The purposes of this study were to validate the writing section of the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires used in this study and the second purpose was to determine the effects of ten affective orientations (i.e., Desire to Write English, Attitude Toward Learning to Write English, Motivational Intensity, Instrumental Orientation for Writing in English, L2 Writing Anxiety, L2 Writing Self-Confidence, Willingness to Communicate in L2 Writing, Self-Esteem, Cognitive Competence, and General Self-Worth), on the participants’ responses to the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires. This purpose is valuable because little is known about the relationship between Can-Do Questionnaire and affective variables investigated in this study. The final purpose of this study was to develop Can-Do Questionnaires as an internal measure for a university writing class. The participants of this study were 204 university students studying in two private universities in Tokyo, Japan. The first instrument was the writing section of the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaire; this questionnaire served as the outside measure in this study. The second, six out of nine essays written by the students were assessed as a measure of their writing ability in English. The Affective Orientation Questionnaire was administered to measure ten Affective Orientations. The questionnaire and essay data were analyzed using the Rasch rating scale. All of the participants completed the Background Questionnaire and Affective Orientation Questionnaire in April 2010 and 2011 and completed the writing section of the Eiken Can-do Questionnaire in April, July, and December 2010 and 2011. six writing assignments were produced by 179 out of the 204 participants wrote during the 2010 and 2011 academic year, and the relationships among the variables were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results indicated that the use of the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires as the proficiency level measure was appropriate for this group of university students. The Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires were predictors of Motivation and L2 Self-Confidence. Motivation was a predictor of WTC in L2 Writing. Therefore, it should be noted that the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires had an indirect effect with WTC in L2 Writing. The result implies that through having Eiken Can-Do questionnaires and Classroom Can-do Questionnaires to achieve their future goals, their English classes and their future learning objectives were connected.　 It is necessary to provide students with adequate practice and guidance in using the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires in order to promote a deeper understanding of their purposes and uses. / Teaching & Learning

Developing syntactic complexity in writing is an important goal for many adult language learners. However, little is known about the effect of different writing practice tasks on the development of syntactic complexity. Furthermore, it is unclear to what degree syntactic complexity is related to writing quality. The main purpose of this study was to compare the longitudinal effects of three types of writing tasks on the development of syntactic complexity and writing quality. In order to investigate these relationships, a mixed-methods design was used. A quantitative component that was a quasi-experimental, longitudinal investigation was combined with an embedded qualitative component which involved eliciting stimulated recalls from participants from two of the experimental groups in the study. For the quantitative component, the participants (N = 105) were first-year, non-English majors at a four-year, co-educational university in western Japan. The participants were randomly divided into two groups: a sentence-combining group and a translation group. These two experimental groups were compared to an intact timed-writing group, which served as a comparison group. Writing samples were collected at three points throughout the year and analyzed based on five measures of syntactic complexity: mean length of sentence, mean length of T-unit, mean length of clause, clauses per T-unit, and T-units per sentence. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were used to analyze the five measures to investigate statistical differences across time for each group. One-way ANOVAs were used to analyze the five measures to ascertain differences between groups at each time. Furthermore, all the writing samples were evaluated by human raters for writing quality using an analytic rubric. Ratings were analyzed and investigated for changes in quality across time and between groups, as well as to examine the overall relationship between syntactic complexity and quality. For the qualitative component, seven participants were selected from the experimental groups to participate in stimulated recalls. The data were analyzed and coded to investigate the cognitive processes underlying each task. The results of the quantitative study indicated that the participants in the translation and sentence-combining groups made small, but significant gains in syntactic complexity across time. The translation group made significant growth on clauses per T-unit while the sentence-combining group made significant growth across time on mean length of sentence, mean length of T-unit, and T-units per sentence. The timed-writing group was not able to sustain significant growth across time. In the between-groups analyses, there were significant differences between the sentence-combining group and the other groups on mean length of sentence and T-units per sentence, indicating that the participants in that group demonstrated more coordination, and to a lesser degree, more subordination in their writing. In terms of quality of writing, the results indicated an overall weak, statistically significant positive correlation between measures of syntactic complexity and human rating judgments. Among all of the syntactic measures, T-units per sentence correlated the strongest with rating scores. The results of the qualitative component indicated that the participants practicing sentence-combining tasks focused most of their attention toward syntactic aspects of language while the participants in the translation group focused their attention on lexical aspects of language while performing the tasks. The findings of this study show that the development of syntactic complexity is influenced by writing practice tasks and that tasks that direct learners’ attention toward features of the language are more likely to hasten the development of syntactic complexity. Among the tasks, sentence-combining showed the most potential in developing syntactic complexity, particularly for increasing the use of compound sentences. However, none of the writing practice tasks led to significant gains in writing quality, in part because syntactic complexity was shown to have a moderately weak relationship to overall writing quality. / Teaching & Learning

