Volume 9 (2021): Edizione 1 (October 2021)

The quantity of target language input available to learners contributes to the understanding of target language development. The present paper reports on a longitudinal study of the relationship between the amount of non-native teachers’ EFL input and learners’ aural achievement in instructed SLA. Young learners (N=132) were followed over a three-year period. High variability in teacher use of EFL was found. Results of correlational analyses and group comparisons pointed to a longitudinal advantage of participants exposed to instruction dominated by teacher target language use during their first two years of formal EFL learning. Directions for future research on the use of different languages and their relation to learners’ achievement are discussed in the context of early formal foreign language study.

This article measures the syntactic development indices in grade 5-12 English textbooks in Turkey. Through a usage-based construction grammar approach, it argues that the textbooks show an inconsistent development in verb-argument constructions (VAC) and other usage-based indices. The study employs an automatic software tool that detects variations in these indices and runs a statistical analysis on a corpus compiled by the author. Statistically significant results demonstrate that textbooks lack lexicogrammatical variation. As such, learners who use these textbooks are likely to experience a limited array of VACs that are limited in lemma-construction combinations. Findings also indicate that learners may not be exposed to the conventional usage patterns and frequencies of VACs when compared against a reference corpus. These findings may have an influence on the learners’ generalization process, their low-proficiency level in English, and poor idiomatic uses of the language.

The article is a part of a research project on how intertextuality is perceived by readers of media texts. The focus of the article is on how intertextual references are recognized, interpreted, and substituted by EFL respondents. Based on the results of the survey, conclusions are drawn to address the following research questions – whether respondents can recognize intertextual references as such in the context, whether they can interpret an utterance despite failing to detect intertextual segments, and whether there exists a correspondence between recognizability of an intertextual reference and attempts at defining and/or replacing it. This paper is an attempt to empirically verify theoretical views on intertextuality. The results of the survey provide insights into how intertextuality is perceived by respondents.

This study aims to explore the use of euphemistic strategies by Algerians and Americans when dealing with three unpleasant topics: death, lying, and disease. It also examines the effect of degree of formality on the use of euphemistic strategies. To achieve this objective, a discourse completion task (DCT) was distributed to 21 Algerians and 21 Americans. The data were analysed using SPSS. The data analysis revealed that there are some differences and similarities between the two groups. The euphemistic strategies used by the Americans when they deal with death topics are synonyms and part for the whole. The Algerians use part for the whole, overstatement, and synonyms when they deal with death. Regarding the topic of lying, the Americans employ strategies of understatement and deletion, whereas the Algerians use understatement and metaphor. As for the topic of disease, the Americans use vagueness, and the Algerians use vagueness, metaphor, and deletion. These findings reveal that both groups resort to euphemism when dealing with these three unpleasant topics. However, their use of euphemistic strategies is culture-bound.