Individual versus pair work on L2 speech acts: production and cognitive processes

This study aims to examine the extent to which peer collaboration affects EFL learners’ speech act production and cognitive processes. Eleven EFL students in the individual group and 22 students (11 pairs) in the collaborative groups were asked to report their cognitive processes when working on a written discourse completion task (WDCT). The WDCT performances were rated on a five-point Likert-type scale, and the verbalizations were analyzed in terms of pragmatic-related episodes (PREs). Results showed that the individual group scored higher on content, whereas the collaborative group outperformed their counterparts on forms. Regarding the cognitive processes, the individual group tended to plan the general direction of their writing before writing the WDCT and paid more attention to sociopragmatic content while writing. In contrast, the collaborative group planned specific details before the task and attended to pragmalinguistic forms more often while writing.

Motivations to enrol in EMI programmes in China: an exploratory study

A recent interest in English Medium Instruction (EMI) has led to the flourishing of studies that examine motivation in EMI classrooms. Some of these studies tend to compare language learning motivation of students who are and are not enrolled in EMI programmes (see e.g. Doiz, Aintzane, David Lasagabaster & Juan Manuel Sierra. 2014. CLIL and motivation: The effect of individual and contextual variables. The Language Learning Journal 42(2). 209–224; Sylvén, Liss Kerstin & Amy S. Thompson. 2015. Language learning motivation and CLIL: Is there a connection? Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education 3(1). 28–50), showing that EMI learners are typically more motivated than their peers in non-EMI contexts. This has led to the common perception that learners enrol in EMI primarily to improve their English. Yet, there is a dearth of comprehensive studies exploring learners’ reasons behind their enrolment in EMI programmes and how these change throughout their studies. To address this gap, 247 university students from a range of universities across China filled in the questionnaire, which included scales pertaining to reasons for choosing an EMI programme. The data were analysed in SPSS. The results show that enhanced future job opportunities, opportunities for contact with an international community as well as potential gains in learning content and language specific vocabulary are the most strongly endorsed drivers that motivate EMI students to undertake their studies in English. They also tend to pursue their ideal visions of themselves as bilingual professionals and derive pleasure from EMI classes. To a lesser extent, students are motivated by what is expected of them and the actual pedagogy in the language classroom. Their motivation tends to stay stable over their years of study. However, the survey also revealed that not all students are equally motivated and resolved to continue with EMI studies. The findings highlight that, whereas students tend to be strongly motivated, there is a potential to improve the delivery of EMI courses.

Tracking telecollaborative tasks through design, feedback, implementation, and reflection processes in pre-service language teacher education

Telecollaborative exchanges between students from different countries are increasingly becoming a common practice in foreign language education and calling for new teacher competences for task design in order to maximize interactional opportunities in these settings. Considering that tasks are dynamic in nature and subject to constant change from their initial design to implementation by L2 learners, there is a need for teacher training activities promoting opportunities for improving the required digital and pedagogical competences. With this in mind, this paper sets out to explore the interactional architecture of the multiple steps involved in the training of pre-service language teachers in pedagogical task design for telecollaboration-oriented video-mediated interactional settings. We describe the procedural unfolding of the telecollaborative tasks by analyzing (i) pre-service teachers’ collaborative design meetings and (ii) written design reports; (iii) peer and mentor evaluation of these design ideas in whole-class feedback sessions in teacher training classrooms; (iv) written reports of redesigns after the feedback session, (v) video-mediated implementation by telecollaborative task participants, and finally (vi) pre-service teachers’ written reflections based on the implementation of their own designs. We use Conversation Analysis to closely examine audio and screen-recording data and draw on the textual data to present the procedural unfolding of two tasks over multiple phases, namely design, feedback, implementation, and reflection. The findings show that a telecollaborative task is a co-construction by the pre-service teachers as task designers, the teacher trainer as the mentor, and the L2 learners as the end users in interactionally trackable ways across the teacher education events. The results bring insights into the novel sets of digital, pedagogical, and interactional competencies in L2 contexts. We conclude that task enhanced telecollaboration holds great potential to critically advance research and practice in L2 teaching and teacher education worldwide.

