Applied Research on English Language
Volume:2 Issue: 1, Feb 2013

Language planning, in one way or another, is as old as human civilization. Every time that one polity invaded the territory of another, the language of the conqueror was imposed on the conquered. The Romans imposed their language across the civilized world as they knew it. In the 21st century, the practice of language planning has become increasingly sophisticated. English, as the result of a series of fortuitous accidents has become the international language serving many activities. At the same time, it has led to an explosion in English language teaching, an activity also not based on wise decisions or wise planning.

This article outlines founding principles and a guiding strategy for the translation of Apollinaire’s poetry; many aspects of the strategy reflect the convictions and practices of Apollinaire’s own poetics. But the article is particularly concerned to argue that translation’s task is the projection of the source text into its future, rather than being an act of recuperation or preservation; this argument is pursued and evaluated with reference to the thinking of Yves Bonnefoy, and entails the differentiation of sense and meaning. The closing section is concerned with the part that might be played in this ‘multilingual’ translational project by photography, and, more particularly, by collages of photographic fragments.

The Japanese adaptation of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR-J) is a tailored version of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), designed to better meet the needs of Japanese learners of English. The CEFR-J, like the CEFR, uses illustrative descriptors known as can-do statements, that describe achievement goals for five skills (listening, reading, spoken production, spoken interaction and writing) across twelve levels instead of the CEFR’s original six. The goal of the present analysis is to provide validity evidence in support of the inherent difficulty hierarchy within the 5 A level sub-categories (A1.1, A1.2, A1.3, A2.1 and A2.2) in two ways: 1) by testing whether the difficulty of the can-do statements for each skill increases with the levels, and 2) by determining if there are significant differences in difficulty ratings between each level. It was found that for most skills, the rank ordering from difficulty ratings made by Japanese university students somewhat matched the level hierarchy of the CEFR-J but that significant differences between many adjacent levels were not found. The localization of a general framework for use by a specific population of users and the limitations related to using a system of can-dos that is derived from estimates of difficulty are discussed.

Many elements contribute to the relative difficulty in acquiring specific aspects of English as a foreign language (Goldschneider & DeKeyser, 2001). Modal auxiliary verbs (e.g. could, might), are examples of a structure that is difficult for many learners. Not only are they particularly complex semantically, but especially in the Malaysian context reported on in this paper, there is no direct equivalent in the students’ L1. In other words, they are a good example of a structure for which successful acquisition depends very much on the quality of the input and instruction students receive. This paper reports on analysis of a 230,000 word corpus of Malaysian English textbooks, in which it was found that the relative frequency of the modals did not match that found in native speaker corpora such as the BNC. We compared the textbook corpus with a learner corpus of Malaysian form 4 learners and found no direct relationship between frequency of presentation of target forms in the textbooks and their use by students in their writing. We also found a very large percentage of errors in students’ writing. We suggest a number of possible reasons for these findings and discuss the implications for materials developers and teachers.

The major aim of this paper was to investigate the validity of language and intelligence factors for classifying Iranian English learners` writing performance. Iranian participants of the study took three tests for grammar, breadth, and depth of vocabulary, and two tests for verbal and narrative intelligence. They also produced a corpus of argumentative writings in answer to IELTS specimen. Several runs of discriminant function analyses were used to examine the classifying power of the five variables for discriminating between low and high ability L2 writers. The results revealed that among language factors, depth of vocabulary (collocational knowledge) produces the best discriminant function. In general, narrative intelligence was found to be the most reliable predictor for membership in low or high groups. It was also found that, among the five sub-abilities of narrative intelligence, emplotment carries the highest classifying value. Finally, the applications and implications of the results for second language researchers, cognitive scientists, and applied linguists were discussed.

Microgenetic method is a specific method for studying change in abilities, knowledge, and understanding during short time spans, through dense observations, and over a relatively long period of time. In this paper I will attempt to provide a brief overview of microgenetic method and will point out its potential advantages and disadvantages in the context of second language acquisition. To illustrate the utility of microgenetic method in SLA research, I will then discuss a SLA-related issue which could be addressed via this research method, namely the effects of written corrective feedback on L2 acquisition.

This study investigated the effect of language complexity and group size on knowledge construction in two online debates. Knowledge construction was assessed using Gunawardena et al.’s Interaction Analysis Model (1997). Language complexity was determined by dividing the number of unique words by total words. It refers to the lexical variation. The results showed that knowledge construction and group size are significantly and negatively correlated. Also, the study revealed that knowledge construction and language complexity are significantly and positively correlated. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that language complexity is a significant predictor of knowledge construction in online debates. Some actions should be undertaken to increase language complexity in order to foster knowledge construction in online debates.