bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Language attitudes of the Vietnamese in Melbourne
Authors: Pham Mai N.
Published: October 2016

This study is an attempt to investigate language attitudes of the older and younger generations of Vietnamese bilingual adults in Melbourne, in relation to their ethnicity in the Australian context and in the light of the historical background of the Vietnamese immigrants in Australia. A survey of 165 Vietnamese bilingual adults and students in Melbourne was carried out to investigate their language use in private and public domains, their appraisal of English and Vietnamese, their attitudes towards Vietnamese language maintenance, acculturation, and the question of their ethnic identity in Australian society. The results of the findings reveal that there is a significant difference between adults and students in various aspects of their language attitudes. Overall their choice of language use in private and public domains varies with situations and interlocutors. Although both groups show positive attitudes towards the appraisal of Vietnamese, the maintenance of Vietnamese language and culture and the retaining of their ethnic identity, what is significant is that students demonstrate stronger positive attitudes than adults. With regard to factors that influence the maintenance of Vietnamese, while adults think that government language policy is the most important factor, students express their confidence in the ability of the Vietnamese themselves to maintain their language.
Past time reference in learner English
Authors: Peterson Peter G.
Published: October 2016

A “concept-oriented” analysis of past time reference in the English of two French learners provides insight into the communicative strategies employed by advanced language learners. Although these learners have a limited command of past tense morphology, they nevertheless manage to establish past time reference in conversational discourse, utilising alternatives to morphological marking such as the use of adverbial phrases, implicit framing established by prior discourse, or “nil” framing, relying on assumed shared knowledge or the interlocutor’s interpretive skills. The two varieties of “learner English” differ significantly: one features a substantially higher number of morphologically marked verbs, with increasing explicitness in temporal framing; the other makes much greater use of implicit framing, with a substantial and unexpected increase in reliance on discourse-based frames. Neither learner shows evidence of linear or stage-wise development which would correspond to “rule-governed” acquisition of new knowledge.
Roles in autonomous language learning
Authors: Cotterall Sara
Published: October 2016

The literature on autonomous learning indicates that role is a critical dimension in implementing learner autonomy. This paper examines the roles adopted by learners and teachers in language learning settings where the objective of promoting learner autonomy has been adopted. It does this first by exploring the ways in which different writers committed to autonomy have characterised learner and teacher roles. It then focuses specifically on language learning and considers how three variables – culture, learning mode and individual differences – might influence the roles which individuals actually adopt. The paper concludes by considering how new or modified roles might most effectively be presented.
Differences and distinguishability in the acoustic characteristics of hello in voices of similar-sounding speakers
Authors: Rose Phil
Published: October 2016

Forensic Phonetics is an important application of Linguistics that has emerged as a discipline over the last decade. This paper describes a Forensic Phonetic experiment which investigates the nature of within- and between-speaker variation in the acoustic characteristics of the word hello in demonstrably similar-sounding voices. The nature of within-segment variation is determined in repeats of the same word said under different prosodic conditions in order to exclude as much of the linguistically determined variation as is consistent with the realities of the forensic situation, thus providing a good estimate of variation associated with speakers. Intonationally varying tokens of the naturally produced single word utterance hello from six adult Australian males are compared with respect to fundamental frequency, and to centre frequencies and bandwidths of the F-pattern below 5 KHz. This comprises the first five formants and extra resonances, including a possible singer’s formant and tracheal resonance. Results show that between-speaker acoustic differences are pervasive, though not ubiquitous. Magnitudes of between-speaker differences are presented for all parameters, and their forensic significance evaluated. ANOVA and chi-square tests show that even similar-sounding voices differ significantly in their acoustics, especially centre frequencies of F2-F4, formant bandwidth, and incidence of extra resonances. Simulated forensic conditions show that some of these differences are not realistically demonstrable. Nevertheless, there remain sufficient significant differences to distinguish 13 out of 15 pairs: a value of 13% for the denominator of the associated Bayesian Likelihood Ratio for the prosecution hypothesis. Directions for future research are indicated.
Metalinguistic knowledge
Authors: Elder Cathie , Warren Jane , Hajek John , Manwaring Diane , Davies Alan
Published: October 2016

This paper reports on a project (funded by a small Australian Research Council grant) investigating levels of metalinguistic knowledge of English and other languages amongst first-year undergraduate learners of French, Chinese and Italian and the relationship between this knowledge and success in studying a language at university. The study is a partial replication of research undertaken by Alderson, Clapham and Steel (1977) in relation to learners studying French at a number of British universities.

