Native-speakerism: A Thorn in the Side of ELT

AbstractNative-speakerism, as Kumaravadivelu (2016, p. 82) famously noted, is a subject where “seldom in the annals of an academic discipline have so many toiled for so long and achieved so little”. There have been several suggestions for the reverse of this trend but none of them appear to have penetrated the mainstream industry. This article aims to reflect on this phenomenon by analysing the study of attitudes towards native-speakerism among students in Portugal and the UK with a particular emphasis on attitudes towards NS and NNS accents including features such as accuracy which included an evaluation of the students’ own accents in English and their goals for learning English in terms of acquisition/non-acquisition of a particular variety of English and attitudes towards English as a lingua franca. Overall, it was found that native-speakerism is widespread amongst students learning English, which corroborates other studies on this topic. Nevertheless, students in this study appear to show an interest in learning more about English varieties and World Englishes even though they are drawn to and hold the dominant standard - UK and American varieties - as the benchmark of acceptability and aspiration. By arguing that the frequently proposed measures cannot tackle native-speakerism on a truly global scale, this paper is meant to contribute to the body of research on native-speakerism and at the same time take a critical approach towards the perspectives of eliminating native-speakerism

Revisions, Resource Consultations and Their Interplay: A Study of L2 Student Writers

Revisions and the consultation of resources are both central components of L2 student writing and essential elements in developing writing skills. In this study we aim to create insights into the writing practices of L2 student writers by exploring textual revisions and digital resource consultations, and their possible interplay. Such insights will benefit researchers and teachers in the field of second language writing and can eventually be used to support L2 students in improving their writing skills. The revisions and external resource consultations of four Danish second-year university students during the writing of a Spanish press release were captured using screen recording software and later analysed manually. Results suggest that revisions of form were far more common than revisions of content indicating that the students succeeded in generating suitable content, which did not often require revision. Results also indicate that students, by far, preferred to consult the traditional online bilingual dictionary as an external resource. This suggests that the most common problems were lexical in nature. Moreover, almost one fifth of the revisions were carried out after consulting external resources which suggests that the students frequently demonstrated the capacity to solve the problems solely by means of internal resources

Assessing EFL Speech: A Teacher-Focused Perspective

With the aim of better understanding the difficulties that non-native teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) face when assessing oral skills, we conducted an educational training activity for in-service teachers, involving action research and reflective practice. In the first part, 27 non-native teachers were asked to use the scales of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to assess a number of authentic EFL speech samples taken from a learner corpus. Their assessment was examined quantitatively as well as qualitatively and compared to that of two native professional raters. While the analyses highlighted a good degree of agreement between the teachers as well as between the teachers and the experts, they also confirmed the often-observed tendency for non-native raters to be more severe in their evaluation of L2 performance than native raters. The results also indicated that teachers and native experts do not base their overall assessment on the same aspects of the spoken performance. For the second part of the study, we designed group activities and discussions to help the teachers reflect on their own practices and learn from those adopted by others. The analyses showed that the teachers did not feel well-equipped to assess speech and that they would benefit from appropriate training in this area

“Song-advantage” or “Cost of Singing”? A Research Synthesis of Classroom-based Intervention Studies Applying Lyrics-based Language Teaching (1972–2019)

While lyrics-based activities are increasingly popular in foreign language education, and a number of theoretical arguments have been suggested by applied linguists and SLA researchers why they are beneficial for learners, only a few empirical assessments of the actual effectiveness of lyrics-based teaching have been conducted. This contribution reviews relevant classroom-based intervention studies (N = 28) that employ a pre-/post-test multiple group design. A main aim is to assess previous claims of a “song-advantage” (Busse et al., 2018) when input is presented with the help of songs and their lyrics vs. a “cost of singing” (Racette & Peretz, 2007) in terms of an additional processing burden lowering rates of verbal recall, for instance. Results suggest that, overall, lyrics-based teaching is effective in comparison to control conditions. Effectiveness may vary, however, when different subareas (e.g. grammar vs. vocabulary) are compared. In summary, it is argued that lyrics-based activities can be viewed as a valuable means in the foreign language classroom, even though they cannot serve as universal remedy and are most effective when combined with other materials and activities. Eventually, it is suggested that both additional primary studies at a high level of methodological transparency and rigor and quantitative meta-analyses (e.g. to assess the influence of moderator variables and to systematically compare control groups with different teaching conditions) are desirable

The Case for Synchronous Delivery of Language Teaching in the Digital Era

Technological innovation has afforded increased opportunities for second language learners in the mode of Face-to-Screen learning. Rather than simply reading graded readers, second language learners can simultaneously listen to and read an audiobook, reaping the benefits of bi-modal input. Nevertheless, not all students are able to apply themselves to online language learning, and many indicate a preference for live interaction in the second language. Face-to-Face learning offers unique advantages to second language learners; the interpersonal mode of embodied delivery continues to be important despite the proliferation of Face-to-Screen learning. Nevertheless, since the 2020 pandemic, Face-to-Face learning has been withdrawn in many cases and replaced by Live Face-to-Screen learning. Some of the unanticipated benefits of Live Face-to-Screen learning, which have become apparent since the transition to this mode of learning, are presented

