bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Of frameworks and the goals of collegiate foreign language education: critical reflections
Authors: Byrnes, Heidi 
Published: June 2014

AbstractThe paper suggests that among reasons for the difficulties collegiate foreign language (FL) programs in the United States (and most likely elsewhere) encounter in assuring that their students attain the kind of upper-level multiple literacies necessary for engaging in sophisticated work with FL oral and written texts may be the fact that prevailing frameworks for capturing FL performance, development, and assessment are insufficient for envisioning such textually oriented learning goals. The result of this mismatch between dominant frameworks, typically associated with communicative language teaching, and the goals of literary cultural studies programs as humanities programs is that collegiate FL departments and their faculty members face serious obstacles in their efforts to create the kind of coherent, comprehensive, and principled curricula that would be necessary for overcoming what are already extraordinary challenges in an educational environment that provides little support for long-term, sustained efforts at language development toward advanced multiple literacies. The paper traces these links by examining three such frameworks in the United States: the Proficiency framework of the 1980s, based on the ACTFL oral proficiency interview, the Standards framework of the 1990s, part of a more general standards movement in U.S. education, and the most recent document, by the Modern Language Association (MLA), which focuses on the need for new curricular structures in collegiate FL education. Specifically, it provides an overview of the U.S. educational landscape with an eye toward the considerable influence such frameworks can have in the absence of a comprehensive language education policy; lays out key characteristics that would be necessary for a viable approach to collegiate FL education; probes the complex effects the three frameworks have had in collegiate FL programs; and explores how one department sought to counter-act their detrimental influence in order to affirm and realize a humanistically oriented approach to FL education. The paper concludes with overall observations about the increasing power of frameworks to set educational goals and ways to counteract their potentially unwelcome consequences.
Study abroad and the development of second language identities
Authors: Benson, Phil , Barkhuizen, Gary , Bodycott, Peter , Brown, Jill 
Published: June 2014

AbstractMuch of the literature on study abroad outcomes focuses on language proficiency gains or on the influence of identity factors on opportunities for language learning. A smaller number of studies have looked at the influence of study abroad on participants' identities and have highlighted outcomes that might be placed under the heading of second language identity. Based on a review of this literature and a qualitative, narrative-based study of nine Hong Kong students participating in thirteen- and six-week study abroad programmes, this paper examines the construct of second language identity and its susceptibility to development in study abroad. Three main dimensions of second language identity are identified, related to (1) identity-related aspects of second language proficiency, or the ability to function as a person and express desired identities in a second language setting, (2) linguistic self-concept, or sense of self as a learner and user of the second language, and (3) second language-mediated aspects of personal competence. The study found that most of the students reported developments along all three of these dimensions, although there were variations among individuals that were related both to the duration of the programmes and individual goals and purposes.
A neo-Hymesian trajectory in applied linguistics
Authors: Rampton, Ben 
Published: June 2014

AbstractRather than attempting a panoramic overview, this paper looks at knowledge construction in applied linguistics through the prism of a piece of data. It follows the analysis of this data into an academic argument, into a research training programme, and into professional development materials for teachers, and it argues that this empirically driven trajectory finds coherence in Hymes' writing on linguistic and ethnography.
Dominant pedagogical approaches and diverse teaching conditions: Integrating CLT in a Chinese university as a danwei community of practices
Authors: Ouyang, Huhua 
Published: June 2014

AbstractWith life stories of local and international teachers practicing Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in a university in China, this article reveals how CLT ideological presumptions of individualism, egalitarianism and liberalism have been in a state of tension with the traditional methods and Chinese danwei characterized by collectivism, paternalism and conservatism. This tension explains the strong resistance against pedagogical agents of change in China. The article calls for a more sociological understanding of the seemingly linguistics-based and egalitarian communicative approaches to language teaching/learning.
The language of development and the development of language in contemporary Africa
Authors: Prah, Kwesi Kwaa 
Published: June 2014

AbstractArguably, few issues so overwhelmingly obsess African governments and societies as the question of development. Many would claim that it is the leading existential rationale of African governments. This has certainly been the case since the commencement of the era of African self-rule. The lack of success in making headway in the development of African societies has kept interested parties close to the grindstone. What over the past few decades has become clear to many is the fact that culture in general and language and literacy in particular are crucial to the development endeavour. The questions that emerge from there are that, what are the relevant contextual linguistic realities of contemporary Africa? How do they affect the issues attendant on development? How do the dominant assumptions and epistemology in applied linguistics relate to the challenges that face Africa today? This article will address these issues.
Language plurality of South Asia: A search for alternate models in knowledge construction
Authors: Khubchandani, Lachman M. 
Published: June 2014

