HERE

AILA-Europe
RE:THINKING
APPLIED
LINGUISTICS:
MOBILITY,
DIVERSITY AND
COMMUNICATION
Tallinn 2016
The 8th Junior Researchers Meeting
in Applied Linguistics
RE:THINKING APPLIED
LINGUISTICS: MOBILITY,
DIVERSITY AND
COMMUNICATION
19–21 May, 2016, Tallinn
SCIENTIFIC BOARD: Hannele Dufva (University of Jyväskylä),
Annekatrin Kaivapalu (Tallinn University),
Krista Kerge (Tallinn University), Margit Langemets
(EAAL/Institute of the Estonian Language), Katja
Mäntylä (University of Jyväskylä), Renate Pajusalu
(EAAL/University of Tartu), Halliki Põlda (Tallinn
University), Anne Pitkänen-Huhta (University of
Jyväskylä), Maria-Maren Sepper (EAAL),
Keaty Siivelt (Tallinn University), Kadri Vider
(EAAL/University of Tartu)
ORGANIZING BOARD: Margit Langemets, Maria-Maren Sepper,
Keaty Siivelt, Halliki Põlda, Kadri Vider, Krista Kerge
ORGANIZING INSTITUTIONS: Estonian Association for Applied
Linguistics (EAAL), Institute of the Estonian
Language, Tallinn University
CONFERENCE MANAGEMENT: TLU Conference Centre
Edited by Krista Kerge, Kadri Vider, Maria-Maren Sepper
Copyright: EAAL, authors
ISBN 978-9949-9795-0-9 (trükis)
ISBN 978-9949-9795-1-6 (pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/JRM2016 (DOI)
Lay-out by Puffet Invest
EAAL logo by Kristo Rosenvald
Content
Room guide ........................................................................................ 7
THURSDAY, 19 May...................................................................... 8
FRIDAY, 20 May .............................................................................. 9
SATURDAY, 21 May .................................................................... 10
Keynote speeches ....................................................................... 11
How do cross-linguistic similarity and learners’ cognitive
capacities affect their ability to process and retain targetlanguage input? Scott Jarvis............................................................11
Linguistics in the courtroom Aneta Pavlenko .........................13
Lexicography at a crossroads Jelena Kallas .............................14
Workshops...................................................................................... 15
The linguist as an expert witness Eilike Fobbe and Antje
Wilton ......................................................................................................15
The art of communication in applied linguistics Daniel
Perrin and Aneta Pavlenko ..............................................................16
Presentation abstracts ............................................................ 17
Alisaari, Jenni and Leena Maria Heikkola.............................17
Easlick, Kathleen.............................................................................19
Galiere, Mehdi ..................................................................................20
Heikkola, Leena Maria ..................................................................21
Iikkanen, Päivi .................................................................................21
Kemppainen, Katja.........................................................................23
Kivilahti,Sarianna ...........................................................................24
Knopp, Matthias ..............................................................................26
Koppel, Kristina ..............................................................................27
5
Kottonen, Eva .......................................................................................... 28
Lesonen, Sirkku...................................................................................... 29
Li, Fangfei ................................................................................................. 31
Lippus, Pärtel .......................................................................................... 32
Malmi, Anton, Einar Meister and Pärtel Lippus........................ 32
Meister, Einar.......................................................................................... 33
Odinets, Eduard ..................................................................................... 33
Ots, Kristiina ............................................................................................ 34
Paakki, Henna ......................................................................................... 37
Paldanius, Hilkka ................................................................................... 38
Pang, Priscilla .......................................................................................... 39
Peltonen, Pauliina ................................................................................. 42
Reinsalu, Riina ........................................................................................ 43
Riordan, Emma ….................................................................................... 44
Roberts, Sean .......................................................................................... 44
Rousse-Malpat, Audrey and Marjolijn Verspoor ...................... 44
Slonimska, Anita and Sean Roberts ............................................... 45
Tammekänd, Liina ................................................................................ 46
Tom-Lawyer, Oris ................................................................................. 47
van Kampen, Nathalie ......................................................................... 48
Verspoor, Marjolijn............................................................................... 48
Yallop, Roger ........................................................................................... 49
6
Tallinn University room guide
ASTRA-building (referred as A), Narva mnt 29: a new building
(with flags)
SILVA-building (referred as S): entrance via ASTRA, elevator
and steps in the ASTRA hall (floor 0)
MARE-building (referred as M), Uus-Sadama 5: entrance via
the 2nd floor in SILVA (in S2 move left from elevators
and turn right to the gallery towards MARE)
Room-numbers start with a marker of a building and a floor,
e.g. M-340 refers to room 340, floor 3, MARE-building
Coffee-breaks and lunches are situated in the MARE Atrium (floor 3)
Centre
→
Narva Rd
7
→ Seaside
THURSDAY, 19 May
9
9:45
10
11
11:30
MARE-hall
M-218
M-218
M-648
M-340
13:30
14:30
17
M-648
M-340
Registration
OPENING
PLENARY SESSION: prof. dr Jarvis
Coffee-break (MARE Atrium)
PARALLEL SECTIONS:
Oral speech and acoustics.
Henna Paakki. Sven Aller and Einar Meister.
Pauliina Peltonen. Anton Malmi, Einar Meister and
Pärtel Lippus
Language politics and policies.
Oris Tom-Lawyer. Päivi Iikkanen. Katja
Kemppainen. Kathleen Easlick
Lunch (MARE Atrium)
PARALLEL SECTIONS:
Language use in special fields.
Eduard Odinets. Hilkka Paldanius. Riina Reinsalu
Language acquisition and language teaching.
Eva Kottonen. Sirkku Lesonen. Sarianna Kivilahti
Guided tour in old town
Start in front of ASTRA-building
8
FRIDAY, 20 May
10
11
11:30
M-218
Coffee-break (MARE Atrium)
M-648
M-340
13.30
16–17
19
PARALLEL SECTIONS:
Pragmatics.
Priscilla Pang. Matthias Knopp. Mehdi Galiere. Anita
Slonimska and Sean Roberts
Classroom activities and teacher’s perspective.
Roger Yallop. Audrey Rousse-Malpat and
Marjolijn Verspoor. Fangfei Li
Lunch (MARE Atrium)
14:30–15:30
M-648
15:30
PLENARY SESSION: prof. dr Pavlenko
WORKSHOP:
The linguist as an expert witness.
Trainers: dr Eilika Fobbe and dr Antje Wilson
Discussion: prof. dr Pavlenko
Coffee-break (MARE Atrium)
M-648
WORKSHOP:
AILA/AAAL Model to help national AILA
affiliates to develop their visibility.
Trainers: Dr Aneta Pavlenko (AAAL) and Dr Daniel
Perrin (AILA)
Conference dinner at Õpetajate Maja (Teachers’
House), Raekoja plats 14
9
SATURDAY, 21 May
10
11
12
M-648
M-218
12:30
M-648
M-340
14
AILA Europe Board meeting
PLENARY SESSION: dr Kallas
Coffee-break (MARE Atrium)
PARALLEL SECTIONS:
Plurilingualism and translation.
Kristina Ots. Liina Tammekänd
Classroom activities and teacher’s perspective.
Emma Riordan. Jenni Alisaari and
Leena Maria Heikkola. Kristina Koppel
CLOSING (M-340)
Keynote speeches
Thursday, 20 May 10:00, Mare-218
How do cross-linguistic similarity and learners’
cognitive capacities affect their ability to
process and retain target-language input?
SCOTT JARVIS
(Ohio University, Athens, USA)
Since the 1960s, scholars have recognized the difference
between the input available to language learners and the
intake they process at a level deep enough to be conducive to
internalization (e.g. Corder, 1967). Early formulations of this
distinction assumed that negative affective conditions and
input too far beyond the learner’s current level of proficiency
are the primary obstacles to a learner’s ability to convert input
into intake (Krashen, 1982). However, it is clear that the
learner’s cognitive capacities must also play a role. Even when
affective conditions are favorable and the content of the input
is at just the right level of complexity, the amount of input or
the rate at which it is presented might exceed the cognitive
capacities of some learners while not others. Those learners
who are capable of processing the input more quickly and
retaining it more accurately and in larger quantities are at an
advantage when it comes to acquiring the target language
quickly and to high levels of proficiency (cf. Linck et al., 2014).
