Yue, Ying. State University of New York at Buffalo, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019. 13885954.

In previous publications, the authors reported on the English skills of students who had learned ESL in an experimental comprehension-based program. The performance of grade 4 and 5 students with two or three years of reading and listening was compared to that of students with three years of audio-lingual instruction. On most measures, the students in the comprehension-based program performed as well as or better than the comparison group (Lightbown 1992a; Lightbown & Halter, 1989). In the present paper, the authors report on a follow-up study carried out when students were in grade 8. After six years of an essentially comprehension-based program in ESL, they performed as well as comparison groups of students on measures of comprehension and some measures of oral production but not on measures of written production. This paper includes a description of some particular gaps in the written language of students in the comprehension-based program, includes a follow-up study with secondary school students who had been involved in an experimental program for learning English as a second language (ESL) in primary school, and concludes with a discussion of the need for pedagogical guidance for the development of writing skills.

This exploratory study investigated the effectiveness of graded readings with Chinese language beginners at the university level. The research focused on two primary questions: (1) How effective is the use of graded readings as a homework project in a beginning Chinese class? and (2) What are learners' perceptions of using graded readings? Data collection included the performances of the learners' Chinese character naming accuracy and speed, vocabulary recognition and reading comprehension tests, and a survey regarding the learners' opinions of the graded readings. The study results show that after using the graded readings for a semester, the learners gained a higher character naming speed compared to learners who did not use the graded readings. In addition, the readings increased the learners' character and vocabulary knowledge and enhanced their reading comprehension.

From Diane:
I'm almost certain I met the 2nd researcher during ACTFL in 2014 because there was a Utah prof who presented on "Extensive Reading" in beginning Chinese classes. If so, the graded reading was teacher-prepared, and beginners reported very long times needed to understand the texts -- not Extensive Reading materials. 

information from character n + 1 and character n + 2. The results from Experiment 1 suggest they do. In  Experiment  2,  2-character target words were used to determine  whether readers obtain preview

information from word n + 2 as well as word n + 1. Robust preview effects were obtained for word n + 1. There was also evidence from gaze duration (but not first fixation duration), suggesting preview effects for word n + 2. Moreover, there was evidence for parafoveal-on-foveal effects in Chinese reading in both experiments. Implications of these results for models of eye movement control are discussed.

The article examines the role of silence in learners’ language development by discussing current theories in second language acquisition and by connecting them to the silence phenomenon. A number of important constructs in SLA are brought up as they have potential to be associated with the silent mode of learning, namely the silent period, input, output, communicative competence, among others. The discussion also highlights a few theoretical gaps in SLA discourse that are related to silence.

Theorizing Pedagogical Interaction will appeal to students and scholars in applied linguistics, educational linguistics, and communication studies who are interested in the discourse of teaching and learning.

ideas for language teacher recruitment and retention to which a variety of stakeholders (e.g., parents, administrators, language teacher associations) can contribute immediately in order to address the world language teacher shortage in earnest.

In line with recent critiques of communicative language teaching (Byrnes and Maxim 2004; Byrnes 2006), this paper considers how instances of spontaneous, creative language play can afford access to a range of linguistic practices that are often devalued or ignored in classrooms. To this end, it examines how university students in an advanced Spanish conversation course jointly manipulate linguistic forms, semantic units, and discursive elements for the amusement of themselves and others. The analysis suggests that these humorous moments provide opportunities for new and more varied forms of participation and language use, contributing to the expansion of learners’ overall communicative repertoires. That is, it illustrates how co-constructed episodes of unscripted language play can destabilize institutionally-sanctioned assumptions about what counts as a meaningful or legitimate act of language use, momentarily reconfiguring the definition of linguistic expertise and broadening the possibilities for acceptable language use. Following Hall et al. (2006), the authors advocate a view of learners as multicompetent language users (V. Cook 1991, 1992, 1999), whose language knowledge is grounded in the actual linguistic practices in which they engage.

Previous studies have highlighted the potential of film to promote the development of L2 pragmatics by presenting to learners the types of authentic, contextually-appropriate language use routinely absent from textbooks. However, the issue of authenticity is multifaceted and there has been little if any exploration of authenticity in terms of larger sequences within scripted texts. Sequence authenticity is particularly relevant to learners, as it demonstrates how actions are achieved over multiple turns, and how utterances are designed to ‘fit’ with previous turns and how they shape the next turn; difficulties in this domain can prove highly problematic. To explore the pedagogical potential of general-release films, the present study analysed dialogue from 20 popular English-language movies, and reports findings relating to invitation sequences and the overall structuring practices found in phone call openings and closings. The findings reveal systematic and highly recurrent ways in which film dialogues tend to deviate from ordinary speech. These findings are discussed in terms of the conventions of narrative film and key principles of drama.