Table of Contents
Editorial
Foreword to the Issue
I. Articles
Esmaeil Momtaz (Aberdeen, UK) & Mark Garner (Aberdeen, UK):
Does Collaborative Learning Improve EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension? (15-35)
Abstract
Despite a widespread assumption that collaborative learning (CL) is pedagogically effective, there has been little research on its place in non-Western educational institutions, specifically in relation to EFL. A mixed-method study was conducted in Iranian EFL reading comprehension classes in order to establish whether (a) CL leads to greater comprehension of a text than private reading, and, if so, (b) the processes by which it enhances comprehension. Participants were pre-tested for reading comprehension and streamed into two classes. The intervention consisted of four texts of equal length. Each class read two texts collaboratively and two privately, after which they answered in writing ten comprehension questions. Collaborative reading resulted in consistently and significantly higher scores than private reading for all four texts. Group interactions during collaborative reading were tape recorded and transcribed, and 10 students selected at random from the two classes were interviewed in depth. Using these methods, certain processes of collaborative reading were identified, including brainstorming, paraphrasing, and summarizing.
Mehrnoosh Fakharzadeh (Isfahan / Iran) & Abbass Eslami Rasekh (Shiraz / Iran):
Mehrnoosh Fakharzadeh (Isfahan / Iran) & Abbass Eslami Rasekh (Shiraz / Iran):
On the Applicability or Non-Applicability of the Gricean Maxims to Nursery Rhymes (37-73)
Abstract
The present article reports the findings of a study designed to examine whether the Gricean Maxims, based on his cooperative principle, are observed or flouted in one language activity, nursery rhymes. Examining 30 popular English rhymes and justifying the position of the rhymes on a literary-nonliterary continuum, adapting Halliday's functional framework for non-literary and Cook's cognitive change function for literary discourses, the researchers found that for this language activity to be performed successfully, some modifications are required to be made on the definition of the maxims of quantity and relevance. It has also been revealed that while the maxim of quality might be flouted, the maxim of manner is observed in all the songs. Our analysis of the data suggests that it is not only the assumed cooperation between addresser and addressees which governs the whole discourse, but also that another principle may need to be defined on the basis of some modifications made to the maxims.
Pronominalization in French: Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice (75-110)
Abstract
This article examines reasons for which the two complementary French pronominal systems are so difficult to teach and learn. The first part of the article synthesizes the findings of empirical studies on pronoun acquisition by learners of French in a variety of contexts. The second part examines specific learnability issues (e.g., Ellis 2006) that contribute to the developmental difficulties experienced by instructed second language learners in particular. In the final section suggestions for an informed pedagogy of French object pronouns are offered, moving from beginning to advanced levels of development.
II. University Reports
Rainer Reisel (Saarbrücken, Germany):
Das Deutsch-Französische Hochschulinstitut (DFHI) in der vierten Dekade seines Bestehens - eine Zwischenbilanz (113-122)
Abstract
In the present article, the political and academic development of the German-French University Institute (DFHI / ISFATES) – from its beginnings in 1975 via the Bologna process up to the present day - is described from the point of view of its former director, the conceptual highlights of its institutional and methodological approach being elaborated. Last but not least, the article witnesses a fruitful university cooperation between a French and a German university, for the benefit of students and their professional success. For reasons of illustration, four specific study programmes –Electrical Engineering and Logistics, Bachelor and Master, respectively– are exemplified.
Nadine Imhof / Anne Lejeune / Ann-Katrin Marsel / Marie Philippi / Johanna Volk (Saarbrücken, Germany / Metz, France):
Das DFHI aus studentischer Sicht - L'ISFATES dans une perspective étudiante (123-134)
Abstract
In the present article, written in German and French, respectively, three German and two French students, enrolled in the DFHI programme Master of Management Sciences, give a detailed report about the German-French University Institute (DFHI / ISFATES), using their respective mother tongues, with these two languages alternating occasionally. After a short description of the German-French University Institute, which represents the umbrella organisation of the different study programmes which are offered in the cooperation of two universities – Saarland University of Applied Sciences in Germany and Paul Verlaine University in Metz (France) –, one of these programmes is outlined. Its multilingual (German, French and English) and intercultural orientation is positively evaluated. The geographic place of study is described as well as the student organisation. Finally, two typical projects are exemplified.
III. Book Reviews
Christine Schowalter (Landau, Germany):
Marcel Eggler: Argumentationsanalyse textlinguistisch. Argumentative Figuren für und wider den Golfkrieg von 1991. Tübingen: Niemeyer 2006. 450 Seiten. (137-143)
Thomas Tinnefeld (Saarbrücken, Germany):
Dlaska, Andrea / Christian Krekeler: Sprachtests. Leistungsbeurteilungen im Fremdsprachenunterricht evaluieren und verbessern. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider Verlag Hohengehren 2009, 195 Seiten (145-153)
IV. Call for Papers
Contrastive Linguistics
Editorial
This is the first issue of the new Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching which is published in Saarbrücken (
The critical reader may wonder whether there is a need of a new journal in the academic world, taking into consideration the considerable number of academic journals which already exist. This question can be answered in the affirmative. Let us quickly cast some light on the reasons which can be raised in favour of this new journal.
