replace the function of “live” picture book reading in the acquisition of literacy.
Synoptic and dynamic analyses of classroom discourse
Authors: Hammond Jennifer
Published: October 2016

This paper explores the relationship between teachers’ theories of language and learning and the nature of classroom discourse. Through analysis of data collected from two year 3 classes, it is argued that there are three components functioning simultaneously in all lessons. These are the interpersonal, the content and the metalanguage components. The focus of the paper is on how the content and the metalanguage components are realized in the classroom discourse, and on the educational implications of the metalanguage component in particular. It is suggested that the quality of the metalanguage component has an impact on the overall quality of the language education program and that this impact derives from an appropriate theory of language use.
An evaluation model for ELT projects in South India
Authors: Davies Alan
Published: October 2016

Four short-term British Council Key English Language Teaching (KELT) tertiary education projects in South India were evaluated through visits, interviews and study of relevant documents. An evaluation model was developed incorporating four outcome criteria of project success (product, teacher development, sustainability, extendibility) and four input predictors (ongoing institutional support, ongoing training as education, consultant as team member, growing professional perception). Recommendations on future policy are given; these include the wider dissemination of existing information about ELT projects in India and involve a homogeneous but unequal network design.
Speech reporting as a discourse strategy
Authors: Baynham Mike
Published: October 2016

This paper examines approaches to the analysis of speech reporting, finding that these approaches fall into two broad categories: traditional approaches which emphasize the syntactic dimension of speech reporting and are informed by an autonomous model of language and discourse pragmatic approaches which emphasize the interaction of syntactic, pragmatic and stylistic factors in discourse. A model for speech reporting strategies in discourse is proposed, involving direct and indirect speech reporting strategies and a ‘lexicalization strategy’. Using this model, a number of approaches to the function of direct speech reporting strategies in the early stages of SLA are reviewed, which analyze the function of direct speech reporting as a ‘compensatory discourse strategy’, not as stylistic variation. It is argued that this analysis is informed by the traditional approach to speech reporting and does not take into account the ‘lexicalization strategy’. When the lexicalization strategy is considered, direct speech is found to function both referentially and stylistically in learner discourse. The argument is illustrated via an analysis of speech reporting in narrative in learner varieties of English and German.
Spanish speakers apologizing in English
Authors: Cordella Marisa
Published: October 2016

This paper investigates the speech act of apologizing in English between Chileans and Australians. It examines the frequency, distribution and function of apology-strategies used by both groups in a situation of having missed an important appointment with ‘a boss’. Results indicate that L2 Chileans and Australians do not differ significantly in the frequency of using some apology-strategies, nevertheless striking divergences emerged from the modification attached to them (Blum-Kulka et al. 1989). This finding may indicate that each group of speakers coined a different weight to the apology-strategies. Thus while ‘remedial work’ (Goffman 1971) in Spanish is accomplished by the use of positive politeness strategies (Brown and Levinson 1987), Australians appear not to favour them. These differences may anticipate some communication problems which may lead to ‘sociopragmatic failure’ (Thomas 1983) between both groups. Moreover the sex of the apologizer and the recipient is an important factor which determines the speaker’s performance in the act of apologizing.
Discourse as a resource
Authors: Winter Joanne
Published: October 2016

Language attitudes have frequently been included in investigations of language shift, language maintenance, second language acquisition and bilingualism. Speakers’ attitudes about and towards such language issues contribute toward the planning and provision of language services and education in the speech community. The data gathering methods adopted for the collection of speakers’ language attitudes usually consist of sociolinguistic questionnaires and/or social psychological matched guise experiments. In this paper I will present some exploratory ideas about discourse analysis as a method for the collection and analysis of language attitudes. The data for the investigation is a series of group negotiations among female and male speakers from Anglo-Australian and Greek-Australian backgrounds. The speakers were participating in group ‘negotiations’ discussing various issues of language planning and policy in an Australian context.
Did you have a good week-end? or why there is no such thing as a simple question in cross-cultural encounters
Authors: Béal Christine
Published: October 2016

