Includes bibliographical references.

The Roles of Working Memory and Oral Language Abilities in Elicited Imitation Performance -- Do Explicit Instruction and High Variability Phonetic Training Improve Nonnative Speakers’ Mandarin Tone Productions? -- Aspects of Fluency Across Assessed Levels of Speaking Proficiency -- Syntactic Complexity in Adapted Teaching Materials: Differences Among Grade Levels and Implications for Benchmarking -- Language Learning Motivation as a Complex Dynamic System: A Global Perspective of Truth, Control, and Value -- Foreign Language Learning Characteristics of Deaf and Severely Hard-of-Hearing Students -- Translanguaging in L2 Arabic Study Abroad: Beyond Monolingual Practices in Institutional Talk -- Effects of Written Versus Spoken Production Modalities on Syntactic Complexity Measures in Beginning-Level Child EFL Learners -- Effects of Mobile-Mediated Dynamic and Nondynamic Glosses on L2 Vocabulary Learning: A Sociocultural Perspective -- Negotiating the Multilingual Turn in SLA: Response to Stephen May.

[Article Title : The Roles of Working Memory and Oral Language Abilities in Elicited Imitation Performance / Hae In Park, Megan Solon, Carly Henderson, and Marzieh Dehghan–chaleshtori, p. 133-151]

Abstract : While an elicited imitation test (EIT) has been widely used as a measure of oral proficiency in second language acquisition (SLA) research, it is still unclear the extent to which memory capacity impacts EIT performance. In light of this gap, the present study sought to clarify the nature of elicited imitation by examining the relative contributions of language ability and phonological short-term memory (PSTM) to EIT performance. Seventy-eight second language (L2) learners of Spanish, who were grouped into 3 Spanish experience levels, took a Spanish EIT, an L2 oral narrative task, and a nonword repetition (NWR) task in their first language. Results demonstrated that learners’ EIT performance was primarily predicted by complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) measures extracted from the oral narrative task rather than NWR scores, which served as an index for PSTM capacity. Furthermore, the present study provided suggestive evidence that PSTM capacity may differentially mediate EIT performance depending on the extent of learners’ proficiency in and experience with Spanish. While facilitative effects for PSTM capacity were observed for less experienced learners, no effects were found for more experienced learners.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12618

[Article Title : Do Explicit Instruction and High Variability Phonetic Training Improve Nonnative Speakers’ Mandarin Tone Productions? / Seth Wiener, Marjorie K. M. Chan, and Kiwako Ito, p. 152-168]

Abstract : This study examines the putative benefits of explicit phonetic instruction, high variability phonetic training, and their effects on adult nonnative speakers’ Mandarin tone productions. Monolingual first language (L1) English speakers (n = 80), intermediate second language (L2) Mandarin learners (n = 40), and L1 Mandarin speakers (n = 40) took part in a multiday Mandarin-like artificial language learning task. Participants were asked to repeat a syllable–tone combination immediately after hearing it. Half of all participants were exposed to speech from 1 talker (low variability) while the other half heard speech from 4 talkers (high variability). Half of the L1 English participants were given daily explicit instruction on Mandarin tone contours, while the other half were not. Tone accuracy was measured by L1 Mandarin raters (n = 104) who classified productions according to their perceived tonal category. Explicit instruction of tone contours facilitated L1 English participants’ production of rising and falling tone contours. High variability input alone had no main effect on participants’ productions but interacted with explicit instruction to improve participants’ productions of high-level tone contours. These results motivate an L2 tone production training approach that consists of explicit tone instruction followed by gradual exposure to more variable speech.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12619

[Article Title : Aspects of Fluency Across Assessed Levels of Speaking Proficiency / Parvaneh Tavakoli, Fumiyo Nakatsuhara, and Ann–marie Hunter, p. 169-191]

