British Association for Applied Linguistics From Applied Linguistics to Linguistics Applied: Issues, Practices, Trends Edited by Maeve Conrick and Martin Howard British Studies in Applied Linguistics Volume 22 From Applied Linguistics to Linguistics Applied: Issues, Practices, Trends British Studies in Applied Linguistics Each volume in the series consists of a selection of peer-reviewed papers on a theme of general interest, based on presentations at the BAAL Annual General Meetings. In covering state-of-the-art research in the UK and elsewhere, the series aims to broaden the scope of applied linguistics to include areas as diverse as sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, communication studies and language education. Volumes 1-15 in this series were published by Multilingual Matters; volumes 16-18 were published by Continuum; volumes 19-21 were published by Equinox. For more information about BAAL and IRAAL visit their websites: www.baal.org.uk, www.iraal.ie. Previously published Applied Linguistics at the Interface Edited by Mike Baynham, Alice Deignan and Goodith White (Volume 19) Reconfiguring Europe: the contribution of applied linguistics Edited by Constant Leung and Jennifer Jenkins (Volume 20) Language, culture and identity in applied linguistics Edited by Richard Kiely, Pauline Rea-Dickins, Helen Woodfield and Gerald Clibbon (Volume 21) British Studies in Applied Linguistics: Volume 22 From Applied Linguistics to Linguistics Applied: Issues, Practices, Trends Selected papers from the British Association for Applied Linguistics and Irish Association for Applied Linguistics conference at University College Cork, September 2006 Edited by Maeve Conrick and Martin Howard BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS IRISH ASSOCIATION FOR APPLIED LINGUISTICS Published by British Association for Applied Linguistics www.baal.org.uk First published 2007 © Maeve Conrick, Martin Howard and contributors 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reporduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. ISBN: 0704426277 Printed by the University of Birmingham. Contents 1 Introduction 7 Maeve Conrick 2 The grammar of spoken English and the discourse of non-native speakers 12 Susan Hunston, Eri Hirata and Yumi Otoshi 3 National trends in achievement in Irish Listening at primary level: A challenge for language revitalisation and language policy 25 John Harris 4 Use of an Irish-English lexical categorisation task to examine children‟s homograph recognition as a function of language context and language background 43 Fiona Lyddy 5 Investigating Development in Writing in 9 to 11 year olds 56 Roger Beard, Andrew Burrell, Brownen Swinnerton and Godfrey Pell 6 Investigating beliefs about foreign language writing and composing strategy implementation. The effect of instruction and practice 76 Rosa Manchón, Liz Murphy and Julio Roca de Larios 7 Transferability of argumentative writing competence from L2 to L1: Effects of overseas experience 91 Hiroe Kobayashi and Carol Rinnert 8 Altering the Sequence of Acquisition 111 Kent Hill 9 The uses of grammar: a corpus based investigation of the term „grammatical‟ in the British Press 130 Richard Badger and Malcolm MacDonald 10 Voices of Youth and Discourses of Multilingualism and Citizenship 149 J. Byrd Clark 11 Nursing across Cultures: the communicative needs of internationally educated nurses (IENs) working with older adults 165 Margaret Hearnden 12 Group project work in higher education: what it is and what it is not 180 Edward Bressan and V. Michael Cribb 13 New concepts, new paradigms for English as an international language 195 Paul Roberts Contributors 207 1 Introduction Maeve Conrick This volume is a collection of papers from the joint conference of the British Association for Applied Linguistics and the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics, held at University College Cork, National University of Ireland Cork, on 7-9 September 2006. The theme chosen for the conference was ‘From Applied Linguistics to Linguistics Applied: Issues, Practices, Trends’. The papers in this volume address this theme in a range of ways, reflecting the continuing diversity of Applied Linguistics as a research field. Many of the presenters at the conference were concerned with defining the discipline, how it is evolving and how it relates to or distinguishes itself from other disciplines, whether in terms of theory or practice. Concern with these issues is apparent in the papers collected in this volume, notably in the ways in which the authors situate their contribution in relation to existing practices or emerging trends in their specific field of interest. The thematic framework of the conference