刊讯｜SSCI 期刊《现代语言杂志》2024年第S1和1-2期
THE MODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL
Volume 108, Issues S1, 1 and 2, 2024
The Modern Language Journal（SSCI一区，2023 IF：4.7，排名：4/194）2024年第S1期和第1-2期共发文29篇。其中第S1期共发文9篇，包括原创文章7篇，评述文章2篇，涉及传统语言教育与情感的全球视角；第1期共发文8篇，均为原创文章，涉及语言学习技能、教师经验、句法复杂度、小组互动、多语言环境下的语言意识培养等；第2期共发文12篇，包括原创文章8篇，评述文章8篇，涉及二语社会语言能力、教学法、二语写作、技术与语言教育等。欢迎转发扩散！
往期推荐：
目录
ISSUE S1
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
■ Intergenerational autoethnography of heritage language maintenance: Focusing on emotion, identity, and power, by Juyoung Song & Amber E. Wu, Pages: 14-36.
■ Negotiating family language policy: Emotional experiences and playful language input in heritage language learning, by Nermin Cantas, Pages: 37-55.
■ Yalla Nutbikh "Let's cook": Negotiating emotions of belonging through food in heritage language classrooms, by Rima Elabdali, Pages: 56-74.
■ Emotion labor, investment, and volunteer teachers in heritage language education, by Asma Afreen & Bonny Norton, Pages: 75-100.
■ Primary school children's conflicted emotions about using their heritage languages in multilingual classroom tasks, by Koen Van Gorp & Steven Verheyen, Pages: 101-126.
■ Heritage identity and Indigenous language learning motivation: A case of Indigenous Taiwanese high school students, by Hung Tzu Huang & Hsin Yu Chan, Pages: 127-146.
■ Realities of comfort and discomfort in the heritage language classroom: Looking to transformative positive psychology for juggling a double-edged sword, by Meagan Driver, Pages: 147-167.
COMMENTARIES
■ Some considerations on the emotions of heritage language learners, teachers, and users, by Jean-Marc Dewaele, Pages: 168-170.
■ Emotions and the language-ness of experience in heritage language lives, by Glenn A. Martínez, Pages: 171-173.
ISSUE 1
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
■ Scaffolding comprehension with reading while listening and the role of reading speed and text complexity, by Bronson Hui, Pages: 183-200.
■ Navigating competing goals for language in curricularized school settings: Lessons from teachers of multilingual students, by Amanda K. Kibler, Martha Sandstead, Sara Wiger & Jane Weiss, Pages: 201-221.
■ Understanding teacher professional commitment from a positive psychology perspective: A case from Myanmar's Chinese language teachers, by Yue Peng, Kaiyang Lou & Tao Xiong, Pages: 222-242.
■ Long-term language use by US-based study-abroad alumni: Activity types and program effects, by Jingyuan Zhuang & Celeste Kinginger, Pages: 243-269.
■ L2 English speaking syntactic complexity: Data preprocessing issues, reliability of automated analysis, and the effects of proficiency, L1 background, and topic, by Minjin Kim & Xiaofei Lu, Pages: 270-296.
■ Teachers' multimodal resources for delegated peer repair: Maximizing interactional space in whole-class interaction in the foreign language classroom, by Jaume Batlle Rodríguez & Natalia Evnitskaya, Pages: 297-321.
■ Schrödinger's turn: An interactional examination of willingness to communicate and talk in codependent and competitive group talk, by Nathan Thomas Ducker, Pages: 322-352.
■ Unfolding language awareness in a plurilingual context: A study of metalinguistic, practical, and critical language awareness, by Line Krogager Andersen, Pages: 353-380.
ISSUE 2
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
■ Sociolinguistic competence and varietal repertoires in a second language: A study on addressee-dependent varietal behavior using virtual reality, by Mason A. Wirtz, Simone E. Pfenninger, Irmtraud Kaiser & Andrea Ender, Pages: 385-411.
■ Pedagogies of discomfort in the world language classroom: Ethical tensions and considerations for educators, by Melina Porto & Michalinos Zembylas, Pages: 412-429.
■ Understanding the factors supporting language teachers’ sustained motivation until retirement, by Åsta Haukås, Pages: 430-445.
■ Exploring the associations among task complexity, task motivation, task engagement, and linguistic complexity in L2 writing, by Mahmoud Abdi Tabari & Bronson Hui, Pages: 446-468.
■ Give you some color: Chinese language teachers’ encounters of race and racialization in American K–12 schools, by Wenhao Diao, Yi Xu & Yang Xiao-Desai, Pages: 469-488.
■ The importance of seeking feedback for benefiting from feedback: A case of second language writing, by Mostafa Papi, Mahmoud Abdi Tabari & Masatoshi Sato, Pages: 489-512.
COMMENTARIES
■ Open generative AI changes a lot, but not everything, by Carol A. Chapelle, Pages: 534-540.
■ The future of language learning teaching in a technology-mediated 21st century, by Marta González-Lloret, Pages: 541-547.
■ Has artificial intelligence rendered language teaching obsolete, by Zoe Handley, Pages: 548-555.
