Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Volume 35, Issue 1, 2012

Despite growing interest in the theorisation of teacher-based assessment (TBA), very little research has paid close attention to how teachers practice assessment embedded in real classroom contexts. This longitudinal study over one school term reports on the TBA of young learners with English as an additional language (EAL) in New Zealand primary schools. Taking a grounded, emic, inductive approach, using teacher logs, classroom observations and interviews, four language support teachers and one classroom teacher across three schools were observed assessing the language abilities of six EAL students. The results of this study identify five key strategies used by teachers to scaffold students at the implementation stage of the assessment process in relation to different summative and formative purposes of assessment. It suggests ways in which scaffolding may prove crucial to the effective implementation of assessing the complex needs of L2 learners and confirms how scaffolding may play an important role in identifying a learner’s potential. This study particularly highlights the need for clear communication between home class and L2 teachers, especially at the planning and monitoring stages of the assessment process where results may be used by different stakeholders for different purposes.

This paper reports on a study which highlighted goal orientation as an approachable individual difference (ID) variable which may further our understanding of foreign/second language learning experience. The study sought to (i) gauge the extent of goal orientation in foreign language learners' profile and (ii) examine how goal orientation affects their perception of task difficulty and motivation. Analysis of the findings revealed two distinct goal orientation levels which reflected two significantly different response types to task difficulty. Where one goal group responded positively to unfamiliar and cognitively demanding tasks, the other goal group did not. In light of these results, this paper calls for the necessity to revisit the reductionist research format that confines task variation to design and sequencing factors.

This study seeks to examine variations in patterns of interactivity as they are displayed in the ongoing discourse construction of high and low self-efficacy learners of Spanish in the context of computermediated-communication. The paper specifically focuses on the analysis of synchronous text chats of six university students of Spanish at intermediate level over the course of two semesters as they carried out semi-directed discussions. The analytical framework is drawn from Eggins and Slade’s (2006) model of speech functions within Systemic Functional Linguistics which, to our knowledge, has never been applied to second language online chat discussions. This approach highlights how general patterns of dominance, sustainability and dependence in the management of discourse behaviour are displayed through the participants’ contributions. The analysis suggests in particular that the realisation of interactivity can be traced back to the negotiation of exchanges concerned with social and interpersonal relations. These findings become particularly relevant when considered within the wider educational debate of participation and acquisition (Sfard, 1998), as the interpersonal relations of people who engage in collaborative activities are normally considered peripheral to second or foreign language learning (Pavlenko & Lantolf, 2000). On the basis of the present analysis, a further elaboration of the model is proposed to take account of the relational perspective that would need to be tested in future studies using similar data.

This paper investigates the effect of listener attitudes on the ability to understand a foreign (non-Australian) accent. The research focuses on individual listener characteristics, such as attitude and frequency of contact with accented speakers, rather than speech production. Data was collected through a web-based survey and analysis employed both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Correlation was found between a negative attitude toward other ethnicities and ability to correctly transcribe foreign-accented speech, with a stronger correlation between a negative attitude and comprehensibility. Qualitative analysis of participant comments highlighted discrepancies in attitude testing methods and indicated that an accent can inspire many assumptions, the most common being that foreign-accented speakers have a lower level of education than Australian-accented speakers. The results suggest that future research in this area should always try to account for individual participant characteristics.

While most language-planning and policy (LPP) studies have focussed on language decisions made by government bodies, in recent years there has been an increased interest in micro-level language planning in immigrant contexts. Few studies, however, have used this framework to retrospectively examine the planning decisions of religious institutions, such as “ethnic” churches. This paper explores the language decisions made by the Lutheran church in Australia between 1838 and 1921. The study is based on archival research carried out in the Lutheran Archives in Adelaide, South Australia. The paper draws attention to the complex interrelationships between language, religion and identity in an immigrant context.