This paper is a description of some typical differences in conversational routines in French and Australian English, and the kinds of tensions that arise when speakers with two different sets of rules come into contact. This conflict exists for most French people in Australia, who speak English, but who tend to retain their French conversational strategies. The paper shows that even simple questions contain a variety of assumptions ranging from whom it is suitable to ask, to the kind of answer or the amount of detail expected. These differences lead to an analysis of the different underlying cultural values governing the rules of interaction in the two languages. This study is based on visits to a French company operating in Australia, with employees being taped on the job as well as being interviewed individually.
Language maintenance in the second generation
Authors: Bennett E. Jane
Published: October 2016

The article discusses the attitude of the second generation Dutch in Australia to language maintenance. It gives a profile of the group’s language maintenance activities, and examines factors related to language maintenance attitudes and the use of Dutch.

The research involved detailed personal interviews with 100 members of the target group. Some of the information collected was evaluated quantitatively using computer-aided statistical analysis; other responses were analysed primarily in qualitative terms.

The results revealed a more positive attitude to language maintenance and greater frequency of use of Dutch than might have been expected on the basis of the (limited) previous research on the second generation or the national census data. On the other hand, there was relatively little participation in activities with the potential to influence the use of Dutch: visits to the Netherlands, association with Dutch organizations, and attendance at Dutch classes. Overall the research provided no evidence of a continuing decline in frequency of use of Dutch to the point of a complete shift to English only. It was also clear that many informants valued their current use of Dutch.
Supporting children’s home languages in mainstream educational programs
Authors: Makin Laurie
Published: October 2016

If we are to ensure that language and communication skills for national needs are developed through education, then we cannot afford to neglect the existing language resources which Australia’s children bring to early childhood and primary school programs.

Conservation of these resources can range along a continuum from home language support in mainstream educational programs to full bilingual education programs. The greatest range of national needs will be met through full bilingual education. However, in the current educational and political climate, such programs are unlikely to expand. In such a climate, it is important to ensure that no avenue of linguistic conservation is neglected. The Home Language Support Project, described in this paper, is one attempt to help mainstream teachers include children’s home languages in educational programs.

The Project is described briefly, and one of the questions which arose during its implementation is discussed -language delivery patterns in home language support programs and the issue of code switching.
Intercultural problems in teaching forms of address to Polish learners of English as a second language
Authors: Ronowicz Edmund A.
Published: October 2016

Polish immigrants, who otherwise seem to have a fairly good command of English, often sound excessively formal or shy on the one hand, and too direct, sometimes even rude, on the other. The paper presents a comparative analysis of English and Polish forms of addressing people and the sociocultural rules of their use. It is pointed out that numerous similarities in the repertoires of English and Polish forms of address lead Polish ESL learners to assume wrongly that the similarities extend also to the sociocultural rules of use. It is argued that systematic training in the area of differences between the cultural aspects of linguistic behaviour between immigrants’ mother tongue and English should be an integral part of all ESL courses.
Interkinesics and interprosodics in second language acquisition
Authors: Gassin June
Published: October 2016

This paper assumes the unified nature of language behaviour including verbal, kinesic and prosodic forms. In the light of this, it proposes that Interlanguage Theory should be expanded to include kinesic and prosodic modes of behaviour. It presents the hypothesis that the acquisition of second language kinesic and prosodic forms takes place in a similar fashion to acquisition of second language verbal forms acquisition is developmental; it is subject to mother tongue interference; it can undergo fossilization. It is further hypothesised that fossilization in kinesic and prosodic forms may have cognitive and emotional implications and may even impede the second language learner in his/her development on the verbal level.
Foreign language needs in the European workplace
Authors: Hagen Stephen
Published: October 2016