■ Language education in a brave new world: A dialectical imagination, by Xuesong Gao, Pages: 556-562.
■ Sur les traces de Richard Kern: Acknowledging the pivotal role of technologies in language education, by Nicolas Guichon, Pages: 563-566.
■ Generative artificial intelligence, co-evolution, and language education, by Steven L. Thorne, Pages: 567-572.
摘要
Intergenerational autoethnography of heritage language maintenance: Focusing on emotion, identity, and power
Juyoung Song, Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky, USA
Amber E. Wu
Abstract This collaborative autoethnography explores the intersection of heritage language (HL) maintenance, emotion, and identity from the perspectives of a mother and her 15-year-old daughter learning and maintaining Korean in the United States. The analysis of their narratives concerning critical emotional experiences relevant to HL maintenance reveals that their complex emotional experiences were guided by a feeling rule: Be evincive of a desire for HL maintenance. Both of them engaged in emotion labor by demonstrating their continuous desire for HL maintenance and masking other felt emotions such as anxiety, shame, guilt, and regret. The results also demonstrate that complying with the feeling rule (for immigrant families) goes beyond emotional expressions—it entails self-fulfillment and social recognition. The mother's desire for establishing her identity as a good (Korean) mother by fulfilling her gendered responsibility of maintaining the HL bolstered her desire for her daughter's Korean language maintenance. The daughter's desire for meeting expectations of others via learning Korean increased her desire for developing bilingual skills, through which she moved away from a racialized and stereotyped Asian image to construct an image of a cool kid with bilingual skills. The article ends with implications for immigrant families' emotional well-being and further research on HL maintenance.
Negotiating family language policy: Emotional experiences and playful language input in heritage language learning
Nermin Cantas, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Abstract Heritage language (HL) learning is often facilitated by consistent exposure to the HL in family language policy (FLP). However, when children develop a preference for the majority language, family members may negotiate their use of both languages to establish a stronger emotional bond with their children while providing rich HL input. This article presents a case study of a Czech–English-speaking family in the Midwestern United States, focusing on the parents’ sporadic use of their HL during mainly English interactions with their 5- and 8-year-old children. Drawing on Vygotsky's concept of perezhivanie as the theoretical framework and considering emotions as cultural and discursive constructs, this article uses discourse analytic methods to examine emotions in the participants’ routine social interactions. The findings suggest that even though the parents’ use of English combined with sporadic HL input may seem counterproductive for the children's HL learning, it may still contribute to their HL development when the HL is used in child-centric and playful ways. This study has pedagogical implications for understanding the value of playful HL input in promoting HL learning. Additionally, it proposes theoretical advancements in the study of emotions in second language acquisition (SLA) by demonstrating how Vygotsky's notion of perezhivanie can be utilized to investigate the role of emotions in second language learning.
Yalla Nutbikh “Let's cook”: Negotiating emotions of belonging through food in heritage language classrooms
Rima Elabdali, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Abstract Research on emotions and second language learning has recently expanded to heritage language education contexts. Influenced by a long tradition in psycholinguistics and second language acquisition, research on heritage language emotions has mainly focused on the statistical effects of emotions on language development rather than examining emotions that relate to social and interpersonal relations. This article responds to these research needs through a critical ethnographic exploration of how emotions of belonging are negotiated through the production and consumption of food at an Arabic heritage language school in the United States. Drawing on data from observations, interviews, and field notes collected during a 2-year period, I argue that the production and consumption of Arabic food during cooking events and classes at the school afford students opportunities to negotiate emotions of belonging toward Arab culture as an embodied and nonessentialist practice, toward diverse religions and nationalities in the heritage school community, and toward the local majority community in the United States. This analysis foregrounds the affordances of occasions in which language learning and emotions are situated within the sociomaterial practices of heritage culture and highlights the need to establish interinstitutional connections with community schools to support the socioemotional well-being and educational equity of immigrant and racialized youth.
Emotion labor, investment, and volunteer teachers in heritage language education
Asma Afreen, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Bonny Norton
Abstract Studies informed by poststructuralist theories of language have examined the relationship between language teachers’ emotion labor, identity, and agency. However, research has not yet explored the relationship between emotion labor and volunteer teaching, which is an important practice in language education. Our research seeks to address this gap, drawing on a 2-year qualitative case study at the community-based Vancouver Bangla School (VBS). With emotion labor and investment as the conceptual underpinnings, our study investigated how the VBS heritage language (HL) program structured the emotion labor of seven volunteer teachers, what the feeling rules associated with the VBS program were, and the extent to which volunteer teachers’ investment in HL education helped them manage their emotion labor. Data sources included participant classroom observations, field notes, focus group and interview transcripts, questionnaires, and educational resources, which were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate that the emotion labor of volunteer teachers was structured by the following characteristics of the VBS program: lack of funding, poor organizational structure and teacher recognition, challenges of online teaching, insufficient number of teachers, limited parental support, and lack of training. This emotion labor was associated with four feeling rules implicit in the VBS program: (a) be generous and caring, (b) be committed and dedicated, (c) be a good and efficient teacher, and (d) have limited expectations of the community. Findings suggest that teachers’ investment in Bangla as a mother tongue in multicultural Canada, and their investment in promoting the children's transcultural identities, was particularly powerful, and enabled the volunteer teachers to navigate and manage their emotion labor. The study suggests that an enhanced understanding of a language teacher's investment in a program, institution, or community might provide insight into the important relationship among desire, agency, and emotion labor.