Abstract : Recent research in second language acquisition suggests that a number of speed, breakdown, repair, and composite measures reliably assess fluency and predict proficiency. However, there is little research evidence to indicate which measures best characterize fluency at each assessed level of proficiency and which can consistently distinguish one level from the next. This study investigated fluency in 32 speakers’ performing 4 tasks of the British Council's Aptis Speaking Test, which were awarded 4 different levels of proficiency (Common European Framework of Reference for Language levels A2–C1). Using PRAAT, the performances were analyzed for various aspects of utterance fluency across different levels of proficiency. The results suggest that speed and composite measures consistently distinguish fluency from the lowest to upper-intermediate levels (A2–B2), and many breakdown measures differentiate between the lowest level (A2) and the rest of the proficiency groups, with a few differentiating between lower (A2, B1) and higher levels (B2, C1). The varied use of repair measures at different levels suggests that a more complex process is at play. The findings imply that a detailed micro-analysis of fluency offers a more reliable understanding of the construct and its relationship with assessment of proficiency.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12620

[Article Title : Syntactic Complexity in Adapted Teaching Materials: Differences Among Grade Levels and Implications for Benchmarking / Tan Jin, Xiaofei Lu, and Jing Ni, p. 192-208]

Abstract : An extensive body of research has investigated the role of syntactic complexity in gauging the linguistic complexity of reading texts, particularly for the purpose of determining their grade appropriateness. However, little such research has focused on adapted teaching materials for English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, and to date there has been no systematic effort in establishing syntactic complexity benchmarks to guide text adaptation practices in such contexts. This paper reports on a large-scale study that assessed the quantitative differences in syntactic complexity among adapted teaching materials for different grade levels in the EFL curricula in China. Our data consisted of 3,368 adapted English texts solicited from a corpus of teaching materials approved for use in the 12 primary and secondary grade levels in China by the Chinese Ministry of Education. All texts were analyzed using 8 syntactic complexity measures representing different dimensions of syntactic complexity. All 8 measures showed significant between-level differences with moderate to large effect sizes and nonuniform patterns of progression, and 5 measures were identified as significant predictors of grade levels in a logistic regression analysis. The implications of our results for establishing syntactic complexity benchmarks to inform future text adaptation practices are discussed.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12622

[Article Title : Language Learning Motivation as a Complex Dynamic System: A Global Perspective of Truth, Control, and Value / Mostafa Papi and Phil Hiver, p. 209-232]

Abstract : Research on language learning motivation has typically focused on the strength of different motives in isolation and often out of context. The present study aims to explore the applicability of one global framework of motivation to integrate different perspectives. We investigated how adaptive interactions between learners’ motivations for value, truth, and control effectiveness, and contextual factors led to varying motivational trajectories and patterns of emergent stability at different stages of the language-learning experiences of 6 Iranian graduate students learning English in the United States. Using a retrospective-longitudinal design, quasi-narrative accounts of key phases of the learners’ language-learning histories were documented through interviews. These data were analyzed following an analytic inductive approach to identify the main events within different contexts, themes associated with each setting, and other bottom-up conceptual categories.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12624

[Article Title : Foreign Language Learning Characteristics of Deaf and Severely Hard-of-Hearing Students / Kata Csizér and Edit H. Kontra, p. 233-249]

Abstract : The aim of this study was to investigate deaf and severely hard-of-hearing students’ foreign language learning characteristics. In order to provide a better understanding of the challenges this group of learners face, a mixed methods study was designed including a questionnaire survey to provide generalizable results for our context and an interview study to get a deeper understanding of the issue from the insiders’ perspective as well. Data was collected in three European countries with piloted and barrier-free instruments. In order to investigate their foreign language learning processes, deaf and severely hard-of-hearing students’ motivation, beliefs, and strategies were measured and analyzed. Our results indicate that deaf and severely hard-of-hearing students’ foreign language learning experiences are fraught with challenges and setbacks despite their motivation and eagerness to learn foreign languages. To overcome these difficulties motivating and effective learning environments have to be created where the use of the national sign language contributes to the efficiency of teaching. Furthermore, teaching should include the presentation of effective learning strategies as well as the introduction of autonomous ways of learning.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12630