Indeed, Kormos and Sáfár (2008) and several other
researchers have shown that learners’ cognitive capacities are
often a strong predictor of their levels of target-language
proficiency. In the first part of my talk, I will summarize the
findings of this area of research and will discuss which specific
11
cognitive capacities have which specific effects on language
acquisition.
In the second part of my talk, I will address the curious
resemblance between the effects of elevated cognitive
capacities and the effects of crosslinguistic similarity between
the target language and the language(s) learners already
know—on their ability to process and retain target-language
input. I will also discuss the findings of brain-imaging research
in order to explore possible neuro-physiological reasons for
why the effects of cognitive capacities appear to be similar to
those of crosslinguistic similarity. Finally, in the last part of my
talk, I will discuss some of the methods that can be used to
investigate the effects of cognitive capacities and
crosslinguistic similarity on the processing and retention of
input, and will describe a series of studies conducted at Ohio
University that have used these methods with Arabic-speaking
and Chinese-speaking learners of English at varying levels of
English proficiency who were asked to process and recall
English sentences that were either congruent or incongruent
with the word orders of corresponding sentences in their
native languages. The results of these studies suggest that the
effects of cognitive capacities on processing and retention are
real but elusive, and that the measurement of such capacities
is highly problematic. The findings regarding the effects of
crosslinguistic similarity are clearer and more consistent, but
even these are nuanced. Importantly, even though
crosslinguistic similarity provides learners with substantial
advantages, in some tasks and at some levels of proficiency
they find novel structures in the target language to be easier
to retain than those that are similar to structures in their
native languages.
12
References
Corder, S. P. (1967). The Significance of Learners’ Errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 5, 161–169.
Kormos, J. & A. Sáfár (2008). Phonological short-term memory,
working memory and foreign language performance in
intensive language learning. Bilingualism: Language and
Cognition, 11 (2), 261–271.
Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and Practice in Second Language
Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon.
Linck, J. A., P. Osthus, J. T. Koeth & M. F. Bunting (2014). Working
memory and second language comprehension and production:
A meta-analysis. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 21, 861−833.
Friday, 20 May 10:00, Mare-218
Linguistics in the courtroom
ANETA PAVLENKO
Temple University, Philadelphia, USA
Applied linguists are often asked about the relevance of their
research for the ‘real world’. What exactly do we apply
linguistics to? What difference, if any, do we make? In this talk,
I will discuss forensic linguistics as an area where linguists are
increasingly making a difference through both research and
expert testimony. Drawing on recent research findings and on
my own experience as expert witness in a murder case and the
case of a friend of the Boston Marathon bomber, I will discuss
methods used to analyze language as evidence, ethical and
practical issues faced by linguists in the courtroom, and ways
in which we can affect public policy and raise awareness of
linguistic inequalities in educational and legal settings.
References
Coulthard, M. & A. Johnson (2007). An Introduction to Forensic Linguistics: Language in Evidence. Routledge.
Eades, D. (2010). Sociolinguistics and the Legal Process. Multilingual
Matters.
13
Pavlenko, A. (2008). Non-native speakers of English and the
Miranda warnings. TESOL Quarterly, 42 (1), 1–30.
Saturday, 21 May 11:00, Mare-218
Lexicography at a crossroads
JELENA KALLAS
Institute of the Estonian Language, Tallinn, Estonia
In todayʼs knowledge and information society, lexicography as
a branch of Applied Linguistics faces enormous challenges.
Modern dictionaries are created with the help of corpus query
systems and dictionary writing tools, which makes them easily
interoperable with other lexicographic resources and
different applications of Language and Information
Technologies. With the shift to digital media, traditional
lexicography is looking for a new identity, trying to elaborate
effective ways of presenting lexicographic content as a part of
multifunctional, multilingual lexicographic portals and web
services, as well as integrating lexicographic content into
Language and Information Technologies, including ComputerAssisted Language Learning.
The discussion will have three main objectives. Firstly, I
aim to give a general overview of the most significant changes
brought about by electronic media and corpus lexicography.
Modern corpus query systems allow lexicographers automatic
extraction of collocations, multi-word units, example
sentences, definitions, lexical-semantic relations, terms,
neologisms and other types of data. One can view Automated
Construction of Dictionary Content as starting point for
dictionary compilation and even Automatically Compiled
Dictionaries. Secondly, we will look at different aspects of how
lexicographic content is used as an integrated part of
lexicographic portals, web services and various Language and
14
Information Technology applications. Finally, I will make
connections and suggest some priorities for the future of
(electronic) lexicography.
References
Granger, S. & M. Paquot (eds.) (2012). Electronic Lexicography.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kilgarriff, A. (2013). Using corpora as data source for dictionaries.
In: Howard Jackson (ed.), The Bloomsbury Companion to
Lexicography (pp. 77–96). London: Bloomsbury.
Klosa, A. (2013). The lexicographical process (with special focus on
online dictionaries). In: H. R. Gouws, U. Heid, W. Schweickard, H.
E. Wiegand (eds.), Dictionaries: An International Encyclopaedia
of Lexicography (pp. 517–524). Supplement Volume: Recent
Developments with Focus on Electronic and Computational
Lexicography. Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter.
Workshops
Friday, 20 May 14:30–15:30, Mare-648
The linguist as an expert witness
Organized by
EILIKA FOBBE AND ANTJE WILTON
In this workshop, we would like to explore the interface
between linguistics as a scientific discipline and linguistics as
a specialised field of knowledge which is called upon in legal
and judicial contexts. Occasionally, linguists are required to
give testimony either personally in court as an expert witness
or by writing a report. Giving a qualified opinion on a linguistic
issue which then serves to inform a non-linguist’s decision
with often far-reaching consequences is a highly responsible
task, for which linguists working as researchers at a university
are not routinely trained. We would like to take a closer look
at the specific challenges and requirements to be met by a
linguist working as an expert witness, providing examples
15
from real court cases for participants to discuss and analyse.
Questions addressed in this workshop are for instance:
− In what legal contexts and to which purpose is linguistic
expert knowledge required?
− How does linguistic knowledge link with other areas of
expertise (e.g. Psychology) in those contexts?
− What do non-linguists involved in legal contexts know
about language and communication?
− How can linguistic knowledge be transferred to nonlinguists?
− What are the dos and don’ts when working as an expert
witness?
− Are there any qualifications or certificates available for
linguists to consolidate their expert status?
Friday, 20 May 16:00–17:00, Mare-648
The art of communication in applied linguistics
Organized by
DANIEL PERRIN AND ANETA PAVLENKO
The important work applied linguists do plays a vital role
in shaping the contemporary global world, yet the jargon in
which this work is couched is often impenetrable to outsiders.
As a result, applied linguists are often invisible in public
debates about language, multilingualism, language policies
and language teaching. The purpose of this workshop is to
discuss how we can advance our mission by communicating
better with our colleagues in other fields, politicians, the
media and the public at large. We will talk about specific
strategies that can help attendees explain applied linguistics
research, disseminate linguistically informed views on
relevant social and political issues, share their enthusiasm
about their work, write blog posts in clear, concise and
16
compelling language, conduct media interviews with
confidence, and position themselves as a trusted resource on
their university campus and in the community at large.