Primary school children's conflicted emotions about using their heritage languages in multilingual classroom tasks
Koen Van Gorp, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Steven Verheyen
Abstract For many children in Flanders, Belgium, the language of instruction is not their first language. Allowing children to use their heritage languages in the classroom has been argued to have functional and socioemotional benefits. In two exploratory studies, we introduced a multilingual task in four classrooms across three linguistically and socially diverse primary schools, where Dutch was the language of instruction, to determine how students experience the opportunity to use their linguistic repertoire in class. The multilingual task was preceded by an assessment of students’ emotional reactions to the languages they speak through the Self-Assessment Manikin gauging students’ emotional responses (pleasure, arousal, and dominance), and followed by a semistructured interview on students’ language choices. Both studies yielded similar results. Students generally indicated that they felt happy, calm, and in control when speaking their heritage language. Despite these positive assessments, many students refrained from using their heritage language in the multilingual tasks. A qualitative analysis revealed a variety of language-related reasons leading to linguistic insecurity, language anxiety, and not using the heritage language: perceived language proficiency, language norms, language status, and appropriate contexts for language use. Conversely, we also identified several students who felt proud to showcase their heritage language. While multilingual tasks have the potential to induce positive emotions in students, teachers need to be aware of potential backlash and prepared to navigate the negative emotions surrounding contested language choices.
Heritage identity and Indigenous language learning motivation: A case of Indigenous Taiwanese high school students
Hung Tzu Huang, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Hsin Yu Chan
Abstract This study responds to calls to reexamine the L2 motivational self system framework in order to understand motivations to learn languages other than English. Specifically, we explore Indigenous Taiwanese students’ heritage language learning motivation from a possible selves perspective. Following work on the rooted L2 self, the construct of the Indigenous heritage self is incorporated to capture the passion and conviction that motivates learners to maintain language use and revitalize cultural legacies. A nationwide questionnaire survey was administered to 293 indigenous Taiwanese high school students (aged 15–18). Exploratory factor analysis points to the need to include the Indigenous heritage self in an account of the motivation to learn endangered Indigenous languages. The composite elements of the Indigenous heritage self consist of goals focused on preserving the Indigenous language and cultures, as well as an emotional attachment to the heritage culture. Furthermore, multiple regression results show that learners’ Indigenous heritage self and ideal future self are significant contributors to motivational intensity and classroom engagement. Findings indicate that community-based motivation is equally important as individual learners’ idealized future images in motivating Indigenous language learning. The article concludes by suggesting curriculum initiatives that incorporate motivational strategy instruction aimed at developing an ideal self for speaking the Indigenous language, bridging classroom content and the cultural immersive experiences that students have outside formal environments.
Realities of comfort and discomfort in the heritage language classroom: Looking to transformative positive psychology for juggling a double-edged sword
Meagan Driver, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
Abstract As emotions research in the field of second language acquisition continues to evolve, it is equally important to explore the impact of social–emotional variables that are specifically relevant to heritage language (HL) contexts. Anchoring on foundations in critical heritage language education (HLE), this study examines the discomforts of the HL classroom from a diverse heritage speaker (HS) perspective. Additionally, comforts that support the HL classroom as a safe space for emotional security and well-being for HSs across HLs are explored. Examining the HL classroom from the perspective of HL practices and knowledge systems, this study ultimately aims to: (a) outline the emotional complexity of HL pedagogical spaces, and (b) provide concrete and meaningful recommendations for supporting HS well-being and HL development from a transformative positive psychology lens. Data for the current qualitative study were provided through two separate methodologies. First, 64 HSs of Spanish responded to a qualitative questionnaire probing the emotional reactions and memories instigated by authentic HL classroom reading material on sensitive topics of racism, bilingualism, and immigration. The themes identified in written narrative data through an inductive thematic approach were then used as a foundation for semistructured interviews with language learners (n = 6) and educators (n = 8) from eight different HL backgrounds. Findings revealed feelings of comfort and discomfort, and even trauma and healing, in HLE spaces rooted in (a) language learning experiences, (b) social memories of (dis)comfort, and (c) intergenerational histories. Together, the data suggest how the HL classroom can act both as a trigger of social injustice, linguistic insecurity, and family conflict and, at the same time, as a space instigating affective reactions associated with social rebellion, linguistic confidence, intergenerational healing, and emotional refuge. Specific pedagogical recommendations are made to equip educators with a concrete toolkit for the HL classroom.
