Loading...

Applied Linguistics Research and Methodology

Proceedings from the 2015 CALS conference

by Kristina Cergol Kovacevic (Volume editor) Sanda Lucija Udier (Volume editor)
©2017 Conference proceedings 286 Pages

Summary

This book offers a selection of sixteen papers presented at the 29th international annual conference of the Croatian Applied Linguistics Society held in 2015. The papers in this book tackle an array of applied linguistics research concerns and provide methodological solutions to many a related problem. The authors’ contributions fall into three main strands of research focus: 1) methodological issues in second language teaching and learning research, 2) experimental research in applied linguistics and 3) spoken and written corpus studies. Almost each individual paper focuses on a different methodological issue in applied linguistics research, treading the path to new related studies.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • About the editors
  • About the book
  • This eBook can be cited
  • Contents
  • Kristina Cergol Kovačević – Sanda Lucija Udier
  • Methodological issues in second language learning and teaching research
  • Second language acquisition and age effects: The research conundrum (Simone E. Pfenninger / David Singleton)
  • Qualitative and mixed methodology for online language teaching research (Ursula Stickler)
  • Exploring EFL learners’ lexical competence: What numbers tell us about words (Višnja Pavičić Takač / Gabrijela Buljan)
  • Methoden zur Analyse und Bewertung von Kohärenz in schriftlichen Lernertexten (Leonard Pon / Vesna Bagarić Medve)
  • Does English hurt? Learning diaries – another step towards better qualitative research in applied linguistics (Renata Šamo)
  • Examining reading comprehension of expository texts in L2: Graphic organizers vs. multiple choice questions (Tamara Sladoljev-Agejev / Višnja Kabalin Borenić)
  • L2 motivation and L2 anxiety among non-language university majors (Anna Martinović)
  • French and Croatian students’ acquisition of English determiners (Lovorka Zergollern-Miletić)
  • Verbal prefixes in teaching Croatian as a second language (Sanda Lucija Udier / Nives Mikelić Preradović / Damir Boras)
  • Experimental research in applied linguistics
  • Conventionalized patterns of colour naming in Croatian (Ida Raffaelli)
  • Anaphora resolution in L1 Serbian by trainee translators from L2 English (Maja Miličević / Tihana Kraš)
  • Ultrasound study: Difference in coarticulation resistance between Croatian fricatives /s/ and /ʃ/ (Ines Carović)
  • Spoken and written corpus studies
  • Linguistic and social-identity aspects of code-switching: The case of Zadar’s speakers of the Venetian dialect (Ivana Škevin / Antonia Jazidžija)
  • Umfrage zu Assoziationen in der Phraseologie (Branka Barčot)
  • Korpusansätze in der Sprachforschung: Mit besonderer Rücksicht auf korpusgebundene Untersuchungen der kroatischen Sprache (Mirjana Borucinsky)
  • Explicit author reference in research articles in linguistics in English and Croatian (Ivana Bašić / Snježana Veselica Majhut)

Kristina Cergol Kovačević/Sanda Lucija Udier (eds.)

Applied Linguistics
Research and Methodology

Proceedings from the 2015 CALS conference

About the editors

Kristina Cergol Kovačević is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb (Croatia). Her research interests include applied linguistics research methodology, ethics in applied linguistics research, bilingual language processing, and second language acquisition.

Sanda Lucija Udier works at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb (Croatia). Her research interests include Croatian as a second language teaching, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and standard language theory.

About the book

This book offers a selection of sixteen papers presented at the 29th international annual conference of the Croatian Applied Linguistics Society held in 2015. The papers in this book tackle an array of applied linguistics research concerns and provide methodological solutions to many a related problem. The authors’ contributions fall into three main strands of research focus: 1) methodological issues in second language teaching and learning research, 2) experimental research in applied linguistics and 3) spoken and written corpus studies. Almost each individual paper focuses on a different methodological issue in applied linguistics research, treading the path to new related studies.

This eBook can be cited

This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.

Contents

Kristina Cergol Kovačević – Sanda Lucija Udier

Preface

Methodological issues in second language learning and teaching research

Simone E. Pfenninger – David Singleton

Second language acquisition and age effects: The research conundrum

Ursula Stickler

Qualitative and mixed methodology for online language teaching research

Višnja Pavičić Takač – Gabrijela Buljan

Exploring EFL learners’ lexical competence: What numbers tell us about words

Leonard Pon – Vesna Bagarić Medve

Methoden zur Analyse und Bewertung von Kohärenz in schriftlichen Lernertexten

Renata Šamo

Does English hurt? Learning diaries – another step towards better qualitative research in applied linguistics

Tamara Sladoljev-Agejev – Višnja Kabalin Borenić

Examining reading comprehension of expository texts in L2: Graphic organizers vs. multiple choice questions

Anna Martinović

L2 motivation and L2 anxiety among non-language university majors

Lovorka Zergollern-Miletić

French and Croatian students’ acquisition of English determiners

Sanda Lucija Udier – Nives Mikelić Preradović – Damir Boras

Verbal prefixes in teaching Croatian as a second language ←5 | 6→

Experimental research in applied linguistics

Ida Raffaelli

Conventionalized patterns of colour naming in Croatian

Maja Miličević – Tihana Kraš

Anaphora resolution in L1 Serbian by trainee translators from L2 English

Ines Carović

Ultrasound study: Difference in coarticulation resistance between Croatian fricatives /s/ and /ʃ/

Spoken and written corpus studies

Ivana Škevin – Antonia Jazidžija

Linguistic and social-identity aspects of code-switching: The case of Zadar’s speakers of the Venetian dialect

Branka Barčot

Umfrage zu Assoziationen in der Phraseologie

Mirjana Borucinsky

Korpusansätze in der Sprachforschung: Mit besonderer Rücksicht auf korpusgebundene Untersuchungen der kroatischen Sprache