Presentation abstracts 1
ALISAARI, JENNI AND LEENA MARIA HEIKKOLA
Sat, 21 May 13:00
M-340
Songs in teaching: Teachers' beliefs and practice
Despite various studies reporting positive effects of music
on learning (see for example Alisaari & Heikkola, forthcoming;
Coyle & Gómez Gracia, 2014; Ludke, Ferreira & Overy, 2014),
little is known about teachers’ beliefs concerning using music
in teaching, nor their music related practice in language
classroom. In this study, we examine Finnish language
teachers' (n = 62) beliefs about singing or listening to songs as
teaching methods, and how do the teachers use songs in their
classrooms. In addition, we examine, whether the beliefs are
in line with reported actions, and whether singing as a hobby
affects the teachers’ beliefs and practice.
The results show that the teachers' beliefs are in line with
previous research results indicating that singing or music
have positive effects on learning. The teachers estimated that
using song would be the most suitable in teaching
pronunciation and vocabulary. However, the reported
practice is not totally in line with the beliefs. The teachers use
singing relatively seldom in their teaching although they
strongly agree that singing could be an efficient teaching
method. The teachers who have singing as their hobby use
1
Abstracts are in alphabetic order of the authors’ family names.
Authors of a collective presentation are linked to the abstract given
under the first author’s name.
17
songs in their teaching more often than other teachers. In
addition, they differ statistically significantly (p < .05)
from other teachers in their beliefs about singing’s
possibilities in language teaching: their beliefs were more
positive than the others’ were. A general music hobby did
not have the same effect.
References
Alisaari, J. & L. M. Heikkola (forthcoming). Increasing Fluency in L2
writing with singing. Studies in Second Language Learning and
Teaching.
Coyle, Y. & R. Gómez Gracia (2014). Using songs to enhance L2
vocabulary acquisition in preschool children. Teaching English
to Young Learners, 68 (3), 276–285.
Ludke, K. M., F. Ferreira & K. Overy (2014). Singing can facilitate
foreign language learning. Memory and Cognition, 42, 41–52.
ALLER, SVEN AND EINAR MEISTER
Th, 19 May 12:00
M-648
Perception of audio-visual speech produced by human
speaker and 3D talking head
In human face-to-face communication both auditory and
visual channels are of great importance. Seeing interlocutor’s
articulatory movements improves the intelligibility of speech;
particularly important is visual information in noisy
environment and for hearing-impaired people. Increasing use
of virtual talking heads has incurred the necessity to evaluate
the intelligibility of audiovisual synthetic speech. A recent
study (Meister et al., 2014) reported the assessment of
the Estonian virtual talking head by comparing the
intelligibility of the audiovisual speech against unimodal
(audio-only) synthetic speech.
In the current paper we evaluate the intelligibility of
natural audiovisual speech against auditory speech produced
18
by a human speaker, and compare the results with the
previous study.
For the perception tests the video clips of 39 VCV (vowelconsonant-vowel) nonsense words with 13 consonants in the
context of three vowels were recorded by a native male
speaker. The consonants involved were bilabials /p, m/,
labiodentals /f, v/, alveolars /t, l, n, r, s/, postalveolar /š/,
palatal /j/, velar /k/, and glottal /h/; the three vowels were:
/i/ – unrounded close front vowel, /u/ – rounded close back
vowel, and /a/ – unrounded open back vowel. Two stimuli sets
(audiovisual and audio-only) were created and presented to
the listeners in five acoustic conditions: (1) no background
noise, (2–5) four pink noise conditions with signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) +6dB, 0dB, –6dB, –12dB, respectively.
The preliminary results confirm our hypotheses: (1)
visual information contributes to the perception in noisy
conditions and the perception score of audiovisual stimuli is
much higher than the score of audio-only stimuli, (2) listeners
perceive better natural stimuli than synthetic stimuli.
Th, 19 May 13:00
M-340
EASLICK, KATHLEEN
Investigating divides in language policies and
practices in multi-sited comparisons
Research investigating language policy and planning has
often focused on the top-down policies related to regional
minority languages or on policies related to immigrant
languages. This research aims to bridge the gap between the
two perspectives by investigating the differences in policies
and practices between the cosmopolitan sites of immigration
and the regional sites of cultural preservation. This research
aims to answer: is practice based on policy or demand, does
this differ between immigrant and regional language
communities, and is there awareness for policy if one exists?
19
More specifically, I will discuss language policies and practices
occurring in four case-studies in Finland and the UK. This
research stems from previous work in applied linguistics that
focuses on the ethnography of super-diversity, as well as the
shift of language policy research from macro to micro
perspectives.
GALIERE, MEHDI
Fr, 20 May 12:30
M-648
Ideology in Hungarian morality textbooks
Ideology is sometimes considered as equivalent sets of
ideas not affected by hegemonic power relations, as Karl
Mannheim’s relativist theory would put it, for instance. It is
also sometimes considered more critically, as set of ideas that
are embedded in hegemonic power relations, and whose
political aim is to help sustaining domination, by concealing
the contradictions present in society. Drawing on the work of
Jan Blommaert, Norman Fairclough, Susan Gal and Antonio
Gramsci, this paper investigates in what ways hegemonic
ideological meanings can be embedded in educative texts.
The actual texts that are analyzed for ideological meaning
are Hungarian textbooks for 1st to 8th grade students. The
subject of these books is moral education (erkölcstan). Moral
education, which aims at influencing the students’ ideas about
what is desirable or right in social life and what is not, is deeply
embedded in ideological systems of values.
The linguistic aspects that are examined in the texts are
transitivity and deontic modality. Transitivity analysis
establishes which aspects of social life come to be encoded as
‘reality’ that can be then encoded as ‘defensible’ to various
degrees with the help of the grammatical means of deontic
modality. According to Fairclough, Hodge and Kress, the
textual analysis of the different degrees of deontic modality
has the potential to bring to light the different and particular
20
social facts the text and its producers intend to frame as
universally desirable. The extension of the particular to the
universal is a key aspect of producing ideological meaning.
HEIKKOLA, LEENA MARIA
IIKKANEN, PÄIVI
See: Alisaari, Jenni and Leena Maria
Heikkola
Th, 19 May 12:00
M-340
Newcomer stay-at-home parents – using English to
facilitate integration?
Moving to a new country is always a challenge. Finding a
place to live, getting around, finding meaningful things to do
and people to socialize with and “learning the ropes”. One of
the greatest challenges is often learning a totally new
language. Therefore, being able to speak English can be of
great value to newcomers when they haven’t yet learned the
national language of the host country. With increasing
European (and worldwide) migration and mobility, the
importance of using English as a resource has become more
relevant than ever when migrating into a new host society.
Moreover, people of the globalizing world consider learning
English ‘a way out’ to a better life. If an individual is able to use
English as a means of communication, his/her possibilities in
life far exceed those of an individual who does not have this
opportunity (Blommaert, 2010:46).
The objective of this study, which is a part of my PhD
thesis, is to find out how being able to use multiple languages,
specifically English, will aid migrant stay-at-home parents in
the integration process into the host society, e.g. social life and
dealing with different service providers. The data consists of
ethnographic interviews, observations and online discussions
of 10 stay-at-home parents of migrant origin who did not
21
speak the language of the host country when they moved there.
Their countries of origin, age, number of children and other
languages spoken differ. What they have in common is the
ability to use English as a means of communication, which
allows them to interact with the locals quite effectively. By
using English, the interviewees have been able to discuss their
children’s development at family clinics, make new friends at
public parks and find out about city events online or through
their friends. This does indeed suggest that, for them, the
knowledge of English does help them in becoming better
acquainted with the Finnish society. These newcomer stay-athome parents have realized that without the ability to use
English, they would easily be excluded from many spheres of
life in the new host country.
Previous research on using English in Finland has found
that although English is not an official language in Finland,
being able to use it has made it easier for foreign degree
students to adapt to Finnish society (Nguyen Thi Thanh,
2015). Further, migrant entrepreneurs feel that they would
not have been able to manage their businesses without any
knowledge of English (Saarinen, 2014). For various
reasons, such as increased mobility and family
language practices, some migrant communities may even
prefer and value the use of English over the national
language(s) (Haque, 2011). Quite obviously, migrants’
access for example to health services depends on their
ability to communicate with the medical staff (Moyer, 2010).