Some considerations on the emotions of heritage language learners, teachers, and users
Jean-Marc Dewaele, University College London, London, UK; University of London, London, UK
Abstract This special issue is both timely and perfectly placed. Interest in heritage language (HL) learning has been growing for a while (Driver, 2022), as has the interest in the emotions of language learners and users (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014). By bringing these two strands together, the guest editors have created a powerful research synergy. Just as François Grosjean (1989) famously declared that bilinguals are not the sum of two complete or incomplete monolinguals but have a unique configuration, I would argue that research on the emotions of HL learners, teachers, and users in general can generate unique findings and insights that go beyond the original boundaries. The research presented in this special issue also benefited from recent theoretical, ontological, epistemological, and methodological developments. The first one is the move away from essentialist thinking. The second one is the dynamic view of language systems, both synchronically, diachronically, and contextually. No single aspect of a complex system can be neatly isolated and displayed in a glass case. No single variable follows a linear pattern in its development if the granularity is large enough. Patterns can go up and down; individuals may deviate from the general trend, and individuals may behave differently depending on a wide range of socio-contextual factors but also depending on their mood and degree of tiredness. Everything is loosely interconnected, within the individual, within the groups of peers, within the institution, and within the wider social, economic, historical, ideological, and political contexts. This means that everything can potentially have an influence on everything else and be influenced by it in return. Teachers who are overworked, underappreciated, underpaid, and unhappy risk burnout. Such an example is presented in Afreen and Norton's (2024, this issue) contribution to volunteer teaching. At the start of the 2-year period, the volunteers were struggling and had to use emotional labor strategies to keep a smile on their faces. By the end of the period, the working situation had improved, and teacher morale was better with a small remuneration and better organisation. Students are often emotional mirrors of their teachers. It means that many have suffered too, at the beginning of the study, through a process of negative emotional contagion (Moskowitz & Dewaele, 2021). There might have been unseen consequences, as learners may have transmitted this psychological burden to their families. The danger is that a process of negative reinforcement may initiate a negative spiral that affects the mental well-being and performance of teachers and students, parents, and children (see also Song & Wu, 2024, this issue). The opposite pattern is also possible, where happy teachers motivate HL students, and where parents using the HL with their children see the linguistic glass as half full rather than half empty and can be playful (Cantas, 2024, this issue).
Emotions and the language-ness of experience in heritage language lives
Glenn A. Martínez, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, USA
Abstract Early in my career, I had the opportunity to meet Chicanx cultural theorist Yolanda Broyles-Gonzalez at the University of Arizona. After completing a PhD in German language and literature, she went on to a stellar career in Chicanx literatures and cultural studies. I remember asking her why she had chosen to study German instead of Spanish. “Spanish,” she said, “was just too charged, too emotional.” Her response made me think about how emotional Spanish and Spanish-accented English had been in my life growing up on the Texas–Mexico border. It took me back to the emotions of fear, anger, and resentment that welled inside me whenever I would cross the border with my father who, in broken English, would declare his American citizenship only to be told, “now, how did you ever get to be an American citizen.” It also took me back to the emotions of coming out of a slumber to hear undecipherable words spoken in Spanish and feeling a sense of being at home. I was serving as director of the Spanish-for-heritage-learners program at the University of Arizona, and I remember it dawning on me that the work I was doing there was so much more profound than simply “preparing these kids to become Spanish majors and minors,” as I had been charged by the department head at the time. The work was indeed emotional—students navigated comforts and discomforts in heritage language classrooms, sometimes having to do with harm or joy experienced outside of school and other times having to do with joy or harm experienced in school. How could we create a program that healed the multiple harms that students had experienced in and through their heritage language? How could we create a program that would be a “safe space” for students to share these emotions? How could we create a program that would tap into the comfort and enjoyment of the heritage language?
Scaffolding comprehension with reading while listening and the role of reading speed and text complexity
Bronson Hui, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
Abstract Audiobooks allow language learners to read and listen to the same text simultaneously; yet the effects of this bimodal input (written and spoken) on learners’ comprehension have been inconsistent, suggesting that the conditions under which audiobooks can help comprehension are not well understood. As such, I explored silent reading speed and text complexity as two potential variables that moderate reading-while-listening (RWL) comprehension. In a within-participant design, 46 English learners in an American university read, listened to, and simultaneously read and listened to two complexity versions of a fictional text. Mixed-effects regression modeling revealed that participants comprehended better in the RWL conditions than in the listening-only conditions, echoing findings from the captions literature. This effect was moderated by neither silent reading speed nor text complexity. There were also no main effects between RWL and reading-only conditions, indicating limitations in the use of audiobooks in language classrooms to promote written text comprehension.
Navigating competing goals for language in curricularized school settings: Lessons from teachers of multilingual students
Amanda K. Kibler, Oregon State University College of Education, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Martha Sandstead
Sara Wiger
Jane Weiss
Abstract As an international phenomenon, standardization has become increasingly prominent, and language has been curricularized through learning progressions, curricula, and high-stakes assessments. Curricularized systems exist in tension with what we know about how individuals develop language. As scholars have asserted, language development is mediated by students’ motivation, investment, and agency, suggesting that learners’ goals and purposes for communication are key drivers of language learning. A contradiction therefore exists in institutionalized language teaching: How can curricularized goals—that, by definition, are not created for individual students—be negotiated such that students’ own language goals and curricularized ones work together rather than in opposition? We take up recent calls for teacher-informed research and use qualitative case-study and constructivist grounded theory to synthesize insights from a set of US elementary teachers teaching in English-medium classrooms. We engaged in an inquiry-based professional development initiative with these teachers to explore how they address students’ purposes and goals for language use in the context of the curricularization that takes place in schools. Findings suggest a complex and interdependent set of instructional practices that form a possible pedagogical model that navigates expectations found in curricularized classroom settings with multilingual students.
