IJES 2020, v. 20, n. 3
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- PublicationOpen AccessUnintentional Reverse Transfer from L2 (English) to L1 (Spanish) in Tertiary Levels(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2020) Luque Agulló, GloriaThis study attempts to reveal whether there is unintentional reverse transfer L2→L1 (English-Spanish) in the oral L1 production of university learners in formal contexts. The languages used by learners influence each other, and this transfer may occur from the first to the second language (direct transfer), or from the second to the first (reverse transfer), the focus of this work. Thus, an exploratory study was implemented with two groups of participants with different L2 proficiency levels. They had to retell, using their L1, a soundless video. Their production was recorded, transcribed and examined. Consistent with other studies, results suggest unintentional reverse transfer occurs more frequently when there is a lower level of L2 competence, or, alternatively, its effects have a more evident negative outcome for these learners. Pedagogically speaking, being able to identify successful reverse transfer strategies with a positive outcome may have important implications for bilingual educational contexts.
- PublicationOpen AccessPerceptions of World English Varieties by Chinese EFL Students: Effects of Average Ethnic Faces and Speaker Gender(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2020) Martín Tévar, JesúsThe objectives of this study are to elicit perceptions that Chinese users of English have towards a selection of world English varieties; to determine the effects of speaker gender and visual primes (ethnic faces) on perceptions; and also to reveal how these two factors interact with each other. In the present experiment, 278 respondents were exposed to eight world English varieties. Each accent sample had a female and a male voice version. Chinese students of English were exposed to these recordings, with the presence and absence of average ethnic faces as visual stimuli during the experiment, and requested to complete a questionnaire to reflect on their impressions by means of Likert scales. The results showed a preference for inner circle monolingual standards, and a rejection of outer circle Englishes (for the circles of English classification, see Kachru, 2006). Results also showed a positive perception of respondents towards their own Chinese accent. Ethnic faces visual prime and speaker gender factors, as well as their interaction, also proved to have significant influences on the results. Respondents rated accents significantly more positively when accompanied by ethnic faces.
- PublicationOpen AccessVerbal Evidence of Task-related Strategies in EFL: Children and Adult Interactions(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2020) Azpilicueta-Martínez, RaúlThe benefits of task-based interaction in Second Language Learning (SLL) have been made increasingly evident in the literature. However, unlike adult studies, only recently has interaction research on EFL children grown in popularity. Most children-based research has focused primarily on Negotiation of Meaning, while other age-related aspects, including a more comprehensive analysis of how adults and children perform and resolve tasks, remain relatively unexplored. This paper addresses this gap by analysing the similarities and differences in the task-related strategies of twenty children aged 8 and 9 and fourteen adult L1-Spanish EFL learners at low levels of competence in paired interaction. Results provide evidence of clear age-related differences, as adults were more consistent and approached the task in a more predictable and efficient fashion. Findings also point to task repetition as a key factor leading to a more successful performance in both groups, even more markedly in the case of children.
- PublicationOpen AccessAn Analysis of Class-as-Race and Gender Ideology in the US Young Adult Sports Novel Racing Savannah (2013)(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2020) Riestra-Camacho, RocíoEquine fiction is an established genre in the English juvenile literary canon. Current works in the field appeal to adolescent readers thanks to their interface between classic motifs of vintage and contemporary forms of equine narratives. Performing a close reading of selected passages in Miranda Kenneally’s Racing Savannah (2013), this paper acknowledges how this novel is a revitalization and a challenge to this pattern. Savannah, who is more gifted than her companions, is subordinate to the decisions of the junior of the household where she works. Jack Goodwin, the protagonist’s romantic lead, educated in a neocolonialist background of male jockeying, becomes Savannah’s marker of difference according to her sex and lower socioeconomic status, which lay at the root of her later racialization despite her being a white character. My analysis attempts to expose how these difficulties encountered by the protagonist to become a professional jockey articulate past and present constraints of the horse-racing ladder.
- PublicationOpen AccessUse of Communicative Strategies in L2 Learning: An Intercultural Study(Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2020) Valverde Zambrana, José MaríaOur objective is to describe the importance of the learning strategies, especially those of communicative type, in the learning of the second language. We made a comparative study of the use of L2 learning strategies by Spanish students at university and by students from international mobilities coming from the Erasmus+ programme and from The Republic of South Korea. In our study we also found that gender was a significant factor among all students regardless their nationalities. We found that the female students made a greater use and with more frequency of all type of learning strategies, especially those of communicative type, with special relevance in the socio-affective strategies. In our conclusion, we indicate that education or qualification in the strategies of learning for the acquisition of a language can help the student of a foreign language to learn better if his/her awareness of the learning strategies is increased, and if the number of strategies that the students use is enlarged.