References
Blommaert, J. (2010). Sociolinguistics of Globalization. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Haque, S. (2011). Migrant family language practices and language
policies in Finland. Apples – Journal of Applied Language
Studies, 5 (1), 49–64.
22
Moyer, M. (2012). Sociolinguistic perspectives on language and
multilingualism in institutions. In: S. Gardner & M. MartinJones (eds.), Multilingualism, Discourse and Ethnography (pp.
34−46). New York: Routledge.
Nguyen Thi Thanh, Thao (2015). The roles of linguistic confidence
and integrative motivation on cross-cultural adaptation of
Asian degree students Finland. MA thesis. (Ms.) University of
Jyväskylä. Department of Communication.
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201512103970
Saarinen, I. (2014). Global to local: English in the lives of five
Helsinki-based immigrant entrepreneurs. MA thesis. (Ms.)
University of Jyväskylä. Department of languages.
http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201406071958
Th, 19 May 12:30
M-340
KEMPPAINEN, KATJA
The effects of the Finnish general upper secondary
education degree structure on the development of
students’ oral proficiency in French as a foreign
language
This work-in-progress-presentation focuses on the
effects of the Finnish general upper secondary education
degree structure on the development of students’ oral
proficiency in French as a foreign language. At the moment,
oral foreign language proficiency is not tested in the Finnish
matriculation examination. Since research suggests that
teachers tend to prepare students for high stakes tests (e.g.
Gardner, 2006), it's not surprising that students’ oral language
proficiency doesn't seem to develop optimally during upper
secondary education. In Finland, the intention is to include
oral proficiency testing in national foreign language exams
and to change the matriculation examination gradually to an
e-exam by 2019. Therefore, it is crucial to create and examine
assessment practices that will have a positive backwash effect
on students' oral proficiency.
23
The objective of this presentation is to discuss ways to
support the current reform of the matriculation examination
by modern and authentic assessment practices. The issue will
be tackled by presenting an interactive computer-based
language test that makes it possible to analyze students’ oral
performances in contexts that are similar to language use in
real life. The language test is based on an innovative language
simulation concept (Haataja, 2010). The concept includes
quasi-interactive video materials and an online assessment
laboratory that makes it possible to assess and analyze
students' performances in the light of their language
biographies anytime, anywhere. In this presentation, the use
of such computer simulations for assessment purposes of
French language oral proficiency will be demonstrated by
authentic student performances.
References
Gardner, J. (2006). Assessment and Learning. Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage.
Haataja, K. (2010). Das Konzept LangPerform. Entwicklung und
Einsatz von Simulationsinstrumenten zur computermedialen
Dokumentierung von (fremd-) sprachlichen Kompetenzen –
innovativ und integrativ. Jahrbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache,
36, 183−199.
Th, 19 May 15:30
M-340
KIVILAHTI, SARIANNA
New curriculum – new pedagogy? The Finnish curriculum reform from a language teacher's perspective
In Finland there is a curriculum reform in progress. The
new National Core Curriculum (NCC) was released in 2014,
and teachers are now finishing local curricula by adapting the
national curriculum to meet the local needs. In Finland the
national curriculum acts primarily as a framework on which
the local curricula are founded, and it provides the objectives
24
and core contents for different subjects as well as other
issues influencing teaching (Vitikka, 2009), such as
principles of language learning.
The idea of the curriculum reform is to prepare learners
to meet the differing challenges of the globalising world, and
the new NCC focuses more on the methods of teaching instead
of the content of teaching (Halinen, 2012), as was the
case before. Moreover, the NCC has introduced the
concept of broad-based competence which consists of
seven different skills that learners are to need in the
future. One of the new skills is multiliteracy which has been
adapted into the Finnish curriculum framework.
In this presentation I will examine how the overall curriculum reform is actualized in the NCC's principles, pedagogy
and content of teaching English as the first foreign language
(A1-English). This is achieved by reflecting the principles of
broad-based competence, and particularly multiliteracy, on
the objecttives and core contents of A1-English. In relation to
this, the Finnish idea of multi-literacy is compared to the
original concept coined by the New London Group (1996).
This paper is part of an ongoing dissertation work
focusing on written text-production and how the curriculum
reform affects language teachers' perceptions, teaching
practices, and the learning materials used in the Finnish
classroom context.
References
Halinen, I. (2012). Opetussuunnitelman perusteet ja paikalliset
opetussuunnitelmat – tulevaisuuden sivistystä rakentamassa.
http://www.oph.fi/download/143410_Opetussuunnitelman_p
erusteiden_laadinta_ja_yhteistyo_2012_IH.pdf (28 December,
2013).
NCC (2014). Perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteet 2014.
The Finnish National Board of Education.
25
http://www.oph.fi/download/163777_perusopetuksen_opetu
ssuunnitelman_perusteet_2014.pdf (20 January 2015).
New London Group (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies:
Designing social futures. Harvard Education Review, 66, 1, 60–
93. http://dx.doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u
(18 February 2014).
Vitikka, Erja (2009). Opetussuunnitelman mallin jäsennys. Sisältö ja
pedagogiikka kokonaisuuden rakentajina. Kasvatusalan
tutkimuksia, 44. Jyväskylä: Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura.
Fr, 20 May 12:00
M-648
KNOPP, MATTHIAS
How to do things with words in varying media
The question how humans act with language is not new.
Different disciplines and theories focused on that, e.g. action
theory, linguistic theory, speech act theory. The present study
applies to this and takes the perspective of functional
pragmatics (that sees itself as a further development of these
three theories). It focuses on the linkage of acting with
language, linguistic form and social structures and purposes.
Language is considered as ‘language-in-use‘, meaning analysis
of authentic artefacts of communication. Basis is the fact that
this acting with language is increasingly shaped by media.
The study examines a mid-level and asks for the influence
of the used medium on patterns such as ‘to affirm’ and ‘to explain‘. Hypothesis is that differences in the use of these
patterns can be found between the particular used media. The
use of the medium should leave a trace at the utterances. For
analysis I explicitly reconstructed the internal structure of the
two patterns (s.a.) and compared their appearance and
variance in three subcorpora: Students in small groups had to
write a statement to a moral issue in one of three
conditions/media: oral, chat room, internet forum
(n = 35 students, solely independent variable = medium).
26
Result: Relevant differences between the three conditions
cannot be found in the corpus. The function of linguistic action
patterns seems to be overarching operative, independent from
the medium.
KOPPEL, KRISTINA
Sat, 21 May 13:30
M-340
Corpus sentences in data-driven language learning
and learners’ lexicography
In this presentation, I will talk about how corpus
sentences can be used in learners’ lexicography and in datadriven language learning.
There are two methods for the automatic selection of
corpus sentences suitable for language learners: machine
learning methods and rule-based methods. I will focus on the
rule-based methods and will describe them through the
example of a tool called GDEX (Good Dictionary Example)
(Kilgarriff et al., 2008). GDEX helps automatically select
sentences suitable for language learners. It takes into account
certain parameters: sentence and word length, threshold of
low frequency words, keyword position, the absence and
presence of certain words etc. In my presentation, I will
introduce the parameters of Estonian GDEX configuration and
discuss which parameters need to be studied further.
I will also present the new corpus Estonian NC GDEXsorted 1.3, aimed at language learners. The corpus contains
only sentences that meet the requirements for Estonian GDEX
configuration. In the sentences there are no low frequency
words, vocabulary is controlled (no slang, vulgarisms or
profanities occur), and all sentences are full sentences and
contain verbs. At the moment, the new corpus is accessible
only via the Sketch Engine corpus query system (Kilgarriff et
al., 2004). In future, it will be possible to integrate it into
dictionary portals aimed at language learners.
27
References
Kilgarriff, A., P. Rychlý, P. Smr & D. Tugwell (2004). The Sketch
Engine. In: G. Williams, S. Vessier (eds.), Proceedings of the
11th EURALEX International Congress (pp. 105–115). Lorient,
France: Université de Bretagne Sud.