The findings offer no support for the widely-held view that there is a strong connection between learners’ knowledge about language and their success in foreign language study. Results show that, while undergraduate language learners have serious lacunae in their knowledge about language, those who have studied a language other than English (LOTE) at school do better on some measures of metalinguistic knowledge than those who are beginning language study from scratch. However, the results also show that for all three languages there is a weak relationship between metalinguistic knowledge and second language ability. The study points to areas of further research, including a more detailed examination of the relationship between metalinguistic awareness in L1 and L2 and an investigation of those areas of grammar that may be more amenable to explicit grammar teaching.
Women at work
Authors: Holmes Janet
Published: October 2016

Over the last ten years, evidence of gender difference in the use of language has been re-examined from a social constructionist perspective. This approach emphasises the extent to which we actively “perform” or construct aspects of our social identity in interaction with others. Drawing on an extensive database of workplace interactions recorded in a wide range of New Zealand workplaces, this paper uses a social constructionist framework to examine the strategies used by women managers to perform their professional identities at work. The analysis examines the ways in which these women draw on a range of discourse strategies to effectively manage meetings and achieve their workplace objectives.
English and inclusivity in education for indigenous students
Authors: Malcolm Ian G.
Published: October 2016

According to recent survey evidence, Indigenous students, at least in schools where their numbers are significant, have not, in general, been meeting the performance standards in literacy which have been set for Australian students in Years 3 and 5. Among factors to which this is attributed are language background, absenteeism, lack of reading outside school and irregular completion of homework.

The above factors all relate the students’ lack of success to the practices of the student rather than to those of the school. This paper is concerned with one sociolinguistic factor related to school practice which, it is argued, is equally relevant, especially for students who speak Aboriginal English. The paper provides evidence that monodialectal education in standard English builds on an existing opposition whereby Aboriginal English is associated with cultural congruence and standard English with cultural imposition, making it difficult for most Aboriginal students to embrace literacy on the terms in which it is offered to them.

The principle of inclusivity is already explicit (but not fully developed) in recent curriculum framework documents. It is shown how a bidialectal approach to the teaching of Indigenous students can advance inclusivity with respect to knowledge base, linguistic skill and social empowerment for these students, and therefore remove an important barrier to their achievement of literacy.
The Indonesian and english argument structure
Authors: Arsyad Safnil
Published: October 2016

This study examined and compared the rhetorical structure of argumentative texts written by three groups of university students: 1° twenty Indonesian texts written by Indonesian native speakers (I.I); 2° ten English texts written by Indonesian native speakers (I.E); and 3° ten English texts written by English native speakers (A.E). Following the argumentative text analysis model developed by Tirkkonen-Condit (1984 and 1986) and Connor (1990), the data were analysed using top-down and bottom-up analysis techniques at macro organisational text level. The results indicated that the text organisational structures of argumentative texts in English and in Indonesian were different in respect of the frequency of occurrence of sections—introduction, evaluation and conclusion— and of the sub-sections of refutation, sub-claim, and induction within the problem section. Cultural differences between English and Indone-sian may have played a crucial role in the text rhetorical differences. Also, the I.E. text features are more similar to those of the A.E. texts than to those of the I.I. texts. The study indicates that the Indonesian students need to study the conventions of rhetorical structures and text features of English argumentative texts in order to be able to write good argumentative texts in English.
Personal response or critical response in secondary english discussions
Authors: Love Kristina
Published: October 2016

Whole Class Text Response Discussions (WCTRD) are pervasive in secondary English and represent one site in which students can learn to adopt the habits of critical thought that are promoted in state and national Curriculum documents. In this study, the phasal structures (Gregory and Malcolm 1981) of a variety of such WCTRDs in Australian secondary English classrooms were examined. It was found that teachers in such WCTRDs regularly made limited selections from the available pool of phases, such selections regularly scaffolding a narrow range of literate and moral skills, but offering little support for the development of critical and analytical response. Such results suggest that despite a shift at an academic and professional development level towards more critically-oriented models of text response, day-to-day discursive practice in some secondary English classrooms in Australia is still very much grounded in Reader Response practices (Iser 1978) that contribute to the development of morally compliant citizens. One WCTRD was selected for closer analysis of how the textual, experiential and interpersonal meanings (Halliday 1994) operated to privilege students’ ‘personal response’ over critical response. Through the examination of Transitivity and Conversational Structural choices in particular, a picture was provided of how this WCTRD was structured to encourage students to rehearse previously appropriated ideologies, rather than to critically or analytically interrogate these ideologies.
Telephone openings in Samoan
Authors: So’o Ainslie , Liddicoat Anthony J.
Published: October 2016

