Editor

JLLT edited by Thomas Tinnefeld
Showing posts with label Volume 3 (2012) Issue 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Volume 3 (2012) Issue 2. Show all posts
Volume 3 (2012) Issue 2 (PDF ) 


Table of Contents





I. Articles

K. James Hartshorn (Provo (Utah), USA) / Norman W. Evans (Provo (Utah), USA):
Abstract
Although recent studies of focused written corrective feedback (WCF), targeting only one or a few error types, may provide valuable insights for building second language acquisition theory, a growing number of scholars have been concerned with the ecological validity of these studies for the second language (L2) classroom. While many researchers favor focused WCF to prevent overload for L2 writers, this study examines an alternative instructional strategy, which targets all errors simultaneously. Based on principles derived from skill acquisition theory, this strategy avoids overload by using shorter pieces of writing. Building on earlier research showing this method improved overall accuracy, this study examines its effects on a variety of discrete linguistic categories. Analyses of pretest and posttest writing in a controlled, 15-week study, suggest that the treatment positively influenced L2 writing accuracy for the mechanical, lexical, and some grammatical domains. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are addressed along with limitations.  
Kay Cheng Soh (Singapore):

Abstract
As an earlier study (Soh 2011) shows, by controlling the substantive content and item format, bilingual testing which systematically combined questions and options yielded much greater correlations in students text performance in two languages. This indicates that bilingual ability has been under-estimated when assessed by using two language tests separately. The finding is only for bilingual testing at the word level. The present study goes beyond to test bilingual ability by using the same approach but at the levels of phrase and text. The same effect was found for this more complex testing. The findings are discussed with reference to the bilingual approach to language syllabus design, classroom instruction, and assessment.



Alexandra Reuber (New Orleans, USA):

Abstract (English)
This article explores a differentiated approach to vocabulary instruction via the combination of textbook exercises selected fromVis-à-Vis (2010) and Tom Tykwer’s court-métrage Faubourg Saint-Denis (2006). By doing so, this approach offers authentic input, recognizes students’ individual intelligences and learning styles, and provides them with ample opportunities to express their personal opinions on the topic of la vie quotidienne (‘daily life’) in French. Because it allows students to experiment with language and to shape their lesson, they experience the foreign language classroom as one learning community where everybody has a voice. Consequently, this approach not only lowers students’ foreign language anxiety, but also motivates them for the study of the language and its culture. Hence, it supports the development of students’ linguistic, inter-social, and cross-cultural competence.

Abstract (Français)
Cet article présente une démarche différenciée pour l’enseignement du vocabulaire. En combinant des exercices du manuelVis-à-Vis (2010) avec le court-métrage Faubourg Saint-Denis (2006) de Tom Tykwer, cette approche offre des ressources authentiques aux étudiants, reconnaît leurs intelligences individuelles, respecte leurs modes d’apprentissage et leur apporte une multitude d’occasions d’exprimer leurs opinions personnelles sur le thème de la vie quotidienne. Comme cette approche leur permet d’expérimenter avec la langue  et d’influencer le déroulement de la leçon, les étudiants perçoivent leur cours de français comme une communauté d’apprentissage dont tous les membres ont le droit de s’exprimer. Par conséquent, une telle démarche pédagogique ne réduit pas seulement l’angoisse de la langue étrangère, mais incite les étudiants à apprendre cette langue et sa culture. Cette démarche différenciée soutient donc le développement de la compétence linguistique, inter-sociale et interculturelle des étudiants.



Valerie Wust (Raleigh (NC), USA) /
Barbie Book Brown (Knightdale (NC), USA):
Abstract (English)
Research on instructed second language (L2) learners of French consistently shows that the preterit emerges before the imperfect and remains the primary past tense marker until the advanced stages of acquisition. This study investigated whether instructional order (preterit-imperfect vs. imperfect-preterit) impacts upon past tense-aspect acquisition by high school learners of French. It was hypothesized that a sequence accounting for the increasing formal complexity of the two primary past tenses in French (e.g., imperfect before preterit) would positively affect mastery of the formation and distribution of both tenses, resulting in increased performance on a written cloze task. This hypothesis could be verified. The findings offer support for conducting further empirical investigations of grammar sequencing as a means of improving the effectiveness of instruction.

