ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 166, Issue 1, 2015

This paper explores the ambiguous nature of applied linguistics as a field of enquiry, to contextualise the interpretation of data from an empirical study into how research expertise in applied linguistics is conceptualised, and how it develops during an academic’s career. Key findings from the study include the importance of being willing to work at the boundaries of one’s knowledge, the capacity to communicate one’s ideas effectively, and the role of a good quality research environment for developing knowledge, skills and confidence. It is proposed that these features fit well with the modern imperative of addressing the world’s major problems though a cross-disciplinary approach to research, putting applied linguists into a strong position to contribute to new research knowledge.

While the available research literature appears to support the implementation of task-based language teaching (TBLT) in Western countries, few studies have been conducted to investigate its impact on classroom practice in Asia, especially in comparison with the presentation-practice-production (PPP) approach which many Asian teachers still favour. The current study explores the differential effects of the PPP approach and a task-based approach on Vietnamese students’ writing performance and self-regulation while writing descriptive and argumentative paragraphs. The study involved 138 students of English Language Studies at a university in Vietnam. Results show that both approaches are effective in enhancing students’ text quality. The students in the PPP condition had significantly higher scores on linguistic accuracy in the immediate posttest than the students in the TBLT condition. Conversely, students in the TBLT groups had significantly higher scores on lexical diversity in the immediate posttest than the students in the PPP condition. With regard to self-regulation, the students in the TBLT condition had significantly higher scores on the immediate posttest than the students in the PPP condition .

Many scholars believe that collocations are difficult to learn and use by L2 learners. However, some research suggests that learners often know more collocations than commonly thought. This study tested 108 Spanish learners of English to measure their productive knowledge of 50 collocations, which varied according to corpus frequency, t-score, and MI score. The participants produced a mean score of 56.6% correct, suggesting that our learners knew a substantial number of collocations. Knowledge of the collocations correlated moderately with corpus frequency (.45), but also with everyday engagement with English outside the classroom, in activities like reading, watching movies/TV, and social networking (composite correlation = .56). Everyday engagement also had a stronger relationship with collocation knowledge than years of English study (.45).

This study aims to identify essential stages involved in vocabulary learning by constructing, implementing and validating a process-focused learning model using structural equation modelling (SEM). In this model, successful vocabulary learning goes through four sequential stages: perceiving the word form; accessing the word meaning; mapping the word form with meaning; using the word. A vocabulary learning strategy questionnaire was developed based on the model and administered to more than 300 Chinese university students; the model was satisfactorily tested using the SEM technique. The empirical findings provide further insights into our understanding of the complex nature of vocabulary acquisition which forms a systematic learning loop. A number of learning and teaching implications were drawn accordingly to enhance L2 vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary learning strategy training programmes.

This paper explores the use of -ly adverbs by Norwegian advanced learners of English compared to that of native speakers. The investigation is based on two corpora of novice academic English: VESPA and BAWE. It considers features of lexis (frequencies, style, meanings, collocational patterns) as well as of syntax, i.e. whether the adverbs function as adjuncts, disjuncts, conjuncts or modifiers in adjective or adverb phrases. The learners make few clear mistakes with adverbs, but there are important frequency differences between the corpora concerning lexical choice and semantic and syntactic functions. Learners overuse adverbs with modal meaning but underuse phrase-modifying adverbs. Most adjunct types are also underused. At several points, the native speakers prove to have a greater lexical repertoire.