This paper reports the empirical consequences on the effect of cross-linguistic transfer in the acquisition of English articles by Chinese EFL college students. In contrast to English, Mandarin Chinese is an article-less language. Moreover, the two languages differ from each other in the denotation of semantic features such as definiteness, indefiniteness and genericity, etc. It remains unknown whether the cross-linguistic difference is transferable. To evaluate this possibility, the present study tested 20 English-learning Chinese college students in two experiments, respectively using a sentence completion task and a cloze task. The main findings were as follows across the two experiments. First, the participants performed better in the use of a/an than that of the. Second, a subset of the participants appeared to use bare NPs to denote genericity and singularity. Third, some participants had difficulty in the acquisition of genericity encoded by the and a/an. Fourth, some participants failed to tease apart the use of a and an. Taken together, the findings appear to support the Full Transfer Hypothesis. We discussed the implications of the findings in terms of cross-linguistic transfer theories.
2025-10-10
While extensive research supports the benefits of task-based language teaching (TBLT), its real-world impact on EFL classrooms remains unclear. This study aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice by investigating how TBLT affects practical classroom settings. Specifically, in addressing an area where Japanese EFL (JEFL) learners have traditionally struggled, this study investigates the effectiveness of task-based instruction on JEFL university students’ communicative confidence and willingness to communicate (WTC) in L2 English. To this end, a group of 32 JEFL university students (enrolled in an English Listening and Speaking course) participated in this study. Assessments of each participant’s communicative confidence and WTC in L2 English were conducted at the beginning and the end of the course (after 15 weeks, which consisted of approximately 45 hours of TBLT). Each of these assessments involved completing two questionnaires and subsequently being interviewed regarding their feelings concerning the instruction they received. The instruction provided between the Pre-test and Post-test followed the principles of TBLT. Specifically, over the course of fifteen weeks in this English Communication course, the instructor covered one of the fifteen units of a taskbased coursebook/syllabus each week. Each unit in the syllabus involved the students engaging in a series of tasks, which included a Pre-Task, Core Task, First Listening (for gist), Second Listening (for analysis), Language Analysis Exercises, and Post-Task. The results, overall, showed that TBLT had an overwhelmingly positive impact on students’ communicative confidence and WTC in L2 English.
While literature on factorizing demotivation in the EFL classroom is ample, little ground has been gained in understanding the root cause of demotivation. The purpose of the current study was to trace demotivation back to its origin by examining demotivator attribution differences between regular non-English major students and students who are enrolled in a dual degree English program. This study utilized the Learner Perceptions of Demotivators Scale (Xie et al., 2021) to gauge three demotivating factors including negative teacher behavior, loss of task value, and low expectancy for success. Data were collected from a sample of 320 undergraduate students in China. Among the three demotivating factors, the two student groups were only significantly different in terms of loss of task value even after controlling for gender, performance, and self-efficacy F(4,302) = 16.05, p < .001. The findings may shed light on the underlying reasons of demotivation in the EFL classroom. Practical implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.
This case study aimed to investigate the influences of Chinese speakers’ Southwestern dialects, which do not distinguish alveolar nasal /an/, /en/, /in/ and velar nasal /ang/, /eng/, /ing/ sounds, on their English pronunciation in words of these sounds. The study also explored whether Chinese speakers who spoke more standard Mandarin would have more accurate English pronunciations. The findings of the study revealed that most Chinese Southwestern dialects speakers could not perform velar nasal sounds in Chinese Mandarin, which also influenced them to perform velar nasal sounds in English. This study also found that Chinese Mandarin speakers showed more advantages in the English pronunciation of velar nasal sounds than Chinese Southwestern dialect speakers. There is a significant, positive, moderate correlation between the Mandarin Proficiency Test and IELTS Speaking Pronunciation, suggesting that Chinese speakers who achieved a higher level on the Mandarin Proficiency Test also achieved a higher level on IELTS Speaking Pronunciation overall. Furthermore, this study provides insights into researching the influence of diverse dialects on English pronunciations among English as a Second Language speakers.
In this interview, Elana Shohamy discusses the transformative potential of multilingual education in promoting peace and reconciliation in conflict-affected regions. Drawing on her experiences at Tel Aviv University, she emphasizes how multilingual classrooms foster inclusivity and respect among students from diverse backgrounds. Shohamy highlights the importance of elevating minority languages to create equitable educational environments. She explores the interplay between global migration, language education, and sociopolitical dynamics, and advocates for multilingual assessments to better capture immigrants’ competencies. She supports translanguaging and multimodality to help language-minoritized students utilize their full linguistic repertoire. Shohamy critiques traditional language tests for perpetuating inequities by favoring dominant language speakers and calls for reimagining educational policies to empower multilingual learners.
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