This study was an exploration of the relevance of the generative learning theory of educational psychology to second language vocabulary learning tasks. The generative learning theory (Wittrock, 1974) predicts that people learn by generating associations between new information and prior experience and knowledge, as well as between individual new items of information. It also proposes that the educational environment, from curriculum design to individual learning tasks, should be designed to facilitate the generation of those associations that lead to learning. In order to test the theory with second language vocabulary learning tasks, five separate experiments that compared experimental conditions of varying degrees of generativeness were conducted. A pilot experiment compared different types of tasks, while the four main experiments involved manipulating generativeness across similar tasks. This study is unique in the field of second language vocabulary learning in that it isolates a single process and subjects it to rigorous experimentation across a variety of task types. Unlike many published studies comparing various types of tasks, variables such as task type, number of retrievals, and time-on-task were carefully controlled across all experimental conditions and only the variable under investigation--generativeness--was manipulated. Posttest results were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA and paired samples t-tests where appropriate. The findings of this study suggest that generative versions of typical learning tasks result in significantly more incidental second language vocabulary learning across all types of learning tasks (receptive, minimally productive, and productive). This study introduces novel ways in which typical classroom tasks can be modified to help learners generate associations with their existing knowledge and experience, and demonstrates how those modifications can improve the effectiveness of learning tasks. / CITE/Language Arts

Overall patterns of language use variation across oral proficiency levels of 1,243 Japanese EFL learners and 20 native speakers of English using the linguistic features set from Biber (1988) were investigated in this study. The approach combined learner corpora, language processing techniques, visual inspection of descriptive statistics, and multivariate statistical analysis to identify characteristics of learner language use. The largest spoken learner corpus in Japan, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology Japanese Learner English (NICT JLE) Corpus was used for the analysis. It consists of over one million running words of L2 spoken English with oral proficiency level information. The level of the material in the corpus is approximately equal to a Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) range of 356 to 921. It also includes data gathered from 20 native speakers who performed identical speaking tasks as the learners. The 58 linguistic features (e.g., grammatical features) were taken from the original list of 67 linguistic features in Biber (1988) to explore the variation of learner language. The following research questions were addressed. First, what linguistic features characterize different oral proficiency levels? Second, to what degree do the language features appearing in the spoken production of high proficiency learners match those of native speakers who perform the same task? Third, is the oral production of Japanese EFL learners rich enough to display the full range of features used by Biber? Grammatical features alone would not be enough to comprehensively distinguish oral proficiency levels, but the results of the study show that various types of grammatical features can be used to describe differences in the levels. First, frequency change patterns (i.e., a rising, a falling, a combination of rising, falling, and a plateauing) across the oral proficiency levels were shown through linguistic features from a wide range of categories: (a) part-of-speech (noun, pronoun it, first person pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, indefinite pronoun, possibility modal, adverb, causative adverb), (b) stance markers (emphatic, hedge, amplifier), (c) reduced forms (contraction, stranded preposition), (d) specialized verb class (private verb), complementation (infinitive), (e) coordination (phrasal coordination), (f) passive (agentless passive), and (g) possibly tense and aspect markers (past tense, perfect aspect). In addition, there is a noticeable gap between native and non-native speakers of English. There are six items that native speakers of English use more frequently than the most advanced learners (perfect aspect, place adverb, pronoun it, stranded preposition, synthetic negation, emphatic) and five items that native speakers use less frequently (past tense, first person pronoun, infinitive, possibility modal, analytic negation). Other linguistic features are used with similar frequency across the levels. What is clear is that the speaking tasks and the time allowed for provided ample opportunity for most of Biber’s features to be used across the levels. The results of this study show that various linguistic features can be used to distinguish different oral proficiency levels, and to distinguish the oral language use of native and non-native speakers of English. / Teaching & Learning