Communicating across educational boundaries: accommodation patterns in adolescents’ online interactions

This paper studies linguistic accommodation patterns in a large corpus of private online conversations produced by Flemish secondary school students. We use Poisson models to examine whether the teenagers adjust their writing style depending on their interlocutor’s educational profile, while also taking into account the extent to which these adaptation patterns are influenced by the authors’ own educational background or by other aspects of their socio-demographic profiles. The corpus does reveal accommodation patterns, but the adjustments do not always mirror variation patterns related to educational profiles. While salient features like expressive markers seem to lead to pattern-matching, less salient features appear less prone to ‘adequate’ adjustment. Lack of familiarity with the online behavior of students from other educational tracks is a factor too, since online communication clearly proceeds primarily within ‘same-education’ networks. The focus on cross-educational communication is quite unique in this respect and highly relevant from a sociological perspective.

Medical students’ attention in EFL class: roles of academic expectation stress and quality of sleep

This study proposed and tested a conceptual model of academic expectation stress, sleep quality, and attention in EFL class. These variables did not receive much attention in previous studies but are considered important to medical students’ attention in EFL class. Data were collected from 496 medical students from a medical university in Taiwan. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique was used to examine the path effect in the research model. The results found that (1) higher academic expectation stress leads to higher attention in EFL class; (2) higher academic stress causes poorer sleep quality; (3) poorer sleep quality leads to lower attention in EFL class. A mediator was also identified in this model: sleep quality was found to partially mediate the relationship between academic expectation stress and attention in EFL class. The results may advance the current literature in medical education and applied linguistics by moving a step closer to understand these three variables.

Boredom in practical English language classes: a longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis-curve of factors model

The study aimed to examine temporal change of boredom in English classes (BPELC) and test the longitudinal validity of the boredom in practical English classes-revised (BPELC-R) scale via longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis-curve of factors model (LCFA-CFM) approach. This approach ensures measurement invariance of BPELC over time, deals with its second-order latent variables, and considers the assessment of inter-individual differences while experiencing the emotion. Data were collected from 412 EFL adult learners on four measurements using BPELC-R and were analyzed by Mplus with LCFA-CFM. The model fit was accepted, which indicates invariance of BPELC-R as well as the factor structure of the instrument including the factor loadings of its subscales over time. Without the consideration of LCFA of BPELC-R, as addressed in this study, any observed change of the construct in the course of language learning could be misinterpreted. Also, though the rate of change in boredom differed across individual L2 learners, they all experienced a decreasing trend over time. Furthermore, the negative association between the intercept and slope suggested that learners with higher initial levels of boredom experienced a steeper decrease over time. The decreasing pattern of boredom is discussed in light of the main theories of this construct.

Investigating the relationship between linguistic changes in L2 writers’ paraphrasing, paraphrasing performance and L2 proficiency

While the typology of paraphrasing revolves around linguistic changes of paraphrasing, little is known about the importance of different types of linguistic changes and their relationship between paraphrasing performance and L2 proficiency. Empirical enquiry has focused on L2 writers’ inappropriate paraphrasing performance against the norm of L1 writer, which is problematic in that L2 and L1 writers displayed considerable variation in paraphrasing. The present study drew upon 202 Chinese EFL writers’ written responses in a paraphrasing test to look into the discrete linguistic transformations in paraphrasing and examine how the frequency of different linguistic changes in paraphrasing relates to their paraphrasing performance and L2 proficiency. Correlation analysis was run to analyze the relationship between the frequency of linguistic changes and paraphrasing performance. Multivariate analysis of variance analysis was conducted to examine how the frequency of linguistic changes relates to L2 proficiency. The findings revealed that Conceptual Transformation had the highest significant correlation with paraphrasing scores, followed by Lexical Transformation and then Syntactic Transformation. The frequency of Synonym Substitution, Morphology, Multiple Word Units, Phrase/Clause Shift, Active/Passive Shift and Conceptual Transformation increased as L2 writers’ proficiency levels increased. Implications are drawn from the findings for paraphrasing instruction and assessment, research in paraphrasing and L2 writers’ academic writing practice.

