Argentinian Journal of Applied Linguistics - ISSN 2314-3576

Indonesian Learners’ L2 Reticence in English for Specific Purposes Classes and Its Influence on L2 Confidence

Lusiana Puspita Dewi — 2024-11-18

The present article reports on a research study on Indonesian English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learners' level of L2 reticence and its influence on L2 confidence. 213 ESP learners from different departments participated in this study. Data was collected through a survey. By means of descriptive statistics, it was found that learners generally reported a low-moderate level of L2 reticence. Most participants seemed unafraid of being the centre of attention or making mistakes in English class. Through bivariate linear regression, this study also found that L2 reticence significantly influenced L2 confidence. It accounted for 23.80% of the total variance in L2 confidence. Informed by these findings, pedagogical implications include incorporating class activities that allow more learner talk and the creation of a psychologically safe environment for learners to engage in risk-taking behaviours in L2 learning. Future studies might investigate the possible relationship between L2 reticence and other L2 learning aspects.

Academic Writing with IT Researchers: Co-editing as an Instructional Technique

GABRIELA LLANEZA — 2024-11-18

Globalisation and the World Wide Web have fostered the pervading use of English as a Lingua Franca among international academic contexts. Scientific knowledge exchange, participation in congresses or paper publications require Latin-American researchers, regardless of their field, to effectively command English, without which they can hardly access socialisation, promotion or consistent funding. Nonetheless, postgraduate seminars fail to address this need to write in EFL. In this article I describe the challenges faced by two Computer Sciences researchers for the Argentinian Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) to produce texts for international journals. Then, I include a description of the process of coediting based on the Cognitive Process Theory of Writing and list the IT tools employed to co-edit their work in private classes. Finally, I analyse researches´ perception on the benefits of co-editing.

The challenges of designing an ESP course: Perceptions of EFL trainee teachers in the city of Buenos Aires

Marina Falasca — 2024-11-18

This research article presents findings from an exploratory study on the perceptions of 25 EFL trainee teachers in the city of Buenos Aires regarding the main difficulties they faced when designing their first English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course not centered around reading comprehension. Participant responses reveal several recurring challenges including the integration of ESP knowledge into general language teaching, the complexities surrounding curriculum development and needs assessment, the strategic alignment of tasks and assessments with learner objectives, considerations of diverse learning styles, and a balanced view on the role of basic language skills in ESP learning outcomes. These findings reinforce the need for ongoing professional development and institutional support to empower future ESP instructors to design effective ESP courses tailored to different professional and academic needs beyond reading comprehension.

Towards the Adoption of ESAP-based Language Instruction for Undergraduate Students of Botany

Saritha M — 2024-11-18

English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) envisages the tailoring of English instruction to the peculiarities and specific demands of students’ majoring discipline. Different disciplines place their own demands on English language resources. Therefore, the first step towards adopting ESAP based instructional strategies is to identify the peculiarities of a given discipline and its specific demands on the English language. This reflective article approaches English instruction for undergraduate students of Botany in the non-native context of Kerala, India from the ESAP perspective. The aim of this paper is to identify the peculiarities of Botanical discourses. Capitalizing the input provided by teachers of Botany and the analysis of Botany textbooks, we draw conclusions regarding the writing genres in Botanical discourses to be transacted in the ESAP based English sessions.

Una Propuesta para la Enseñanza de Lectura en Inglés en Medicina Veterinaria y Ciencias de la Educación basada en la Pedagogía del Género

Andrea Garofolo — 2024-11-18

The classroom account described in this article presents the design of an innovative pedagogical approach focused on improving textbook reading comprehension in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses in Veterinary Medicine and Educational Sciences at the National University of Río Cuarto. In higher education, students need to understand academic and scientific genres of varying degrees of specialization in order to learn the concepts and methodologies of each discipline. In this context, it is necessary to implement teaching approaches that foster the students´ academic literacy through the design of teaching materials that promote the development of reading in different disciplines. From this perspective, we designed a Genre Pedagogy-based sequence, with the aim of helping our students develop and apply strategies for reading textbooks in English.

Decolonialidad e Interculturalidad crítica en una propuesta de Inglés con Fines Específicos para Ciencias Naturales

CAROLINA VALDIRI VINASCO — 2024-11-18

This classroom account presents the design of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) program for natural science teachers in a Master's program in Education with emphasis in Natural Science, taking into account the intercultural and decolonial approaches. The critical intercultural perspective recognizes traditional or ancestral cultural practices and knowledge as scientific knowledge, decentralizes the hegemonic knowledge taught in the natural sciences and favors the social context of students in the formative processes, in addition to seeking processes of emancipation in science teachers.

What do ESP practitioners need to know? A reflective article on ESP practitioners’ knowledge base

Daniela Moyetta — 2024-11-18

This reflective article explores the critical knowledge base required for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) practitioners to effectively facilitate students' development of discursive competence within academic and professional contexts. The article discusses the significance of specialised knowledge encompassing disciplinary cultures epistemologies, and genre awareness, arguing that such knowledge is essential for ESP practitioners to navigate and integrate into various professional communities. It also emphasises the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration with subject specialists to enhance course relevance and authenticity. The reflection culminates in advocating for improved teacher training programs that emphasise specialised education for ESP practitioners, promoting continuous professional development and further research in the Argentinean context. By addressing these areas, the article aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the ESP practitioners’ necessary competencies for fostering students’ engagement in their respective disciplinary cultures.