The bold, but realistic working assumption of a recent report from a ‘round table’ of European industrialists, including people from Volvo, Philips and Lyonaise des Eaux-Dumez, was that there would eventually be a Europe of 20 nation-states and half a billion people (Monod et al.1991). The imminent prospect of a single, unified European marketplace on 1 January 1993, which may, ultimately, extend up to, or even beyond the Urals, has focused much debate on the extent to which linguistic and cultural barriers will obstruct economic and political progress towards unification. Within the report, it is the human dimension and, in particular, the issue of inter-personal communication which was at the centre of the policy agenda. At the top of the list of indispensable basic skills, which would be needed, came ‘linguistic skills (notably in three languages, including English), enhanced communication skills, an open mind and sensitivity to cultural differences’ (Monod et al. 1991:14). What is significant in this short document is that prominence is given, firstly, to multilingualism – almost as a basic requirement for European industry – and, secondly, to the link with cultural competence.
Disfluencies in learner speech
Authors: Temple Liz
Published: October 2016

Disfluent phenomena such as pauses, hesitations and repairs, are investigated in a corpus of forty-two short samples of spontaneous speech of native French speakers and learners of French. Significant quantitative differences between native speakers and learners were found and interpreted in the light of Bialystok’s and McLaughlin’s theories of language processing and the two key concepts of automaticity and control. A greater requirement of processing time on the part of the language learners was attributed to their greater use of controlled processes. An analysis of lexical and syntactic selection and repair was carried out to determine where control was applied. While native speakers were attending to the construction of the referent, learners were more concerned with syntactic construction.
Student response to feedback strategies in an English for Academic Purposes program
Authors: Crawford Jane
Published: October 2016

This paper looks at student response to different types of corrective feedback in an English for Academic Purposes [EAP] program. Reactions were collected by means of two questionnaires. The first was completed at the end of the semester and reflected actual experience with the feedback discussed. The second provided a wider overview of attitudes to the issue and was collected at the beginning of the following semester and with a different group of learners. The results suggest that, given the demand for correction and feedback, the time devoted to it, and the pressure on students and staff in EAP programs to develop learners’ accuracy and fluency, it seems essential to make procedures and their rationale more explicit and to explore how effective various techniques are in actually producing permanent change in learners’ interlanguage development.
Why study French?
Authors: Keuneman Katrine Pilcher , Sagona Sylvia
Published: October 2016

The following article gives an account of the results of a research project which looked, inter alia, at motivation among first year university students of French, both beginner stream and post school certificate students. While it is currently fashionable to underline the economic and social usefulness of language study, information is not freely available on why students who enrol for French actually do so. The extrinsic / intrinsic dichotomy of motivations was adopted as a working principle for classifying motivations. This dichotomy may be likened to the integrative / instrumental division used by Gardner and Lambert (1972) We observed that students were motivated by a wide variety of factors. Though motivations are sometimes hard to classify on a binary scale, there was nevertheless no clear preference for extrinsic or pragmatic reasons; if anything, personal or intrinsic reasons seemed to dominate.
Migrant engineers’ job interview performance
Authors: Hawthorne Lesleyanne
Published: October 2016

More than 12,000 migrant engineers have migrated to Australia in the past four years – the majority NESB professionals of prime workforce age selected under the skilled immigration program.

These engineers are currently experiencing extreme levels of unemployment – in part due to Australia’s recession, but in part due to disproportionate labour market rejection.

This paper examines the critical ‘gatekeeping’ role of the employment interview. It explores the cultural attitudes a range of East European engineers bring to Australian engineering job interview questions – in particular ‘process’ questions (requiring detailed description of knowledge of engineering processes), and ‘self-promotion’ questions (inviting positive presentation of demonstrated professional skills).