[Article Title : Translanguaging in L2 Arabic Study Abroad: Beyond Monolingual Practices in Institutional Talk / Khaled Al Masaeed, p. 250-266]

Abstract : Adopting a translanguaging perspective, this article examines interlocutors’ orientations to, and use of, multidialectal and multilingual practices during second language (L2) Arabic conversations-for-learning beyond the classroom in a study abroad program. The study argues that participants’ translanguaging practices challenge monolingual ideologies and the program's monodialectal policy of using only Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in institutional talk beyond the classroom. Audio-recorded dyadic interactions between L2 Arabic learners and their native speaker conversation partners show how multidialectal and multilingual practices can work as a valuable interactional resource that multilinguals draw upon for productive interactions to enhance meaning-making, identity negotiation, and knowledge construction. In addition, participants seem to give precedence to intersubjectivity over monodialectal and monolingual language policies through their use of these translanguaging practices.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12623

[Article Title : Effects of Written Versus Spoken Production Modalities on Syntactic Complexity Measures in Beginning-Level Child EFL Learners / Haerim Hwang, Hyeyoung Jung and Hyunwoo Kim, p. 267-283]

Abstract : Learner corpus studies using syntactic complexity as a construct for characterizing learner proficiency have found that higher proficiency permits learners to produce more complex syntactic structures. However, the majority of previous studies have focused on writing, almost exclusively with adult second language (L2) learners. Given the fundamentally different mechanisms underlying speaking and writing activities, this study investigated (a) how different processes involved in writing and speaking performance affect child L2 learners’ sentence production, and (b) whether syntactic complexity is a better predictor of proficiency in a particular production type. To this end, we analyzed syntactic complexity for written and spoken corpora supplied by native Korean-speaking child learners of English using 7 syntactic complexity indices.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12626

[Article Title : Effects of Mobile-Mediated Dynamic and Nondynamic Glosses on L2 Vocabulary Learning: A Sociocultural Perspective / Ehsan Rassaei, p. 284-303]

Abstract : The present study investigated the effects of 2 forms of text-based second language (L2) vocabulary glosses, namely dynamic and nondynamic glosses on EFL learners' vocabulary knowledge. Dynamic glosses were operationalized as a set of incrementally ordered mediating annotations designed to help learners identify the correct word definition while nondynamic glosses were operationalized as traditional fixed word definitions. During 2 treatment sessions, the participants in the 2 experimental groups as well as the control condition were presented with several short passages that included a number of unknown words via the Telegram application using learners' smartphones. The participants in the dynamic glossing condition were presented with a set of graduated prompts ordered from the most implicit to the most explicit for each unfamiliar word to identify its correct definition while reading the short passages.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12629

[Article Title : Negotiating the Multilingual Turn in SLA: Response to Stephen May / Anna Mendoza, p. 304-308]

Abstract : In volume 103 of Modern Language Journal, Stephen May suggested that the multilingual turn has not fully delivered on its promises, pointing out second language acquisition (SLA) researchers’ continued focus on parallel monolingualisms rather than on dynamic bi/multilingualism, the lack of theorization of historicity in sociolinguistic research on the latter, the balkanization of academic knowledge preventing transdisciplinary scholarship, and West-centered methodological nationalism. While I agree with his points, I believe the solution requires more than critical reflexivity, reading beyond our areas of interest, and relinquishing fast-held methodological principles. Scholarly hegemony and disciplinary elitism exist because we are more than minds touting theories and epistemologies. We must acknowledge how we, as researchers, seek cultural prestige and economic well-being by affiliating with the global North and its mechanisms for knowledge production. Given this, I discuss what scholars in both the global North and South can do to reform the discipline to address May's concerns, in terms of 1 action those in the global South must consistently attempt, and 4 responsibilities of those in the global North.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12613