Here are some of the works published by members of the Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures Department during the Fall 2022 Semester. The department would like to congratulate everyone on their accomplishments! 

De Costa, Peter I., Carlo Cinaglia, D. Philip Montgomery, and Robert A. Randez. “Chapter 3. Qualitative ISLA Research Methodologies and Methods.” Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, edited by Laura Gurzynski-Weiss and YouJin Kim, vol. 3, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2022, pp. 55–78. https://doi.org/10.1075/rmal.3.03dec. 

In this chapter, we discuss aligning theory and methodology and highlight six approaches used to study L2 development. Hopefully a resource for those wanting to learn about doing socioculturally oriented research. 

Fritzsche, Sonja. “Transformative Listening for Chairs: Navigating Difficult Conversations to Bring About Change.” ADFL Bulletin, vol. 47, no. 1, 2022, pp. 96–106. https://doi.org/10.1632/XJUK7769. 

The article is designed for department chairs and other leaders and provides them with practical tools to handling complaints in a values-guided way to establish a culture of trust and care. It outlines the transformative listening approach to enacting change via a step by step guided approach to addressing a complaint that draws on campus resources. 

Fritzsche, Sonja, Bill Hart-Davidson, and Christopher P. Long. “Charting Pathways of Intellectual Leadership: An Initiative for Transformative Personal and Institutional Change.” Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, vol. 54, no. 3, May 2022, pp. 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/00091383.2022.2054175. 

The article provides a theoretical introduction to the “Charting a Pathway to Intellectual Leadership” (CPIL) initiative with several case studies. Shifting attention toward the high-impact ends of sharing knowledge, expanding opportunity, and mentorship and stewardship empowers all members of the academic community, from faculty to staff, to create meaningful careers that contribute to the mission of the university. 

The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Psycholinguistics provides a comprehensive survey of the latest research at the intersection of linguistics, cognitive psychology, and applied linguistics, for those seeking to understand the mental architecture and processes that shape the acquisition of additional languages. The handbook represents the full complexity of second language acquisition across the lifespan. An authoritative selection of diverse, global, leading psycholinguists synthesize the latest research to provide a thorough overview in a single volume and set the agenda for the future. 

Handelman, Matthew. “Metaphysik der Gottferne: Negativity, Intellectual Communities, and German-Jewish Studies.” German-Jewish Studies: Next Generations, edited by Kerry Wallach and Aya Elyada, Berghahn Books, 2023, pp. 119–45. https://doi.org/10.3167/9781800736771.  

This chapter explores the possibilities of negativity in German-Jewish Studies and presents an example of the productive side of negativity in the Digital Humanities. The article traces the development of the phrase “a world abandoned by God,” as it emerged in German-Jewish thought around 1910 and came to prominence as a description of modern existence at the end of the First World War. It combines close reading with network visualization and analysis to analyze the phrase’s slight conceptual shifts as well as its potential social circulation among German-Jewish intellectuals.  

Hardison, Debra M., and Tomoko Okuno. “Changes in Second-Language Learners’ Oral Skills and Socio-Affective Profile Following Short-Term Study Abroad to Japan.” Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education, vol. 7, no. 2, Oct. 2022, pp. 204–39. https://doi.org/10.1075/sar.21023.har. 

Thirty-seven L2 learners of Japanese (L1 English & L1 Chinese) participated in an eight-week study abroad program to Japan. Pre- and post-oral proficiency interviews were used for ACTFL-level assessments and ratings of component skills (e.g., pronunciation), and surveys measured socio-affective variables and L2 engagement. Both L1 groups showed significant improvement in component skills and several socio-affective variables. Thematic analysis of participants’ journals revealed the importance of the homestay environment to the development of L2 speaking confidence. 

Hardison, Debra M., and Tomoko Okuno. “L2 Japanese Vowel Production: A Closer Look at Transfer Effects from Perception Training with Waveforms.” Technological Resources for Second Language Pronunciation Learning and Teaching: Research-Based Approaches, edited by Shannon McCrocklin, Lexington Books, 2022, pp. 217–38. 

This study investigated the durational changes that took place in learners’ productions of L2 Japanese vowels before and after multiple-talker perception training and their relationship to rater judgments and training input. Learners’ productions showed significant improvement following training; mean vowel durations decreased toward the native range. Some learners’ posttest durations for long and short vowels approximated the durations found in the native-speaker training input. 

Holzknecht, Franz, Elisa Guggenbichler, Matthias Zehentner, Monique Yoder, Eva Konrad, and Benjamin Kremmel. “Comparing EMI University Reading Materials with Students’ Reading Proficiency: Implications for Admission Testing.” Journal of English-Medium Instruction, vol. 1, no. 2, Aug. 2022, pp. 180–203. https://doi.org/10.1075/jemi.21006.hol. 