brought into focus the distinction drawn between ‘Linguistics Applied’ and ‘Applied Linguistics’ (see Widdowson, 2000) and gave rise to many references to Brumfit’s much-quoted definition of Applied Linguistics as: ‘The theoretical and empirical investigation of real-world problems in which language is a central issue’ (Brumfit, 1995: 27). In the papers presented in this volume, the ‘real-world’ dimension of the field is apparent in the range and variety of contexts discussed, from educational settings to the media and healthcare. The variety of approaches which characterise the work of applied linguists is also evident in the range of theoretical positions adopted and the research practices brought to bear on the linguistic issues under discussion, including inter alia the perspectives of second language acquisition, sociocultural theory and discourse analysis. The first paper, by Hunston, Hirata and Otoshi, addresses the theme very explicitly by discussing whether corpus research into spoken English is valid both as Applied Linguistics and as Linguistics Applied. The paper investigates to what extent expert non-native speakers of English use the same discoursal, lexical and grammatical features as native speakers, with a view to establishing whether or not materials based on non-native speaker English could be used to raise the consciousness of learners with regard to the features of naturally-occurring interaction. One of the assumptions behind the study was that teachers might not pay attention to the findings of corpus linguists, treating those findings as Linguistics rather than Applied Linguistics. For example, if a 8 From Applied Linguistics to Linguistics Applied: Issues, Practices, Trends feature occurred only in native speaker discourse, it might be considered unimportant for those learners who were unlikely to have much interaction with native speakers. The research confirms that all the features under investigation (discourse markers, vague language, backchannels, pauses and non-clausal units) occur in both groups. The next five papers deal with specific aspects of skills such as listening (Harris), reading (Lyddy), writing (Beard, Burrell, Swinnerton and Peel; Manchón, Murphy and Roca de Larios; Kobayashi and Rinnert). Harris and Lyddy both consider the Irish context, where interest in issues related to achievement in the Irish language has been to the fore in recent years, especially following the passing of the Official Languages Act 2003, a legislative instrument which has as its objective the promotion of the Irish language. One of the provisions of the Act was the appointment of a Language Commissioner (An Coimisinéir Teanga), who, in his first Annual Report (An Coimisinéir Teanga, 2005), referred to the need for improvement in levels of achievement in Irish, given the level of state investment in the teaching of Irish in schools. Harris reports on a large-scale study carried out in 2002 on behalf of the Department of Education and Science. He concludes that there has been a considerable decline in performance in Irish Listening in ordinary primary1 schools since 1985, especially in relation to listening vocabulary and general comprehension, skills which the author regards as of particular importance because of their role in the use of Irish for real communication. Harris situates his findings in the context of educational and language planning and makes recommendations with regard to developing a plan of action to remedy the situation, which would include wider use of Irish in school and additional supports in the home and the community. Lyddy’s paper also deals with the achievements of children in Irish primary schools, thirty-nine pupils from Irish- medium schools and twenty-six from English-medium (Gaeltacht) schools, aged 11 to 12. She addresses the very specific issue of cross-language (English and Irish) homograph recognition, using a computerised lexical decision task and finds that Gaeltacht-schooled children continue to operate and to interpret stimuli within an Irish language mode rather than being influenced by the English context. Beard, Burrell, Swinnerton and Peel investigate the development of persuasive writing in primary school children in England in Year 5 (aged 9 to 11) and a year later when the children were in Year 6, using a repeat design and standardised instrument, the NFER Literacy Impact package. The authors’ aim is to attempt to establish what constitutes progression at this level, comparing two contrasting genres (persuasive and narrative). They find encouraging results, with many children demonstrating ability to include features specific to persuasive writing in Time 2. While Beard and Burrell’s analysis focuses on