AbstractUnder the influence of the purists' tradition in philology and in pedagogy, agencies concerned with social planning analyze linguistic heterogeneity as a serious problem of human adjustment. Viewing language in monolithic terms, there has been a traditional bias that language diversity is a problem. Constituting the mother tongue as a cult and marker of identity, many linguists and language agencies since the European Renaissance have joined nationalists (taking language as a defining characteristic of ‘nation-state’) in isolating bilinguals as being ‘rootless’ and of ‘dubious loyalty’ to the nation. In recent years, however, there has been more lip service paid to language pluralism. The characteristic of maintaining of two (or more) mother tongues is a notable feature of plurilingual India. Contemporary disciplines do not take cognizance of multiple languages existing side by side, and a speech community continues to be identified according to homogeneous constructs, in terms of formal structures and monistic values, attitudes and usage. The local and the global, the particular and the universal should be viewed, as two sides of the same coin rather than competing with each other. In the light of this, we look for new paradigms in applied linguistics so as to effectively arrest the trends of large scale commodification and homogenization pertaining to language development and make transparent the qualities of communication for an integral and sustainable development of social diversity.
Linguistic inequality and its effects on participation in scientific discourse and on global knowledge accumulation – With a closer look at the problems of the second-rank language communities
Authors: Ammon, Ulrich 
Published: June 2014

AbstractThis paper will show, on the basis of valid and reasonably representative data, that even in applied linguistics (where it might be expected least of all) the predominance of a single language, English, in international scientific communication excludes contributions from various non-Anglophone quarters and, consequently, contributes to skewed scientific development, especially neglecting Japanese and Chinese, but also French, German, Italian and Russian approaches (because of serious linguistic barriers and refusal to participate in linguistically “unfair” scientific communication, respectively). The paper will also submit proposals on how the situation could be improved and problems be mitigated such as, among others, regular linguistic support offered by publishers and conference organizers.
The language of the street
Authors: Cook Vivian 
Published: June 2014

AbstractThis paper looks at the language of the street from a perspective that draws on linguistics, writing system research and linguistic landscapes. It describes the totality of signs in two inner city streets in Newcastle upon Tyne, one virtually monolingual, one part of Chinatown, in terms of who controls the sign (licensor, owner, author, writer, reader), of serif and sans serif typefaces, and capital letters versus lowercase, and of which languages are used. It classifies the signs into: (i) locating and attracting, such as brassplates, (ii) informing, such as opening hours, (iii) controlling movement and behaviour, such as traffic signs, (iv) service signs, such as manhole covers. Multilingualism in these streets takes the form either of ‘atmospheric’ multilingualism that does not necessarily expect readers to understand the signs or of ‘community’ multilingualism that serves the needs of the Chinese community. Important aspects include: the necessity for all signs to be licensed and owned; the crucial role of the material that signs are made of; the ubiquity of signs in lowercase throughout; the almost total absence of punctuation marks; and the widespread use of serif forms of letters. The language of the street is therefore not a defective version of written language but a distinctive genre with its own grammar and conventions that needs extensive further investigation.
Vocabulary size revisited: the link between vocabulary size and academic achievement
Authors: Milton James , Treffers-Daller Jeanine 
Published: June 2014

AbstractMany researchers have tried to assess the number of words adults know. A general conclusion which emerges from such studies is that vocabularies of English monolingual adults are very large with considerable variation. This variation is important given that the vocabulary size of schoolchildren in the early years of school is thought to materially affect subsequent educational attainment. The data is difficult to interpret, however, because of the different methodologies which researchers use. The study in this paper uses the frequency-based vocabulary size test from Goulden et al (1990) and investigates the vocabulary knowledge of undergraduates in three British universities. The results suggest that monolingual speaker vocabulary sizes may be much smaller than is generally thought with far less variation than is usually reported. An average figure of about 10,000 English word families emerges for entrants to university. This figure suggests that many students must struggle with the comprehension of university level texts.
Predicting international student study success
Authors: Daller Michael H , Phelan David 
Published: June 2014