The paper then analyses the videotaped job interview performance of two East European engineers, who answer such questions poorly in interviews conducted by the Institution of Engineers, Australia. The paper suggests that disparities between country of origin interview strategies and those used in Australia might usefully be targeted as areas for further research. Such research could lead to more effective cross-cultural interview training, while lessening the risk of interview failure.
The genre element in the systems analyst’s interview
Authors: Tebble Helen
Published: October 2016

It has been estimated by those who work in the computing industry that sixty per cent of their time is taken up in communication and only forty per cent is spent on technical work. There is then a clear need to develop the communicative abilities of those in the computer industry. Well designed communication courses for people in computing would benefit from linguistic descriptions of the discourses of this industry. A linguistic description of the structure and genre of the systems analyst’s interview should provide the basis for some of these courses. This paper discusses the genre of the two major types of interviews used by systems analysts and identifies the genre element as the unit of discourse structure that links the lower level and higher level units of discourse structure within systemic linguistics. It draws upon data collected from the depth phase of a national systems analysis project. It is argued that for a full linguistic description of the structure of lengthy speech events within a systemic linguistics framework it is necessary to take both a top down (generic) and bottom up (discourse units) approach.
Approaches to first language acquisition
Authors: Döpke Susanne
Published: October 2016

A bilingual child’s development of word order in German and English subordinate clauses was followed between three and five years of age, and a number of diversions from the development of word order in such clauses by monolingual children was noted. Of particular interest is the fact that incorrect dependent clause structures in German were more likely to be due to intra-language influences from German main clause structures than from English. The findings are discussed in the light UG claims made by Clahsen (1988) concerning the word order development in monolingual children.
Semantics as a resource for teaching critical literacy
Authors: Shopen Glenda
Published: October 2016

Reports are important genres in our culture and they have achieved some prominence in education. What it means to report and the way reporting is conceived in our culture can be revealed through semantic analysis. By looking at the meaning of the verb report, this paper will argue for a view of genre as a cultural activity and a view of literacy that involves children in the development of personal perspective. This approach argues against a text based view of genre and a pedagogy that relies primarily on the modelling of ‘considered texts’.
Scientific and technical English for non-English speaking background graduates
Authors: Golebiowski Zofia
Published: October 2016

Linguistic and cultural needs of non-English Speaking background graduates in science and technology fields are currently not being met due to the lack of specific language and communication programs. This paper discusses the development of an innovative Scientific and Technical English curriculum to be offered in university as well as industrial settings, with the aim of providing language and acculturation bridging programs for the overseas qualified professionals, to satisfy Australia’s educational and industry requirements. It describes the aims, design and outcomes of a modular, socio-cultural, negotiated curriculum, written from a perspective of training in its broad sense with education playing an integral part. The acquisition of communicative skills in English which will enable the learners to access and function in positions commensurate with their overseas qualifications and experience is seen as the ultimate objective of the program.
Classroom discourse
Authors: Torr Jane
Published: October 2016

This paper discusses some of the results of a pilot study of spontaneous teacher/child discourse in two Year 1 Sydney classrooms (children aged 6 and 7 years). The two classrooms differed greatly in terms of their ethnic composition; in one class, the majority of children came from non-English speaking backgrounds, while in the other class, all the children were native English speakers. The teachers and students were taped during typical group lessons, and the resulting data were transcribed and analysed using a speech act framework (Hasan’s message semantics network). The results showed significant differences between the discourse in the two classrooms; for example, the teacher of the non-English speaking background class spoke more frequently than the teacher of native English speakers, and she asked different types of questions. The children from non-English speaking backgrounds rarely participated in the classroom conversation. These results suggest that further investigation in the area is justified, in order to determine how typical these differences are, and the extent to which the differences are educationally significant in terms of classroom practices currently followed with ESB and NESB children.
Supportive devices in language and paralanguage in the achievement of affiliation in troubles talk
Authors: Pritchard C. Ruth
Published: October 2016