Many studies of telephone interaction have concentrated on the opening sequences of telephone calls using the model developed by Schegloff (1968, 1979, 1986) using North American data as a starting point. This study uses this model as a starting point to examine telephone openings in Samoa. A comparison between Samoan telephone calls shows many similarities with Schegloff’s model, but also shows that some features of the interaction are culturally variable. These variations are primarily variations in the frequency and distribution of activities within the opening section, rather than a difference in type. In particular, Samoan telephone openings are typified by a reduced use of greetings, different types of phatic moves and less reciprocity.
Learning the Japanese pitch accent
Authors: Backhouse Anthony E
Published: October 2016

Teaching and reference materials of Japanese frequently neglect the accentual features of words, and accentual distinctions have been claimed to carry a low functional load in the language. The aim of this article is to present evidence for the communicative importance of the pitch accent, and to provide a comprehensive pedagogically-oriented description of the accentual features of one important section of the vocabulary, Japanese verbs. Full accentual paradigms of verb forms are described, and common verbs are presented in heuristic groupings as an aid to learners in internalizing their accentual category membership.
The roots of applied linguistics in North America
Authors: Angelis Paul
Published: October 2016

This article traces the origins of applied linguistics within North America. The primary sources of information were responses from a survey of leading applied linguists conducted in 1999 and a review of records from professional associations, chiefly those associated with the Linguistic Society of America, back to its foundation in 1924. Evidence is reported of the recognition of applied linguistics even with that designation as early as 1925. Extensive work is cited of an applied nature for three decades after that, much of it not carrying any such label. Likewise, language related activity conducted by many known more as specialists in other fields is reported from throughout the nineteenth century. A chronological record of North American applied linguistics is proposed showing four phases. The first predates the foundation of the Linguistic Society of America (prior to 1924). The second, labeled the post LSA period, covers the years from 1925 through 1959. The third, the early applied era, extends from 1960 to 1990 and the fourth, the independent status period extends from 1990 to the present. Summary comments portray the character of applied linguistics in North America in relation to similar activities in other geographical areas.
Teaching of culture within foreign language teaching and its relationship to nationalism
Authors: Dobson Akemi
Published: October 2016

This paper argues that the teaching of culture in second/foreign language classrooms involves more than equipping learners with the knowledge and skills necessary to communicate with native speakers. In the past few decades, the emphasis in second/foreign language teaching has shifted from acquisition of linguistic forms to enhancing communicative competence. In that process the native speaker has been seen as a source of "correctness" in communication behaviour and the target culture, monolithic and homogeneous. Such practice enforces the current nationalism-dominated worldview and may contribute to boundary maintenance between nations as much as, or possibly more than, to cross-cultural understanding and tolerance. This argument is based on the recognition that second/foreign language classrooms act as a location where more than two nations intersect, contributing to formations of cultural identities: both Us and the Other. In the current world of ever-increasing globalisation, national identity, which is embedded in our language and discourse, is more vigorously formed than ever in order to maintain national boundaries. Therefore, it is necessary for the second/foreign language profession to address the implications of cultural contents beyond communication needs and to foster critical attitudes in language learners.
Exploring societal support for L2 learning and L1 maintenance
Authors: Sakamoto Mitsuyo
Published: October 2016

This paper adopts the view that bilingualism is a result of numerous societal forces. In this paper, the data collected from five Japanese immigrant families residing in Toronto, Canada are dynamically represented within the framework of Engeström’s (1999) Activity Model. Results identify family bonding as the most significant reason for L1 maintenance. Other important social factors include the information disseminated by professionals in the field, stories shared among immigrant families, the availability of school programmes, access to technology and resources, availability of caregivers who speak the target language, teachers well-versed in language learning mechanisms, frequent visits to the country of origin, multicultural surroundings, and the clear division of labour between school and home. However, the paper calls for a more co-operative education system that bridges the schism between homes and schools. A new model is proposed which is thought to be conducive to bilingualism.
Teaching informal Indonesian
Authors: Sneddon J.N.
Published: October 2016

