American Language Journal

Written Corrective Feedback in L2 Writing: A Critical Review

Wenfeng Li

 

Abstract. The role/effect/effectiveness of corrective feedback (henceforth referred to as CF) in L2 writing has been the center of an over-a-decade-long debate. In this paper, I will review different primary and secondary studies on this topic with a view to finding out  1) what kind of work has been done to argue for (and/or against) the helpfulness of written corrective feedback in L2 writing, 2) what theoretical or methodological suggestions have been made regarding this kind of study, and 3) whether and how the question about how written L2 feedback relates to and/or can contribute to second language acquisition is addressed.

 

Keywords: ESL; Corrective feedback; Writing; Second Language Acquisition

 

 

 

Chinese compliment responses: do they vary among different areas? 
Nan Zhang

 

Abstract. While accepting a compliment is very common in English language, deflecting or rejecting a compliment were the most used strategy in Chinese language and culture (Chen, 1993). Recent research studies on compliments and responses yield inconsistent results, Yuan’s (2002) study shows a high accepting rate to a compliment comparing to previous studies. The purpose of this study is to account for the variations of Chinese compliment response studies in the literature, specifically to examine one possibility that Chinese compliment responses are different across different regions. Survey questionnaire is used to elicit participants’ responses to compliments. 78 questionnaires are collected in total from six different cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Chongqing, Guilin, and Kunming. The written responses from participants are coded into 18 strategies and are further grouped into three categories: Accepting strategies, Deflecting strategies, and Rejecting strategies. Overall, the results show a high accepting rate of 62.60% with 28.27% of deflecting and 9.13% of rejecting rate. Also this study confirms that there are variations among different areas in responding to compliments in Chinese. Speakers in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Chongqing are much more likely to accept compliments than speakers of Kunming and Shanghai. Speakers in Shanghai adopt deflecting strategies the most among all areas studied. However, the underlying rationale to account for the variations needs further investigation. This study provides empirical evidence to support the flexibility in teaching Chinese pragmatics.

 

Keywords: Pragmatics; Chinese; Compliment Responses 

 

 

Activismo y revolución en La Mujer Habitada, de Gioconda Belli  
Montserrat García Rodenas

 

Abstract (Spanish). A pesar de que todas las guerras tienen diferentes contextos históricos, durante la década de los ‘70 fueron muchos los países latinoamericanos que padecieron terribles dictaduras militares bajo la constante amenaza del gobierno estadounidense, pero también fue una época de resistencia ciudadana bajo organizaciones revolucionarias de tintes socialistas y comunistas. A las filas revolucionarias se incorporaron muchas caras conocidas: burgueses, artistas e intelectuales participaron en primera línea de batalla junto a otros miles de ciudadanos anónimos, y por primera vez, mujeres como las «Madres de Plaza de Mayo» en Argentina o el «Comité de Madres Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero» en El Salvador fueron pioneras en la lucha por la democracia y un ejemplo de integración de la mujer en los movimientos sociales y políticos latinoamericanos. Este trabajo pretende llamar la atención sobre la implicación de la mujer nicaragüense en la revolución sandinista y su contribución al éxito del mismo durante la década de los ‘70. Para ello abordaremos los distintos personajes femeninos que aparecen en la novela La Mujer Habitada (1988) de Gioconda Belli, cuyo compromiso personal en la lucha por la liberación de la mujer y por sus derechos en Nicaragua la convierten en una autora fundamental para comprender la significativa urgencia de dejar atrás la imagen tradicional de la mujer reducida a la «otredad» y la necesidad de asumir nuevas identidades alejadas de estereotipos sexistas. En la novela, a través de los distintos personajes y guiada por sus propias experiencias, plasma la doble opresión sufrida por la mujer: por su condición social y por su género.

 

Palabra clave: Identidad; literatura; revolución 

 

 

A Corpus-Based Analysis of Two Chinese Loanwords in English Newspapers: Evidence for Linguistic Innovation and Propagation

Wenfeng Li

 

Abstract. In the past decades, work on different English varieties, the more well-established or emerging ones alike, has increased exponentially and investigations at various linguistic levels have produced a wealth of evidence pertaining to claims about the status of these varieties. This paper will focus on the lexical level, and offers a preliminary corpus-based analysis of two Chinese loanwords used in contemporary English media. The goal is to discover patterns of use of these two loanwords in different contexts and at different time periods.

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Keywords: Corpus linguistics; Sociolinguistics; Language contact; Linguistic change