10 January 2010, Volume 20 Issue 1

    

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Articles
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  Speaking to the World: Who, When and How? An Ethnographic Study of Slogan Change and Identity Construction of Beijing Olympic Games Volunteers

  Yihong GAO

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 1-26.

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  Existing research has revealed a shift of L2 user identity from a faithful imitator of native speakers to legitimate speaker and creative user of the language. Yet how L2 users experience their “speaking” calls for close examination. As part of research on language attitudes and intercultural awareness of Olympic Games volunteers, this ethnographic report explores the identities imagined, expressed, and constructed by Chinese student volunteers in Olympic Games slogans. The central phenomenon studied was a volunteer-proposed English slogan on an office wall in an Olympic Games venue, “We speak and the world will listen.” On-site participant observation, individual interviews, and a post- event group discussion were conducted concerning the origin of the slogan, the changes it went through before and during the Olympic Games, and interpreta- tions of their meanings. Findings reveal several major types of identities: reserved non-speaker, patriotic speaker, empathetic listener, and reflective thinker. The characteristics, development, and contextual background of such identities are discussed. It is shown that, on the whole, these L2 users were ready to act as legitimate speakers in intercultural communication, yet were making explorations and experiencing dilemmas regarding content, manner, and norms of “speaking.” Implications are drawn for multiculturalism and L2 education; a dialogical communicator identity is proposed for such purposes.
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  Autonomy and Strategizing in Self-directed Language Learning

  Don SNOW

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 27-46.

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  Autonomous language learning requires not only initial planning of self-directed study efforts, but also modification and improvement of strategies after such efforts begin. As language teachers consider how best to support students in their early experiences with autonomous modes of language learning, and also how to help learners become more effective strategy users, a deeper under- standing of the early phases of self-directed study efforts is valuable because it helps teachers know how best to offer support. This paper reports on a journal study that examines the experience of a group of language learners in China as they design and carry out self-directed language learning projects. The study concludes that, for a significant number of learners, the process of adapting and modifying their plans is not completed during the first few weeks, which suggests that support over longer periods may be valuable. The study also concludes that combining strategy instruction with a language learning task results in more serious attention to strategizing on the part of students.
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  An Investigation of Chinese Undergraduates' Foreign Language Anxiety: Changes and Differences

  Li LIU, Meihua LIU, and Danli SU

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 47-64.

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  This paper reports on the results of a study of Chinese EFL learners' degree of and changes in foreign language classroom anxiety over a term. A 36-item survey involving 934 first-year undergraduate non-English majors revealed that:(1) the whole sample, as well as the three university samples of males and females, were generally not anxious, felt confident and did not worry much about their performance in English class both at the beginning and toward the end of the term; (2) significant differences existed in all aspects of foreign language classroom anxiety between males and females and among students from different learning contexts in both phases; and (3) the whole sample became significantly less anxious, more confident and less worried about their performance in class over a term's learning, so did female respondents and the Beijing Union University sample. Based on these findings, some implications and suggestions for future research will be discussed.
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  High-frequency English-based Loanword Cognates for EFL in Japan

  Frank E. DAULTON

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 65-80.

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  This article examines the loanwords in Japanese that are based on high- frequency English vocabulary, and it assesses their quality as cognates in EFL. The first part shows that members of around half of the high-frequency word families of the British National Corpus have become commonly known loan- words in Japanese. Next the author evaluates certain aspects of semantic simi- larity (i.e., semantic type; dictionary definitions) and formal similarity (i.e., shortening) that are highly salient in language transfer and easily assessed, as well as other limitations on loanword usage (e.g., being a bound morpheme). The results suggest that this loanword-based cognate resource is not only large but of good quality. The article concludes by discussing some implications and directions for future research.
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  The Production of L2 Vowels by Chinese EFL Learners: An Acoustic Perspective on Pre-fortis Clipping^*

  Weijing ZHOU

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 81-94.

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  This study examines the acquisition of pre-fortis clipping by eight Chinese EFL learners (CEFLLs). The data were collected in the phonetics laboratory at Cambridge University and analyzed with reference to eight British Received Pronunciation speakers (BRPSs). Three results were found: (1) there are signifi- cant differences between the average vowel duration in pre-stop contexts by CEFLLs and BRPSs; (2) CEFLLs' greatest difficulties lie in the production of / iː / and / ɜː / before the bilabial stops, / ɔː / and / ɜː / before velar stops, / uː / before both the bilabial and velar stops, / ɒ / before bilabial stops, / æ / before both bilabial and velar stops and / ɪ / isn all the pre-stop contexts; and / ɪ / pre- fortis clipping is the most problematic for CEFLLs in the pre-bilabial stop context. These findings have significant implications for the teaching of EFL phonetics in China.
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  The Effect of a Speed Reading Course: A Replication

  Mihwa CHUNG

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 95-116.

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  This research replicated a previous study (Chung & Nation, 2006) in order to check whether similar results could be obtained, and to examine factors that might prevent some learners from increasing their reading speed. The results of this research matched those of the previous study. However, unlike those in the previous study, all students made a speed increase possibly because the researcher paid extra attention to slow readers identified in the initial stages and checked out their progress regularly. Two major factors that might hold some learners back were the habit of translating texts into their first language and negative attitudes toward speed reading training. The advantage of speed reading training is that it requires only a small amount of classroom time and it typically results in substantial gains in reading speed while maintaining good comprehension. Thus it would be worth spending time on practicing speed reading with learners of English as a foreign language.
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  Taiwanese College Teachers' Attitudes towards English Reading Instruction in Discipline-specific Areas

  Tzung-yu CHENG

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 117-134.

