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- Volume 25, Issue, 2002
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Volume 25, Issue 1, 2002
Volume 25, Issue 1, 2002
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Early bilingual writing
Author(s): Marina Aidmanpp.: 1–18 (18)More LessThe paper reports some influences of the mother tongue uses on the majority language writing in a simultaneously bilingual child. The child was observed over a five-year period (from the pre-school through mid-primary years) when receiving mainstream schooling in English, whereas her communication with the parents largely occurred in a minority language (Russian). The written texts produced by the child in both her languages over this five-year period, both in the school and at home, were analysed using the systemic functional methodology (Halliday 1994). The written texts of the child’s classroom peers were sampled for comparative analysis. The findings provide evidence that language development in one of the bilingual’s languages tends to enhance the development in the other. Thus there have been differentiated text types in the child’s English writing that were not explicitly taught in English, and also some genres not typically found in the same age monolinguals’ writing. These genres have been scaffolded using the minority language, thus indicating that aspects of the schematic structure and grammar mastered in one of a bilingual’s languages can be carried across to their second language and stimulate the emergence of new written genres in it. Overall the findings support the hypothesis of the interdependence of bilinguals’ languages development (Cummins, 1981; 1984), in the area of written genre learning.
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The development of comprehension in interlanguage pragmatics
Author(s): Misty Cook and Anthony J. Liddicoatpp.: 19–39 (21)More LessIn the past, research in interlanguage pragmatics has primarily explained the differences between native speakers’ (NS) and non-native speakers’ (NNS) pragmatic performance based on cross-cultural and linguistic differences. Very few researchers have considered learners’ pragmatic performance based on second language comprehension. In this study, we will examine learners’ pragmatic performance using request strategies. The results of this study reveal that there is a proficiency effect for interpreting request speech acts at different levels of directness. We propose that learners’ processing strategies and capacities are important factors to consider when examining learners’ pragmatic performance.
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Towards standards of feedback on written assignments in language teacher education
Author(s): David Crabbe and Marilyn Lewispp.: 41–51 (11)More LessAs alliances are formed between various tertiary institutions within and beyond the same country, the issue of standards arises, particularly with reference to the marking of assignments. This is true not only of the summative grading of assignments but also of the formative effect of written feedback. This paper reports on an exercise in analysing, comparing and reflecting on the feedback offered by two university lecturers on postgraduate programmes for teachers. The writers examine retrospectively the written feedback each provided on written assignments and suggest how the information might be used to derive feedback standards that themselves would be the basis for further evaluation.
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Focus on learnable form in a communicative context
Author(s): Bronwen Patricia Dysonpp.: 53–70 (18)More LessIn this article I present the concept of ‘focus on learnable form’ and show how it could be implemented in the classroom. ‘Focus on form’ research has produced increasing evidence that a form focus can improve the acquisition of the particular form while remaining compatible with the communicative approach. The learnability of grammatical form, a key issue in this research, has been addressed in some studies by identifying the emergence of the form. Since there are problems in relying on emergence, I argue for the adoption of Processability Theory (Pienemann, 1998) and specifically the construct of developmental stages. This framework enables teachers to predict the forms that would be beneficial to focus on and those that are developmentally too advanced for effective focus on form. Despite criticisms of ‘structural’ approaches to SLA research, Processability Theory has a lot to offer communicative language teaching. As I have found in teaching ESL to adolescent and adult learners, ‘focus on learnable form’ in a communicative context is achievable in the classroom and can be implemented as one component of a communicative curriculum by following three steps: assessing the learners, selecting a ‘learnable’ form and focusing on this learnable form in a communicative context.
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Teaching from experience
Author(s): Elizabeth Ellispp.: 71–107 (37)More LessThis paper reports on case studies of three non-native English speaker teachers who teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to adults in Australia. It sets out to show that while there are differences in the teachers’ backgrounds, there are also similarities which derive from their non-native status, and from the fact that they are high-level bilinguals of English and at least one other language. The paper begins by reviewing the debate in English language teaching (ELT) internationally about the place of native and non-native speakers in ELT and goes on to outline the research which has been carried out to date in comparing native and non-native teachers in other countries. The paper then argues for the importance of examining these issues in the Australian context. The experience and insights of the three teachers are examined through the analysis of interviews and classroom transcripts, and are linked to the growing literature which suggests that teachers’ practices are heavily informed by their knowledge, beliefs and experience. I argue that the distinctive but shared resources of non-native teachers merit looking at their contribution in a new light.