Kilgarriff, A., M. Husák, K. McAdam, M. Rundell & P. Rychlý (2008).
GDEX: Automatically finding good dictionary examples in a
corpus. In: E. Bernal, J. DeCesaris (eds.), Proceedings of the
13th EURALEX International Congress (pp. 425–432).
Barcelona: Institut Universitari de Linguistica Aplicada,
Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
Th, 19 May 14:30
M-340
KOTTONEN, EVA
”They were only mentioned briefly, so they were not
important characters” – First year university students’
argumentation in a second language in a literature
course
My presentation deals with university students’ argumentation in a second language (L2) from the point of view of
a Swedish literature course in basic studies. Firstly, research
has shown that using a L2 affects negatively our most complex
cognitive functions (Floyd, 2011), in which argumentation
skills can be included. Students can argue better in their
mother tongue than in their L2, and better language skills lead
to better arguments in terms of their quality, but students
familiarity with the task makes also argumentation easier
(Neméth & Kormos, 2001). Also, there has been little research
on Finnish university students’ argumentation in a L2.
My research questions are: 1) in what kind situations do
students present arguments, and 2) what kind of arguments
do students use.
The data consists of the transcriptions of two videoed
seminars (á 1,5 h). The seminars were a part of a literature
course for first year university students studying Swedish as a
28
second language in a Finnish university. The students in the
class (n = 11) were Finnish students who had Finnish as their
mother tongue, and who majored or minored in Swedish as a
second language. My methods for analysis are qualitative
content analysis and argumentation analysis with the SEE-SEP
-model (Chang Rundgren & Rundgren, 2010).
The analysis shows that students’ arguments mostly deal
with their interpretations of the novels and the reading experience, yet there is a difference in the types of arguments
used in these situations. The simplicity of arguments is
probably affected by both the language skills of the students
and their limited experience of analyzing literature.
References
Chang Rundgren, S.-N. & C.-J. Rundgren (2010). SEE-SEP: From a
separate to a holistic view of socioscientific issues. Asia-Pacific
Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, 11 (1), Article 2.
Floyd, C. (2011). Critical thinking in a second language. Higher
Education Research and Development, 30 (3), 289–302.
Németh, N. & J. Kormos (2001). Pragmatic aspects of taskperformance; the case of argumentation. Language Teaching
Research, 5 (3), 213–224.
LESONEN, SIRKKU
Th, 19 May 15:00
M-340
The language constructions with adult Finnish
learners: The interconnection between complexity
and accuracy development and teaching order
The social environment serves as an important resource
for a L2 learner, and to make the most of this resource teaching
should follow the learner’s ongoing learning process. This aim
often proves to be difficult because there are many alternative
paths to L2 development (Larsen-Freeman, 2006). By
adopting the Dynamic Systems Theory framework (e.g. de Bot
et al., 2007) I will explore in my PhD study (in progress) the
individual developmental learning paths of adult beginner
29
learners of Finnish and how teaching is interrelated with the
development of learner language. The development of key
constructions of learner language is studied from the
viewpoint of complexity and accuracy.
The research questions are:
What kind of development of complexity and accuracy
occurs with beginner Finnish learner language?
What kinds of interconnections are there between complexity and accuracy development and teaching order?
This paper presents my PhD study setting and data. The
study is longitudinal: the spoken and written data were
collected alternately every second week during nine months
(August 2015–April 2016). The data consist of 18 texts and 18
speaking samples from four participants (in total 144
samples). Frequent data collection makes it possible to
investigate small changes and variability in learner language.
The next stage of the study is operationalization. The aim is to
find out the best measures for complexity and accuracy and
their variability.
References
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2006). The emergence of complexity, fluency,
and accuracy in the oral and written production of five
Chinese learners of English. Applied Linguistics, 27 (4), 590–
619.
de Bot, K., W. Lowie & M. Verspoor (2007). A Dynamic Systems
Theory approach to second language acquisition. Bilingualism:
Language and Cognition, 10 (1), 7–21.
30
LI, FANGFEI
Fr, 20 May 12:30
M-340
Chinese students' perceptions of and responses to
written feedback in EAP courses in the UK higher
education
Teacher written feedback (TWF) is an interaction,
between teachers and students, where linguistic,
communicative and affective factors are at play. Studies on
TWF have produced a wide range of findings in aspects of
characteristics of good feedback (Quinton & Smallbone,
2010), factors influencing the quality of feedback (Gibbs &
Simpson, 2004), the current situation of TWF in HE (Tsutsui,
2004) and reasons for Chinese students’ different responses
to feedback (Poverjuc, 2011). Instead of re-examining the
quality and characteristics of current TWF, my research goes
beyond these works and probes into how Chinese students,
who come from a feedback-sparse background of China HE,
deal with written feedback in courses of UK higher education.
Research questions of this study are (1) what are Chinese
overseas students’ perceptions of teacher written feedback in
courses of the UK higher education? (2) how do they respond
to teacher feedback in courses of the UK HE? (3) what possible
factors might influence their responses to feedback? I will
conduct qualitative case studies of six Chinese postgraduate
students in a UK university. In-depth interviews, text analysis
and stimulated recall interviews will be employed to find out
Chinese participants’ perceptions of TWF, teachers’ comments
on drafts of their’ essays, participants’ responses to these comments, rationales for participants’ responses to feedback. In
this presentation therefore, I will talk about the early stages of
my PhD research which used a case study design to investigate
how Chinese students' perceive of, and respond to TWF in the
UK.
31
References
Gibbs, G. & C. Simpson (2004). Conditions under which assessment
supports students’ learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher
Education, 1 (2004-05), 3–31.
Tsutsui, M. (2004). Multimedia as a means to enhance feedback.
Computer Assisted Language Learning, 17 (3-4), 377–402. DOI:
10.1080/0958822042000319638.
Quinton, S. & T. Smallbone (2010). Feeding forward: Using feedback
to promote student reflection and learning – a teaching model.
Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 47 (1),
125−135. DOI: 10.1080/14703290903525911
Poverjuc, O. (2011) The experiences of feedback practices on
academic writing undergone by students with English as an
additional language in a Master’s Programme: A Multiple Case
Study. Journal of Academic Writing, 1 (1), 143−152.
LIPPUS, PÄRTEL See: Malmi, Anton, Einar Meister and Pärtel
Lippus
Th, 19 May 13:00
MALMI, ANTON, EINAR MEISTER AND
M-648
PÄRTEL LIPPUS
The effect of the artificial palate on the acoustics of
speech
This paper studies the effect of the artificial palate of the
electropalatography system (EPG3) on the quality and quantity
measurements of the palatalized and unpalatalized
intervocalic /l/. The test subject was asked to read isolated
test words in three quantity degrees, with and without EPG3
pseudo-palate. The lateral was in the context of the vowels /a,
e, i, u/. Only the acoustic recordings were analyzed for this
study. Preliminary results show that the average F2 frequency
of the lateral was approximately 100–200 Hz higher and
the duration showed the tendency to be longer when the
pseudo-palate was used. The quality of the vowels
preceding the lateral was also affected: the F2 frequency
32
of /a, e, u/ was approximately 30–100 Hz higher, but the F2
frequency of /i/ was approximately 100–200 Hz lower
when produced with the palate. Further analysis of
formant frequencies and durations of the vowels and the
lateral confirms that the artificial palate does affect the
quality and quantity of speech segments suggesting that the
acoustic data collected in the EPG experiments are not
directly comparable with the data from the acoustic studies.
MEISTER, EINAR See: Aller, Sven and Einar Meister
MEISTER, EINAR See: Malmi, Anton, Einar Meister and Pärtel
Lippus
Th, 19 May 14:30
M-648
ODINETS, EDUARD
CLIL in Estonian schools with Estonian as partly
language of instruction: School administrators
understanding of teachers’ collaboration
The one of most important aspects in CLIL (content and
language integrated learning) model is collaboration between
content teachers and teachers of Estonian as second language.