Research in identity and heritage language (HL) education focuses on the experiences of heritage speakers (HS) and how certain classroom discourses can devalue the skills and proficiencies that they bring with them to the class (García & Torres-Guevara, 2010; Leeman, 2012; Showstack, 2016). These dominant and monoglossic language discourses often focus on the teaching and acquisition of a “standard Spanish language” (Train, 2007; del Valle, 2000). Although scholarship on HL education has long advocated for separate specialized courses to meet the needs of HSs (Potowski, 2002; Valdés, 1997), many HSs remain in courses designed for second language (L2) learners because institutions do not consistently offer specialized instruction. Some research has investigated the experiences of HSs in mixed L2-HL classes (Harklau, 2009; Potowski, 2002), but there is a need for an examination of the classroom discursive practices in courses tailored for L2 learners and how those practices shape how HSs of diverse backgrounds position themselves as Spanish speakers within and outside of the classroom. The present study explores the representation of identity among HSs enrolled in university-level Spanish language classes. This investigation examined the relationship between HSs’ perceived instructional objectives in a Spanish as a second language class, the ways HSs positioned themselves as knowledgeable of the language concerning these objectives, and finally, their subsequent investment in their Spanish studies. The data come from a classroom ethnography and were analyzed within a grounded theory methods approach (Glasser & Strauss, 1967) and showed the extent to which classroom activities were inclusive to HSs’ pedagogical needs. Further, from a social identity and positioning lens, I considered how language ideologies that value the standard linguistic repertoires of monolingual native speakers’ affected individuals’ perceptions and relationships to their heritage community, and the expert or novice identities they negotiated during social interaction. Classroom observations and interviews revealed that the instruction that HSs received often promoted a linguistic hierarchy that devalued the non-standard language forms that reflected the participants’ ethnolinguistic backgrounds. The findings show that each HS navigated classroom discursive practices and negotiated multilingual identities in interaction with their peers, teachers, and the curriculum in different ways. Some of the participants became ambivalent toward the language and its speakers as their backgrounds went unacknowledged in classroom practice, while others found value in the Spanish classes because of past experiences. Findings suggest that there is a need for methodologies in mixed-group classrooms that reflect and acknowledge the sociolinguistic variation of the class (Gutiérrez & Fairclough, 2006). / Spanish

Multiword units (MWUs) is a term used in the current study to broadly cover what second language acquisition (SLA) researchers refer to as collocations, conventional expressions, chunks, idioms, formulaic sequences, or other such terms, depending on their research perspective. They are ubiquitous in language and essential in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition. Although MWUs are typically learned implicitly while using language naturally in both of these types of acquisition, the current study is an investigation of whether they are acquired in implicit knowledge when they are learned explicitly in a process called deliberate paired association learning. In SLA research, it is widely accepted that explicit knowledge is developed consciously and implicit knowledge is developed subconsciously. It is also believed that there is little crossover from explicit learning to implicit knowledge. However, recent research has cast doubt on this assumption. In a series of priming experiments, Elgort (2007, 2011) demonstrated that the formal and semantic lexical representations of deliberately learned pseudowords were accessed fluently and integrated into the mental lexicon, convincing evidence that deliberately learned words are immediately acquired in implicit knowledge. The current study aimed to extend these findings to MWUs in a psycholinguistic experiment that tested for implicit knowledge gains resulting from deliberate learning. Participants’ response times (RTs) were measured in three ways, on two testing instruments. First, subconscious formal recognition processing was measured in a masked repetition priming lexical decision task. In the second instrument, a self-paced reading task, both formulaic sequencing and semantic association gains were measured. The experiment was a counterbalanced, within-subjects design; so all comparisons were between conditions on items. Results were analyzed in a repeated measures linear mixed-effects model with participants and items as crossed random effects. The dependent variable was RTs on target words. The primary independent variable was learning condition: half of the critical MWUs were learned and half of them were not. The secondary independent variable was MWU composition at two levels: literal and figurative. The masked priming lexical decision task results showed that priming effects increased especially for learned figurative MWUs, evidence that implicit knowledge gains were made on their formal and semantic lexical representations as a result of deliberate learning. Results of the self-paced reading task were analyzed from two perspectives, but were less conclusive with regard to the effects of deliberate learning. Regarding formulaic sequencing gains, literal MWUs showed the most evidence of acquisition, but this happened as a result of both incidental and deliberate learning. With regard to semantic associations, it was shown that deliberate learning had similar effects on both literal and figurative MWUs. However, a serendipitous finding from this aspect of the self-paced reading results showed clearly that literal MWUs reliably primed semantic associations and sentence processing more strongly than figurative MWUs did, both before and after deliberate learning. In sum, results revealed that the difficulties learners have with developing fluent processing of figurative MWUs can be lessened by deliberate learning. On the other hand, for literal MWUs incidental learning is adequate for incrementally developing representation strength. / Language Arts