The ultimate goal pursued in the launching of this journal is to show that linguistics is by no means a science which could be seen as l'art pour l'art, but that, on the contrary, it provides important research results which are closely linked to relevant areas of practice, among which the teaching of foreign languages is an important one. Linguistics - as theoretical as it may appear at times - (nearly) always presents useful findings whose practical importance may not in every case be immediately visible, but which is always there. This very reason alone would be sufficient to create a journal like the present one.
Apart from and in addition to this first important point, there is an urgent need of a journal covering the full range of topics between linguistics on the one hand and language methodology on the other. This range is, in general, covered by applied linguistics - but not necessarily nor exclusively: Should there be any new findings made even in the field of theoretical linguistics, which may stand for or possibly lead to an improvement in the teaching of the language examined in the given study, the place for the publication of these results will be in the present journal.
Should, on the other side of the continuum, any findings be made which were originated by practical teaching and which may have an influence on the linguistic analysis of the given phenomenon - a case which can easily be imagined in the dichotomy of system and norm, for example -, its place for publication will be in the present journal as well.
These two extremes are to illustrate the enormous range of topics publishable in this journal, with any academic question situated between them being relevant for this new academic organ.
The Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching, which is accessible for publication to any researcher or practitioner having interesting findings to communicate, is - last but not least - meant to be a platform for academic discourse and discussion. It will therefore be possible for readers to utter their opinions and to react to articles published here by writing articles of their own in response or by writing short statements, comparable to the text type Letters to the Editor, which will then be published under the corresponding rubric. In this manner, an intensive exchange of ideas can be realised for the best of linguistic research and the teaching of foreign languages.
Thomas Tinnefeld
JLLT
Editor
Foreword to the Issue
It is my great pleasure to present the first issue of the Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching, which we are able to publish four months after the launch of the Journal. Since the beginning of this year, a number of articles have been sent to us - some of which still being under review in their first or second phase -, and the first five of them are being published now, others following in the subsequent issue. Article submissions came from four different continents, the manuscripts covering the most varied scope of topics, all of them being interesting and innovative.
I would like to thank the authors who have submitted articles to JLLT, trusting Editor and Editorial Board and thus endorsing a new initiative and an innovative academic organ and, in doing so, encouraging many more authors to submit their manuscripts as well, knowing that they and their work will be in good hands and that their findings will be published on a short-term basis.
In addition, I would like to thank those members of the Editorial Board who have contributed to the making of this first issue and whose work has increased the quality of articles even more. Although there will always be cases in which manuscripts will be rejected, our work so far has shown that the board members' motivation has been - and will be - to make publications possible rather than to block them. By means of intensive communication with authors, academic quality is and will be guaranteed and promising research findings are and will be conveyed to the academia in a functional manner.
This first issue of JLLT comprises five articles and two book reviews. These will be briefly described in what follows so as to give our readers a short overview of what may be of interest to them. In addition, both in the table of contents and preceding the articles themselves, an English abstract for each article will be given, which is even more expressive than the following short lines can be.
In the rubric articles and in the chronology of publications - not in that of manuscript submission -, the first article, whose authors - Esmaeil Momtaz and Mark Garner - both work at the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom, deals with collaborative learning and its potential influence on reading comprehension in an EFL context. The results elaborated in this study are significant in scope and nature and may have a strong impact on the course planning of language teachers in the whole world, who may, in this article, find a confirmation of their own observations.
The second article by Mehrnoosh Fakharzadeh (Isfahan , Iran ) and Abbass Eslami Rasekh (Shiraz ,Iran
Whereas in the first two articles, scientific interest lies on English as a second language, in the third article, the French language taught to American natives is examined in a well-defined area: the use, position and combination of subject and object pronouns. This grammatical category, which is characterised by a complicated set of rules to be applied to any utterance these pronouns occur in, presents considerable obstacles to most learners, who are required to overcome them should they ever strive for speaking and writing French more or less correctly. In her article, Valerie A. Wust (Raleigh , North Carolina , USA
The second rubric - university reports - consists of two articles which are closely interlinked and which are of informative and intercultural rather than of purely academic value. These articles describe an original approach, i.e. a joint German-French university institute - DFHI / ISFATES - organised by one university in each country, which has just entered its fourth decade of existence. The first of the two articles just mentioned was written by Rainer Reisel (Saarbrücken , Germany
The second article was written by five Master students of the same institute -Nadine Imhof, Anne Lejeune, Ann-Katrin Marsel, Marie Philippi, and Johanna Volk (Metz, France / Saarbrücken, Germany) -, two of whom are French, three being German. This article, written in French and German combined, just according to the philosophy of this institute, describes important aspects from a student perspective, thus complementing Rainer Reisel's article.
This first issue of JLLT is rounded off by two book reviews. Christine Schowalter (Landau , Germany ) presents a monograph on applied argumentation analysis, and Thomas Tinnefeld (Saarbrücken , Germany
May this short overview of the various components of this first issue arouse our readers' interest and boost their inspiration so that, as the best possible effect, the texts published here may inspire new research and new findings which will then be published in future issues of JLLT.
Thomas Tinnefeld
JLLT
Editor