IJES 2015, v. 15, n. 2
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- PublicationOpen AccessExplicit instruction and implicit use of L2 learning strategies in higher secondary EFL course books(2015-12-18) Bueno-Alastuey, Mª Camino; Luque Agulló, GloriaResearch has shown that teaching second language (L2) learning strategies explicitly promotes an increase in strategy use and in oral proficiency. Consequently, a checklist based on the six types of strategies from Oxford's taxonomy (1990) was created to analyze strategic instruction in the most common textbooks used in the last year of Higher Secondary Education in Spain. The study considered whether there was explicit strategy instruction and its location (within the units [Internal] or in other sections [External]) in course books, and what specific strategies were explicitly taught for the two oral skills, listening and speaking. Results showed, first, that there was explicit internal and external instruction of L2 learning strategies both for listening and speaking, but not in all the books; second, that there was significantly more implicit use than explicit instruction, and less explicit instruction in the units of the textbooks than in specific extra sections in the textbook or in support material; and finally, that internal explicit instruction of strategies remains very limited; and thus, L2 learning strategy instruction, competence and use may not be sufficiently encouraged in those textbooks.
- PublicationOpen AccessDispersion and frequency: Is there any difference as regards their relation to L2 vocabulary gains?(2015-12-18) Alcaraz Mármol, GemaDespite the current importance given to L2 vocabulary acquisition in the last two decades, considerable deficiencies are found in L2 students' vocabulary size. One of the aspects that may influence vocabulary learning is word frequency. However, scholars warn that frequency may lead to wrong conclusions if the way words are distributed is ignored. That is to say, it seems that not only the number of occurrences (frequency) might affect L2 vocabulary acquisition, but also the way occurrences are distributed (distribution). This relationship between these two factors is represented by the so-called Gries' index, known as dispersion. The present study aims to find out whether dispersion is more an accurate and reliable predictor for L2 vocabulary learning than frequency only.
- PublicationOpen Access'The tropics make it difficult to mope': The imaginative geography of Alexander Payne's The Descendants (2011)(2015-12-18) Sánchez-Palencia, CarolinaThis paper analyses the cinematic landscape of The Descendants (Payne, 2011) by engaging with Edward Said's concept of "imaginative geographies" (Orientalism, 1978), a theoretical approach that addresses the interaction between the material and the symbolic in spatial representation. I also draw from Henri Lefebvre (The Production of Space, 1974) to explain how Alexander Payne renders space and subjectivity as mutually constitutive. The Descendants' powerful analogies between family ties and land ties would illustrate this spatial-subjective system in interesting metaphoric parallels. In a similar vein, Lefebvre's emphasis on the importance of capitalism in the social construction of spaces helps articulate the film's discussion of Hawaiian land trade politics and the protagonists' ambivalent relation to it. This reading of the film can be inserted into the context of contemporary revisitations of the Paradise mythology as inextricably bound to postcolonial questions of ecology, nation and globalization.
- PublicationOpen Access'In New Zealand I feel more confidence': The role of context in the willingness to communicate (WTC) of migrant Iranian English language learners(2015-12-18) Cameron, DeniseThis article will discuss recent theories of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) and provide an overview of studies into this individual difference which have been conducted in both Iran and New Zealand (NZ). So far few qualitative studies have been carried out into WTC or have used permanent migrants as participants. The article reports on a longitudinal study of the WTC of a group of Iranian migrants to NZ. By means of questionnaires, observations, and individual semi-structured interviews conducted at six-month intervals, case studies of these learners in a NZ university English class were compiled. Their WTC was found to encompass such learner characteristics as confidence, motivation, and personality, and varied from country to country and semester to semester. Finally, this article discusses the contribution of this study to the WTC field of research, identifying the implications of these results for teachers of English in the ESL (English as a Second language/migrant) context and possible avenues for future research.
- PublicationOpen Access