Corpus-based selection of frequent noun + noun sequences for an English for Specific Purposes course for chemistry students

Carolina Beatriz Panza — 2024-11-18

This classroom account describes the use of a small corpus of laboratory safety manuals as a source of relevant linguistic realizations for materials design in a course of English for undergraduate students of chemistry. The corpus was used to extract frequent noun + noun sequences to design pedagogical applications which can help students understand the logical relations between the two nouns, with the ultimate aim of enhancing students’ reading comprehension of disciplinary texts in English.

Propuesta de Tareas Laborales y Competencias Lingüísticas para Cursos de Inglés en Comercio Exterior e Internacional

María Victoria Noemí Ferrer — 2024-11-18

Determining professional tasks and language skills for Business English (BE) courses is a challenge for course designers and teachers. This account describes the process of identifying and prioritizing the typical work situations of the Foreign & International Trade (F&IT) sector and their associated language skills, carried out during the design of an online extracurricular course in English for Foreign & International Trade (F&ITE) in Córdoba, Argentina. This process was part of a Needs Analysis (NA) that integrated information from questionnaires to students and workers in the sector and open interviews to managers of institutions, which was analysed through qualitative coding, statistical analysis and triangulation. The list of work tasks and their associated skills provides a starting point for a programme aligned with the real demands of the CEeI context, also contributing to improve the planning of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses.

Problems and needs faced by Pakistani university students when speaking English: A needs analysis approach

Om Kumar — 2024-11-18

This quantitative study investigated the problems and needs of English-speaking skills among science faculty students at Quaid-e-Awam University of Engineering, Science and Technology, Nawabshah, Pakistan. A sample of 250 students from various science departments was surveyed using a well-structured questionnaire. The findings revealed that a significant portion of the students faced difficulties in understanding and using general vocabulary, adapting their language skills to diverse situations, expressing themselves effectively in conversations, conveying complex ideas, and maintaining both short and long conversations. These challenges cut across various age groups and interaction contexts. The study also highlighted that students perceived needs for improvement in several dimensions of their communication skills, including vocabulary usage, adaptability, interaction with different audiences, conveying intricate ideas, and employing technical language. The respondents expressed a strong desire to enhance their speaking abilities, particularly in professional and social settings.

Like Plato’s ‘two worlds’: LSP practitioners’ roles between the academia and the profession

Verónica Lilian Muñoz — 2024-11-18

This reflective article aims to contribute to the analysis of the roles of practitioners of languages for specific purposes. We analyse and evaluate theoretical discussions on the roles of practitioners in the field of English for specific purposes (ESP). This issue, of academic and pragmatic concern, should be re-oriented considering fundamental theoretical underpinnings that can better equip scholars to discuss ESP practitioners’ roles. For a better understanding of these roles, it is essential to consider the dual identity of the ESP field, lying between the academia and the profession. ESP practitioners are dwellers of two territories, like Plato’s ‘two worlds’: the abstract or intelligible world of academic disciplines, and the material or sensible world of professional jurisdictions. Then, we argue that it is necessary to discuss ESP practitioners’ roles contextualising them to their real settings, a contextualisation which would be misleading if this dual identity were not considered.

La enseñanza de inglés con propósitos profesionales para la carrera de contador público: una experiencia en la FCE- Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto

Romina Picchio — 2024-11-18

This pedagogical proposal describes an experience of teaching English for specific purposes (ESP) at the National University of Río Cuarto, in which curricular modifications were implemented based on a change in the curriculum for Public Accounting, at the Faculty of Economic Sciences of this university. This article describes the needs analysis process that was carried out to adjust the proposal to the context of the new curriculum design. At the same time, the objectives and contents of the renewed version of the course are detailed, as well as its teaching and assessment methodology. Finally, the opinions of the group of students who participated in the course in 2023 are summarized, presenting some conclusions and projections from this first teaching experience.

A Cross-Linguistic Comprehension of Arabic and English Numerical Idioms and Proverbs

Omar Hazaymeh — 2024-11-18

Proverbs and idioms are linguistic texts that were formed based on experiences which were accumulated over years and passed from one generation to another. Knowing and apprehending them enable their L2 users to understand the mentality of their native speakers. The present study aims to explore a number of Arabic and English proverbs and idioms in which numbers are used in order to comprehend the way in which they are formed and used. The corpus was subject to inspection to comprehend its linguistic structure and social functions. The findings showed that most of the Arabic and English proverbs and idioms analysed share the same number use and social function. Besides, the investigation showed that while these proverbs and idioms sometimes share the same words, others use different words in order to express the same social function.