Of the Major Asian languages taught in Australia, Indonesian is the only one which exists in a diglossic situation, in which the language of everyday conversation is significantly different from the formal language. Indonesian language teaching in Australia concentrates largely on the ‘high’ form of the language; in most schools and universities the everyday variety is dealt with either superficially or not at all. As a result, most Australian learners develop no proficiency in this variety. Unlike the formal language, informal Indonesian is highly context-bound, with presuppositions and shared knowledge playing an essential role in conveying meaning. The paper looks at the prepositionsomato demonstrate this distinction between formal and informal language. Using language appropriate to the situation is essential to ‘good manners’ and effective communication. Hence it is important to incorporate teaching of informal language into Indonesian courses, particularly the variety spoken by the Jakartan middle-class, which is acquiring status as a standard colloquial form of the language. It has as yet been subjected to very little study and as a result almost no materials are available for teaching it. Moreover, most non-native teachers have little or no knowledge of it. Only when descriptions of this variety are available can effective teaching be implemented.
Teaching from experience
Authors: Ellis Liz
Published: October 2016

This paper reports on case studies of three non-native English speaker teachers who teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to adults in Australia. It sets out to show that while there are differences in the teachers’ backgrounds, there are also similarities which derive from their non-native status, and from the fact that they are high-level bilinguals of English and at least one other language. The paper begins by reviewing the debate in English language teaching (ELT) internationally about the place of native and non-native speakers in ELT and goes on to outline the research which has been carried out to date in comparing native and non-native teachers in other countries. The paper then argues for the importance of examining these issues in the Australian context. The experience and insights of the three teachers are examined through the analysis of interviews and classroom transcripts, and are linked to the growing literature which suggests that teachers’ practices are heavily informed by their knowledge, beliefs and experience. I argue that the distinctive but shared resources of non-native teachers merit looking at their contribution in a new light.
Coordinating talk and non-talk activity in the airline cockpit
Authors: Nevile Maurice
Published: October 2016

This paper draws on insights and practices of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to explore routine talk-in-interaction in the airline cockpit; that is, the place of pilots’ talk as they establish what is going on around them, what they are doing, who is doing what, when they have completed what they are doing, and what they are to do next. I am interested in features of talk as pilots develop and demonstrate to one another their situated and moment-to-moment understandings in order to perform and complete the tasks necessary to fly their plane. In particular, I examine how pilots coordinate their talk and non-talk activities with split-second precision. This paper shows how pilots precisely coordinate their talk with the placement and movement of their hands as they use various cockpit controls and displays. This precise coordination may be particularly germane in the sequentially task-oriented setting of the airline cockpit, and possibly other sociotechnical workplace settings. Such coordination contributes to what the pilots can ‘know’, moment-to-moment, about the progress of their flight and their conduct of it. The outcome of a precise coordination of talk and non-talk activity is a synchronisation of the pilots’ conduct of a task, and the progress of the flight, as these are represented in talk and as they really are. This paper goes a little way towards an understanding of what it is to be, accountably and recognisably, an airline pilot, and shows how every airline flight is simultaneously and necessarily both a technological triumph and an interactional accomplishment.
Tertiary literacy on the cusp
Authors: Absalom Doug , Golebiowski Zosia
Published: October 2016

This paper outlines some of the recent concerns regarding a perceived decline in literacy standards in Australia, with reference to changing literacy abilities and standards in tertiary education. It presents a summary and critique of the current discussions on changes in literacy expectations and contemporary notions of literacy. It concludes with a summary of three important ‘agents of change’: economic rationalism, multiculturalism and computerisation.
Social literacies and students in tertiary settings
Authors: Bock Zannie , Gough David H.
Published: October 2016

In this article we explore the consequences of the social literacies model of understanding students’ academic literacy practices at a South African University. We highlight some of the paradoxes of this model in South Africa in terms of the particular demands of dominant literacy practices and past discriminatory policies which denied access to such practices and which created alternative practices. We include some observations we have made about including alternative literacies in assessment practices in tertiary classrooms.
Swiss themes in three “pluricentric” German language textbooks
Authors: Boss Bettina
Published: October 2016

Researchers agree that German is a pluricentric language and the pedagogical implications of pluricentricity have been spelt out in the D-A-CH-Konzept. This article examines three current textbooks for German as a foreign language with regard to their coverage of Switzerland as a German-speaking nation. After a brief discussion of the Swiss linguistic situation, especially the diglossic relationship between Swiss Standard German and the Swiss-German dialects, the article demonstrates that Themen neu and Stufen international contain more factual information about Switzerland than Moment mal!, but only the latter offers linguistically authentic examples of language use. The article concludes by pointing out that pluricentric German language textbooks for beginners are unfortunately still rare.
A telling symbiosis in the discourse of hatred
Authors: Macken-Horarik Mary
Published: October 2016