We compared first-year EMI university students’ English reading proficiency and how complex their course textbooks are to see how well their reading skills match course reading demands. Our findings show that, in general, students’ reading skills are at level with their course textbooks. We also found that students vary greatly in their reading abilities, and there is a wide range in text complexity across course textbooks. 

By following a context-driven approach, this handbook shows how theoretical issues in Chinese linguistics can be resolved with empirical evidence and argumentation, and provides a range of different perspectives. Its dialectical design sets a state-of-the-art benchmark for research in a wide range of interdisciplinary and cross-lingual studies involving the Chinese language. 

Lin, Yen-Hwei. “The Morphophonology of Chinese Affixation.” The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics, edited by Chu-Ren Huang et al., Cambridge University Press, 2022. Cambridge University Press, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108329019. 

Medina González, Maritza, and Debra M. Hardison. Language Learning & Technology, vol. 26, no. 1, 2022, pp. 1-23. https://www.lltjournal.org/.

ADEPT was developed to improve inclusion in classrooms and enhance collaboration among blind, low vision, and sighted learners of American English as a second/foreign language through better access to IPA symbols and the sounds they represent. ADEPT involves auditory-visual-tactual integration through the use of 3D printed visual-tactile IPA symbol cards and an auditory-visual companion website. Field testing with Spanish speakers learning English revealed significant pronunciation improvement with the use of ADEPT. 

Polio, Charlene, and D. Philip Montgomery. “Applying a Communicative Competence Framework to the Study and Teaching of Second Language Writing.” Communicative Competence in a Second Language, by Matthew Kanwit and Megan Solon, 1st ed., Routledge, 2022, pp. 152–70. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003160779-12. 

This chapter explores the potential ways communicative competence might serve as a framework for teaching and researching L2 Writing. 

Rabie‐Ahmed, Amr, and Ayman Mohamed. “Collaborative and Individual Vocabulary Learning in the Arabic Classroom: The Role of Engagement and Task Demands.” Foreign Language Annals, vol. 55, no. 4, Dec. 2022, pp. 1006–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12636. 

The present study compared individual and collaborative vocabulary learning through two types of reading-based pedagogical tasks in an online elementary Arabic classroom. From a processing perspective, two vocabulary frameworks were compared: The Involvement Load Hypothesis (ILH) and the Technique Feature Analysis (TFA). Vocabulary gains were found to be more clearly predicted by the TFA as it included components that captured the cognitive loads of collaborative tasks. 

Rabie-Ahmed, Amr, and Ayman Mohamed. “Instructed Reading and Vocabulary in Arabic as a Foreign Language: A Research Agenda.” Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages, vol. 32, 2022, pp. 1–45, https://ncolctl.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Instructed-Reading-and-Vocabulary-in-Arabic-as-a-Foreign-Language-A-Research-Agenda.pdf. 

In this paper, we propose several research tasks focusing on reading and vocabulary research in Arabic as a foreign language (AFL) to bridge the gap between research in Arabic Second Language Acquisition (ASLA) and pedagogy. Through highlighting some pressing challenges reported by Arabic learners and teachers, we provide an overview of published research motivated by the given challenges. 

Basic Urdu is a theme-based, interactive open-source online textbook for the true novice learners of Urdu language. The book uses mixed pedagogical approaches to language teaching to match diverse teaching/learning styles. It aims to help its users to achieve intermediate low to mid ACTFL proficiency level. 

Suga, Kiyotaka, and Shawn Loewen. “Potential Test-Learning Effects of an Oral Elicited Imitation Test: Methodological Considerations for Form-Focused Instruction Studies.” Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, vol. 2, no. 1, Apr. 2023, p. 100035. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2022.100035. 

This methodological study examined whether and to what extent the administration of an Oral Elicited Imitation Test (OEIT) three times in quasi-experimental form-focused L2 instruction studies could have potential test-learning effects in relation to two moderating variables: the number of test items (more or fewer), and the types of grammatical features targeted in the test (syntactic or morphological). Results revealed that engaging in the OEIT itself three times in the pretest, the immediate posttests and the delayed posttest led to improvement in participants’ test performances on both the syntactic and morphological forms. Furthermore, conducting the OEIT with more test items had stronger test-learning effects than with fewer test items. 

Winke, Paula, Xiaowan Zhang, and Steven J. Pierce. “A Closer Look at a Marginalized Test Method: Self-Assessment as a Measure of Speaking Proficiency.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Apr. 2022, pp. 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263122000079. 

We had 807 L2-Spanish learners take a computer-adaptive, Spanish self-assessment and the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). Scores correlated (.61; polyserial), but more importantly, each unit of increase on the OPI scale was associated with a 131% increase in the odds of passing to the next higher-up level on the self-assessment. We conclude self-assessments are appropriate for low-stakes L2-proficiency measurements, especially because they are cost-effective, make intuitive sense to learners, and promote learner agency. The paper is Open Access.