Sounding Like an Angel, Attacking Like a Viper: Victimhood Construction in Scam Emails

Temitope Michael Ajayi — 2024-11-18

Given the security and economic risk it poses to the global space, the phenomenon of cybercrime has enjoyed scholarly attention from different disciplines. However, no serious attention has been paid to victimhood construction in scam emails, particularly how scammers deploy linguistic/discursive resources to portray themselves as victims of ‘false’ circumstances to get the better part of their targets. Thus, this study, resting on van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis and a fusion of insights from four socio-cognitive approaches to theories of persuasion, investigates the discursive strategies for achieving victimhood construction in scam emails. Data comprised excerpts from 20 purposively sampled emails retrieved from the researchers’ spam folders. To appeal to emotional sentiments, scammers often project themselves as victims of terminal diseases, orphanhood, corrupt political space or widowhood. Findings revealed actor description, number game, evidentiality, situation description, self-denigration, and power strategies, are prominent discursive elements deployed in creating victimhood in scam emails.

Factors Influencing English Conversational Interaction Between Teachers and Students in High Schools in Dong Nai Province

Ly Ngoc Toan — 2024-11-18

The main goal of this study is to improve the ability of teachers and students to converse in English in high schools in the province of Dong Nai. The study framework is based on the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky, with additional contributions from Long's interaction theory and Brown's communicative language teaching methodology. The research findings show that belonging, expectation, relationship, and motivation are four factors that have a positive and statistically significant impact on the conversational English-language interactions between teachers and students in this educational context. These findings were obtained through a survey of 148 English teachers in three high schools located in Dong Nai and subsequent data analysis using SPSS 20 software. The study's findings led the researchers to suggest a number of workable methods for improving teachers' ability to converse with learners in English. The aforementioned undertaking signifies a deliberate attempt to further progress language learning in Vietnam.

Role of Language in Metastasizing Virtual Gaming in Social Spaces – Identity, Addiction, and Communication

Hajra Mazhar Raja — 2024-11-18

This research article deals with the competitions and contestations in the cybernetic world that are expanding its virtual territoriality and spaces in unique ways. This paper contributes to the knowledge by analyzing the role of “spaces” performing four distinct social functions: 1) the creation of exclusive virtual space, akin to Gramsci’s spaces; 2) metastasizing gamers from the real to the virtual world; 3) the creation of virtual identities, power structures, and ideologies; and 4) social addiction leading to an adrenaline rush among gamers. Foregoing in view, this research aims to signpost the linguistic dimensions of spatiotemporal peculiarities of virtual gaming spaces, examining the implications of gamers’ language for spatial identity, communication, and addiction. This research concludes that there is a significant role of the spatiotemporal interplay of language in these virtual gaming spaces, creating hierarchies, and identities influenced by diverse communication patterns.

Oxymorons and Undergraduates’ Repertoire in Literature: Exploring the Nexus

Abdu Al-kadi — 2024-11-18

This study probed into figurative speech and its rhetorical effects with a particular focus on oxymorons which have often been conflated with paradoxes. Besides clarifying the difference between the two, an analysis of the academic records of fifty undergraduates and a test of oxymorons were a point of departure to measure their familiarity with such figurative devices. Using the Pearson correlation test, the participants' oxymoron test scores were correlated with their overall scores on the achievement tests of seven literature courses in the academic records. Findings showed a positive correlation coefficient (r=.251), yet it is considerably weak (sig.=079 at α=0.01). Further evidence on the magnitude of the phenomenon was solicited from five faculty members through a focus group discussion. The faculty substantiated the correlational findings, as they hold a view that oxymorons, tied with other linguistic devices, contribute to learners’ repertoire in literature and language in general.

La naturaleza como medio y objeto de aprendizaje de una lengua adicional

Gabriela Tavella — 2024-11-18

This classroom account presents a didactic sequence located outdoors, in which nature enhanced the learning of an additional language. Likewise, aspects of intercultural education were addressed through CLIL pedagogy. The sequence was complemented with a translanguage approach, which allowed all languages to coexist synergistically and all students to express meanings through any of the available languages or to use any other mode of communication. Both teachers and students were able to transcend the instrumental purpose of language learning and consider its educational purpose.

Introduction

Vanesa Polastri — 2024-11-18

Mentoring Teachers: Supporting Learning, Wellbeing and Retention

Gyanu Dahal — 2024-11-18

Existence: Eight LGBTQIA+ Inclusive ELT Resources by Peter J. Fullagar

Vanesa Polastri — 2024-11-18

This materials review article analyses Existence: Eight LGBTQIA+ Inclusive ELT Resources, a handbook written by Peter J. Fullagar. The lack of representation of the LGBTQIA+ community in mainstream coursebooks for teaching English drove its author to design inclusive lessons that were later put together in this first collection ranging from A2 to C1 in the CEFR. The topics discussed, the images incorporated, as well as the words chosen to address people and their lifestyles are among its positive aspects. The handbook also promotes communication, critical thinking and research skills. It is indeed an invaluable contribution to ELT materials since, for a change, it makes LGBTQIA+ people―in all their colours, shapes, sizes, abilities, origins, economic situations―visible and, therefore, conceived as worthy in the eyes of others and in their own.