Abstract (Français)
Les recherches sur l’acquisition du français par les apprenants en milieu scolaire montrent que le passé composé est traditionnellement enseigné avant l’imparfait et reste le marqueur du passé principal jusqu’aux stades avancés de l’acquisition. Dans la présente étude, la question est examinée de savoir si la séquence d’instruction (passé composé-imparfait vs. imparfait-passé composé) a un impact sur l’acquisition des temps du passé et de l’aspect par les apprenants de français inscrits à l’école secondaire. Nous partons de l’hypothèse qu’une séquence d’instruction tenant compte d’une complexité formelle croissante des deux temps du passé principaux en français (ex. l’imparfait avant le passé composé) a un impact positif sur la maîtrise de la formation et de la distribution des deux temps. La méthode choisie est un test de closure écrit. Dans la présente étude, cette hypothèse a pu être vérifiée. Pourtant, il importe de constater qu’avant que l’on puisse transférer les résultats de cette étude à l’enseignement pratique du français langue étrangère, d’autres études empiriques du même type devront être effectuées.




Abstract (English)

Formulaic expressions and routines play an important role in the acquisition of German as the second or a foreign language. As unanalyzed complex structures, they lead to a higher degree of security in language production on the learner’s part and to a faster access to linguistic structures. It seems that the language acquisition process cannot only be regarded as a process of increasing complexity, but rather as one which also entails complex structures as a starting point that get gradually segmented and analyzed. In language acquisition, processes of construction and deconstruction seem to coexist with each of them playing a major role in the acquisition process. Whereas processes of this type have occasionally undergone investigation in the area of spoken language, there is only little documentation of the importance of formulaic expressions and routines for the acquisition of written language.  

Abstract (Deutsch)
Formeln und Routinen spielen eine wesentliche Rolle beim Erwerb des Deutschen als Zweit- oder Fremdsprache. Als zunächst noch unanalysierte komplexe Einheiten verschaffen sie Lernern ein höheres Maß an Sprachsicherheit und einen schnelleren Zugang zu sprachlichen Strukturen. Es hat den Anschein, dass der Spracherwerbsprozess nicht ausschließlich als ein Prozess der zunehmenden Komplexität zu verstehen ist, sondern zugleich auch als ein Prozess verstanden werden kann, an dessen Anfang komplexe Strukturen stehen, die allmählich segmentiert und analysiert werden und damit gewissermaßen als Prozess der Dekonstruktion von Komplexität zum Spracherwerb beitragen. Während Vorgänge dieses Typs für den Bereich der Mündlichkeit vielfach untersucht worden sind, liegen nur wenige Arbeiten vor, die auch auf die Bedeutung der Formelhaftigkeit für den Erwerb der Schriftlichkeit fokussieren.


II. Book Reviews

Thomas Tinnefeld (Saarbrücken, Germany):

Xuan Jiang (Miami (Florida), USA):

Posted by JLLT

Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Volume 3 (2012) Issue 2



Editorial

The present issue completes the third volume of JLLT since its inauguration in 2010, and as such, I would like to take the opportunity to share with our readers a statistic report concerning the number of publications made in JLLT for the past three years. 

The publications made in JLLT cover three text types: articles, university reports, and book reviews. In the first three years, 30 articles have been published, 6 university reports and 13 book reviews, thus, 49 texts altogether.  The number of pages published amounts to more than 1100.




In terms of the origins of the articles, i.e. the countries their authors were located on publication, the following countries can be found for articles and university reports combined: 


As for the continents which JLLT has reached, our statistical findings show that most of the articles published in JLLT  in its first three years came from Europe (18 articles), followed by the USA (9), Asia (7), Africa (1) and Australia (1). This means that in the journal’s first three years all the five continents on our planet have been represented in the form of publications. 