Understanding teacher professional commitment from a positive psychology perspective: A case from Myanmar's Chinese language teachers
Yue Peng
Kaiyang Lou
Tao Xiong, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China
Abstract In response to the issue of Chinese language teacher attrition in Myanmar, this study aimed to examine the professional commitment of these teachers, with a focus on how their commitment is constructed and shaped within the local context. The study adopted a theoretical lens of positive psychology and utilized a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews in which 10 participants shared their life stories. Thematic analysis was then conducted to identify key themes. The study proposed a positive-psychology-informed model with motivation, meaning, and perseverance as the three key components that interact with each other to jointly shape teachers’ professional commitment. In particular, motivation to teach is a precondition, the meaning-making process functions as reinforcement, and perseverance in coping with adverse situations is the ultimate embodiment of teachers’ professional commitment. A common feature underlying this model has been traces of the teachers’ positive emotions, attitudes, and values. Furthermore, the study approached Chinese language teachers’ professional commitment in the situated context at cultural, societal, and institutional levels. The study yields theoretical implications for understanding teacher commitment and offers practical insights for addressing the issue of attrition among Chinese language teachers in Myanmar and similar contexts.
Long-term language use by US-based study-abroad alumni: Activity types and program effects
Jingyuan Zhuang, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
Celeste Kinginger
Abstract This article presents selected results from a large-scale, mixed-methods, federally funded investigation of US-based language study-abroad alumni of all ages, which included a nationwide survey (N = 4,899) followed by professional life history interviews with 54 participants. Here, we focus on three questions heretofore unaddressed: (a) How do these alumni continue to use their additional languages? (b) How is long-term language use associated with various study-abroad program features? and (c) How is the role of program features reflected in life history narratives? We found that 79% of participants use their languages in at least one of the activities listed on the survey, though this use is generally confined to informal, interactive tasks. Our examination of program features using multiple regression revealed that while all features were statistically significant predictors for long-term language use, those involving engagement with local communities (e.g., close personal relationships) showed more relative importance. Contextualized with a sample of our qualitative data, findings from this study offer a macrolevel confirmation that local engagement during study abroad retains its significance for language use over the long term and provide implications for designing study-abroad programs that involve language learning.
L2 English speaking syntactic complexity: Data preprocessing issues, reliability of automated analysis, and the effects of proficiency, L1 background, and topic
Minjin Kim
Xiaofei Lu, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
Abstract The effects of learner- and task-related variables on second language (L2) writing syntactic complexity (SC) have been extensively investigated. However, previous research has rarely assessed the reliability of computational tools for analyzing the SC of L2 spoken production, and we know less about the effects of such variables on L2 speaking SC. Using data from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English, this study explores data preprocessing issues for preparing L2 English speech samples for automated SC analysis, evaluates the reliability of L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer on preprocessed L2 English speech samples, and examines the effects of proficiency, first language (L1) background, and topic on L2 speaking SC. Our manual analysis of 30 random speech samples identified several issues that can be addressed through preprocessing to improve the accuracy of automated SC analysis. Results from multiple linear mixed-effects models revealed significant effects of proficiency, L1 background, and topic on the mean length of clause, the number of complex AS-units per AS-unit, and the number of dependent clauses and complex nominals per clause in L2 learners’ spoken production. Our findings have useful implications for L2 speaking pedagogy and assessment as well as future L2 speaking SC research.
Teachers' multimodal resources for delegated peer repair: Maximizing interactional space in whole-class interaction in the foreign language classroom
Jaume Batlle Rodríguez, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Natalia Evnitskaya
Abstract In classrooms, teachers play a fundamental role in managing students’ participation. As part of their classroom interactional competence to maximize interactional space for students’ learning, teachers use multimodal resources to orchestrate turn-taking, allocate the next speaker, and manage repair sequences. However, little is known about how teachers employ these resources to engage learners in delegated peer repair, that is, repair sequences initiated by a student and solved by another classmate. Adopting a multimodal conversation analysis approach, this study aims to investigate how Spanish-as-a-foreign-language teachers multimodally manage delegated peer repair in whole-group interaction by increasing interactional space to promote students’ participation. The findings show that teachers often resort to embodied resources such as gaze, gestures (pointing), and hand and body movements (stepping backward) to engage students in delegated peer repair, leading to increased student participation and autonomy. We end with some reflections on the relevance of the adopted methodology for better understanding how teachers employ multimodal resources to create interactional space and engage students in delegated peer repair, thus promoting learners’ interactional competence in the foreign language. It also suggests some potential implications for teachers’ professional development.