Studies show that collaboration in CLIL is not very effective,
mostly chaotic, and collaborative planning, teaching and
assessing possibilities are not in active use (Metslang et al.,
2013; Ugur & Raudvassar, 2011).
In my paper, I will briefly give an overview of CLIL and
teachers’ collaboration principles, incl. co-planning, coteaching and cooperation development. After that I will show
some results of Estonia’s as well as other countries’ research
on collaborative teaching within CLIL (Davison, 2006; Kong,
2014).
33
Next I will introduce the results of my own research based
on interviews with CLIL practicing school administrators to
give their point of view on teachers’ collaboration focused on
current situation, challenges school administrators receive,
main characteristics, development and organization of
collaboration, problems schools face with.
References
Davison, C. (2006). Collaboration between ESL and content
teachers: How do we know when we are doing it right? The
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism,
9 (4), 454–475.
Kong, S. (2014). Collaboration between content and language
specialists in late immersion. The Canadian Modern Language
Review, 70 (1), 103–122.
Metslang, H., T. Kibar, M. Kitsnik, J. Koržel, I. Krall & A. Zabrodskaja
(2013). Kakskeelne õpe vene õppekeelega koolis. Uuringu lõpparuanne. Tallinn: Tallinna Ülikooli eesti keele ja kultuuri
instituut.
Ugur, K. & L. Raudvassar (2011). Ülevaade tugirühmade kasutamise
kogemusest eestikeelsele aineõpetusele üleminevate õpetajate
toetamisel. Uuringu aruanne. Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli haridusuuringute ja õppekavaarenduse keskus.
Sat, 21 May 12:30
M-648
OTS, KRISTIINA
Translating court decisions in economic offences, the
difficulties faced by the court translators
The presentation is about a cognitive empirical research
of a translation process done with an aim to find out which
kind of difficulties the court translators are facing when
translating court decisions in economic offences from
Estonian into Russian. The research is based on comparing
quantitative data from using the key logging and qualitative
data from questioning the court translators. The practical
34
purpose of this research is to give the information for
arranging a training needed by the court translators.
In the empirical part of the research, the key logging program Translog-II, created by the scientists of the Copenhagen
Business School, is used with the permission of Michael Carl,
one of its developers.
Hypotheses of the master thesis were following:
1) Translation of the court decisions made in economic
offence cases is more difficult than translation of the decisions
made, for example, in drug trafficking cases.
2) More specific economic terminology in the decision
causes more difficulties to the court translators.
3) The court translators with economic education have
fewer difficulties, hence preventing the emergence of
difficulties in translation of court decisions in economic
offences could be avoided by providing a training, which
would explain the new concepts in economy, what these
economic terms stand for and what is the interrelationship
between them.
The research questions for evaluating the hypotheses
were:
1) Are there any difficulties evolving when translating the
decisions in economic offence cases?
2) If the difficulties evolve, which are they?
3) What is causing the difficulties when translating the
decisions made in economic offence cases?
4) How do the court translators overcome the difficulties
(what strategies do they use)?
5) What do the court translations think about this kind of
translation process?
The author concludes that all three hypotheses of the
thesis were proven by the results of the key logging
experiment, retrospective interview and questionnaire. By
35
analyzing the time spent on translation of three texts,
translation speed, longer pauses made during the translation
of the texts that had caused the most difficulties to the court
translators who participated to the empirical research, also
the difficult text segments marked by the participants during
the retrospective interview, the translations made during the
translation experiment and the answers done by the court
translators to the questionnaire; it came out that most of the
difficulties were caused by the economic terms in the
decisions made in the economic offence cases. The more
specific economic terms caused more difficulties. The court
translators who have an economic or translation education
had fewer difficulties than the translators with high school
education or a general or philological higher education. It
must be taken into account that the court translators,
regardless of their education, are professionals, experts, who
are able to translate complex legal discussions in the
courtroom, and at the judge's office and judicial texts quickly,
precisely and completely, being aware of their legal
responsibility for knowingly false translation. That is why it is
important to provide them opportunities to improve their
knowledge in the areas of their work, including economy. It is
not justified to rely solely on the work experience. The results
of the research showed (and it was also said by most of the
court translators involved in the research) that the decisions
made in economic offence cases are difficult to translate
regardless of the work experience of a court translator, as this
kind of decisions have until now been more rare than for
example decisions in drug trafficking cases, but given the
growing number of court proceedings in economic offenses,
an economic training would help the court translators to do
their work more efficiently.
36
Th, 19 May 11:30
M-648
PAAKKI, HENNA
Crossing language borders – factors behind difficulties
in speaking English and perceptions of accents in
Finland and Japan
In the increasingly international world the status of
English as a lingua franca calls for efficient English language
skills all over the world. However, despite their extensive
English education, many learners experience difficulties in
speaking English (e.g. Leppänen et al., 2009). This paper
discusses the main factors behind difficulties in English oral
production by EFL learners from Finland and Japan, and
possible implications on language education.
Finland and Japan were compared to analyze the effect of
different cultural and educational contexts on English oral
production. Based on my interviews with 29 Finnish and 27
Japanese adult learners of English, it can be concluded that
many EFL learners experience considerable difficulty in
English oral production. The most important factors were
input, instruction and social factors. Firstly, exposure to
English influenced the informants’ oral production and
perceptions of English. In the case of instruction, a method
emphasizing correctness, passive skills and grammar instead
of functionality was likely to create a lack of self-confidence in
oral production and a fear of errors, affecting readiness to use
English. Finally, social factors had a significant effect on
learner identity as an English speaker. These included the
status of the English language, access to the target language
community, and standard language and accent as a target of
oral production (e.g. Jenkins, 2007).
37
References
Leppänen, Sirpa et al. (2009). Kansallinen kyselytutkimus englannin
kielestä Suomessa: käyttö, merkitys ja asenteet. University of
Jyväskylä.
Paakki, H. (2013). Difficulties in speaking English and perceptions
of accents: A comparative study of Finnish and Japanese adult
learners of English. University of Eastern Finland. Online:
http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_nbn_fi_uef20131057/urn_nbn_fi_uef-20131057.pdf
Th, 19 May 15:00
M-648
PALDANIUS, HILKKA
Disciplinary literacy in high school level history: The
genre of an expository essay
In my dissertation I study literacy in high school level
history by focusing on the expository essays written by
students. The theoretical framework of the study is based on
the concept of disciplinary literacy, which is again based on
New Literacy Studies (NLS). According to the theory reading
and writing are socio-culturally constructed and constantly
developing skills. This means that the practice of construing
knowledge is reflected on texts and the literacy demands of a
discipline. (Barton, 2007; Moje et al., 2011.)
An expository essay is commonly used in assessing students’ learning in Finland. However, in subjects other than languages writing is rarely taught. My goal is to describe the
linguistic features of an expository essay which can help to develop teaching and learning of the subject. The data is
collected in autumn 2015 from history classes in Finland and
consists of 99 student essays. For the qualitative text analysis
the systemic-functional theory by M. A. K. Halliday (1973;
1985) is applied.
The way of construing knowledge in history is based on
multimodal and interpretative historical documents. Hence
successful writing in history means that the students have not
38
only to memorize certain facts but also to make connections
between historically significant events and make their own
interpretations that are supported by evidence. According to
former studies these requirements in the language of history
are very challenging for students (Coffin, 2006).
References
Coffin, C. (2006). Historical Discourse: The Language of Time, Cause
and Evaluation. London: Continuum.
Halliday, M.A.K. (1985). Language, Context, and Text: Aspects of
Language in a Social-Semiotic Perspective. Victoria: Deakin
University.
Moje, E., D. Stockdill, K. Kim & H. Kim (2011). The role of text in
disciplinary learning. In: M. L. Kamil, P. D. Pearson, E. B. Moje &
P. P. Afflerbach (eds.), Handbook of Reading Research, 4 (pp.
453–486). New York: Routledge.
