Page 11 - ELG1805 May Issue 457

RESEARCH NEWS . Teacher’s pet

First language features support
HOW DIFFERENT memory in late bilinguals The EL Gazette was much

delighted by news that American
TYPES OF ANXIETY Research on university students shows how L2 learners use his show to delight audiences with a spelling
TV host Jimmy Kimmel had used
AFFECT ORAL features of their first language to help with remembering events bee with a difference.
He invited three young middle school
To ensure both languages in the bilingual
EXAM SCORES By Federica Tedeschi groups were simultaneously active, they spelling champions on to the show to see if
they could emulate the famous misspellings
Late bilinguals use features of their first
language to help them remember while
were provided with questions in their L1s,
writing or speaking in their L2, a study of 95 while they were required to answer in L2. in President Donald Trump’s tweets.
In the ‘Make America Grate (sic) Again’
university students suggests. Most of the students in the bilingual
Test anxiety does not have a negative ‘Speakers are still thinking in their L1 groups used grammatically correct L2 spelling bee, children were asked to spell as
impact on oral test scores but other when using L2’, according to researcher expressions, but only the Spanish L1 subjects atrociously as Trump, who has been known
to write ‘honered’ instead of ‘honoured’,
Luna Filipović of the University of East
always distinguished between intentional
types of anxiety do, research reveals Anglia. and non-intentional meaning, even when it ‘tapp’ instead of ‘tap’ and ‘rediculous’ instead
Her study of native speakers of English and was not required in English. of ‘ridiculous’, among many more. Successful
Spanish examined the use of ‘intentionality’, For instance, Spanish L1 students were misspellings were rewarded with money.
By Federica Tedeschi demonstrate that both an which uses language to mark an event as recorded using the intentional ‘The girl ‘This is not an ordinary spelling
New research has revealed individual’s general individual intentional or unintentional, a common made the balloon explode’, and also the bee,’ Kimmel said. ‘This spelling bee is
fascinating insights into the tendency to anxiety (trait feature in Spanish but not in English. non-intentional ‘A girl played with a balloon
interplay between the different anxiety) and the level of anxiety The sample included 20 English and 20 and it exploded accidentally’. presidential. Which means you’ll be asked to
types of anxiety individuals can occurring when a student learns Spanish monolinguals and two groups of late Conversely, the Spanish L2 speakers spell the words I give you not how the liberal
experience and their effect on a new language (language bilinguals: 28 English speakers with Spanish didn’t make an explicit distinction based on leftist dictionary spells them, but rather the
oral test results. anxiety) negatively affect their L2 and 27 Spanish speakers with L2 English. intentionality. way our president
The researcher, Danny Huang, English oral test performance. applied to both genders which this is the first study The four groups were tested on their They tended to use the same constructions does.’ While
was surprised to find that both The data showed a negative showed no significant difference. to examine the interactions capacity to recall and verbalise information indiscriminately (e.g. El globo se rompió = we appreciate
male and female EFL learners correlation between trait anxiety All findings are the result among the four different types presented through videos to establish their The balloon burst) for both intentional and language diversity
experienced similar levels of and oral test performance, and of self-reported data collected of anxiety. It paves the way to use of language that marks intentionality. non-intentional events.
anxiety and this resulted in the between language anxiety and through a set of four anxiety considering anxiety variables in The groups were shown ten videos each, It is worth noting that when the students and innovation,
same negative impact on their exam performance. In other scales, one for each type of designing English L2 exams. either containing an intentional or non- were asked yes/no questions about the we are much
test scores. words, the higher the trait and/or anxiety studied, and containing The 2016 study confirms the intentional causation event. videos, the Spanish native speakers, both amused.
Huang analysed the language anxiety are, the lower a range of 20-37 questions each. original hypothesis that test For instance, ‘a girl popping a balloon monolingual and bilingual, recalled whether
interactions among four different the test scores will be. For example, under ‘trait anxiety and language anxiety on purpose’ versus ‘a girl playing with a events were intentional or non-intentional
kinds of anxiety and their However, the oral test score anxiety’, participants were asked relate to each other. balloon, which popped accidentally and this correctly in nearly 90 per cent of the cases. Naughty corner
effects on English speaking was not significantly affected by to say to what extent they ‘feel The authors point out that surprised her’. All the English native speakers, including