AbstractMore and more students study outside their own countries and by 2020 a rise to 7 million international students is predicted world-wide. The present study investigates the level of language proficiency that is necessary for international students to study successfully at universities in English-speaking countries and how this proficiency can be measured. Standardized tests such as the International English Language Test System (IELTS) or the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) are carefully developed and constantly scrutinized by the research community, and they provide a valid cut-off point for entry to university, but they do not seem to be good predictors of study success on their own. This is mainly due to the fact that most students who enter universities with these tests have similar scores which leave researchers with a truncated sample where correlations between these test scores and study success, e.g. marks obtained after one year, are necessarily low. The present study investigates alternative measures of language proficiency that can predict the study success of international students. In a longitudinal study with 74 international students a battery of language tests was used at the beginning of the academic year to predict the average marks that the students obtained at the end of the academic year. Several multiple regressions show that between 33% and 96% of the marks can be predicted with tests based mainly on vocabulary knowledge. The findings of the present study have implications for decisions on admission criteria and for language support provision in addition to subject specific learning. There may be many factors other than language proficiency that influence study success of international students such as cultural factors, motivation and familiarity with the subject area. However, our findings indicate that language proficiency and especially vocabulary knowledge is the key factor that explains in some cases almost entirely the final marks that the students achieve.
Classroom code-switching: three decades of research
Authors: Lin Angel 
Published: June 2014

AbstractIn this paper I provide a review of the historical development of different research paradigms and approaches adopted in studies on classroom code-switching. I also discuss the difficulties and problems faced by this field of studies and share some of my own critical reflections on how this field might move forward in the future, speaking from the position of a researcher who has been engaged in this area of studies for close to three decades.
Applied Linguistics in the Neoliberal University: Ideological keywords and social agency
Authors: Holborow Marnie 
Published: June 2014

AbstractNeoliberalism and neoliberal ideology has only recently begun to gain attention within applied linguistics. This paper seeks to contribute to this development with a focus on neoliberal keywords in official texts. The ideological content of these keywords can best be understood within the political project of neoliberalism and within the political economy of contemporary capitalism. Studies which have highlighted the marketization of institutional discourse have analysed this phenomenon from a discourse-based perspective, rather than seeing neoliberal ideology in language as a contradictory manifestation of wider social relations in periods of social crises. The appearance of ideology in language, this paper holds, is unstable, unfinished, unpredictable and dependent for meaning on what Dell Hymes characterised as the “persistent” social context. The ideology of neoliberalism, for all its apparent hegemony, is not guaranteed full consent, and this applies also to its presence in language. The question of social agency is crucial to understanding the social dynamic and unpredictability of ideology in language, both in terms of who produces neoliberal keywords and how they are received and understood. This paper argues that international think tanks, articulating the interests of capital, act as powerful keyword standardisers and their influence will be examined in the production of texts in the Irish university context. However, neoliberal keywords, in certain conjunctures, will also be contested, as will be shown. The paper concludes that applied linguistics is uniquely placed to both critique and challenge neoliberal keywords in the university and that such a challenge has the potential to find wider political resonance as governments, amid continuing economic recession, recharge the ideology of neoliberalism.
RP or ‘RIP’: A critical perspective on reflective practice
Authors: Mann Steve , Walsh Steve 
Published: June 2014

AbstractThis paper provides a critical review of reflective practice (RP), drawing attention to particular problems with its representation, as well as proposing a more evidence-based and data-led approach to RP. Our central argument is that RP in the fields of applied linguistics, TESOL and education has achieved a status of orthodoxy without a corresponding data-led description of its value, processes and outcomes. Our concern is that RP is described in ways that are elusive, general, and vague and which may not be particularly helpful for practitioners. This is largely due to the lack of concrete, data-led and linguistic detail of RP in practice and to its institutional nature, lack of specificity, and reliance on written forms. It is also the case that, despite a small number of exceptions (e.g. Korthagen and Wubbels 1995; Walsh 2011), reflective practice is not operationalized in systematic ways.This paper argues that applied linguistics needs to champion a description of RP's processes and impact by drawing on data-led accounts of reflective practice across a range of contexts. Too many RP accounts rely on general summaries and so are neither critical, transparent, nor usable by other practitioners. A key aspect of developing a more critical approach is the need to move beyond rosy summaries of the outcomes of RP towards accounts of how RP gets done. Where possible we need to share examples of ‘reflection in action’ so that its nature and value can be better understood. We propose here that RP needs to be rebalanced, away from a reliance on written forms and taking more account of spoken, collaborative forms of reflection; in sum, we argue for a more dialogic, data-led and collaborative approach to reflective practice.
Content and Language Integrated Learning: Panacea or Policy Borrowing Myth?
Authors: Paran Amos 
Published: June 2014

