L2 Syntactic Alignment in the Reading-Writing Integrated Continuation Task: Evidence From Chinese EFL Learners’ Description of Motion Events

This study investigated how the mode in which the reading-writing integrated continuation task was conducted modulates the effects of second language(L2) syntactic alignment, through the English motion event construction with manner verbs. Ninety Chinese students were assigned to either of the two experimental groups or a control group, and they all experienced a pretest, an alignment phase and a posttest. In the alignment phase, the two experimental groups completed a reading-writing integrated continuation task but in different modes. For the multi-turn mode,participants reconstructed a picture story by continuing the episodes extracted from the story with one episode presented and continued at a time;for the single-turn mode, the first half of the same picture story was presented as a chunk, and then participants read and continued it. Results show that L2 learners aligned with the target structure in completing the story, and the alignment effect was retained in the posttest conducted after a delay of two weeks. Moreover, syntactic alignment was modulated by task mode with the multi-turn group exhibiting stronger immediate and longterm alignment effects. We conclude that the continuation task is a fruitful context for L2 structural alignment, and the magnitude of alignment effect hinges on interactive intensity.

Investigating the Use of Translation Continuation Tasks in Commercial Translation Teaching: A Study on Translating User Manuals

Based on the xu-argument, this study investigated the use of translation continuation tasks in commercial translation instruction. Forty-four second-year Business English majors at a Chinese university participated in the study. They were divided into equal-sized control and experimental groups. Members of the experimental group were asked to read Chinese-English parallel texts from a user manual, while those of the control group were asked to read the Chinese text only.Subsequently, both groups were required to translate the continued Chinese text into English. The results indicated the following: 1) the experimental group’s translated text was of significantly higher quality than that of the control group;and 2) the experimental group’s translations were well-aligned with the original text in their use of terminology, sentence structure, and stylistic features. The study concludes by suggesting that translation continuation tasks can improve commercial translation instruction and hence should be further applied in practice.

Effect of Interaction Intensity on Alignment and EFL Learners’ Oral Production in the ReadingSpeaking Integrated Continuation Task

This study aims to uncover the relationship between interaction and alignment in a readingspeaking integrated continuation task, especially focusing on whether an increase in interaction intensity can lead to stronger alignment and further generate positive effects on L2 learning. To this end, 31 participants were asked to perform reading-speaking integrated continuation tasks under three different conditions featuring low, medium and high interaction intensity respectively. The results showed that 1) alignment existed in the reading-speaking integrated continuation task;2)increasing interaction intensity generated stronger alignment at both linguistic and situational levels;3) growing interaction intensity contributed to more coherent and accurate L2 oral production. These findings not only proved the workings of mind-body-world alignment, but also testified that increasing interaction intensity could bring about a stronger alignment effect(Wang,2010), which then contributed to better L2 oral performance. These findings confirm again the role of interaction in L2 learning and suggest that alignment could possibly be a mediating factor that links interaction and L2 development. Pedagogical implications for teaching and learning L2 speaking are discussed.

Vocabulary Alignment in the Continuation Task of Translation

Alignment effect in language research refers to the social cognition process in which people cooperate,adjust,and adapt to each other in interaction.Through empirical study,this paper explores alignment effect in the continuation task of translation(CTOT)and its possible influence on learning of English as foreign languge(EFL).The study was carried out by means of a CTOT.Participants were chosen from non-English major freshmen of similar capacity from a university in Guangzhou.They were divided into two groups,the experimental group(EG)and the control group(CG),with 13 students each.The students in EG were asked to carefully read some English-Chinese bilingual material.Then,the 26 participants were tasked with translating the paragraphs,which followed from Chinese into English.After that,they were asked to write down the words and expressions which they found difficult.Some of the participants were interviewed one month later for a deeper understanding of their memories of the vocabulary and their opinions on the CTOT.The data were analyzed by direct comparison and non-parametric test.The results showed that vocabulary alignment does occur in CTOT.The EG members tended to take advantage of words that appeared in the bilingual reading text.If multiple words from the reading appeared,with the same contextual meaning,they tended to choose the repeated words.As for influence of vocabulary alignment on EFL learning,it seemed that CTOT could not improve the quality of the translation itself,but could assist short-term vocabulary learning though no significant help to long-term vocabulary learning was revealed.The findings of this study provide support and explanation for some features and effects of CTOT,an important form of CT.However,the nature of CTOT itself,and its role in EFL learning deserve further research.

