Earticle

The purpose of this study was to determine if an activity involving primary and secondary responders (PRs and SRs) would help graduate students in an English language teaching practicum participate in discussions of a particular student presentation, the rehearsal. The 15 students in the practicum, which included ten whose first languages were not English, taught eight-week intensive English as a foreign language courses at two universities in Thailand. Five questions were investigated: 1) Did the use of PRs and SRs ensure that all class members participate in discussions of rehearsals? 2) What were the students’ reactions to the PR-SR activity? 3) Did being a PR help the student focus on what the presenter was saying? 4) Did the possibility of being a SR help class members focus on what the presenter was saying? 5) Did the PR-SR activity help students participate in discussions in other graduate courses? The data were collected by means of two surveys. The findings demonstrate that the students believed that the PR-SR activity equalized classroom participation, that they liked the PR-SR activity, and that it helped them to focus on the presenter. The experience of being PRs and SRs did impact some students’ subsequent participation in other graduate courses.

This study explores the interface between multicultural, or Damunwha, students’ households and English learning in the Korean context. Korea is a relatively homogeneous nation in terms of its ethnic and cultural diversity. In this context, students whose parent(s) are not Korean are labeled as Damunwha students. Despite their minority position, the students have accumulated multilingual and multicultural funds of knowledge, the experience and culture unique to their households. Their use of funds of knowledge in English learning was analyzed from an ecological perspective, which emphasizes learners’ active agency in learning. Two junior-high school students from international marriage families and two other students from immigrant worker families participated in this study. Qualitative data analysis indicated that their funds of knowledge for English were twofold: their home languages and connections to home language communities. Their funds of knowledge were significantly influenced by family relationships and socio-economic status. The funds of knowledge contributed to the students’ English learning only if the students realized the meaningfulness of their funds of knowledge. The study has implications for increasing the role of multicultural education in general curriculum and building conducive home-school relationship by making home visits.

The present study explored the relative contributions of planning, L2 linguistic knowledge and individual differences to Korean EFL students’ argumentative essays. Seventy-two university students enrolled in college English writing courses participated in this study throughout one semester. The components of planning, L2 linguistic knowledge and individual differences were identified and measured, and their relationships to the quality of L2 writing were examined. The factors that made a significant contribution to L2 writing were found to be participants’ ability to recognize good L2 essays and the quality of content of the outline in planning (21.4% explanatory power); grammar, productive vocabulary and sentence processing speed in L2 linguistic knowledge (42.7%); and eight items from the self-efficacy, strategy, and motivation questionnaires in individual differences (44.8%). When common effects were controlled for, the independent contributions of planning, L2 linguistic knowledge and individual differences to the quality of L2 writing were 7.2%, 14.1% and 16.3%, respectively. Based on the relative contributions of the three factors that are involved in L2 writing, pedagogical implications for L2 classrooms are provided.

Exploring ways to use mobile chatting as a viable tool for interaction in EFL settings, this study investigated whether and how task modality (face-to-face conversations vs. mobile chatting) and task type (convergent vs. divergent task) affect L2 English interactions. Sixteen Korean college students participated in this study. Half of them performed convergent decision-making tasks, once in face-to-face (F2F) interaction and once in text-based interaction using a mobile social software (Kakao Talk). The other half performed divergent opinionexchange tasks in the two modes. Their recorded F2F conversations and mobile chatting scripts were collected and analyzed in terms of interactional patterns including task completion time, number of words, number of turns, and occurrence of meaning negotiation devices. Also pre- and post-questionnaires were implemented to investigate the participants’ background and perceptions on task performance under the different modes. The results overall confirmed the effects of both modality and task type on interactional modifications. The participants used more meaning negotiation devices in the F2F mode and on convergent tasks. Yet, they perceived mobile chatting as easier to perform a task, although they still preferred F2F. Based on the results, this study discusses both challenges and benefits of mobile-interaction for L2 learning.

Despite the relative novelty of the notion of translingualism in literacy pedagogy, this article attempts to provide additional evidence of translingual practices drawn from a specific context (i.e., Indonesia) in order to showcase its vibrancy. It attempts to answer the following research questions: 1) How do Indonesian multilingual writers and an Indonesian artist translanguage different linguistic codes? and 2) How do the textual realizations look as a result of their translanguaging process? Two types of translanguaged texts (academic texts written by two Indonesian scholars and an artistic work) were analyzed and scrutinized. All of these sample texts were coded, interpreted, and reinterpreted in light of the available theories on translingualism. This was done in order to extract instances of translanguaged texts. Results showed that translanguaging, which occurs at both lexical and morpho-syntactical levels, is inextricably connected to the writers’ identities, cultures, and rhetorical traditions. The writers’ purpose of codemeshing different linguistic codes in this study is deliberate in that they tried to infuse their cultural values and traditions in English texts to produce hybrid texts. As closing remarks, implications for translanguaging in writing pedagogy are offered, and caveats for doing translanguaging are addressed.