AbstractThis paper examines the spread of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) through a number of lenses. It argues that the supporters and promoters of CLIL position it as a near-panacea and attribute to it a large number of benefits, not all of which are supported by research. Looking at the issues arising from recent attempts to define CLIL, the paper proposes a distinction between weak and strong CLIL. The paper points to the lacunae in the research into CLIL, and suggests that these gaps are the result of educational policies that privilege a second language over other curricular subjects. Looking at the contexts where CLIL seems to succeed, as well as places where such teaching has been acknowledged to fail, it emerges that success is often connected to a high level of student selection on a number of criteria, as well as a high level of investment in teachers and teaching, and that CLIL often privileges those students who are already high achievers both in language and content. The paper then looks at the way in which the spread of CLIL policies can be understood through theories of policy borrowing and educational transfer.
Writing systems and language contact in the Euro- and Sinocentric worlds
Authors: Coulmas Florian 
Published: June 2014

Abstract
On the social level languages contact usually implies hierarchies, reflecting historical processes of adaptation and power relations between groups of speakers. This paper considers language contact in the written mode from the point of view of choice, that is, choice of language and choice of writing system. A wider range of factors that have a bearing on choice in contact situations of languages and their writing systems must be taken into consideration: political, social, linguistic and ideological. Examples of each kind from the Eurocentric and Sinocentric worlds are discussed and compared with each other. Particular attention is paid to the relationship bilingual writers create between the units of two languages and two writing systems which, from a sociolinguistic point of view, is seen as indicative of the status and function of the languages involved.
Globalization in the margins: toward a re-evalution of language and mobility
Authors: Wang Xuan , Spotti Massimiliano , Juffermans Kasper , Cornips Leonie , Kroon Sjaak , Blommaert Jan 
Published: June 2014

Abstract
Work on globalization has been concentrated on typical sites where features and phenomena are abundantly available: the huge contemporary metropolis with its explosive and conspicuous diversity in people and languages, its hyper-mobility and constant flux. Less typical places – peri-urban and rural areas, peripheral areas of countries, peripheral zones of the world, peripheral institutional zones where minorities are relegated – have been less quickly absorbed into current scholarship. Yet, upon closer inspection, there is no reason to exclude these `margins' from analyses of globalization processes and of their sociolinguistic implications. Globalization is a transformation of the entire world system, and it does not only affect the metropolitan centers of the world but also its most remote margins. Thus, we are bound to encounter globalization effects, also in highly unexpected places. A survey of these reifications of globalization at the margins will be the topic of this paper. We shall suggest a specific angle from which such forms of globalization in the margin can be most usefully addressed and we do so by drawing from examples taken from new media and communication technologies, from new forms of economic activity and, last but not least, from the perspective of legitimacy in the contentious struggle between commodification of language and the semiotic construction of authenticity.
Mentor invitations for reflection in post-observation conferences: Some preliminary considerations
Authors: Zhang Hansun Waring 
Published: June 2014

Abstract
Despite the push for fostering reflective practices in teacher education in the last twenty years, true reflection remains a rare commodity (Farr, 2010). By placing four video-recorded mentor-teacher meetings under the conversation analytic (CA) microscope, I show how specific mentor practices work in stimulating reflection to various degrees of success. Findings of this study illuminate the complexities of inviting and offering reflection, and in so doing, contribute to a growing understanding of teacher learning as well as the practices for fostering such learning (Johnson, 2009).
English as a lingua franca versus lingua receptiva in problem-solving conversations between Dutch and German students
Authors: Blees Gerda J. , Mak Willem M. , ten Thije Jan D. 
Published: June 2014

Abstract
In most universities, English as a lingua franca (ELF) is used for international courses. To promote linguistic diversity and facilitate first language education, some universities have experimented with lingua receptiva (LaRa). However, it is not clear yet which mode is most effective. This study compared the effectiveness of LaRa and ELF in conversations between Dutch and German students. Eight pairs of students, each consisting of one native Dutch and one native German, solved four maze puzzles: two using ELF and two using LaRa. Conversations were videotaped and compared quantitatively and qualitatively, and participants completed a questionnaire about their proficiency in and attitude towards the languages used. Problem-solving effectiveness was significantly higher using ELF than using LaRa. However, participants were also more proficient in English than in the native language of their conversation partner. Analysis showed that it was this difference in proficiency and not the language mode that explained the higher effectiveness of ELF. Language attitude and previous exposure did not have a significant effect on effectiveness. The study shows that linguistic prior-knowledge is an important factor to take into account when choosing a multilingual communication constellation.