This paper tackles some analytical challenges of multimodal texts as they contribute to production of racial anxiety about asylum seekers. Building on a recent article in the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics in which Michael Clyne1 discusses the lexical manifestations of increasing racial hatred towards refugees, the paper focuses on the ‘children overboard’ affair in Australian news. This affair was generated out of a false claim by Liberal Party ministers that asylum seekers threw their children overboard in an effort to coerce the Navy to offer them sanctuary. The story was front page news in October, 2001 and became a defining feature of the successful Coalition campaign for re-election in 2001 with long term effects on public discourse about refugees and border protection. The paper argues that applied linguists need ways of analysing the symbiosis of visual and verbal stories in media treatment of such issues. It presents key strategies of representation of boat people and their critics in in one exemplary news text in 2001 and the ways in which photograph and story helped to co-create the fiction. The paper investigates the complementary contribution of strategies of homogenisation, indetermination, essentialisation and negative role allocation in both image and verbiage and their combined effect on our interpretation of asylum seekers. Implications for applied linguistics of multimodal analysis of racist discourse are briefly canvassed.
Perceptions of kanji learning strategies
Authors: Haththotuwa Gamage Gayathri
Published: October 2016

This study investigates three important issues in kanji learning strategies; namely, strategy use, effectiveness of strategy and orthographic background. A questionnaire on kanji learning strategy use and perceived effectiveness was administered to 116 beginner level, undergraduate students of Japanese from alphabetic and character backgrounds in Australia. Both descriptive and statistical analyses of the questionnaire responses revealed that the strategies used most often are the most helpful. Repeated writing was reported as the most used strategy type although alphabetic background learners reported using repeated writing strategies significantly more often than character background learners. The importance of strategy training and explicit instruction of fundamental differences between character and alphabetic background learners of Japanese is discussed in relation to teaching strategies.
Harnessing a Nation’s linguistic competence
Authors: O’Neill Shirley , Hatoss Anikó
Published: October 2016

This paper reports the findings of a research project aimed to (a) identify the foreign language and cross-cultural skill needs of workers in the tourism and hospitality industry in Australia, and to (b) develop foreign language competencies for use in industry training packages. A representative sample of work sites was visited to develop a detailed profile of the language and cross-cultural skills/levels and job requirements. The resulting competency standards were subsequently included in the industry training packages (Tourism Training Australia, 2002). This paper gives empirical evidence for the need for foreign language skills in the industry and gives account of the methodology used for identifying these needs and translating them into foreign language competencies. The outcomes of this research, the competency standards, bear twofold significance. On the one hand, they provide a tool for recognising the existing linguistic and cultural skills of those Australians who work in the industry (these are mainly Australians from non-English speaking background, NESB), on the other hand they provide a tool for motivating foreign language learning by those who seek a career in the industry, by giving recognition for their foreign language skills as part of the wider training program. This research was commissioned by Tourism Training Australia, Sydney and funded by the Department of Industry, Science & Resources.
“So what does this show us?”
Authors: Rendle-Short Johanna
Published: October 2016

Analysis of a series of computer science seminars indicates that use of the discourse marker ‘so’ in monologic talk is not random, rather it plays an important role in orienting the listener to the overall structure of the seminar. Although the institutional nature of seminar talk is such that only one person speaks for an extended turn, detailed analysis of seminars indicates that presenters do not maintain a continuous stream of talk. They talk for a bit, pause, and then talk for a bit more. These bits of talk (or sections) are characterised by a number of features, including discourse markers. The analysis shows how the discourse marker ‘so’ occurs in specific environments, with specific prosodic features, and that its role and function varies according to where it occurs within the seminar. The close interaction between talk (in this case, presenters’ use of ‘so’), and action (in this case, putting slides on the overhead projector), is also made apparent.
Creating cultural spaces in the Australian university setting
Authors: Eisenchlas Susana A. , Trevaskes Susan
Published: October 2016

This paper reports on a structured exchange program between Chinese and Australian students which focuses on discussion and reflections on everyday cultural practices and behaviours, the most relevant but often least accessible aspect of culture for international students. We ground these discussions in a setting common to both groups: the situationally familiar, yet culturally unfamiliar, environment of Australian universities. The interactions allow students to create a comfortable and non-threatening ‘cultural space’ from where they reflect on their own and others’ cultural mores and practices that occur within the context of the university setting. Students discuss the underlying values that drive behaviours in situations ranging from social gatherings such as parties, to task-oriented academic settings such as tutorials. The program includes a strong language component. We ask students to reflect on the language used in daily conversations, the language appropriate for particular situations, and the cultural norms that interface between situations and language appropriate to them. The aim of our program differs from that of models since it proceeds from less conventional understandings about culture, agency, and authenticity, and therefore the extent to which cross-cultural communication should involve interpretation rather than enculturation as the traditional programs appear to advocate.
The annotated bibliography
Authors: Starks Donna , Lewis Marilyn
Published: October 2016