Fr, 20 May 11:30
M-648
PANG, PRISCILLA
Doing linguistics in the professional kitchen
Television is made for entertainment and nowhere is this
truer than in the dramatization of particular discourse forms
in reality TV cooking programmes. Viewers of famed chef
Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares
would be familiar with his unrelenting rant at hapless aspiring
cooks which pours out in unreservedly brutal and profane
language. Unlike the high drama portrayed on TV, kitchen
workers’ everyday lives are rather more mundane and kitchen
talk is rather more varied than impressions on TV would have
us believe.
Although there is an established tradition of linguistic research on workplace discourse (e.g. Drew & Heritage, 1992;
Sarangi & Roberts, 1999; Holmes & Stubbe, 2015; Koester,
2010), much of this work has tended to concentrate on whitecollar workplaces such as schools, hospitals and courtrooms.
This trend is prevalent not only in Conversation-Analytic and
39
Discourse-Analytic studies but also in language socialization
(e.g. Erickson, 1999; Hobbs, 2004; Atkinson, 1995; and
Cicourel, 1999 in medicine; Arakelian, 2009, Parks & Maguire,
1999 in nursing). The focus has overwhelmingly been on
‘specialized frontstage contexts’ (Holmes & Stubbe, 2015:18)
and settings with a ‘talk bias’ (Hak, 1999:427) for example,
business meetings and interactions between doctor-patient,
lawyer-defendant, worker-client (Roberts & Sarangi, 1999,
Drew & Heritage, 1992). Studies such as Holmes and Stubbe
(2015) on the factory floor are rare. This paper presents
research based in the blue-collar work context of the
professional kitchen and data collected in the backstage of
restaurant work.
In this paper, I look at kitchen talk and discuss the nature
and types of talk between workers and trainee cooks working
in a professional kitchen. The data are drawn from my
doctoral research on the professional socialization of cooks
and were collected through participant observation, fieldnotes, interviews and audio-recordings of interactions
between kitchen workers and trainee cooks over a 16-week
period in nine professional kitchens. In the productionfocused, action-oriented context, verbal-verbal pairings (talk)
were something of a rarity in worker-trainee interactions;
more salient were physical-verbal pairings and interactions
were dominated by directive/response sequences. In the
absence of explicit and direct coaching through talk, these
interactional sequences were constructed as instructional
events by which the trainee cooks acquired knowledge and
expertise to carry out kitchen work. The paper has
implications on the approach taken by individuals learning to
work in contexts of minimal talk but more significantly, on
junior researchers’ decision-making on research sites for the
study of workplace discourse: should workplaces that
40
constitute minimal talk contexts be avoided in linguistics
research?
References
Arakelian, C. (2009). Professional training: Creating intercultural
space in multi-ethnic workplaces. In: A. Feng, M. Byram &
M. Fleming (eds.), Becoming Interculturally Competent through
Education and Training (pp.174−192). Bristol, UK: Multilingual
Matters.
Atkinson, P. (1999). Medical discourse, evidentiality and the construction of professional responsibility. In: S. Sarangi &
C. Roberts (eds.) (pp. 75−107). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Cicourel, A. (1999). The interaction of cognitive and cultural models
in health care delivery. In: S. Sarangi & C. Roberts (eds.)
(pp.183−224). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Drew, P. & J. Heritage (eds.) (1992). Talk at Work. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Erickson, F. (1999). Appropriation of voice and presentation of self
as a fellow physician: Aspects of a discourse of apprenticeship
in medicine. In: S. Sarangi & C. Roberts (eds.) (pp. 109−144).
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hak, T. (1999). Text and con-text: Talk bias in studies of healthcare
work. In: S. Sarangi & C. Roberts (eds.) (pp. 427−451). Berlin:
Mouton de Gruyter.
Hobbs, P. (2004). The role of progress notes in the professional
socialisation of medical residents. Journal of Pragmatics,
36 (9), 1579−1607.
Holmes, J. & M. Stubbe (2015). Power and Politeness in the Workplace. London: Routledge.
Koester, A. (2010). Workplace Discourse. London: Continuum.
Parks, S. & M. Maguire (1999). Coping with on-the-job writing skills
in ESL: A constructivist-semiotic perspective. Language
Learning, 49 (1), 143–175.
Roberts, C. & Sarangi, S. (1999). Introduction: Negotiating and
legitimating roles and identities. In: S. Sarangi & C. Roberts
(eds.) (pp. 227−236). New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Sarangi, S. & C. Roberts (eds.) (1999). Talk, Work and Institutional
Order: Discourse in Medical, Mediation and Management Settings. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
41
Th, 19 May 12:30
M-648
PELTONEN, PAULIINA
Between fluency and disfluency: Fluency resources in
Finnish learners’ L2 English monologue and dialogue
productions
The majority of contemporary L2 oral fluency research is
quantitative in nature, while little attention has been paid to
the multifunctional nature of fluency-related phenomena and
the individual ways of achieving L2 fluency. For instance
certain so-called disfluency markers, e.g. filled pauses (FPs)
and repetitions, have mainly been examined in terms of
frequency, leaving their strategic, even fluency-enhancing
functions largely unexplored. Furthermore, previous L2
fluency studies have relied almost exclusively on monologue
data, whereas less is known about how fluency is maintained
in dialogue.
The aim of the present study is to characterize the
repertoire of mechanisms L2 learners have for maintaining
fluency. The study introduces the fluency resources
framework, where both stalling mechanisms (e.g. FPs and
repetitions) and communication strategies are viewed as
potential means for maintaining the flow of speech, the former
helping in coping with processing time pressure and the latter
overcoming lexis-related problems (see Dörnyei & Kormos,
1998).
In the presentation, I will discuss what kinds of resources
learners of English have for maintaining fluency and how
learners from different school levels differ in their use of
fluency resources. The data consist of L2 monologues and
dialogues by 50 Finnish learners of English (20 ninth graders,
15-year-olds, and 30 upper secondary school students, 17–18year-olds). Complementary data include L1 monologues
42
(providing information about individual speaking styles) and
stimulated recall protocols of the dialogues.
Reference
Dörnyei Z. & J. Kormos (1998). Problem-solving mechanisms in L2
communication: A psycholinguistic perspective. Studies in
Second Language Acquisition, 20, 349–385.
REINSALU, RIINA
Th, 19 May 15:30
M-648
The fight between personal and impersonal style in
scientific texts
Academic writing raises the question of identity. The
writer of an academic text has to choose how to refer to
herself/himself in a text. There are several options, depending
on culture, language, discipline, genre and personal
preferences. Research shows that impersonal (passive) voice
dominates in academic context because it is considered
objective and neutral, although personal style in the form of ‘I’
(in the case of a collective author, in the form of ‘we’) is
nowadays also widely represented. Besides the
aforementioned two options, it is also possible to use the 3rd
person singulars (e.g. the author suggests...) and metaphoric
constructions (e.g. the study suggests...).
The aim of this presentation is to analyze how authors
refer to themselves in academic texts written in Estonian. The
sample consists of introductory parts of the Master’s thesis
from 16 disciplines of the University of Tartu (years 2013–
2015). The results indicate that students prevailingly prefer to
use the impersonal voice, taking into account the traditions of
their discipline and written institutional guidelines. The
impersonal voice is often used in combination with the 3rd
person singulars (mostly with the word author). Compared
with the impersonal voice, the usage of I in Master’s theses is
much more frequent and depends heavily on the discipline.
43
References
Baratta, A. M. (2009). Revealing stance through passive voice.
Journal of Pragmatics, 41, 1406–1421.
Hyland, K. (2001). Humble servants of the discipline? Self-mention
in research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 20, 207–226.