This study uses the methodology of conversational analysis to examine a case of ‘troubles talk’ between a group of female survivors of rape:that is, conversation on the discourse topic of ‘troubles’ or problems, and displaying the close interactional distance of intimacy. Rather than dwelling on the sequential and functional framework of ‘troubles talk’, this paper analyses the conversational process of ‘affiliation’ between the interactants as it occurs within the structure of the conversation, and the linguistic and paralinguistic devices utilised successfully in the achievement of ‘affiliation’ in the ‘troubles talk’. Both topical and interactional levels are considered, as they interact in the conversation to achieve successful ‘affiliation’ and ‘affiliation response’. The successful utilisation of linguistic and paralinguistic devices in affiliation affect the consequent self-disclosure which is crucial in overcoming the trauma of the experiences discussed in the ‘troubles talk’. The significance of affiliation to social context, gender, and culture are also considered.
Reading strategy training in second language contexts
Authors: Cotterall Sara
Published: October 2016

Strategy training appears to be a promising means of assisting second language learners. However, strategy training operates within a context. If factors in that context are not considered, the training will not be successful. This paper discusses a number of insights highlighted by a reading strategy training study conducted in a second language (L2) setting. It cautions against the uncritical adoption of strategy training as a panacea for learning difficulties, and stresses the importance of recognising and taking account of factors in the second language learning context which may suggest modifications to procedures carried out successfully in first language (L1) settings.
Some suggestions for the pragmatic analysis of discourse in French language classes
Authors: Mrowa-Hopkins Colette
Published: October 2016

In the present state of changes and challenges facing our classroom practices, various approaches and curriculum designs have focussed on different publics and their needs, rather than on notions based on types of discourses and learning situations. That is partly because we still lack analytical tools to evaluate what is happening in L2 acquisition in classrooms contexts. In this discussion paper, a pilot study is described which addresses questions related to transcription and qualitative data analysis in an attempt to pinpoint lesson features which may help or hinder the development of second language skills. The focus is on the ecology of the classroom and the importance of mime and gesture in relation to students’ responses specifically in terms of active listening and comprehension.
Choosing a liturgical language
Authors: Liddicoat Anthony J.
Published: October 2016

Religious language use in a multilingual community represents a special case of language planning. The choice of a liturgical language is determined both by religious and practical considerations and is based, in part, on the ways in which people view sacred activities. The Catholic Church has at various times during its history promoted and condemned the celebration of the Mass in vernacular languages. The language policy of the Church has been a response to two factors: the need for uniformity and integrity of doctrine and the need for the worshipping community to have access to the meaning of the words of the liturgical action. These two factors have received different emphases at different times in the history of the Church with the consequence that the Church has supported either plurality or uniformity in the choice of the liturgical languages of the Mass.
Depth or breadth? some issues in lote teaching
Authors: Gibbons John
Published: October 2016

The prevailing pattern of second language instruction in NSW schools is one in which the available time is distributed across several languages (a ‘breadth’ approach). With the impending introduction of second languages into many primary schools, a window of opportunity has opened: if all the available curriculum hours are devoted to a single language in primary and secondary school (a ‘depth’ approach) there is a possibility of most students attaining a communicative proficiency in a LOTE. This possibility can be increased (a) if the second language is a language spoken in the home (b) if certain classroom processes are adopted, and (c) if the language is more easily learnable. A case study of a school is presented which includes information and opinions gathered from parents on these issues, and an outline ‘depth’ curriculum for this school.
The assessment of writing by English and ESL teachers
Authors: O’Loughlin Kieran
Published: October 2016