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Attitudes towards disputable usages among Australian teachers and students
Author(s): Jackie F.K. Leepp.: 109–129 (21)More LessSome previous studies (eg Watson, 1978; Collins, 1979) have found that while Australian teachers are sensitive to traditional prescriptions such as the use of whom rather than who in object function, and between you and me rather than between you and I, Australian students accept language variation more readily. This paper aims to examine whether Australian teachers nowadays still display more conservative attitudes towards disputable usages than their students. Data were collected via several elicitation tests. In the first survey, 34 Australian English teachers and 54 Australian high school students were invited to participate in a judgement test. In the second survey, 73 Australian teachers and 207 Australian students were presented with a slot-filling test and a proofreading test. The findings showed considerable differences between teachers and students towards disputable usages. Australian teachers had a higher tendency to reject and replace items such as different than, these sort and dangling participles. This suggests that tolerance diminishes with involvement in teaching.
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Coordinating talk and non-talk activity in the airline cockpit
Author(s): Maurice Nevilepp.: 131–146 (16)More LessThis paper draws on insights and practices of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to explore routine talk-in-interaction in the airline cockpit; that is, the place of pilots’ talk as they establish what is going on around them, what they are doing, who is doing what, when they have completed what they are doing, and what they are to do next. I am interested in features of talk as pilots develop and demonstrate to one another their situated and moment-to-moment understandings in order to perform and complete the tasks necessary to fly their plane. In particular, I examine how pilots coordinate their talk and non-talk activities with split-second precision. This paper shows how pilots precisely coordinate their talk with the placement and movement of their hands as they use various cockpit controls and displays. This precise coordination may be particularly germane in the sequentially task-oriented setting of the airline cockpit, and possibly other sociotechnical workplace settings. Such coordination contributes to what the pilots can ‘know’, moment-to-moment, about the progress of their flight and their conduct of it. The outcome of a precise coordination of talk and non-talk activity is a synchronisation of the pilots’ conduct of a task, and the progress of the flight, as these are represented in talk and as they really are. This paper goes a little way towards an understanding of what it is to be, accountably and recognisably, an airline pilot, and shows how every airline flight is simultaneously and necessarily both a technological triumph and an interactional accomplishment.
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A useful kind of interaction? Evaluations by university students of feedback on written assignments
Author(s): Neomy Storch and Joanna Tapperpp.: 147–167 (21)More LessIn content subjects, university teachers hope that students find their comments on written assignments useful contributions to student learning of content and disciplinary writing. However, teachers often do not know what effect this form of interaction has on student readers. In this study we investigated student reactions to teacher feedback in a law subject. Data included teacher feedback written on 76 student assignments, responses by 72 students to a questionnaire about the feedback and interviews with 9 students. Responses from two groups were compared. One group (Group A) comprised students born in Australia or another English-speaking country and those born in non-English speaking countries but who had been residents in Australia for over seven years. The other group (Group B) comprised students born in non-English speaking countries and who had been resident in Australia for less than seven years. The students from both groups were most interested in specific comments on content matters and only half were interested in comments on written expression. Students from Group B were more likely than Group A students to find teacher comments useful for subsequent assignment writing. The responses from all students indicate that although they found teacher comments useful, they were not necessarily totally satisfied with the nature of the feedback.
Volumes & issues
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Volume 47 (2024)
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Volume 46 (2023)
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Volume 45 (2022)
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Volume 44 (2021)
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Volume 43 (2020)
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Volume 42 (2019)
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Volume 41 (2018)
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Volume 40 (2017)
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Volume 39 (2016)
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Volume 38 (2015)
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Volume 37 (2014)
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Volume 36 (2013)
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Volume 35 (2012)
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Volume 34 (2011)
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Volume 33 (2010)
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Volume 32 (2009)
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Volume 31 (2008)
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Volume 30 (2007)
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Volume 29 (2006)
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Volume 28 (2005)
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Volume 27 (2004)
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Volume 26 (2003)
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Volume 25 (2002)
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Volume 24 (2001)
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Volume 23 (2000)
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Volume 22 (1999)
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Volume 21 (1998)
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Volume 20 (1997)
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Volume 19 (1996)
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Volume 18 (1995)
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Volume 17 (1994)
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Volume 16 (1993)
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Volume 15 (1992)
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Volume 14 (1991)
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Volume 13 (1990)
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Volume 12 (1989)
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Volume 11 (1988)
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Volume 10 (1987)
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Volume 9 (1986)
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Volume 8 (1985)
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Volume 7 (1984)
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Volume 6 (1983)
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Volume 5 (1982)
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Volume 4 (1981)
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Volume 3 (1980)
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Volume 2 (1979)
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Volume 1 ([1978, 1977])
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Volume 1 ([1978, 1977])
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