Schrödinger's turn: An interactional examination of willingness to communicate and talk in codependent and competitive group talk
Nathan Thomas Ducker, Miyazaki Municipal University, Miyazaki City, Japan
Abstract Language learners are often required to negotiate classroom participation in pair and group work; therefore, willingness to communicate (WTC) could be a key determiner of second language (L2) success. Classroom WTC is volatile and influenced by interlocutor-related variables, such as reciprocal identities, group membership and atmosphere, and peer support; however, these antecedents are often studied from a psychological or ecological standpoint, in which learners’ cognitive and affective reactions to environmental factors are examined. These examinations rarely measure talk itself; however, it has been suggested that a key WTC factor is conversational behaviors. Talk and WTC arise in a communicative space negotiated between all interlocutors; therefore, this article positions conversational maneuvers, such as turn-taking and floor sharing, as key determiners of WTC. Idiodynamic data from 16 English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom conversations showed that (a) dependent on learner reactions, conversational floortime could manifest codependent and competitive facets, (b) EFL learners’ WTC and participation was highly dependent on experienced English users’ facilitating maneuvers, and (c) more voluble EFL students took better advantage of the affordances their experienced counterparts provided than taciturn students. Given the ultimate goal of out-of-class WTC and L2 contact, the findings have important implications for training EFL learners in communicative maneuvers to control conversational floortime.
Unfolding language awareness in a plurilingual context: A study of metalinguistic, practical, and critical language awareness
Line Krogager Andersen, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
Abstract As part of a larger project investigating language awareness in plurilingual settings across educational levels through a multiple case study, this article zooms in on students’ language awareness as it unfolds in a classroom in a Danish upper secondary school, in the context of a compulsory, plurilingual general language awareness course. Considering language awareness as a sociocognitive phenomenon that may meaningfully be observed through students’ engagement with language in the classroom, qualitative data were collected through observation, interviews, and collections of student work, and analyzed using an abductive form of qualitative content analysis. The initial deductive analysis is based on a theoretical model of language awareness; additional, inductive analyses lead to more nuanced descriptions of students’ metalinguistic, practical, and critical language awareness. Finally, a contextualized analysis of one example is given to illustrate the collaborative unfolding of language awareness in this context, leading to the conclusion that the different forms of language awareness studied are often interlinked and that they should be viewed as such both in research and teaching practice.
Sociolinguistic competence and varietal repertoires in a second language: A study on addressee-dependent varietal behavior using virtual reality
Mason A. Wirtz, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria
Simone E. Pfenninger
Irmtraud Kaiser
Andrea Ender
Abstract The present study takes a variationist perspective to explore the varietal repertoires of adult learners of German as a second language (L2), that is, their variable use of standard German, Austro-Bavarian dialect, and mixture varieties. Forty L2 learners completed a virtual reality task involving interactions with dialect-speaking and standard-German-speaking interlocutors. Using Bayesian multilevel modeling, the goal was to explore differential outcomes in the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by determining whether participants adjusted their varietal behavior to match that of the interlocutor (i.e., varietal convergence). The results show that there were no interindividual addressee-dependent convergence tendencies. A holistic person-centered analysis of individual learners’ intraspeaker variation revealed that only select L2 learners adjusted their usage patterns but did not entirely invert their usage of dialect and standard language as a function of the variety of the interlocutor. Introspective qualitative data speak to potential drivers behind the differential development of L2 (multi)varietal repertoires.
Pedagogies of discomfort in the world language classroom: Ethical tensions and considerations for educators
Melina Porto, Universidad Nacional de La Plata and CONICET (National Research Council), La Plata, Argentina
Michalinos Zembylas
Abstract The purpose of this article is to examine the ethical tensions and considerations that arise in the world language classroom from using pedagogies of discomfort. Although pedagogies of discomfort have mostly been seen through a positive lens in the literature for engaging students with difficult issues in the classroom, there are ethical concerns, particularly in relation to the harm that students might experience. To illustrate these ethical concerns and their implications in the world language classroom, we draw on data from a number of projects in which pedagogies of discomfort have been used in university classrooms. The analysis of examples shows that while some sort of ethical violence is inevitable, there are pedagogical ways to minimize the harm on students. The article concludes by raising further ethical and pedagogical questions for exploration in the context of using pedagogies of discomfort in the world language classroom.
Understanding the factors supporting language teachers’ sustained motivation until retirement
Åsta Haukås, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
Abstract While many language teachers leave the profession early, others thrive and teach until retirement. Understanding how these teachers maintain their passion can help identify the support needed for their personal and professional growth. However, research on the factors behind their sustained happiness in the teaching profession is limited. The main objective of this qualitative study was to explore the beliefs and career stories of three recently retired German language teachers in Norway, recognized for their long-term motivation and effective teaching over several decades. Data were generated from in-depth semistructured interviews and analyzed through the lens of self-determination theory. The analysis revealed that the teachers shared several key characteristics. First, they enjoyed a high degree of autonomy related to the choice of subject content and teaching approaches. Second, they perceived themselves as highly competent in the subject and expressed a passion for it. Third, they cherished being with students and managed to establish good relationships with them. The findings suggest that teachers should be aware of their basic psychological needs and reflect on how they can be fulfilled. Furthermore, school administrators should foster trust in teachers as autonomous professionals and actively support their competency development and relationships with students and colleagues.