Effects of Alignment in Narrative and Expository Continuation Tasks:An Empirical Study

This study investigates the effects of alignment in the narrative and expository continuation tasks.Two groups of English learners(N=50)in a Chinese university were required to continue one narrative essay and one expository essay,both of which had an English version and a Chinese version.The analysis of the data using the Antconc software demonstrated that the effects of alignment occurred in the two types of continued compositions to some extent.And learners committed fewer errors when continuing the English-version task.In addition,learners were required to complete a questionnaire.The questionnaire results showed that the continuation task,as a practical teaching mode,can facilitate the students’writing and learning.

How does Alignment Work in the Continuation Task by Advanced EFL Learners:A Case Study

The continuation task (Wang & Wang, 2014) proves to have language learning potentials by many empirical studies (Peng, 2018). This study intends to explore its underlining alignment mechanisms through two continuation tasks on English materi-als called Chon and Charles by two Chinese linguistics-major graduates (EFL learners). The results show that alignment is ubiqui-tous both linguistically and thematically, and the reading and writing are tightly coupled. This indicates that the continuation task will significantly benefit second language writing pedagogy if applied appropriately.

The Effect of the Continuation Task on the Acquisition of the Chinese Spatial Phrase Structure by L2 Chinese Learners

This study aims to investigate the effect of the continuation task （CT） on the acquisition of the Chinese spatial phrase structure （SPS） by learners of various L1 backgrounds learning Chinese as a second language （CSL）. Two groups of participants were formed： a continuation group and a reading comprehension group. The former was required to continue in Chinese a text with its ending removed, while the latter needed to complete the Q＆A questions after reading the same text. The effect of the tasks was measured by examining the CSL learners＇ correct use of the Chinese SPS in three aspects -- the circum-construction, the use of prepositions and the use of the locative. The study found that the continuation group made significant improvement from the pretest to the posttests while the reading comprehension group did not. Moreover, the continuation group outperformed the reading comprehension group significantly in the posttests, though there was no significant difference between them in the pretest. The results showed that CT can facilitate CSL learners＇ acquisition of the Chinese SPS, with a better effect than the reading comprehension task.

The Construct of the Story Continuation Writing Task: Insights From the China’s Standards of English Language Ability

Although the story continuation writing task(SCWT) has attracted much research attention, few studies have investigated the construct of the task, particularly with respect to which language competence it focuses on. In addition, although some studies have demonstrated that China’s Standards of English Language Ability(CSE) provides comprehensive insights into the development of Chinese learners’ English language proficiency, little research has investigated the relationship between CSE and SCWT. This study drew upon the CSE to develop an SCWT language use inventory to address the above research gaps. A total of 358 high school students were asked to complete the questionnaire, of which 277 valid responses were analyzed. Exploratory factor analysis(EFA) on the CSE-based questionnaire revealed the presence of six factors, namely language correctness, language variety, task planning, connecting-and-generating, selecting-andmining, and organizing. The strategy of connecting-and-generating was the only significant predictor of the learners’ SCWT scores. The paper also discusses the findings relating to the SCWT rating and other integrated writing tasks.

An Alignment-Based Approach to L2 Learning of Chinese Numeral Classifiers

This study investigated the efficiency of learning the Chinese numeral classifiers by L2 Chinese learners by means of an alignment-oriented task. Participants were a total of 96 intermediate learners of L2 Chinese, who were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group, with each group consisting of 32 participants. The continuation task used in this study consisted of a picture-based Chinese text depicting a room with an array of objects, which necessitates the use of classifiers. The two experimental groups were both required to first read the text and then write to describe their own rooms in comparison with the one in the text. One group was instructed to use the classifiers from the text as much as possible in their writing, whereas the other was not required to do so. Participants in the control group were first given the picture to look at in the absence of the text and then asked to describe their own rooms. The results showed that the continuation task significantly enhanced participants’ retention of the Chinese numeral classifiers, suggesting that the alignment-based approach is an effective way to learn difficult linguistic categories such as the Chinese classifiers.