journal: International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

Impact Factor: 1.5

Published since January 1, 1963

International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

ISSN: 1613-4141

Editors-in-chief: Mairin Hennebry-Leung, Yuen Yi Lo

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About this journal

International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (IRAL) is devoted to problems of general and applied linguistics in their various forms. IRAL's long-term interest lies in areas of research which concern first- and second-language acquisition (including sign language and gestural systems). Contributions are welcome on naturalistic and instructed language learning, language loss, bilingualism, language contact, pidgins and creoles, language for specific purposes, language technology, mother-tongue education, terminology and translation. The journal also features occasional thematic issues.

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Volume 62 Issue 1

March 2024

Publicly Available March 7, 2024

Frontmatter

Page range: i-v

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Editorial

January 1, 2024

Introduction: textual analysis to inform language learning and teaching

Wenjuan Qin, Paola Uccelli

Page range: 1-4

Research Articles

Open Access August 11, 2023

Internal and external appraisals of analytical writing. A proposal for assessing development and potential improvement

Liliana Tolchinsky, Elisa Rosado, Melina Aparici

Page range: 5-36

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Abstract

This paper introduces Developing analytical writing (DAW), a model of text analysis aimed at capturing how social expectancies of analytical writing become part of students’ linguistic literacy. DAW proposes a multilayer analysis of text features on repeated text production prompted by the same and different topics, control for pedagogical input, and researcher- and reader-based evaluations of text quality. We revise DAW previous implementations that delved into lexical, syntactic-discursive, and structural aspects of analytical essays as indexes for developing writing proficiency. We focus thereafter on a current application of DAW to assess content-related dimensions: explicitness of a central standpoint, flexibility of writers’ positioning, and expression of reflective thinking. Analyses revealed that the probability of explicitness and reflexiveness increases from elementary to higher levels of schooling, while the probability of flexible positioning appeared conditioned by text topic and pedagogical input. The three dimensions showed stronger effect of instruction on high schoolers’ than on elementary and university students’ texts. Regression analyses support a foundational role of development and a significant contribution of the assessed dimensions to an appraisal of text quality. DAW facilitates distinguishing analytical text features that improve in the course of development from those sensitive to pedagogical scaffolding.

September 20, 2023

Group trends and individual variability in writing development: a descriptive grammatical complexity analysis

Wenjuan Qin, Huixian Li, Yongyan Zheng

Page range: 37-60

Abstract

This study aims to examine group trends and individual variability of descriptive Grammatical Complexity (GC) in writing development. A longitudinal sample of 41 high school EFL learners is followed for an academic year (12 waves of data collection), resulting in a corpus of 492 texts, coded for eight descriptive GC features of academic writing. Our analysis reveals different sets of descriptive GC features relevant to capturing group trends and individual variability in writing development. At the group level, two phrasal-level GC features could capture significant changes in group means over time; at the individual level, four types of clausal and phrasal GC features showed significant associations between individual variability over time (measured by Standard Deviation of differences) and gains (as measured by the increase of usage frequency). Findings are discussed with regard to modeling both inter-individual and intra-individual trajectories in writing development and pedagogical implications attuned to both group and individual needs.

December 12, 2023

Exploring individual longitudinal development in a corpus of ‘natural’ disciplinary writing: what could it mean for teaching?

Randi Reppen

Page range: 61-78

Abstract

Two major research issues for longitudinal investigations are the ‘naturalness’ of the learner language being studied, and the extent to which the research design is truly longitudinal. Regarding the first issue, data for longitudinal studies are usually collected in language classrooms or exams, with the writing tasks/topics being tightly controlled. A major disadvantage is that tasks can be unrepresentative of the writing required in disciplinary content courses. The present study analyzes writing development as it occurs ‘naturally’ in university disciplinary content courses, using four complexity features (i.e., finite adverbial clauses, finite relative clauses, attributive adjectives, and nouns as pre-modifiers) with the goal of comparing the kinds of findings in a True-longitudinal approach, a Quasi-longitudinal approach, and a Case study approach. This close examination of writing development that controlled for discipline and task showed an increase in development as measured by these linguistic indicators.

December 13, 2023

The development of syntactic complexity of Chinese JFL learners based on Mean Dependency Distance and Mean Hierarchical Distance

Xiaomin Yang, Wenping Li

Page range: 79-104

Abstract

Mean dependency distance (MDD) and mean hierarchical distance (MHD) are two linguistic measures used in dependency syntax studies to investigate the syntactic features of compositions written by English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. However, their applicability and validity in differentiating proficiency levels and genre effects among Japanese as a foreign language (JFL) learners remain unknown. This study uses a longitudinal dataset that tracks 110 Chinese JFL learners over 12 months and examines their syntactic development as well as the effects of genres. The results indicate that both MDD and MHD effectively capture developmental and genre effects; moreover, both measures show significantly higher values in argumentative writing than narrative writing. However, the extent of genre effects over time is not the same in MDD and MHD. The findings provide new insights into the developmental characteristics of JFL learners’ interlanguage and may contribute to evaluating syntactic complexity and developing automatic evaluation systems.