There has been a surprisingly limited amount of research comparing the direct assessment of writing by teachers of English as a mother tongue and English as a second language (abbreviated as English and ESL respectively) given the amount of common ground they share as teachers of writing. This study aims to investigate whether these two groups of teachers rate writing samples differently using both holistic (global) and analytical (multiple trait) scoring methods. The research compares the assessments made by four experienced teachers from each of these two rater groups of the same set of 20 native speaker (English) and 20 non native speaker (ESL) essays written by final year secondary students. While no significant difference was found between the single global essay ratings of the two groups of teachers, this was not the case for the essay totals obtained by combining the global and analytical scores. The comparison based on these essay totals indicated that overall English teachers rated all of the essays significantly more harshly than ESL teachers. These findings suggested that the analytical scoring method may be more faithful to real dissimilarities which exist between raters of different backgrounds and professional experience than is the holistic scoring method in the assessment of writing. The choice of scoring procedure when both types of raters are used, therefore, is likely to determine whether or not these differences are highlighted and thus the overall level of inter-rater reliablity.
Thematic options in reports of previous research
Authors: Thomas Sarah , Hawes Thomas
Published: October 2016

This paper discusses one identifying feature of journal articles — Reports or Citations. The study focuses on an examination of the syntactic choices available to writers for making reporting statements and the conditions governing such choices. There is a great deal of variation in the forms of the Reports in academic articles and one factor in this seems to be the writer’s choice of a particular element of the message as Theme of the reporting statement. The purpose of this research was to turn up information regarding thematic options and their distribution which would be useful for identifying the patterns of choice that are characteristic of reporting. We investigate the way in which the choice of Theme affects the syntactic form of the Reports. It is suggested that a typology of Reports based on participant Subject in the Theme element can be drawn up. Reports were categorised as having Agent Themes, Text Reference Themes or Content Term Themes. With these three main choices for Theme, variations are created when Textual, Interpersonal or Ideational elements in the form of Circumstantial Adjuncts work in conjunction with the Subject headword. The different syntactic forms of Reports resulting from different thematic choices are shown to be associated with the function of Reports in their contexts.
The use of foreign languages in tourism
Authors: Watts Noel
Published: October 2016

This paper examines the research needs relating to the use of foreign languages in tourism activities in Australia and New Zealand. Various claims have been made that the provision of effective foreign language services is essential to the expansion and diversification of tourism in both countries. However, there is currently a lack of precise information on the ways in which the tourism industry in Australia and New Zealand is providing appropriate language assistance that meets the needs of inbound visitors who are speakers of languages other than English. Studies that have been carried out into certain areas of foreign language use in tourism in Australia and New Zealand are discussed and a number of suggestions are made as to future directions for research.
‘Yes Kylie, Echidna’sarealmost wombats!’
Authors: Rieschild Verna Robertson
Published: October 2016

This paper examines some aspects of English and Lebanese-Arabic adult-responses to child-answers, exploring the way the use of preferred communication strategies reflects culturally-based assumptions about learning and guiding learning. Adults who regularly deal with young children develop preferred interactive strategies which derive from social attitudes. Naturally there is an element of individual style, but this is only recognisable as individual in relation to the norm. These early experiences teach children how to make sense of the world and how to relate within it. They develop a relational competence, learning how to adapt to differing role expectations as they move between home, peer, preschool and school groups. Understanding how to ask and answer appropriately is certainly part of being a competent speaker. Home and pre-school norms are not always the same, and young children and adults don’t always understand each other, particularly in crosscultural interactions. Data was elicited from dyads engaged in narrative and descriptive tasks using sets of pictures. The approach is interpretive. In cross-cultural studies there is not always a neutral middle ground between cultures from which one can easily develop objective interpretations. There is a different ranking of values, assumptions and expectations. Part of the analytical approach of this research is aimed at reducing the potential for cultural bias in interpretations by using Natural Semantic Metalanguage to produce cultural scripts representing meanings.
Cohesive conjunctions in the English writing of Cantonese speaking students from Hong Kong
Authors: Field Yvette
Published: October 2016

