Australian Review of Applied Linguistics - Online First

It is undeniable that vocabulary plays a vital role in second-language learning since it facilitates comprehension and production of the target language. Similarly, students in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classes are required to know both academic and field-specific vocabulary to master academic competence in their disciplines. In this corpus-based research, three field-specific word lists were developed from 1,569 academic research articles in the areas of agriculture and forestry, including the Agriculture Word List (AGWL), the Forestry Word List (FRWL), and the Agriculture-Forestry Word List (AFWL). The corpora in this research comprised 6,785,011 running words for the agriculture corpus, 2,402,045 running words for the forestry corpus, and 9,187,056 running words for the agriculture-forestry corpus. To analyze the data, the Key BNC Program and the AntWordProfiler Program were used to develop the three word lists. After 2,000 word families in the General Service List (GSL) and 570 word families in the Academic Word List (AWL) were eliminated, there were 1,149 word families for the Agriculture Word List, 348 word families for the Forestry Word List, and 1,726 word families for the Agriculture-Forestry Word List, with the word lists accounting for 9.10%, 6.63%, and 10.42% of the three corpora, respectively. These word lists can familiarize agriculture and forestry students with the academic words in their disciplines. They could also be beneficial for teachers and material designers to prepare instructional activities and develop useful educational materials as well as vocabulary tests for ESP classrooms.

In this conceptual paper, we integrate interdisciplinary perspectives from early childhood education and applied linguistics to propose a new framework: Playworld Translanguaging. This framework refers to the intentional blending of pedagogical translanguaging and conceptual playworlds to create a supportive, inclusive pedagogy in early childhood education settings for children from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

We argue that pedagogical translanguaging and conceptual playworlds share complementary features and philosophical foundations that can enhance language and literacy development, conceptual understanding, problem-solving skills, identity formation, personal agency, and overall wellbeing in young children. As both approaches are rights-based, inclusive, and responsive, their combination has the potential to effectively address the needs of linguistically and culturally diverse children.

While extensive research has shown the benefits of pedagogical translanguaging and conceptual playworlds independently, there is limited theorising and research on how combining these approaches might further improve outcomes in early childhood education. This paper thus aims to bridge that gap by introducing Playworld Translanguaging as a promising, unified approach.

Although it can be argued that the language of the internet is English, the portrayal of other languages in virtual academic settings such as university websites may face constraints related to institutional and monolingual policies. Thus, this research adopts a linguistic landscape perspective to explore the representation of the Spanish language and culture in Australian university websites. In particular, it focuses on how Spanish language/studies programs or courses are portrayed and what meanings are conveyed in the virtual linguistic landscape of four Sydney universities. This paper applies a social-semiotic, multimodal analysis to explore the hierarchical organization of information on universities’ websites and webpages and the meanings conveyed by the designers in relation to the semiotic resources selected to promote Spanish language/studies programs or courses. The study concludes that only two of the studied webpages attempt to portray Spanish language/studies programs or courses fully multimodally, one uses text and video, and the last relies solely on written text to convey meanings. These choices may have ideological implications because these institutions fail in their attempt to represent Spanish as a pluricentric language. Additionally, these programs/courses are disadvantageously positioned in the hierarchical organization of information on the four analyzed websites, which makes it harder for potential students to find relevant content about these programs/courses.

Language change in Modern Standard Chinese has been an area of research interest for several decades. However, the field continues to be characterized by a focus on written Chinese, with a lack of systematic, fine-grained analyses of specific morphosyntactic features in spoken Mandarin and a dearth of diachronic spoken data. This paper aims to address these shortcomings by examining recent developments in the use of the plural marker men based on an analysis of its use in a diachronic corpus of spoken Mandarin spanning 2005 to 2020. The study reveals several indications of language change, including an increase in the overall frequency of use, a shift in the semantic distribution of nouns undergoing pluralization, and a weakening of the correlation with definite reference. Incipient changes in the use of the plural marker men in spoken Mandarin suggest a trend in morphological patterns of behavior in some contexts towards those of plural suffixes in languages with obligatory grammatical marking for number. The pedagogical implications of this research are also discussed.

Research shows that language complexity is a crucial measure of proficiency and that academic and scientific writing has evolved over time. However, linguistic complexity may differ between first (L1) and second (L2) language translations, and its development over time remains unexplored. This study examines how the translator’s native language and the time of translation affect the complexity of Laozi translations. Using a corpus of 79 translations, we analyzed syntactic and lexical complexity to compare L1 and L2 English speakers’ translations across three distinct periods. Contrary to expectations, our results reveal no significant complexity differences between L1 and L2 translators, suggesting that native language proficiency does not necessarily influence translation complexity. However, significant variations were found across different historical periods, indicating changes in translation styles over time. These findings show that time influences translation complexity more than the translator’s native language.

This study explores the role of parental ideologies in heritage language (HL) maintenance among three interlingual families in New Zealand. This study draws on data from semi-structured interviews with Korean immigrant mothers and non-Korean fathers. A thematic approach was used to analyze the data. The findings in this study revealed that the three families placed great value in Korean HL maintenance. All three family language policies (FLPs) centered around a “One Person, One Language” approach, with the mothers using Korean. However, there were still wide-ranging variations in their FLPs. Moreover, the mothers’ attitudes toward HL learning were related to their perceptions of their children’s identities, which affected their HL-teaching strategies. The mothers’ HL maintenance efforts were possible because of their partners’ support. However, their husbands’ positive attitudes were also clearly associated with heteronormative gender roles and a related ideology of parenting. The findings suggest that even in positive FLP contexts, there is thus still a role for a more holistic and critical approach to HL maintenance.

Although Reading-Writing Integrated Tasks (RWITs) are known to be effective for vocabulary learning, few studies have explored learners’ cognitive behaviors in processing new words during RWITs. Using a mixed-methods design, this study examined both the learning outcomes and cognitive processes of vocabulary acquisition through the Story Continuation Writing Task (SCWT), an emerging RWIT in EFL contexts. Forty-one Chinese EFL students were divided into two groups: one created an ending to an English story (SCWT), and the other summarized its main ideas (control). Results showed that (1) the SCWT group outperformed the control group in retaining word knowledge related to meaning and use, though no significant difference was found in form knowledge gains; and (2) SCWT participants engaged in more frequent and deeper vocabulary processing, including checking glossaries, preparing words for writing, engaging deeply with the text, activating personal experiences, and meticulously revising their work. These findings enhance our understanding of RWITs and inform the use of SCWTs for vocabulary instruction in EFL contexts.