These figures show that JLLT has received considerable attention in the academic world within a relatively short period of time.

Apart from that, the audience of JLLT also deserves to be mentioned. In terms of reception (pageviews), our statistical findings, retrieved from the statistics gadget of the journal’s blog, which serves as its archive, on December 28th, 2012, show the following picture:


In a top-ten ranking, based on the same source, with a total of 12,340 pageviews for the archive alone, i.e. not for the journal’s website, the current distribution is as follows:

These figures show that JLLT is most frequently visited online from the USA. The second most frequent pageviews are from Germany, the third most frequent visits, from Slovenia (although not a single publication from this country has been made so far), followed by France, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, South Korea, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. Even in this top ten, which, by nature, does not represent a complete list of countries, the following continents are represented: Europe,America, and Asia, with Australia and Africa being generally under-represented (also see theEditorial in JLLT 3 (2012) 1, p. 7). It can easily been seen, however, that JLLT is read in large parts of the northern hemisphere.

The figures presented here also stand for another point which is of vital importance: the gratefulness we owe to our authors and readers. As the editor, I hope that each publication marks the beginning of a long-lasting relationship between the two groups that are semi-permeable: readers can become authors, and authors are always readers. And there is another relationship which is of equal importance and which is very close: the relationship between the Editor / Editorial Board and the authors, who are represented in and by JLLT. We will continue our work, hoping that the development described here will continue in the future.

Thomas Tinnefeld
JLLT
Editor
Posted by JLLT
Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Volume 3 (2012) Issue 2


Editorial
The present issue completes the third volume of JLLT since its inauguration in 2010, and as such, I would like to take the opportunity to share with our readers a statistic report concerning the number of publications made in JLLT for the past three years. 

The publications made in JLLT cover three text types: articles, university reports, and book reviews. In the first three years, 30 articles have been published, 6 university reports and 13 book reviews, thus, 49 texts altogether.  The number of pages published amounts to more than 1100.

In terms of the origins of the articles, i.e. the countries their authors were located on publication, the following countries can be found for articles and university reports combined: 

As for the continents which JLLT has reached, our statistical findings show that most of the articles published in JLLT  in its first three years came from Europe (18 articles), followed by the USA (9), Asia (7), Africa (1) and Australia (1). This means that in the journal’s first three years all the five continents on our planet have been represented in the form of publications. 

These figures show that JLLT has received considerable attention in the academic world within a relatively short period of time.

Apart from that, the audience of JLLT also deserves to be mentioned. In terms of reception (pageviews), our statistical findings, retrieved from the statistics gadget of the journal’s blog, which serves as its archive, on December 28th, 2012, show the following picture:





In a top-ten ranking, based on the same source, with a total of 12,340 pageviews for the archive alone, i.e. not for the journal’s website, the current distribution is as follows:

These figures show that JLLT is most frequently visited online from the USA. The second most frequent pageviews are from Germany, the third most frequent visits, from Slovenia (although not a single publication from this country has been made so far), followed by France, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, South Korea, Indonesia, and the United Kingdom. Even in this top ten, which, by nature, does not represent a complete list of countries, the following continents are represented: Europe, America, and Asia, with Australia and Africa being generally under-represented (also see the Editorial in JLLT 3 (2012) 1, p. 7). It can easily been seen, however, that JLLT is read in large parts of the northern hemisphere.

The figures presented here also stand for another point which is of vital importance: the gratefulness we owe to our authors and readers. As the editor, I hope that each publication marks the beginning of a long-lasting relationship between the two groups that are semi-permeable: readers can become authors, and authors are always readers. And there is another relationship which is of equal importance and which is very close: the relationship between the Editor / Editorial Board and the authors, who are represented in and by JLLT. We will continue our work, hoping that the development described here will continue in the future.