Generic structures have been developed for longer genres such as reports (Marshall 1991), book reviews (Hyland 2000) and specific parts and types of articles (Brett 1994) but so far, many shorter genres such as the annotated bibliography (AB) have not been examined. This study reviews four examples of professional ABs, and on the basis of these, establishes a list of potential features of this genre. We use this list to evaluate student ABs. Our results show that students, as emerging members of their professional communities, have an understanding of the conventional structure of ABs, but that they tend to generalise and overextend the most marked and variable features of the genre.
The study of language and subject English
Authors: Christie Frances
Published: October 2016

Applied linguistics has not sufficiently addressed theories of teaching subject English in the mainstream classroom. This is unfortunate because applied linguistic theories can offer a great deal to the development of a theory of subject English. Over the last century, subject English has changed quite fundamentally, and it is increasingly in need of a theory of language to shape its future. At the end of the 19th century, English was a set of discrete English skills. Later, as literature achieved greater status at the university level, its teaching was also brought into school English, though the discrete skills and literary pursuits were at best brought into an uneasy amalgam. By the 1960s, in an effort to overcome the uneasy amalgam, “integrated” models of English teaching were proposed, and it was argued that the goal of the English program should be to promote “growth” through language. Terms like “language development” were adopted in English, though this was ironically at a time that teaching of knowledge about language became discredited. By the 21st century English had become increasingly synonymous with “literacy”, though a robust theory of knowledge about language was badly needed. Subject English needs new directions, of a kind that functional theories of language can provide.
Calculating the lexical frequency profile of written German texts
Authors: East Martin
Published: October 2016

Measures of lexical richness aim at quantifying the degree to which L2 writers are using a varied and large vocabulary. One method for calculating lexical richness is the Lexical Frequency Profile, or LFP (Laufer & Nation, 1995). The LFP, calculated by a computer programme, provides a detailed picture of vocabulary use measured against several frequency lists of words. This paper reports on a small-scale study to investigate the effectiveness of calculating the LFP of written texts of German. This study formed part of a larger study to investigate the impact of dictionaries on students’ writing. Six subjects completed two timed writing tasks in examination conditions, one with and one without a bilingual dictionary. It was envisaged that the LFP might be helpful in determining if the presence of the bilingual dictionary made a difference to students’ lexical sophistication. A calculation of the LFP was carried out using two context-specific lists. Figures were calculated for the number of word tokens and word families. It was concluded that, although using the computer programme with German texts presented some difficulties not present when using the software with English frequency lists, the LFP showed itself to be a valuable diagnostic tool that was able to differentiate between proficiency levels in German and to provide useful information about lexical richness in German texts.
Interrogative structures in the interlanguage of ESL learners
Authors: Zhang Mingjian
Published: October 2016

English interlanguage interrogative structures examined with regard to two implicational universals were found to be supportive of predictive validity of the universals (Eckman, Moravcsik & Wirth, 1989). This study further tests the extent to which the two universals could hold for English interlanguage in a different setting. The two implicational universals at issue were formulated by Greenberg (1963) who claimed that subject-verb inversion occurs in yes-no questions only if it also occurs in wh-questions, and that subject-verb inversion in wh-questions occurs only if wh-words/phrases are fronted. Unlike Eckman et al’s study, the present study used interview and role-play tasks to collect data from fifty-two ESL learners at the Monash University English Language Centre; however, findings of this study are comparable to those of Eckman et al (1989) in that they also strongly support the observed universals. A tentative explanation in terms of fossilisation, though, seems to account more appropriately for the exception in this study.
You know doctor, i need to tell you something
Authors: Cordelia Marisa
Published: October 2016

Most studies in the area of doctor-patient communication focus on the talk that doctors perform during the consultation, leaving under-researched the discourse developed by patients.1This article deconstructs and identifies the functions and forms of thevoices(i.e. specific forms of talk) that Chilean patients employ in their interactions with general practitioners. Patients use four differentvoicesin the interaction:Health-related Storytelling, Competence, Social Communicator and Initiator. Health-related StorytellingandCompetenceare thevoicesmost frequently used by both female and male patients and constitute the object of analysis and interpretation for this study. The use of thesevoicesreflects the patients’ role in the Western medical institutions, knowledge about health issues, social identity and aspiration to better understand health problems. I conclude that medical communicative practices that favour the development of patients’ discourse can improve patients’ knowledge of medical issues which in turn may have a positive impact on patients’ health.
Ethical dialogues for New Times
Authors: Hamston Julie
Published: October 2016