Ivana Bašić – Snježana Veselica Majhut

Explicit author reference in research articles in linguistics in English and Croatian ←6 | 7→

Kristina Cergol Kovačević – Sanda Lucija Udier

Preface

We are delighted to present this book of proceedings which brings together a selection of sixteen papers presented at the 29th international annual conference of the Croatian Applied Linguistics Society held from 24th to 26th April 2015 at the University of Zadar, Croatia. The conference was dedicated to the topic of applied linguistics research and methodology. Accordingly, this book addresses a growing tendency of applied linguists to bring forth and discuss methodological issues they are faced with in preparing, carrying out and disseminating their research. This “reflective turn” in research is crucial in ensuring that valid and reliable data are obtained so that the new knowledge in the field may be built on the basis of such information. No less important is the training of young experts, as it is imperative that they attain and apply appropriate and reliable methodology in their own work. The papers in this book tackle an array of applied linguistics research concerns and provide methodological solutions to many a related problem. The authors present various research methodologies by either describing them or using them in the research studies they present. The papers presented in this book fall into three strands of research focus: 1) methodological issues in second language teaching and learning research, 2) experimental research in applied linguistics and 3) spoken and written corpus studies. Almost each individual paper focuses on a different methodological issue in applied linguistics research, hopefully treading the path to new related studies.

The first and dominating strand focuses on methodological issues in second language teaching and learning research. The strand boasts two state-of-the-art papers by Simone Pfenninger and David Singleton, and Ursula Stickler.

Simone Pfenninger and David Singleton present applications of the mixed methods approach to second language teaching and learning research, focusing in particular on the discussion of age effects in second language acquisition. This cutting-edge approach based on the integration of qualitative and quantitative research methodologies is the future of the study of language acquisition and applied linguistics in general. The authors bring forth a discussion of methodological issues a researcher is faced with in an attempt to study and interpret age effects in second language acquisition. Pfenninger and Singleton specifically focus on the concept of generalizability of research as the applicability of findings collected on←7 | 8→ the sample level to the population that the sample is assumed to represent is crucial in allowing legitimate decisions on educational changes incited by research.

The focus on the benefits of the qualitative and mixed methods studies is retained in Ursula Stickler’s presentation of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). The author provides an overview of the usage of CALL in second language acquisition, and focuses on its most current developments. The multimodal nature of online communication presents applied linguists with an opportunity to collect a multitude of data which is rich in detail and is thus susceptible to quantitative and, more importantly, qualitative analysis. Stickler supports her approach to CALL with examples of cutting-edge study methods in the field, while offering insight into how they may be used in innovative and mixed combinations. We believe this paper will play a seminal role in future research in CALL.

The next two papers bring together and compare quantitative and qualitative analyses of foreign language learners written production.

Višnja Pavičić Takač and Gabrijela Buljan investigate how different lexical measures can be used to portray English language learners productive lexical proficiency in comparison to a holistic evaluation of a corpus of their participants texts. They operationalize lexical proficiency in terms of lexical diversity, density, sophistication and the proportion of lexical errors. The mentioned analysis is compared to the holistic evaluation of the learners written production in the attempt to determine which lexical indices that the authors focus on best predict the overall essay and vocabulary scores. The results stress the multidimensional nature of lexical competence and the fact that human evaluation must complement computerized evaluation.

Leonard Pon and Vesna Bagarić Medve compare topical structure analysis and topic-based analysis in the analysis of coherence in texts produced by learners of German as a foreign language. The authors define text coherence as the fundamental element of discourse competence. While in the topical structure analysis the authors present the progressive nature of the presentation of the topics in the text, in the topic-based analysis they show how diagrams representing semantic relations between key concepts are built. Comparing the two, they find certain issues in both types of analyses and discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the results of their study.

Renata Šamo presents the usage of learning diaries as a qualitative tool used in uncovering the mysteries of second language learning process as it provides insight into the learners psychology and metacognitive development. The author focuses on the usage of learner diaries in dealing with foreign language learning anxiety and describes the narratives of a focus group of five learners on their←8 | 9→ path to become confident learners. This paper is certain to benefit researchers, learners and teachers as it describes a modern methodology which can be used in researching, learning and teaching a second language.

Tamara Sladoljev-Agejev and Višnja Kabalin Borenić study reading comprehension of English as a foreign language by means of two question formats: multiple-choice questions and graphic organizer completion tasks, defined as a semi-structure task format which allows for variation. Comparing their participants scores on the two tasks, the authors conclude that the learners performance in graphic organizer completion tasks is significantly better than in the multiple-choice questions, and find that the L2 competence measures correlate more strongly with the former task type. The authors believe that the graphic organizer tasks might trigger top-down compensatory mechanisms not present in the multiple-choice tasks and suggest future combined usage of both task types in examining foreign language learners reading comprehension.

Details

Pages
286
Publication Year
2017
ISBN (PDF)
9783631717486
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631717493
ISBN (MOBI)
9783631717509
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631717233
DOI
10.3726/b10830
Language
English
Publication date
2017 (May)
Keywords
research methodology second language acquisition experimental research corpus studies
Published
Frankfurt am Main, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Warszawa, Wien, 2017. 286 pp.

Biographical notes

Kristina Cergol Kovacevic (Volume editor) Sanda Lucija Udier (Volume editor)

Kristina Cergol Kovačević is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb (Croatia). Her research interests include applied linguistics research methodology, ethics in applied linguistics research, bilingual language processing, and second language acquisition. Sanda Lucija Udier works at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb (Croatia). Her research interests include Croatian as a second language teaching, sociolinguistics, discourse analysis and standard language theory.

Previous

Title: Applied Linguistics Research and Methodology