Writing Haiku in a Second Language： Perceptions, Attitudes, and Emotions of Second Language Learners

The aim of the current study is to discuss the value of poetry writing in an L2 （second language） by investigating perceptions, attitudes, and emotions of 20 EFL （English as a Foreign Language） college freshmen regarding writing Japanese poetry, haiku in English. This paper first discussed issues and uses of literature in L2 contexts and addressed the current empirical inquiry into L2 haiku writing as a method for L2 learning. The study was designed as a qualitative research which investigated the participants＇ reflection on writing L2 haikus for six weeks in an EFL college writing course. The data obtained was analyzed by using the coding system and showed that writing haiku in the target language was a challenging but valuable task for L2 learning among the EFL students. Especially haiku composition allowed them to develop their L2 linguistic awareness

Familiarity in Chinese and English Idiom Comprehension: An Event Related Potential Study from Chinese English Learners

Idioms have attracted great attention over recent decades. Nevertheless, controversies still remain in regard of the most plausible cognition mechanism for idiom comprehension, especially concerning non-Indo-European languages and second/foreign language users. Event Related Potential （ERP） experiments on proficient English learners whose native language was Mandarin Chinese were conducted to test the influences of idioms＇ familiarity on both Chinese and English （as foreign language） idiom comprehension. Data including accuracy rates, reaction time, and latency and peak amplitudes of N400 were recorded and analyzed, indicating that familiarity might play a significant role in idiom comprehension in both native and foreign languages. Further, idioms, should they have similar familiarity levels, may be easier to process in the native language （Chinese） than in the foreign language （English）.

Appraisal of the Production-Oriented Approach： An Introduction

The production-oriented approach （POA） has been developed over a decade. It is driven by the need to improve English classroom instruction for university students in China （Wen, 2016）. It is also motivated by the aspiration to enhance the quality of foreign language education in other similar pedagogical contexts outside China. A volume of research has been done by Wen Qiufang and her research team, to formulate the theory of POA and to test its effectiveness in classroom pedagogy （e.g. Wen, 2016, 2015; Yang, 2015; Zhang, 2015）. At the moment, the POA is still at an early stage of theory building and almost all empirical research is done in the Chinese context. In order to improve the quality of this theory and to make it intelligible to the international academic community, a one-day symposium was held in Beijing Foreign Studies University on May 15, 2017. The symposium was entitled ＇The first international forum on innovative foreign language education in China： Appraisal of the POA＇. In the forum, leading experts in applied linguistics were invited to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the POA and the directions for its future development. The symposium was the first attempt for the POA research team to discuss its latest work with international scholars. This Viewpoint section collects the responses of four experts who participated in the symposium, listed in alphabetical order. The collection of articles covers three topics related to the POA： its pedagogical application, its use for teacher training, and its research. Alister Cumming is Professor Emeritus and the former Head of the Centre for Educational Research on Languages and Literacies, University of Toronto, Canada. His article focuses primarily on POA research as an exemplary case of design-based research. Rod Ellis is Research Professor in the School of Education at Curtin University, Australia. He discusses POA in terms of pedagogy, teacher training and research, with both critiques and constructive suggestions. Paul Kei Matsuda is Professor of English and Director of Second Language Writing at Arizona State University, the writed states. He responds to POA from the perspective of an expert researcher and teacher of L2 writing. Charlene Polio is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Linguistics ＆ Germanic, Slavic, Asian ＆ African Languages atMichigan State University, the writed states. She conceptualises POA as a useful method to address some issues in pre-service teacher development. Overall, the articles in this section are insightful and reader-friendly. They are not only useful for the development of POA in particular, but may also be valuable to a broad range of researchers as they touch upon pertaining issues, as well as emerging topics, in the field of applied linguistics. We therefore find it necessary to make them accessible to a wide readership.