Changing global and local conditions have given rise to complex issues of identity. Within such conditions, the challenge for educators is to help students to develop a language with which to describe the new and dynamic cultural identities and relationships constitutive of what Hall (1996a, p.223) describes as ‘New Times’. Students need opportunities to encounter and to negotiate ways of shaping the world through language that are more representative of ‘New Ethnicities’ (Hall, 1996a, p. 481) that characterize Australian society in the context of dynamic global networks. A dialogic pedagogy can provide opportunities for students to engage in an ethically reflexive dialectic with the various discourses of ethnicity available for appropriation in Australian society. A study of the language exchanged by a group of Grade 5 students within the context of a Studies of Asia curriculum project highlights such struggle between different discourses of ethnicity.
The role of L1 and L2 reading comprehension in solving mathematical word problems
Authors: Erktin Emine , Akyel Ayse
Published: October 2016

Mathematics educators are concerned about students’ lack of ability to translate mathematical word problems into computable forms. Researchers argue that linguistic problems lie at the root of students’ difficulties with mathematical word problems. The issue becomes more complicated for bilingual students. It is argued that if students study mathematics in a second language they cannot be as successful as when they study in their first language. This study investigates the relationship between reading comprehension and performance on mathematics word problems in L1 and L2 for students learning English as a second language in a delayed partial immersion program. Data were collected from 250 Turkish students from Grade 8 of a private school in Istanbul through reading comprehension tests in L1 and L2 and an algebra word problems test prepared in L1 and L2. The results indicate a positive relationship between reading comprehension and mathematics performance. They also show that the students who participated in this study were not disadvantaged when they studied mathematics in English.
Indigenous languages of southeast Australia, revitalization and the role of education
Authors: Walsh Michael
Published: October 2016

The Indigenous languages of southeast Australia have often been written off as a hopeless cause in current debates about language revitalization. In this paper we question this pessimism and report on some of the progress that has been made in recent years. It will be shown that revitalization is not only possible but contributes to the strength of identity of Indigenous people and to a heightened awareness for other Australians. We consider the role of education in this process and conclude with some thoughts on the appropriate contribution of the academy.
Reading, readability, and textual functions of comprehension questions
Authors: Gerot Linda L.
Published: October 2016

Questions used in reading comprehension tests have been discussed in terms of the forms they take, the kind of overt response required, and the level of comprehension they evoke. But very little has been said about the kinds of textual functions such questions involve. This paper explores the kinds of textual relations that must be understood in order to respond to various questions.

An understanding of what textual relations must be comprehended has ramifications for both the measurement of reading ability and of readability. The study of readability is concerned with the question: What makes one text more difficult to read (comprehend) than another? Traditionally the assessment of readability level has been based on formal linguistic factors. However, much of the information required for comprehending a written text is not encoded explicitly but is left implicit. It is suggested that implicitness may be a source of reading ease or difficulty.
ESL matching cloze deletion types and their relationship to vernacular language background
Authors: Baldauf Richard B. , Dawson Robert L.T.
Published: October 2016

In recent years, research with both first and second language students has suggested that the standard nth word cloze -procedure could be improved as a measure of reading comprehension through the introduction of multiple-choice or matching cloze formats. In addition, research conducted mainly with first language students, has suggested that the every nth word deletion procedure should be restricted so as to delete only the lexical words in the passage. In this study, three different deletion systems, presented in a matching cloze format, were evaluated as measures of reading comprehension for seventh grade ESL students from Papua New Guinea. The possible interaction of the three deletion types with these students’ vernacular background was also investigated.
The transitional stage of a second child – 18 months to 2 years
Authors: Oldenburg Jane
Published: October 2016

Two case studies have been done on the early language development of boys (without siblings), using a functional framework (Halliday, 1975; Painter, 1984). This paper will discuss the results of a case study of a second-born child, Alison, analyzed using the same methods as the above studies.