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  This study examines the attitudes of 137 Taiwanese college subject-area teachers towards teaching English reading in their discipline-specific areas. The results, based on a 12-item 7-point Likert scale survey, reveals that while college subject-area teachers regard content learning as their teaching priority, they acknowledge the importance of providing English reading instruction. The study finds that despite the belief that English reading instruction can be incor- porated into their courses and that there is a need for this, most teachers do not feel competent to teach such skills. The study concludes by identifying a direc- tion for future research based on the experiences of college subject-area teachers.
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  The Impact of a Writing Workshop Approach on Chinese English Teachers' Beliefs about Effective Writing Instruction

  Elizabeth SPALDING, Jian WANG, and Emily LIN

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 135-160.

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  A process approach to writing and its implementation in a workshop setting have been widely advocated in the U.S., where it has been well documented that the everyday classroom practice of the individual teacher is key to the success of reform. However, little is known about the effectiveness of this approach in non-Western contexts where English is taught as a foreign language or about how teachers in such settings will adapt it conceptually and practically. This study examined how a three-week experience of writing workshop influenced 57 Chinese English teachers' writing and their views of teaching writing. Data sources included teachers' daily reflections, scored writing samples, and final essays. Findings indicated that: (1) teachers' English writing improved signifi- cantly as a result of their participation in the workshop; (2) the majority of teachers believed their students' writing would improve if they implemented the practices they studied and that they intended to use a number of strategies they learned; (3) the teachers believed that the traditional grammar-translation approach they had been using had specific advantages. Teachers changed their beliefs selectively, most readily accepting those ideas that were most compatible with the existing culture of teaching and learning in their subject area.
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  EAP Writing: Reflections on Divergent Perceptions and Expectations among Tutors and Students

  Darryl HOCKING and Glenn TOH

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 161-184.

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  An atomistic and skills-based pedagogical tradition with a general focus on topic sentences, prescribed paragraph structures and rhetorical units has been seen in various quarters to dominate the instruction of English academic writing to L2 speakers in many English medium tertiary environments. While it would appear that students are for the most part acculturated to these codings and classifications, our student feedback provides evidence that initially the learners' own conceptualisation of written academic discourse actually lies closer to the linguistically complex and socially constituted understanding that is now firmly established in the literature. We suggest that such divergent perceptions may construct unnecessary in-between spaces of conflicting voices and thus contribute to the struggle of second language writers as they come to terms with the academic writing practices of their target disciplines. In addition, referring to social anthropological research, we explore how the perpetuation of an atom- istic and skills-based pedagogy in the teaching of writing in the L2 tertiary envi- ronment may in fact be inherently linked to visions of professionalism.
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  Rhetorical Perception of Korean University Students: Is Linear Better?

  Deron WALKER

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 185-206.

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  Over forty years ago, Kaplan (1966) initiated the field of contrastive rhetoric with his seminal work, “Cultural Thought Patterns in Intercultural Education.” After analyzing 600 essays, Kaplan identified general rhetorical patterns used in academic writing for five different culture groups. Kaplan further concluded that Asian writers, whom he labeled “Oriental,” tended to write academic essays in an “indirect” pattern whereas English rhetoric followed a direct pattern that he called “linear.” While Kaplan's categorizations shed a certain amount of light on cross-cultural rhetorical differences, many questions raised by Kaplan's work remained very controversial but largely unanswered. This paper attempts to answer, from the perspective of 303 Handong Global Univer- sity students in South Korea, some of these questions. This paper discusses student rhetorical perceptions of their writing, thought processes while writing, beliefs concerning how other Korean students compose and think about writing, and what style of rhetoric Korean university students consider ideal in Korean and English.
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  Challenges in Writing Refereed English Journal Papers and Institutional Support for Research Publication

  Yin Ling CHEUNG

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 207-224.

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  Much of academic publishing research is conducted with professors and with postgraduate students majoring in science. There is less published research on how EFL postgraduate students specializing in applied linguistics reflect on their publishing activities. Little is known about what challenges these students face in writing journal papers and how they perceive support provided by their universities with regard to publishing. The present study fills this gap by investi- gating six Hong Kong postgraduate students to understand their challenges in publishing refereed journal papers and their perception of institutional support for research publication. The interview data highlight that lack of motivation and lack of confidence are challenges faced by the interviewees in writing journal papers. Despite the fact that Hong Kong universities provided support to help doctoral students develop research publication, the majority of the inter- viewees had not fully benefited from such existing support. It is concluded that lack of confidence could be attributed to the students' non-native English speaker status and insufficient formal instruction in academic writing, while lack of motivation could be explored with reference to the socio-cultural context in Hong Kong.
Book Reviews
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  Complex Systems and Applied Linguistics

  By Diane Larsen-Freeman and Lynne Cameron, Reviewed by George YOUNG and Gareth CARROL

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 225-230.

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  Mixed Methods Research: Exploring the Interactive Continuum

  By Carolyn S. Ridenour and Isadore Newman, Reviewed by Ryan DESCHAMBAULT

  Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2010, 20(1): 231-234.

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