September 14, 2023

Connective Frequency Bands informed by textbook frequencies and midadolescents’ knowledge of connectives: a tool to support Spanish literacy instruction across content areas

Alejandra Meneses, Silvana Arriagada, Sebastián Caro, Felipe Baeza, Paola Uccelli

Page range: 105-135

Abstract

This study focuses on connectives, linguistic devices that signal relations between ideas. Connective knowledge varies widely across grades and is known to support reading comprehension and school writing. Despite the important role that connective knowledge plays in reading and writing, few resources exist to support teachers in understanding which connectives to prioritize in Spanish literacy instruction. In this study we combined a secondary analysis of midadolescents’ connective assessment data (810 students in grades 4–8) with a corpus linguistics frequency analysis of connectives in Chilean national science and social studies textbooks (1,079,593 total words), with the goal of generating a pedagogically relevant tool to support the instruction of connectives in Spanish literacy across content areas. To generate the Connective Frequency Bands Tool, we first examined the role of grade and connective type in midadolescents’ connective knowledge. Secondly, we examined associations between students’ knowledge and textual frequencies across content areas for each connective included in the assessment. Finally, informed by midadolescents’ connective knowledge and by the corpus linguistics analysis of science and social studies textbooks from grades 1–8, we generated the Connective Frequency Bands Tool listing connectives frequencies by grade, connective type, and content area.

August 14, 2023

Lexical complexity in exemplar EFL texts: towards text adaptation for 12 grades of basic English curriculum in China

Yanfang Su, Kanglong Liu, Fengkai Liu, John Lee, Tan Jin

Page range: 137-164

Abstract

Lexical complexity has been a key consideration of teaching preparation in determining grade appropriateness of teaching materials. However, the lack of quantified and defined standards for benchmarking lexical complexity has made it difficult for teachers when adapting source texts to target learners. This study has assessed quantitative differences in lexical complexity of exemplar texts at different points of schooling using a range of lexical diversity and sophistication features. The data consists of 2,372 texts from popular curriculum packages adopted from 1 to 12 grades of the English curriculum in China. One-way ANOVAs revealed significant differences in 16 out of 17 lexical complexity indices among different grades. Subsequent post hoc tests identified three lexical diversity features and four sophistication features that helped to differentiate exemplar texts across these 12 grades. These findings on the nature and role of lexical complexity have yielded new insights into the establishment of grade-level benchmarks for material preparation.

August 15, 2023

Sub-disciplinary variation of metadiscursive verb patterns in English research articles: a functional analysis of medical discourse

Songyun Chen, Jiajin Xu, Xin Feng

Page range: 165-195

Abstract

As a cover term for the negotiation of propositional information and reader engagement, metadiscourse has gained considerable attention from scholars of academic discourse. Recent studies have extended to previously unexplored structures that realize metadiscourse, such as ‘metadiscursive nouns’ (Jiang and Hyland 2018. Nouns and academic interactions: A neglected feature of metadiscourse. Applied Linguistics 39. 508–531). Among various linguistic resources, verbs are often regarded as a linguistic element undertaking multiple discourse acts and functions in different contexts, with some acts and functions being metadiscursive. Based on previous studies on reporting verbs and functional sentence stems, this study proposes the concept of metadiscursive verb patterns (MVPs) and examines this linguistic resource in a self-built MedDEAP corpus of five million words, a clinical medicine English research article corpus consisting of 18 sub-disciplines. We conducted an intradisciplinary investigation into MVPs to analyze their structural and functional variations across the sub-disciplines of medical academic English. The findings revealed that most MVPs exhibit a preference for some sub-disciplines, and a few sub-disciplines reflect certain characteristic genre features in the use of certain MVPs. It is shown that medical academic discourse is characterized by methodological and conceptual cross-fertilization. Hence, variation in MVPs is a natural linguistic representation of interdisciplinary synergy. Based on our findings, we conclude by addressing the pedagogical implications for proper use of MVPs in academic writing.

