In This Together: Teachers’ Experiences with Transnational, Telecollaborative Language Learning Projects Edited by M. Dooly and R. O’Dowd (2018)

In This Together: Teachers’ Experiences with Transnational, Telecollaborative Language Learning Projects Edited by M. Dooly and R. O’Dowd (2018) Bern: Peter Lang International Academic Publishers, 230pp.

Incidental pragmatics learning in telecollaborative exchanges

This paper aims to explore the outcomes of incidental pragmatics learning in the context of a telecollaboration programme, with a focus on the speech acts of criticising and suggesting. The programme involved Italian learners of English and American learners of Italian. It was organised around weekly Zoom video calls over an academic semester. Every second virtual encounter was devoted to providing and discussing feedback on written texts produced by the partner in the target language. The discussion was held in the feedback provider’s L2. For this study, we focused on three intermediate-to-advanced learners of English whose data were analysed longitudinally. English native speakers’ data, collected during a previous round of the telecollaboration programme, were analysed as a reference baseline. Signs of development in the linguistic behaviour of the three learners were observed with regard to the pragmatic strategies they used to comment on their partners’ errors, but not in the distribution of internal modifiers and supportive moves.

Italian learners’ use of Chinese sentence-final particles

Due to their light-weight appearance and polysemy, the acquisition of Chinese sentence-final particles (SFPs) constitutes a criticality for learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). However, the number of studies addressing SFP acquisition and teaching is still limited. This study investigates the use of SFPs in the interactions between 13 Italian CFL learners and 6 native speakers of Chinese participating in a face-to-face tandem-learning project over a three-month timespan. In particular, it focuses on learners’ production of SFPs marking questions (yes/no or truncated) and analyses the factors that foster or hinder SFP use. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of the transcribed conversations showed that (i) the most frequently produced SFP was ma, whereas other interrogative SFPs were seldom or never used; (ii) the production of SFPs did not vary over time, instead it seemed to be tied to factors such as the presence of (semi-)fixed chunks or the type of task (focused or unfocused) in which the participants were engaged.

Working collaboratively in Second/Foreign Language Learning Edited by María del Pilar García Mayo (2021)

Working collaboratively in Second/Foreign Language Learning Edited by María del Pilar García Mayo (2021) Berlin: De Gruyter, 274pp.

Minding the gap

This study investigates how different ways of receiving peer written corrective feedback (WCF) affect learners’ opportunities to actively engage in negotiation of form in tandem virtual encounters. Two types of WCF are compared, namely direct WCF plus oral metalinguistic explanation and indirect WCF plus oral prompt. During a telecollaboration programme between Italian students of English and US students of Italian, the participants (n = 16) were given several tasks to complete in dyads, including that of providing feedback on written compositions produced by their partner in the target language. The eight dyads were divided into two groups which received the same instructions for the activities, with the exception of instructions on how to provide WCF to their partner. The data of six dyads – three from each group – were analysed with regard to the quality of language-related episodes. The data analysis showed that indirect WCF plus oral prompt was more effective in leading the NNSs to actively engage with negotiation of form during the discussion phase. This result will be discussed together with other findings which emerged from the analysis, with the aim to provide useful insights on how to promote focus on form when implementing peer-review activities in telecollaboration programmes.

Comparing whole-class discussion and task-based activity

This study examined the participation patterns and effectiveness of two different instructional treatments: Treatment One consisted of a task-based activity; Treatment Two used a whole-class discussion approach (Q/A paradigm). The research investigated which instructional treatment was more relevant and effective. The quantity of information learners could remember immediately after instruction, one week later, and the information that emerged through the interactional formats were measured. Each treatment was carried out for approximately one hour and then participants were asked to write a summary. After a week, students were given a piece of paper to summarise what was carried out the week before to see how much information they could remember. All the interactions were transcribed. L2 learners’ response towards the task based activity showed positive results and the task-based activity treatment was considered a better pedagogical approach.

Effects of oral corrective feedback on the development of complex morphosyntax

This exploratory study examined the relationship between corrective feedback (CF) and linguistic target complexity. In a pre-test/post-test/delayed post-test design, 44 adult intermediate L2 Italian learners from different L1 backgrounds were assigned to a didactic recast, a prompt and a no-feedback group. They were compared on oral and written measures on the development of passato prossimo, an Italian compound past form characterised by a set of complex semantic and morphosyntactic rules and participles displaying different degrees of form-meaning transparency. Mixed-effects models elucidated the extent to which feedback frequency predicted accuracy, whilst controlling for the effect of individual difference covariates and random variation. Only the frequency of didactic recasts predicted development of full passato prossimo sentences, whereas both feedback types were significantly related to participle development, a single aspect of the construction. Furthermore, only prompt frequency was positively related to accuracy in participles displaying more transparent (less complex) form-meaning relationships.

Key Questions in Language Teaching: An Introduction By A. G. Benati (2020)

Key Questions in Language Teaching: An Introduction By A. G. Benati (2020) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 214pp.

From rule-based explicit instruction to explicit knowledge

This pilot study investigated university-level intermediate Spanish learners’ (n=16) explicit knowledge about a contrast in grammatical aspect (preterite/imperfect) after they received rule-based explicit instruction. Prior studies have found that learners’ explicit knowledge about preterite and imperfect includes partially understood rules, which can have long-lasting effects on their performance, so it is important to investigate the disconnect between what is taught and what is learned. Learners completed a cloze test and then introspected about their performance. The data were analysed qualitatively and compared to verbalisations of L1 Spanish speakers (n=6). Four main themes emerged: learners failed to learn the concept of grammatical aspect, they demonstrated confusion about lexical aspect, they attributed the difference between preterite and imperfect to a binary system of lexical aspect feature complexes based on duration of the verb/predicate, and they relied on self-developed categorical rules about adverbial markers. Suggestions for modifications to the conventional pedagogical rules are offered.