test performance. The test either an individual’s tendency nervous and restless’ on a scale all participants completed the They were also randomly shown ten ‘filler’ those with Spanish L2, only recalled
adopted was GEPTI-S, a general to anxiety around assessments ranging from ‘almost never’ to oral test voluntarily and that videos reproducing non-causation events intentionality correctly about 60 per cent of How do you pronounce that big
proficiency test of spoken English (test anxiety) or their anxiety ‘almost always’. the research did not take into such as ‘a woman reading a book’. the time. thing you wash in? Is it a barth or
used in Taiwan. prompted by threatening Critically, participants were account students’ familiarity Students were next asked to recall the ‘The habit of always expressing a bath? And when you hear a good
Findings from 251 young circumstances (state anxiety). only asked to answer the ‘state with this type of exam. events shown in the videos by answering intentionality [as in Spanish] versus…
adult Taiwanese L2 learners Results prove to be true when anxiety’ questionnaire after two yes/no questions about the scenes they expressing intentionality only optionally joke do you larf or do you laff?
they had recalled the emotions n Modelling the relationships between had watched. [English] leads to a different linguistic focus Of course, for most English native
Participants: Undergraduates at National Taiwan University experienced while taking the oral anxieties and performance in second/foreign When then asked to describe the events on this event component,’ Luna Filipović speakers, it will all depend where you come
English language level of the students: elementary to advanced English L2 exam. language speaking assessment, Danny in the videos, the answers followed a similar told the EL Gazette. from. And while accents and dialects still
Average time they spent learning English: 9.4 years According to the researcher, Huang, National Taiwan University pattern. All the monolingual speakers used ‘And this affects memory with regards to carry big class (or clarss) connotations
similar constructions to describe voluntary whether causation was intentional or not,’ in the UK, many of us embrace regional
Language worriers struggle with Ielts speaking actions but only the Spanish clearly specified she added. varieties of English and wear them with
when an action was involuntary.
The findings, though, are preliminary.
pride. So it was a little shocking when news
The sample size was small and the study
included participants with different levels of emerged last month that some teachers
By Federica Tedeschi likely to be. lessons. encouraging WTS, which competence in their L2. None of them had in UK classrooms from the North and
The best predictor of Iranian This finding is in line with that However, findings from the includes environmental factors experienced of extensive immersion in L2. Midlands were being told to ‘soften’ their
EFL learners’ willingness to speak of another story reported on this sample of 156 EFL learners also such as teacher, class atmosphere Filipović believes further study is needed regional accents. Dr Alex Baratta, from the
(WTS) in class is whether they page (see above). showed that WTS is influenced and seating location. Previous to establish whether immersion and University of Manchester, said one teacher
suffer from language learning Both studies also found no by a number of environmental studies have concentrated substantially more advanced L2 experience applying for a new job had been told: ‘If
anxiety, research finds. statistically significant difference factors, in particular task type exclusively on learner personality would indeed lead to thinking in the L2
The study also showed that between males and females, and topic of discussion. traits. rather than the L1. you don’t change the way you’re speaking,
students who were more willing either in language anxiety or in The two highest predictors of n Willingness to speak English among Speaking in a second language but thinking I’m going to stop the interview.’ Dr Baratta,
to speak during lessons obtained WTS. WTS were students’ interest in a foreign language in the first language: language-specific effects called the situation ‘classism’.
higher scores on an Ielts speaking The Iranian study, conducted chosen topic and the opportunity learners: a causal on memory for causation events in English and While the El Gazette would encourage
test. by Javad Riasati from the Islamic to work in a small group. model, Spanish – Dr Luna Filipović, University of teachers to make sure they
Language anxiety, on the other Azad University, also looked Both individual and Mohammad Previous Studies East Anglia. tinyurl.com/yd8958cc are understood by pupils,
hand, is negatively correlated at learning motivation and environmental factors Javad have concentrated there’s no need to iron out
with WTS: the higher the level self-perceived speaking ability, were measured using three Riasati - exclusively on
of anxiety, the less likely students but none of them significantly questionnaires. Islamic Azad learner personality all your glorious glottal
are to speak in front of their peers affected the responsiveness of This enabled the author University, traits stops. Or should we say
and the lower their test scores are students during conversation to outline a new method for Shiraz, Iran glo’al stops?
10 editorial@elgazette.com 11