Ahead of Print / Just Accepted

Ahead of Print / Just Accepted

Volume 62 (2024)

Issue 1 Special Issue: Textual Analysis to Inform Language Learning and Teaching; Issue Editors: Wenjuan Qin and Paola Uccelli

Volume 61 (2023)

Volume 60 (2022)

Volume 59 (2021)

Volume 58 (2020)

Volume 57 (2019)

Volume 56 (2018)

Volume 55 (2017)

Volume 54 (2016)

Volume 53 (2015)

Volume 52 (2014)

Volume 51 (2013)

Volume 50 (2012)

Volume 49 (2011)

Volume 48 (2010)

Volume 47 (2009)

Volume 46 (2008)

Volume 45 (2007)

Volume 44 (2006)

Volume 43 (2005)

Volume 42 (2004)

Volume 41 (2003)

Volume 40 (2002)

Volume 39 (2001)

Volume 38 (2000)

Volume 37 (1999)

Volume 36 (1998)

Volume 35 (1997)

Volume 34 (1996)

Volume 33 (1995)

Volume 32 (1994)

Volume 31 (1993)

Volume 30 (1992)

Volume 29 (1991)

Volume 28 (1990)

Volume 27 (1989)

Volume 26 (1988)

Volume 22 (1984)

Volume 21 (1983)

Volume 20 (1982)

Issue 1-4

Volume 19 (1981)

Issue 1-4

Volume 18 (1980)

Issue 1-4

Volume 17 (1979)

Issue 1-4

Volume 16 (1978)

Issue 1-4

Volume 15 (1977)

Issue 1-4

Volume 14 (1976)

Volume 13 (1975)

Issue 1-4

Volume 12 (1974)

Issue 1-4

Volume 11 (1973)

Issue 1-4

Volume 10 (1972)

Issue 1-4

Volume 9 (1971)

Volume 8 (1970)

Volume 7 (1969)

Volume 6 (1968)

Issue 1-4

Volume 5 (1967)

Issue 1-4

Volume 4 (1966)

Issue 1-4

Volume 3 (1965)

Volume 2 (1964)

Issue Jahresband

Volume 1 (1963)

Issue Jahresband

Journal Impact Factor	1.5	2022, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2023)
5-year Journal Impact Factor	1.4	2022, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2023)
Journal Citation Indicator	1.17	2022, Journal Citation Reports (Clarivate, 2023)
CiteScore	2.6	2022, Scopus (Elsevier B.V., 2023)
SCImago Journal Rank	0.527	2022, SJR (Scimago Lab, 2023; Data Source: Scopus)
Source Normalized Impact per Paper	0.927	2022, CWTS Journal Indicators (CWTS B.V., 2023; Data Source: Scopus)

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Editorial

Editors
Mairin Hennebry-Leung, University of Tasmania, Australia
Yuenyi Lo, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR
iral@degruyter.com

Editor Emeritus
Xuesong (Andy) Gao, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Peter Jordens, VU Amsterdam University, Netherlands

Editorial Assistant
Jiao Li, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Board of Consulting Editors
Zsuzsanna Abrams, University of California Santa Cruz, United States
Ali H. Al-Hoorie, Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia
Kathleen Bailey, Middlebury Institute of International Studies, United States
Inge Bartning, Stockholm University, Sweden
Yves Bestgen, UCLouvain, Belgium
Theo Bongaerts, Radboud University, Netherlands
Mirjam Broersma, Radboud University, Netherlands
Susanne Carroll, University of Calgary, Canada
Aoju Chen, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Graham Crookes, University of Hawai‘i, United States
Peter Crosthwaite, University of Queensland, Australia
Annick De Houwer, Erfurt University, Germany
Christine Dimroth, University of Münster, Germany
Tess Fitzpatrick, Swansea University, United Kingdom
Aline Godfroid, Michigan State University, United States
Nicholas Groom, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
Marianne Gullberg, Lund University, Sweden
Ye Han, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), China
Pieter de Haan, Radboud University, Netherlands
Henriette Hendriks, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Alex Housen, Free University of Brussels, Belgium
Allan James, Alpen Adria University, Austria
Eric Kellerman, Radboud University, Netherlands
Sima Khezrlou, Urmia University, Iran
Keiko Koda, Carnegie Mellon University, United States
Patsy Martin Lightbown, Concordia University, Canada
Sarah Ann Liszka, University of Greenwich, United Kingdom
Emma Marsden, University of York, United Kingdom
Joshua Matthews, University of New England, Australia
Paul Meara, Swansea University, United Kingdom
Alejandra Meneses, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Carmen Muñoz, University of Barcelona, Spain
Rebecca Oxford, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States
Wenjuan Qin, Fudan University, China
Leah Roberts, University of York, United Kingdom
Peter Robinson, Japan Women's University, Japan
John Rogers, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Sarah Schimke, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany
Yasuhiro Shirai, Case Western Reserve University, United States
Suhad Sonbul, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia
Danijela Trenkic, University of York, United Kingdom
Wen-ta Tseng, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, ROC
Johannes Wagner, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
Danping Wang, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Keiko Yoshioka, Leiden University, Netherlands
Martha Young-Scholten, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Boping Yuan, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

(Deutsch)

Online ISSN: 1613-4141
Print ISSN: 0019-042X
Type: Journal
Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
First published: January 1, 1963
Publication Frequency: 4 Issues per Year