Exploring the associations among task complexity, task motivation, task engagement, and linguistic complexity in L2 writing
Mahmoud Abdi Tabari
Bronson Hui, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
Abstract The interactions among cognitive, affective, and linguistic factors have received scant attention in task-based writing research. To address this gap, this study aims to examine the relationships among task complexity, task motivation, task engagement, and syntactic complexity in second language (L2) writing. One hundred L2 learners enrolled in an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) writing course at a university in the United States performed simple and complex versions of an argumentative writing task at a 1-week interval. After each task performance, participants completed questionnaires examining their task motivation. Task engagement was measured through time on task and length of production. The essays were analyzed using specific syntactic complexity measures. The results showed that the participants dedicated more time to the complex task and displayed higher motivation levels in two orientations (identified and intention). Furthermore, they produced fewer words when faced with a complex task. Additionally, task complexity influenced only one dimension of syntactic complexity. Finally, time on task predicted two dimensions of syntactic complexity (mean length of T-unit and mean number of complex nominals per clause). These results emphasize the need to consider cognitive, affective, and linguistic factors in task-based writing research. By doing so, educators can develop writing tasks that effectively engage ESL learners, enhance their motivation, and promote their linguistic growth.
Give you some color: Chinese language teachers’ encounters of race and racialization in American K–12 schools
Wenhao Diao, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Yi Xu
Yang Xiao-Desai
Abstract This study investigates issues related to race and racialization among Chinese language teachers in US primary and secondary (K–12) schools. Although race is an increasingly important topic in the field of language education, the published research continues to be dominated by the teaching and learning of English as a second language. Set mostly in 2021, when there was a widespread surge of anti-Asian violence, this mixed-methods project directs our attention to the experience of Chinese language teachers in a particular moment. We focus on interviews and journal data collected from 27 Chinese teachers, who were selected as a representative sample from the 221 participants who completed our national survey. The themes that emerged in our data highlight the intersectionality among language, nation, ethnicity, and race in Chinese language teachers’ professional work. While some teachers reported racial hostility during the COVID-19 crisis, others described language- and culture-based exclusion as a part of their everyday struggle that predated the pandemic. Moreover, as the teachers described these challenges also as opportunities for racially inclusive language pedagogies, the findings here dovetail with the ongoing discussion on antiracist possibilities in and through language teaching.
The importance of seeking feedback for benefiting from feedback: A case of second language writing
Mostafa Papi, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
Mahmoud Abdi Tabari
Masatoshi Sato
Abstract This study explored the role of feedback-seeking behaviors (FSB) in how English-as-a-second language (ESL) learners benefit from written corrective feedback (WCF). Seventy-six learners enrolled in an ESL writing course at a major university in the United States completed an FSB questionnaire, wrote a narrative essay, received WCF on their essays, and were given the opportunity to seek further feedback while revising their essays. Five writing measures were used to assess the quality of the revised essays and code the WCF provided. Paired-samples t-tests showed that the students made statistically significant improvements in all but one (content) of the target measures. Multiple regression analyses showed that WCF predicted improvements in only one measure (language use), whereas the learners’ feedback monitoring (an implicit feedback-seeking strategy involving attending to, processing, and using feedback) predicted the organization, vocabulary, language use, mechanics, as well as the overall quality of the students’ revisions. The results suggest that students benefit from WCF only if they seek, process, and use it. These findings confirmed the importance of feedback monitoring in how students benefit from WCF and support a learner-centered perspective that views students as proactive agents in the feedback process. Theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed.
Open generative AI changes a lot, but not everything
Carol A. Chapelle, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
Abstract Technology is again a timely topic at this moment in our profession. The appearance of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has brought an unprecedented level of public awareness and appreciation of language—both English and other world languages. The November 2022 appearance of generative AI embodied in ChatGPT ignited a combination of curiosity, imagination, and trepidation among the public. The Economist named “ChatGPT” the word of the year for 2023, with the explanation that “nothing can stop technology from dominating this year's words” (The Johnson Column, 2023, para. 7). ChatGPT captivated the attention of the public with its language performance: “The breakthrough in particular of large language models (LLMs) has been stunning. They produce prose so human-like that they have ignited a debate about whether LLMs are actually thinking (and whether students will ever do homework without them again)” (The Johnson Column, 2023, para. 7). Similarly, The New Yorker’s Sue Halpern summed up 2023 with a column entitled “The year A.I. ate the internet: Call 2023 the year many of us learned to communicate, create, cheat, and collaborate with robots” (Halpern, 2023). These are but two of the many examples of how the public media in the United States has weighed in on the publicly accessible generative AI unleashed over the previous months.