In the context of language instruction and learning, L2 willingness to communicate (WTC) is a relevant factor in learners’ language use. It is viewed as a volitional process influenced by individual, social, linguistic, and situationally dependent factors. Foundational research focuses on either trait or state WTC-influencing factors as separate entities. Current research considers the dynamic relationship that occurs between the two though less research exists on how WTC manifests in classroom interaction. This study investigates such differences by examining learners’ self-reported, perceived trait WTC and situational state WTC. It treats WTC as a dynamic entity which is shaped by learners’ investment in language learning and the identity they take on as language learners. It considers the relationship of WTC to its three most influential trait variables: motivation, L2 perceived competence, and L2 anxiety. It presents findings of additional variables influencing state WTC. Data were comprised of questionnaire surveys, focal participant interviews, and classroom observations. Quantitative data consisted of 39 participants, and qualitative data consisted of 12 focal participants. The importance of the present study lies in its investigation of WTC in relation to trait and state factors, and its stance that investment in L2 learning is a key factor in fostering classroom WTC. Finally, it explores how WTC can be positively fostered to optimize the learner’s language experience. / Spanish

In the Florida Public Schools' Curriculum, there lacks a requirement for completion of foreign language credits in order for a student to graduate. However, many colleges and universities, as well as scholarship programs like the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship, require students to take a minimum of two consecutive years of a foreign language. In many schools, there is an abundance of Level 1 and Level 2 foreign language classrooms, but in the upper levels there seems to be a scarcity of students within those programs. Why is it that these few students are motivated to continue studying the language, even though it is not required of them? This study serves to show the variety of motivations felt by high school students during the 2007-2008 school year. After conducting several focus groups at Oviedo High School in Oviedo, FL, with Spanish 3 and Advanced Placement (AP) Spanish students, the researcher analyzed the variety of reasons given candidly by the students. Through the conversations with these students, a better understanding of the motivations of high school students can be attained. Through this understanding, educators can target other areas that might motivate students, and thus work to increase enrollment in classes and to ensure that students can see the benefits of learning a second language with fluency.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Much prior research has shown that if students have a poor command of the language in which they are taught and assessed, they experience a complex and deep learning disadvantage (Barton & Neville-Barton, 2003). Abedi (2006) mentions, in particular, that unnecessary linguistic complexity can threaten the validity of examination items and thus compromises the fairness of the assessment for English language learners. In Clarkson’s (1991, p. 31) research it was found that for the English language learners in the study “comprehension errors [made] up a high proportion of the errors made when…students attempt[ed] to solve mathematical word problems”. In an attempt to explore whether this was the case for a group of National Certificate (Vocational) [NC(V)] students at an FET college, the research conducted in this study focused on describing the cognitive and linguistic complexity of Level 4 Mathematical Literacy examination items as well as the types of responses from a sample of students. A mixed-methods case study design was selected. Student errors were classified as either due to mathematical literacy-related sources, or language-related sources and the question was asked as to how the cognitive and linguistic complexity of items might be related to the types of errors made. Statistically significant correlations were found between the linguistic complexity of items and language-related errors, and between the cognitive complexity of items and all types of errors. It was also possible to identify which language features, in particular, were statistically significantly correlated with linguistic complexity, namely: prepositional phrases; words of 7 letters or more and complex/compound sentences. As was expected, the majority of errors were categorised as mathematical literacy-related. However, as many as 19.22% of all errors made were identified as language-related. While the scope of the study prevents any generalisations from being made, the results indicate a need for a larger-scale study of this nature to determine if the complex and deep learning disadvantage mentioned by Barton and Neville-Barton (2003) does exist with regard to the assessment of Mathematical Literacy for NC(V) students who are English language learners (Barton & Neville-Barton, 2003).