Degrees of Specificity and (In)definiteness in Discourse

The paper argues that in a cloze test, first mention modified NPs are more readily marked as definite than bare nouns, because of the potential of the extra material to create a new pragmatic set on-line, in which the referent is perceived as unique. The fact, however, that the referents are first mention and that the pragmatic set of the whole situation of utterance usually stays more salient, will still make the indefinite marking of these NPs more probable. But the more modified an NP is, the less likely it is that the native speakers will reach a 100% consensus on what article to use

Teaching to the test: The effects of coaching on English-proficiency scores for university entry

Despite arriving with the required language qualifications, many international students struggle with the linguistic demands of a university degree. Using the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as an example, this study explored how short but intensive preparation programmes may affect high-stakes English-proficiency test scores with which students apply for university places. The participants were 89 Chinese speakers of English as a foreign language in Shanghai. They were tested twice, four weeks apart, on IELTS and three other measures of English ability: The Oxford Online Placement Test, a vocabulary test, and the speed and accuracy of sentence comprehension. Between the two testing points, 45 participants underwent testspecific training consisting of previous IELTS papers, offered by a large test-preparation establishment with a network of over 1,000 training centres. The remaining 44 participants did not engage in any test preparation at the time. Teaching to the test led to a half a band rise in IELTS scores above the gain from test repetition alone, suggesting that the training was effective. Importantly, the IELTS gain did not generalise to the other measures of English ability; the groups performed similarly on all other language tests at both times. This suggests that test-specific, curriculum-narrowing courses could be inflating the scores with which international students apply for university places, with important consequences for test-developers, universities and students

Examining the predictive validity of the Duolingo English Test: Evidence from a major UK university

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the university admissions and proficiency testing landscape. One change has been the meteoric rise in use of the fully automated Duolingo English Test (DET) for university entrance purposes, offering test-takers a cheaper, shorter, accessible alternative. This rapid response study is the first to investigate the predictive value of DET test scores in relation to university students’ academic attainment, taking into account students’ degree level, academic discipline, and nationality. We also compared DET test-takers’ academic performance with that of students admitted using traditional proficiency tests. Credit-weighted first-year academic grades of 1881 DET test-takers (1389 postgraduate, 492 undergraduate) enrolled at a large, research-intensive London university in Autumn 2020 were positively associated with DET Overall scores for postgraduate students (adj. r = .195) but not undergraduate students (adj. r = −.112). This result was mirrored in correlational patterns for students admitted through IELTS (n = 2651) and TOEFL iBT (n = 436), contributing to criterion-related validity evidence. Students admitted with DET enjoyed lower academic success than the IELTS and TOEFL iBT test-takers, although sample characteristics may have shaped this finding. We discuss implications for establishing cut scores and harnessing test-takers’ academic language development through pre-sessional and in-sessional support

Real-time grammar processing by native and non-native speakers : constructions unique to the second language

We investigated second language (L2) comprehension of grammatical structures that are unique to the L2, and which are known to cause persistent difficulties in production. A visual-world eye-tracking experiment focused on online comprehension of English articles by speakers of the article-lacking Mandarin, and a control group of English native speakers. The results show that non-native speakers from article-lacking backgrounds can incrementally utilise the information signalled by L2 articles in real time to constrain referential domains and resolve reference more efficiently. The findings support the hypothesis that L2 processing does not always over-rely on pragmatic affordances, and that some morphosyntactic structures unique to the target language can be processed in a targetlike manner in comprehension – despite persistent difficulties with their production. A novel proposal, based on multiple meaning-to-form, but consistent form-to-meaning mappings, is developed to account for such comprehension–production asymmetries

Language and literacy skills of home and international university students: How different are they, and does it matter?

Although international students experience lower attainment at university than home students (Morrison et al., 2005), reasons are poorly understood. Some question the role of language proficiency as international students come with required language qualifications. This study investigated language and literacy of international students who successfully met language entry requirements and those of home students, matched on non-verbal cognition, studying in their native language. In a sample of 63 Chinese and 64 British students at a UK university, large and significant group differences were found at entry and eight months later. Furthermore, language and literacy indicators explained 51% of variance in the Chinese group’s grades, without predicting the home students’ achievement. Thus language proficiency appears predictive of academic outcomes only before a certain threshold is reached, and this threshold does not correspond to the minimum language entry requirements. This highlights a systematic disadvantage with which many international students pursue their education

Is the superior verbal memory span of Mandarin speakers due to faster rehearsal?

It is well established that digit span in native Chinese speakers is atypically high. This is commonly attributed to a capacity for more rapid subvocal rehearsal for that group. We explored this hypothesis by testing a group of English-speaking native Mandarin speakers on digit span and word span in both Mandarin and English, together with a measure of speed of articulation for each. When compared to the performance of native English speakers, the Mandarin group proved to be superior on both digit and word spans while predictably having lower spans in English. This suggests that the Mandarin advantage is not limited to digits. Speed of rehearsal correlated with span performance across materials. However, this correlation was more pronounced for English speakers than for any of the Chinese measures. Further analysis suggested that speed of rehearsal did not provide an adequate account of differences between Mandarin and English spans or for the advantage of digits over words. Possible alternative explanations are discussed

Determiners in late bilingualism

English articles – 'the' and 'a(n)' – are difficult to master for second language learners from first language backgrounds without articles. This chapter offers an account of what distinguishes articles from other determiners and why this poses a learning challenge. By reviewing patterns in second language article use – and focusing on article substitution and article omission errors in particular – the chapter uncovers the meanings that late bilinguals attribute to the two article forms, and elucidate the mechanisms of bilingual language production and the morphosyntactic representations that underpin them. The findings support the view that, even at the level of morphosyntax, both languages in a bilingual speaker are simultaneously active and compete for selection. Indirectly, they point to cross-linguistic differences in the syntactic structure of the nominal phrase and the grammatical function of determiners

Bilingual language control during single-language production: Does relocation to a new linguistic environment change it?

A bilingual’s two languages are simultaneously active and competing for selection, even when a single language is being used. To manage this competition, bilinguals apply language control. We firstly examined how bilinguals apply this control in two single-language tasks differing in their demands on lexical selection. Second, we examined how this language control might adapt to the language environment a bilingual lives in. To do this, we conducted a longitudinal study with Mandarin-English bilinguals who moved from China to the UK and compared them to a control group staying in China. Participants completed a picture-naming task in which they had to retrieve one specific word in response to a picture and a verbal-fluency task in which they had to generate words belonging to a semantic category. Both tasks were completed twice, approximately seven months apart. Both tasks showed that bilinguals applied language control over the language they were not currently using. Furthermore, this language control did not concern specific words only but was observed across the bilinguals’ lexicon more globally, suggesting it was applied proactively to manage the anticipated language competition. However, this language control did not change after relocation to the UK, nor did it differ between the groups. This suggests that while language control is a core part of language production, the language environment a bilingual lives in might not have a defining impact on the exact way this language control is applied