Study abroad, human capital development, language commodification, and social inequalities

Neoliberal discourse has seeped into various practices of higher education and study abroad (SA), emphasizing the value of human capital development through international education and foreign language learning. Applied linguists have been strongly critiquing neoliberal ideologies, and how they reproduce social inequalities. In this study, the examples of Albert, Theresa, and Rebecca, three U.S. undergraduates in Spain, exhibit how elements of neoliberal discourse and the consumerist notion of second language education as a commodity perpetuate social inequalities abroad and at home. These students were part of an ethnographic study (2007–2008) that included 117 U.S. undergraduates enrolled in four academic SA programs in Spain. The stories of Albert, Theresa, and Rebecca are significant because they had traction within their SA cohort. The consumerist notion of education as a commodity was employed as the analytical framework in conjunction with Bourdieu’s concept of capital (1986). This study problematizes the neoliberal logic and the promise of human capital development associated with language learning through SA. It calls for more diversity, equity, inclusion in SA. A social justice pedagogical paradigm is discussed as a valid, alternative approach to help students emphasize humanistic imperatives over individualist imperatives, gain global understanding, and contribute to world justice.

The incentivisation of English medium instruction in Chinese universities: policy misfires and misalignments

The growth of English medium instruction (EMI) in higher education in China over the past two decades has been promoted via implicit and explicit policies that aim to incentivise activities associated with the creation of English-taught courses and programs. This study investigates the components of such incentivisation schemes. It also explores how incentivisation policies are being implemented by policy arbiters, EMI programme directors, and EMI teachers. Data were collected from two sources: 93 institutional policy documents on EMI provision collected from 63 Chinese universities, and 26 interviews with senior university staff at a selection of eight Chinese universities. Results revealed that incentivisation policies focused on increased workload weighting for EMI courses, greater access to career development opportunities for teachers, increased monetary rewards, and dedicated financial support for creating and delivering courses. A comparison of policy and practice revealed areas of policy misfires and misalignments. EMI teachers considered the workload incentives insufficient and were not primarily motivated by financial rewards, but rather chose to teach in English for professional, academic, and personal intrinsic rewards; many viewed EMI at the core of their teacher-researcher academic identities. The paper concludes with recommendations to better align incentivisation policies with the driving forces attached to EMI in China.

English medium of instruction in Chinese higher education: a systematic mapping review of empirical research

In 2001, the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China issued guidelines to promote the quality of higher education and to advocate the expansion of the use of English (Ministry of Education (MoE). 2001. Guanyu jiaqiang gaodeng xuexiao benke jiaoxue gongzuo tigao jiaoxue zhiliang de ruogan yijian [Guidelines for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Teaching at Higher Education Institutions]. Available at: http://old.moe.gov.cn/publicfifiles/business/htmlfifiles/moe/moe_309/200412/4682.html). This paper reviews empirical studies in English and Chinese on EMI in Chinese higher education published from 2001 to 2019, during the last two decades since these guidelines were released. The review contributes to the field of EMI by documenting, analysing and synthesising empirical evidence and by situating EMI studies in China in the global trends of EMI research. The review aims to give an overview of studies targeted at both global and local audiences, therefore, publications in both English and Chinese were included. To select the Chinese articles the core journals indexed by CNKI were searched, and for the English articles, we used ERIC, IBSS, SCOPUS and WOS databases. After excluding theoretically oriented studies, literature reviews and commentaries, 42 articles remained. The in-depth analysis revealed that the main topics of these studies included the student perception, implementation and educational practices, and the role of language. We conclude that in general there are insufficient empirical studies, especially about EMI teachers’ perspectives to inform policies and practices at the micro, meso and macro level. Based on the findings, directions for further research are identified and recommendations for methodological approaches for future studies are also made.