Thomas Tinnefeld
JLLT
Editor
Posted by JLLT

Journal of Linguistics and Language Teaching
Volume 3 (2012) Issue 2



Foreword to the Issue

The second issue of this year, which completes the third volume of JLLT, comprises five articles and two book reviews, covering three target languages: English, French, and German. The areas focussed upon are corrective feedback, language testing,  vocabulary instruction, the teaching of tenses, and formulaic expressions.

In the framework of English as a second or foreign language, K. James Hartshorn and Norman W. Evans (both Provo (Utah, USA) analyse the differential effects of comprehensive corrective feedback on L2 writing accuracy. The authors examine a strategy of instruction, based on skill acquisition theory, which simultaneously focusses on all types of errors. The positive results of this method, which noticeably improved students’ writing accuracy, are shown with respect to mechanical, lexical and grammatical areas. The authors end their contribution by pointing to some pedagogical and methodologican implications of their findings.

Kay Chen Soh (Singapore), complements one of his studies published in JLLT 1 (2010) 2 (271-296) in which he examined bilingual testing at the phrase and the text level, referring to English and Chinese in a contrastive approach. In these studies, which focussed on the word level, he found that by bilingual texting, a higher correlation in students’ textual performance could be achieved than would be possible in two separate language tests. In the present study, he extends this finding to the phrase and text level and has found the same positive effect as the one on the word level. The author refers his results to language methodology, especially to practical language teaching and language assessment.

Alexandra Reuber (New Orleans USA) presents a differentiated approach to vocabulary instruction for French as a foreign language. Taking two short movies on French daily life as the basis of her action research, she elaborates an approach which not only offers students authentic teaching materials, but also takes their individuality into account. Her approach thus creates a learning environment in which every learner feels respected and heard, reducing students’ language anxiety and, at the same time, increasing their motivation for the foreign language and its culture.

Valerie Wust (Raleigh (NC), USA) also targets at French. Her article features a concrete grammatical topic: the never ending story of imparfait and pasé composé. Wust’s approach is highly creative because she questions a phenomenon which has traditionally been transferred from one generation of French teachers and methodologists to the next: the chronological order in which the passé composé is taught first, and the imparfait, only afterwards. In her study, the author finds that the opposite sequence, with the imparfait being taught before the passé composé, has positive effects on students’ mastery of these two tenses. If her findings can be confirmed in further studies, the curriculum of French grammar instruction might have to be re-written.


Frank Kostrzewa (Karlsruhe, Germany) points to the importance of formulaic expressions and routines for the acquisition of German as a second and foreign language. Due to the relatively rigid nature of such chunk expressions, they give students a feeling of security when they make utterances in the foreign language as well as a more immediate access to the structures of this language. In this perspective, the language-learning process is not necessarily one whose complexity gradually increases, but rather a process which integrates complex structures from its very beginning. Should this be further verified, processes of construction and deconstruction would logically be of fairly equal relevance to language acquisition. 

The present issue of JLLT is competed by two book reviews. The first one is by Thomas Tinnefeld (Saarbrücken, Germany) on Tertiary Language Learning (2010) by Veronica Smith. In her monograph, the author gives an outline of recent developments in language teaching methodology and has her reflexions and teaching experience flow into an efficient approach oriented to intermediate to advanced adult learners: scenario-based language learning.

The second book review is by Xuan Jiang (Miami (Florida), USA) on The Handbook of Scholarly Writing and Publishing (2011) by Tonette S. Rocco and Tim Hatcher. On the one hand, it may not be customary to review a book here which does not have a direct impact on linguistics or language teaching. Yet, on the other hand, the book, in the wide range of sciences that it covers, is of practical importance for academics and may positively influence potential articles submitted to this journal. In this sense, this book review can be considered as valuable on a meta-level.

Finally, as the editor, I would like to thank the authors of this issue for having submitted their articles to JLLT as well as our readers who take an interest in reading them. Last but not least, I wish our readers an informative read.

Thomas Tinnefeld
JLLT
Editor
Posted by JLLT
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