The similarities and differences between the children will be examined. They all made a functional distinction between language for learning (“Mathetic”) and language for doing (“Pragmatic”), although the distinction was expressed differently in Alison’s case. Differences were also noted in Alison’s development of Transitivity and Mood. The relevance of environmental factors will also be discussed.
How Accurately Do Different Evaluation Methods Predict the Reliability of Survey Questions?
Authors: Maitland Aaron , Presser Stanley
Published: October 2016

A diverse range of evaluation methods is available for detecting problems with survey questions. Ex-ante methods are relatively inexpensive because they do not require data collection. Other methods require data collection in either the laboratory or the field. This study evaluates the extent to which four ex-ante methods (the Question Understanding Aid [QUAID], the Survey Quality Profile [SQP], the Questionnaire Appraisal System [QAS], and expert review), one laboratory method (cognitive interviews), and two field methods (behavior coding and measurement of response latency) predict the reliability of answers to questions. The findings suggest (1) a multimethod approach to evaluation is appropriate given differences between the methods in their prediction of reliability and (2) a combination of a subset of the methods is most predictive of reliability: QAS, QUAID, SQP, cognitive interviewing, and expert review worked as well as the seven methods together.
Supernova remnants in the Local Group – I. A model for the radio luminosity function and visibility times of supernova remnants
Authors: Sarbadhicary Sumit K. , Badenes Carles , Chomiuk Laura , Caprioli Damiano , Huizenga Daniel
Published: October 2016

Supernova remnants (SNRs) in Local Group galaxies offer unique insights into the origin of different types of supernovae (SNe). In order to take full advantage of these insights, one must understand the intrinsic and environmental diversity of SNRs in the context of their host galaxies. We introduce a semi-analytic model that reproduces the statistical properties of a radio continuum-selected SNR population, taking into account the detection limits of radio surveys, the range of SN kinetic energies, the measured interstellar medium (ISM) and stellar mass distribution in the host galaxy from multi-wavelength images and the current understanding of electron acceleration and magnetic field amplification in SNR shocks from first-principle kinetic simulations. Applying our model to the SNR population in M33, we reproduce the SNR radio luminosity function with a median SN rate of ∼3.1 × 10−3 per year and an electron acceleration efficiency, εe ∼ 4.2 × 10−3. We predict that the radio visibility times of ∼70 per cent of M33 SNRs will be determined by their Sedov–Taylor lifetimes, and correlated with the measured ISM column density, NH ($t_{\rm {vis}} \propto N_{\rm H}^{-a}$, with a ∼ 0.33) while the remaining will have visibility times determined by the detection limit of the radio survey. These observational constraints on the visibility time of SNRs will allow us to use SNR catalogues as ‘SN surveys’ to calculate SN rates and delay-time distributions in the Local Group.
Chiral vortex dynamics on membranes is an intrinsic property of FtsZ, driven by GTP hydrolysis
Authors: Ramirez Diego , García-Soriano Daniela A. , Raso Ana , Feingold Mario , Rivas Germán , Schwille Petra
Published: October 2016

The primary protein of the bacterial Z ring guiding cell division, FtsZ, has recently been shown to engage in intriguing self-organization together with one of its natural membrane anchors, FtsA. When co-reconstituted on flat supported membranes, these proteins assemble into dynamic chiral vortices whose diameters resemble the cell circumference. These dynamics are due to treadmilling polar FtsZ filaments, supposedly destabilized by the co-polymerizing membrane adaptor FtsA, thus catalysing their turnover. Here we show that FtsA is in fact dispensable and that the phenomenon is an intrinsic property of FtsZ alone when supplemented with a membrane anchor. The emergence of these chiral dynamic patterns is critically dependent on GTP concentration and FtsZ surface densities, in agreement with theoretical predictions. The interplay of membrane tethering, GTP binding, and hydrolysis promotes both, the assembly and the destabilization of FtsZ polymers, leading to the observed treadmilling dynamics. Notably, the vortex chirality is defined by the position of the membrane targeting sequence (mts) and can be inverted when attaching it to the opposite end of FtsZ. This reveals a so far unknown vectorial character of these cytomotive filaments, comprising three orthogonal directions: Filament polarity, curvature, and membrane attachment.
A mathematical approach for secondary structure analysis can provide an eyehole to the RNA world
Authors: Konstantinides Nikolaos
Published: October 2016

The RNA pseudoknot is a conserved secondary structure encountered in a number of ribozymes, which assume a central role in the RNA world hypothesis. However, RNA folding algorithms could not predict pseudoknots until recently. Analytic combinatorics – a newly arisen mathematical field – has introduced a way of enumerating different RNA configurations and quantifying RNA pseudoknot structure robustness and evolvability, two features that drive their molecular evolution. I will present a mathematician’s viewpoint of RNA secondary structures, and explain how analytic combinatorics applied on RNA sequence to structure maps can represent a valuable tool for understanding RNA secondary structure evolution. Analytic combinatorics can be implemented for the optimization of RNA secondary structure prediction algorithms, the derivation of molecular evolution mathematical models, as well as in a number of biotechnological applications, such as biosensors, riboswitches etc. Moreover, it showcases how the integration of biology and mathematics can provide a different viewpoint into the RNA world.