Student writers in Hong Kong have a distinctive style in ordering their thoughts for academic essay assignments which consists of frequent prefacing of their points with cohesive conjunctions. Applied linguists in Hong Kong have studied this use of conjunction to ascertain how it differs from native speaker use, to gauge the extent to which teaching, textbooks and transfer are influential and to analyse the extent of misuse and unnecessary use. This work is reviewed with close attention to Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) cohesion theory and further research directions and teaching implications are presented in the light of this theory.
The effects of suggestopedic elements on qualitative and quantitative measures of language production
Authors: Felix Uschi , Lawson Michael
Published: October 2016

This was a 10-week time-series investigation of a class of 12 students with the same teacher carrying out the teaching for both the experimental and control condition and the same students exposed to both treatment conditions. The question of central interest in this study was whether Suggestopedia affects more sophisticated language skills than recall, and both quantitative and qualitative measures were included to address the criticism that Suggestopedia affects memory skills alone. Year 10 students’ recall, comprehension, word production, fluency, accuracy, writing quality, transfer skills of grammatical items, and understanding of grammar rules were tested once a week. Long-term retention rates for recall were also checked at the end of each four-week period. The findings suggested that Suggestopedia does in fact have the potential to positively affect sophisticated language skills such as transfer of structures and creative writing. Compared with performance during the control Phase, results showed that during the experimental Phase students performed equally as well on tests of comprehension, accuracy and understanding of rules, and significantly better on tests of recall, word production, fluency, writing quality and transfer of grammatical items.
Cohesion in Italian adult learners’ and native speakers’ compositions
Authors: Zanardi Nicoletta
Published: October 2016

This paper presents data from a cross-sectional study of the use of cohesion in Italian texts written by L2 adult learners and by native speakers. Twenty-six free compositions were analysed for cohesion: eighteen by anglophone learners of Italian attending first, second, third and fourth year of Italian at Sydney University, and eight by native speakers of Italian divided in two groups: one of students, who have either done their schooling in Italy or recently arrived in Australia, the other of Italian professionals living in Sydney. More specifically, cohesion was analysed for the three categories of reference, conjunction and lexical cohesion. The objective of the study is twofold: a) to compare learners and native speakers in their use of cohesion, and b) to observe the developmental sequences in the use of cohesion in the six different groups. Examples from the texts are given and a tentative interpretation of the data is presented.
Interlanguage phonology
Authors: Toda Takako
Published: October 2016

This paper presents the results of a study pertaining to the acquisition of timing control by Australian subjects who are enrolled in first-year Japanese at tertiary level. Instrumental techniques are used to observe segment duration and pitch patterns in the speech production of learners and native speakers of Japanese. The observations concern vowels and obstruents based on minimal pairs with durational contrasts, and the results are discussed within the framework of interlanguage phonology. The results obtained from this study demonstrate problems of beginning-level learners, including the underdifferentiation of durational contrasts (Han 1992). From the viewpoint of interlanguage phonology, however, the results seem to indicate that the learners have the ability to control timing and that they try to achieve durational distinctions in their speech production, but that their phonetic realisation is different from that of native speakers.
Patterns of rater behaviour in the assessment of an oral interaction test
Authors: Wigglesworth Gillian
Published: October 2016

Lack of inter-rater agreement in the assessment of oral tests is wellknown. In this paper, multi-faceted Rasch analysis was used to determine whether any bias was evident in the way a group of raters (N=13) rated two different versions of an oral interaction test, undertaken by the same candidates (N=83) under the two conditions – direct and semi-direct. Rasch measurement allows analysis of the interaction between ‘facets’; in this case, raters, items and candidates are all facets. In this study, the interaction between rater and item was investigated in order to determine whether particular tasks in the test were scored in a consistently biased way by particular raters. The results of the analysis indicated that certain raters consistently assessed the tape-version of the test more harshly whilst others consistently rated the live version more harshly. This type of approach also allowed a finer analysis at the level of individual items with respect to harshness and consistency across ratings. The implications for rater training and feedback are discussed.