A corpus-based analysis of linguistic interference of Italian native speakers in English and Spanish written production as a foreign language

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the language learning process of Italian native speakers through the analysis of errors found in their English and Spanish written performance. In order to accomplish this goal, essays written by Italian university students were collected, typed and used to build two computer-readable corpora. Furthermore, competence errors retrieved from each corpus were classified according to their sources into intralingual and interlingual errors. Then, interlingual errors were classified according to linguistic levels and form of errors. Finally, the created taxonomies were analysed to simulate, subsequently, the students’ interlanguage systems. Thus, by comparing the results of the analysis, and examining the L1 negative transfers encountered in the interlanguage systems, the study has explored whether native speakers of the same L1 will develop the same learning process towards different languages. The results of the research endeavour have demonstrated that L1 has a very strong influence on foreign language acquisition and use. Moreover, the empirical research evidence has shown that in most aspects of students’ interlanguage systems, L1 influence is greater than other factors that lead to intralingual errors such as incomplete rule application and overgeneralisation. Specifically, the level of similarity between L1 and TL does not affect the considerable degree of L1 influence

Investigating English Language Teachers’ Beliefs and Stated Practices Regarding Bottom-up Processing Instruction for Listening in L2 English

In a survey of teachers’ beliefs and stated practices, sourced mainly through Twitter, it was found that instruction in bottom-up processing for L2 listening in English language teaching, as recommended by research literature, is stated as being carried out although not to a very large or regular extent. It also found that most teachers stated that they do not base their listening instruction upon L1-L2 phonological differences. Additionally it was found that teachers stating they taught at the single-sound level also correlated strongly with stating that they taught at the single-word level

A meta-investigation of the use of the labels ‘longitudinal’ and ‘long-term’ in studies of feedback on writing

A number of studies have called for more ‘longitudinal’ research of feedback on writing. However, few offer concrete definitions of the term and in practice it seems to be used inconsistently. The purpose of this meta-investigation was to explore how the terms ‘longitudinal’ and ‘long-term’ are used within the literature on feedback on writing in order to determine what the terms mean in this context. Understanding the ways in which the terms are used will increase clarity in terms of the extent of longitudinal research in the area of feedback on writing and the extent to which further longitudinal research is still needed. Having a clearer understanding of the ways in which the terms are used will help researchers to design research to fill the reported gap. Analysis illustrated discrepancies in the use of the words: a wide range in the length of time, vast difference in the amount of feedback and the number of times feedback was given. It may be prudent for researchers to not only describe their research design using labels, but to also justify the basis on which each label applies to the research

Gender Differences in the Effects of Explicit Vocabulary Learning Strategies Training

Vocabulary knowledge is a building block in language learning, but many students struggle to learn new words regardless of their proficiency level. Various studies have demonstrated the efficacy of explicit instruction of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS). On the other hand, other studies have demonstrated that gender can affect a student’s use of language learning strategies including vocabulary learning strategies, and many of them have confirmed that females use a larger variety of strategies more often than their counterparts. The aim of this study was to shed light on gender difference as a variable for the influence of explicit VLS training. The participants were 109 Japanese EFL bioscience majors. They completed a questionnaire on vocabulary learning behavior before and after receiving explicit VLS training for 11 weeks. The questionnaire consisted of nine categories of items, two on metacognitive strategies, six on the use of cognitive and memory strategies, and one on overall use of VLS. The quantitative measures used a 5-point Likert scale and multiple-choice. The VLS training focused on four memory strategies, namely imagery, association, affix and grouping. The results from two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with VLS training and gender as factors revealed that VLS training was effective in enhancing the participants’ use of metacognitive strategies, writing rehearsal, and grouping strategy, although significant gender differences were observed for writing and grouping strategies. The students’ written comments gave us insight into their perception of these strategies. Gender difference was also observed in the overall use of strategies

“They have a Eureka moment – there’s a rule!” The role of grammar teaching in English as a second language in Norway.

This study investigates teacher cognition and the role of grammar in English second language instruction (ESL) and the use of the target language (TL) in selected secondary schools in Norway. The data include interviews with teachers, classroom observations, and a collection of term plans. The findings suggest that teachers consider grammar an important part of ESL-instruction in order to improve students’ writing and to learn a metalanguage that can be used for discussing the structure of languages. However, little time seems to be dedicated to systematic, explicit grammar teaching and metalinguistic discussions. Interestingly, focus on grammar seems to diminish as students’ language competence improves. Furthermore, most of the teachers say that they use a deductive approach, and speak both Norwegian and English when teaching grammar. The teachers also say that many students express that they have an intuition for what is grammatically correct, but that they still make mistakes. I conclude that increased focus on explicit grammar instruction and metalinguistic awareness and discussions may improve students’ overall proficiency of English