Sat, 21 May 12:30
M-340
RIORDAN, EMMA
Communicative language teaching in the Irish context
ROBERTS, SEAN
See: Slonimska, Anita and Sean Roberts
ROUSSE-MALPAT, AUDREY AND
MARJOLIJN VERSPOOR
Fr, 20 May 12:00
M-340
Implicit learning with a dynamic-usage based method:
A classroom oriented study
This paper takes a dynamic Usage-Based perspective on
second language learning (Langacker, 2000), which means
that instruction methods should promote high exposure,
repetition and a focus on meaning rather than form (Verspoor
& Hong, 2013). It also means that the investigation of the effect
of instruction can only be done longitudinally and including
the environment in which language is learned.
During this presentation, the preliminary results of a
longitudinal classroom-based project on L2 French will be
presented. The study compares the effectiveness a high input
implicit method (AIM) to a traditional CLT method (Grandes
Lignes) on written and oral proficiency over the course of 2
school years. Dutch high-school pupils aged from 13 to 15
(high input n = 196; CLT n = 111) were asked to write
narratives every 10 weeks and took an oral exam after one and
two years of instruction. Teachers and pupils also filled in
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questionnaires about their background, attitude and motivation.
Results until now show that the high-input implicit
method is significantly more effective on oral proficiency and
written proficiency after one and two years of instruction. It
also shows that factors such as aptitude and the amount of L2
input in the classroom play a part in the results.
References
Langacker, R. W. (2000). A dynamic usage-based model. In:
M. Barlow & S. Kemmer (eds.), Usage-Based Models of
Language (pp. 1−63). Stanford: CSLI.
Verspoor, M. H. & N. T. P. Hong (2013). A dynamic usage-based
approach to communicative language teaching. European
Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1 (1), 22−54.
SLONIMSKA, ANITA AND SEAN ROBERTS
Fr, 20 May 13:00
M-648
A case for systematic sound symbolism in pragmatics:
Universals in wh-words
The present study investigated whether interrogative
words (more specifically wh-words) are likely to start with the
same segment within a language. In total 173 languages were
analyzed. Results showed the initial segments of wh-words
were more similar within a language than expected by chance,
also when controlling for language family and geographic area.
Moreover, initial segments of the interrogative words were
more similar than initial segments of the conceptually related
set of words and random words. Also, results revealed that
initial segments tended to be more similar for languages that
use initial interrogative words phrases in comparison to
languages that do not use them. It is argued that this fact could
be interpreted as a pragmatic function of initial phoneme of
the interrogative words and that it might play a role in process
of early speech act ascription.
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TAMMEKÄND, LIINA
Sat, 21 May 13:00
M-648
The Võru language from the perspective of individual
multilingualism
The present paper gives an overview of the idiolects of ten
Southern-Estonians, who, besides standard Estonian, speak
also Võru Southern Estonian, a regional language, traditionally
treated as a dialect and now used by approximately 50,000
South-East Estonians (Koreinik, 2013). Linguistic material
comprises of ten Võru oral narratives told by five men and five
women. The research questions are:
1. In which ways do the idiolects differ?
2. What do the differences arise from?
3. To what extent are the differences influenced by
language identities and language attitudes?
Three salient features of the Võru language were chosen
for analysis: the glottal stop, the Inessive case and
demonstrative pronouns.
Although all informants speak rather similar Võru from
the point of view of the salient features, idiolectal variants can
be noticed. The older age group (50–69 years) uses the salient
features more than the younger age group (30–49 years).
However, in addition to age, also the frequency of use,
speaking Võru as the mother tongue and having a strong Võru
identity determine the level of language use. Differences in
language use in the men and women are probably related to
the frequency of language use as most male informants
participate actively in the Võro Movement and might use Võru
in more contexts. In the case of some informants, strong Võru
identity may be even a more important factor in determining
the language use than age. At the same time, considering Võru
as one’s mother tongue might not have a major influence on
the usage of the studied salient features in speech. Regardless
46
of the fact that it is possible to group the informants based on
their age, language use, language attitudes and/or identity, all
studied idiolects are unique.
Reference
Koreinik, Kadri (2013). The Võro Language in Estonia. ELDIA CaseSpecific Report. Studies in European Language Diversity 23.
ELDIA.
Th, 19 May 11:30
M-340
TOM-LAWYER, ORIS
An evaluation of the implementation of the English
language Nigeria certificate in education curriculum: A
case study of three colleges of education
This study examined the adequacy of the skills and preparation of the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) English
language teachers because poor performance of the Nigerian
students in external English language examinations has
become a source of concern to educational stakeholders
(Patrick et al., 2014). The NCE is the basic qualification for
teaching in Nigeria. The concern for the quality of teachers in
Nigeria is crucial as the Nigerian government recognized a
problem with the training of teachers at the NCE level in 2010
and proposed to abolish the colleges and phase out the NCE
(Idoko, 2010). The Context, Input, Process and Product (CIPP)
Evaluation model is used as a theoretical framework in the
study.
The research questions were: What is the context of the
English language programme of the Nigeria Certificate in Education? How does the implementation of the curriculum equip
students to develop the four language skills? What are the
lecturers and students’ perceptions of the implementation of
the curriculum and how have the objectives of the curriculum
been achieved? In examining these issues, a mixed methods
47
approach was adopted within the framework of the CIPP
model, while utilizing a case study.
The study showed the ineffective implementation of the
curriculum as a factor for the failure of Nigerian students in
external English language examinations. The research established the deficiency of the students in the basic skills of the
language. The process and product evaluations noted failures
in the procedural design of the curriculum and demonstrated
a lack of achievement of the objectives of the curriculum.
The recommendations arising from the research
emphasized an immediate review of the admission policy and
an extensive involvement of the lecturers in the future reform
of the curriculum. Future research is concerned with an
investigation of the measures that will curb systemic failures
in the colleges.
Fr, 20 May 11:30
M-340
VAN KAMPEN, NATHALIE
The effect of task based language teaching on
motivation and achievements
Does task based language teaching (TBLT) have a more
positive effect on students’ motivation and on their achievements? In order to answer this question an experiment was
carried out involving two secondary school classes. One class
was given a number of task-based English lessons while the
other class followed the regular textbook based curriculum.
Results of this intervention will be presented. It will be argued
that it is advisable to take gender differences into account in
the implementation of TBLT.
VERSPOOR, MARJOLIJN See: Rousse-Malpat, Audrey and
Marjolijn Verspoor
48
Fr, 20 May 11:30
M-340
YALLOP, ROGER
Measuring the amount and type of affective language
in peer feedback on academic writing courses
Good writing skills (academic papers, dissertations etc.)
are at the heart of academic achievement, and English is often
used as the lingua franca. It is, therefore, important that
university students are provided with L2 (English) academic
writing support throughout their studies. One common
method to achieve this is by forming small writing groups
where students give written feedback on their peers’ writing
texts, and similarly receive feedback on the own texts. If the
writer deems the feedback to be useful, s/he will amend their
subsequent text accordingly. This, in turn, will improve the
quality of the text. The author speculates that the relationship
between the reviewer and writer may strongly determine
whether the writer decides to implement, or not implement,
these comments in subsequent revisions of his/ her text. In
other words, overly negative (i.e., ‘this is rubbish’) or positive
(i.e., ‘this is great’) comments may respectively dissuade or
motivate the writer on whether to even consider the
reviewer’s feedback comments. There is, though, much
disagreement in the literature about how to measure affective
comments, and whether they have a positive, negative or even
a negligible impact on the peer feedback process (Yallop,
2016). This presentation introduces a novel methodology,
developed by Yallop (2016), to measure the amount and type
of affective comments contained within written
correspondence in the peer feedback process. It reports on the
analysis of affective language used within writing groups
participating in an academic writing course at an Estonian
university. This methodology can then be used in subsequent
49
studies to gain further insight into how affective factors
influence the peer feedback process.
References
Yallop, Roger M. A. (2016). Measuring affective language in known
peer feedback on L2 Academic writing courses: A novel
approach. Estonian Papers in Applied Linguistics, 12, 287–307.
DOI: 10.5128/ERYa12.17
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