The future of language learning teaching in a technology-mediated 21st century
Marta González-Lloret, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Abstract In his Perspectives column, Kem (2024, this issue) examines the aftermath of transitioning language learning to online platforms and reflects on the current perception of language education within institutions of higher learning. He provides an insightful overview of the historical intertwining of language and technology and presents the constraints and possibilities of technology for language learning, focusing on the most current and controversial of recent technologies: generative artificial intelligence (AI; e¢.g., Google Translate, ChatGPT, SpinBot, and Gemini). He discusses how these technologies can be utilized to help learners develop a critical stand on their use for their own leaming with the guidance of human teachers “who can inspire, analyze, reflect, and discern” (Kern, 2024, this issue, p. 530). In this commentary, my aim is toexplore the insights offered by Kem in his position piece with a particular focus on navigating the landscape of foreign language learning post pandemic. Additionally, I will discuss strategies for maximizing the potential of technology in facilitating language acquisition. Drawing from the field of computer-assisted language leaming (CALL), I will offer suggestions for practices and tools that have gained widespread adoption. Furthermore, I emphasize that learning a language transcends the acquisition of vocabulary and syntax. In today’s globalized society, learning a language entails gaining knowledge into sociocultural practices and developing the ability to interact with others and understand the world from a multicultural and multilingual perspective.
Has artificial intelligence rendered language teaching obsolete?
Zoe Handley, The University of York, York, UK
Abstract An applied linguist with a specialization in computer-assisted language learning (CALL), I was keen to read Richard Kern's (2024, this issue) Perspectives column, “Twenty-first century technologies and language education: Charting a path forward.” In this article, Kern identifies several possible directions language learning and teaching might take following the COVID-19 pandemic and recent technological advances. With an interest in how artificial intelligence (AI), specifically speech technologies, might be harnessed to facilitate language learning and teaching dating back to the first wave of AI (Handley, 2006, 2009; Handley & Hamel, 2005), I was particularly interested in Kern's perspectives on the impact the second wave of AI is having on language learning and teaching. As Kern points out, language and technology are intrinsically related. This has never more so been the case than for AI, the aim of which was originally to develop “machines [that can] use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves” (McCarthy et al., 1955, p. 2). As such, Kern draws our attention to the existential threat AI poses to language teaching and the need to learn a language in the first place. In the United Kingdom, like the United States, we find ourselves in a language learning crisis with the uptake of modern foreign languages (MFL) at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE; i.e., primary and secondary schooling) long in decline and more than 10 university language departments closing over the last 20 years (Kenny & Barnes, 2019). I would therefore like to take this opportunity to explore in more depth whether “artificial intelligence (AI) programs like ChatGPT have all but rendered obsolete the need for personal instruction in languages other than English” (Kern, 2024, this issue, p. 516).
Language education in a brave new world: A dialectical imagination
Xuesong Gao, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Abstract Rick Kern's (2024, this issue) critical engagement with the implications of technological advancements such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine translation in the postpandemic era should prompt many to reflect on the so-called “existential crisis” we face, both as language teachers and as human beings. Language teachers, like many other professionals (e.g., accountants and lawyers), may fear that they will be replaced by AI (e.g., Felix, 2020) while modern language education programs already face funding cuts in many contexts such as the United States and Australia (e.g., Gao & Zheng, 2019; Lanvers et al., 2018). For this reason, I completely agree with the premise that there is a need for language educators to identify the affordances and constraints presented by technological tools in language education. It is also critical to ascertain how we can draw on intellectual sources to help language teachers make informed use of technological tools to provide the best possible learning experience for language learners. At the same time, however, I wonder if the challenges that technological advancements present for language teachers may require more in-depth elaboration. Such an elaboration might help us better “articulate and communicate the value of language study” (Kern, 2024, this issue, p. 516) for the public and implement the pathways in language (teacher) education advanced by Kern.
Sur les traces de Richard Kern: Acknowledging the pivotal role of technologies in language education
Nicolas Guichon, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Laboratoire ICAR, Lyon, France
Abstract Richard Kern's (2024, this issue) text serves as a timely contribution to put into perspective recent developments in the field of technology-mediated language teaching and learning. It also provides a relevant framework to reflect on both teachers’ and leamers’ digital literacy that can be defined as “a range of abilities of a person, such as searching, evaluating, creating, and sharing digital content through digital technology, and represents the person's ability to apply technology critically (emphasis added)” (Pathiranage & Karunaratne, 2023, p. 2).
Generative artificial intelligence, co-evolution, and language education
Steven L. Thorne, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA; University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Abstract Kern's (2024, this issue) anchor piece in this issue of The Modern Language Journal offers the opportunity for critical reflection on the role of (human) teachers amidst an ever-widening range of technologies to facilitate second language (L2) development. As Kern so accurately describes it, since March 2020 and the global onset of COVID-19, many language educators accustomed to teaching in face-to-face instructional settings were forced to move to remote instruction, often without the personal experience and infrastructural support that are present in specifically designed distance-learning formats. Language educators met this challenge, and, in my estimation, productive uses of technology across language teaching and learning modalities—including residential, hybrid, and distance contexts—have improved over the past few years.
期刊简介
The MLJ is an international refereed journal that is dedicated to promoting scholarly exchange among researchers and teachers of all modern foreign languages and English as a second language. The journal is particularly committed to publishing high quality work in non-English languages.
《现代语言杂志》是一份国际审稿期刊，致力于促进所有现代外语和英语作为第二语言的研究人员和教师之间的学术交流。该期刊尤其致力于发表非英语语言的高质量作品。
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