Event at Tohoku

Numerous studies have shown that there are apparent differences between children and adults in how first language (L1) and second language (L2) are acquired and processed. However, recent theories suggest that the learning mechanisms in the brain are not fundamentally different between L1 and L2 acquisition. Rather, differences arise from the different contexts, conditions, and environments surrounding children and adults, as well as their different learning approaches. This talk introduces the framework of "social learning of L2", which suggests that L2 acquisition, especially after the sensitive period, benefits from social interaction and real-life exposure, similar to L1 acquisition. I will discuss key dimensions of language learning for children and adults, and present fMRI experiments exploring how social learning and interaction can affect language processing in the brain.

Bio: Hyeonjeong Jeong is a professor in the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies at Tohoku University, Japan. Her research focuses on the brain mechanisms involved in language acquisition and communication in both native (L1) and second (L2) language contexts. Jeong is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Neurolinguistics.

Understanding emotion is essential for successful second language (L2) communication. However, learners may have difficulty perceiving emotionality embedded in L2 due to a lack of social/emotional experiences in L2 (Caldwell-Harris, 2011). Although recent neuroimaging studies suggest that exposure to social interactions in real life deepens L2 semantic representation in the brain (see Li & Jeong 2020 for a review), to what extent social interaction impacts the neural processing of L2 emotionality remains unclear. In order to fill this gap, the present study used an fMRI and examined the relationship between social interaction and L2 emotionality perception in the brain. 41 late Chinese learners of Japanese living in Japan (mean age = 25) performed an auditory lexical decision task, consisting of 120 real words (L2 negative, positive, and neutral words such as painful, wonderful, and spherical) and 90non-words, during the MRI scanning. A social network questionnaire was used to quantify the intensity of each participant’s social interactions with Japanese speakers in their daily lives. Brain analyses revealed a significant positive correlation between social interaction intensity and activity in the left ventral striatum and right amygdala during L2 positive and negative word processing, respectively. These results indicate that the experience of authentic social interaction with target-language speakers may enhance L2emotionalityperceptionin the brain.

Bio: Chunlin Liu is a postgraduate student at the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies at Tohoku University, Japan. Her research focuses on investigating the cognitive processes and acquisition of emotionality in the target language among language learners.

In the L2 vocabulary literature, traditional offline tests such as multiple choice and translation tests have been used to measure vocabulary knowledge. However, a recent call has been made for measuring word knowledge that is available for immediate use in real-life L2 communication (i.e., word employability). One way to serve this purpose is to apply psycholinguistic approaches to online measures (e.g., reaction time) to capture how quickly and automatically learners can retrieve L2 words without relying on guessing or test-taking strategies. In this talk, we will explore the potential of the Prime Lexicality Effect (PLE) as an indicator of the acquisition of“employable word knowledge.” This talk will provide a concise introduction to the psycholinguistic background of the PLE and explore its potential as a viable measure of vocabulary knowledge. The focus will be on different-script bilinguals, such as Chinese-English and Japanese-English bilinguals. To close, several implications for L2 vocabulary assessment and acquisition will be discussed.

Bio: Mariko Nakayama is a Professor in the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies at Tohoku University in Japan. Her research interest is in the visual word recognition processing of bilinguals. She has been a board member of the Association for Reading and Writing in Asia (ARWA) since 2021.

Bio: Takumi Uchiharaisa Senior Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies at Tohoku University, Japan. His research focuses on second language (L2) vocabulary learning and teaching. He serves as a member of the TESOL Quarterly editorial board from March 2022. 

Prompted by the observation (Tarone et al.,2009) that low-level L1 literacy (LL1L) is an important but ignored variable in second language acquisition research, this paper reports on a partial replication of Tavakoli and Foster (2008), recruitingLL1L adults in place of the highly literate participants in the initial study. Tavakoli and Foster found that design features of a cartoon strip narrative impacted significantly on aspects of syntactic complexity, lexical diversity, and fluency in participants’ oral telling of the story. In contrast to the initial study, the partial replication reported here showed that storyline complexity, i.e., whether the narrative incorporated background events or not, made no significant difference to the participants’ performance. However, given the observed tendency of many of the participants to omit most if not all background events, this outcome is discussed in terms of their visual literacy, and aptness to describe rather than connect the cartoon frames. The implications for the use of narrative tasks in an LL1L classroom are explored.

Bio: Since her retirement in 2021 as Professor of Applied Linguistics at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, Pauline Foster has been an honorary Senior Research Associate at University College, London. Over the last thirty years, she has published numerous research studies related to her special interest in cognitive approaches to language acquisition, task-based classroom interaction, and second language idiomaticity. She has also a particular interest in the design of quantitative research instruments that measure second language accuracy, complexity, fluency, and vocabulary.

Boosting vocabulary knowledge to a productive level is a priority for many second language learners. However, little is known about the impact of explicit instruction on this progression of lexical knowledge. Moreover, while it is well established that formulaic sequences (FS) must be learned for successful communication, whether FS can be acquired using the same approaches as single words (SW) remains unclear. In this presentation, I will discuss the results of my recent research exploring the acquisition of productive knowledge of SW and FS through explicit instruction. I will conclude by considering the pedagogical implications for learning SW and FS in second language classrooms.

Bio: Rebecca Moden has a background in teaching English for Academic Purposes and teacher training on pre-service courses in the UK and overseas. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate and Postgraduate Teaching Assistant at University College London-Institute of Education. Her research investigates pedagogical approaches to learning single words and formulaic sequences in a second language, with a particular interest in developing productive knowledge.

English medium instruction (EMI) research has expanded rapidly over the past several decades in response to the growth of EMI as a phenomenon. However, despite this growth, it is not always clear what it means to research, or indeed even ‘study EMI’, leaving EMI research disparate and ungeneralisable to wider contexts. Studies into EMI have explored policy, language learning, the effect on subject knowledge, attitudes towards EMI, ownership of English and so on. As such, a 2018 systematic review presented a useful attempt to corral this disparate set of research papers into a body of knowledge. The review has been a popular source to support further EMI research, with over 1100 citations, and counting, in just a few years. However, an overtly critical approach to certain aspects of this EMI research is generally absent (i.e., the citations of this review ignore the limitations of the methodology). The main arguments I will discuss in this brief talk come from my latest work on EMI research. One is on the need for further discussion of the inequities, but also the affordances, of EMI implementation. Another is on what we can learn through reflection on the multilingual nature of researching EMI. I will close on the talk by highlighting the limitations of systematic review methodology, rather than accepting it at face value to further EMI research.

Bio: Jim McKinley, SFHEA, is Professor of Applied Linguistics at University College London. He has taught in higher education in the UK, Japan, Australia, and Uganda, as well as US schools. His research targets implications of globalization for L2 writing, language education, and higher education studies, particularly the teaching-research nexus and English medium instruction. Jim is co-author and co-editor of several books on research methods in applied linguistics. He is an Editor-in-Chief of the journal System, and a co-Editor of the Cambridge Elements series LanguageTeaching (Cambridge University Press)