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The majority of second language (L2) textbooks claim that they promote communication; they use such terms as communicative language teaching, communicative competence, interactive, and meaningful in their introductions. However, recent offer evidence that the instructional methods adopted in these textbooks (be they Spanish, French, Italian, etc.) ignore what is known about second language acquisition (SLA). This evidence demonstrates that learners need opportunities to comprehend language in order to be able to communicate, and the activities used to practice grammar in these texts do not allow students the opportunity to do this; they are not communicative. In order to demonstrate this, the current article examines a top-selling introductory Portuguese postsecondary textbook for exercises that teach two grammatical forms (i.e., preterit and imperfect). The findings support previous research that the activities in L2 textbooks overwhelmingly fall short of leading learners to communicative competence (that is, comprehension and proficiency).

Despite the many benefits associated with learning another language, multiple studies have indicated that students across nations have differing motivational profiles that leave them more or less interested in pursuing language learning. Understanding the motivational influences of language learners in different countries and cultures has the potential to help guide and shape curriculum that meets student needs and interests. In response, the researchers used a mixed methodology to investigate the motivational profile of 132 American students studying Spanish, 220 German and 184 Chinese students learning English, and 38 students from New Zealand studying German. Data collected from surveys and interviews suggested both many commonalities among the students with respect to their reasons for language study and what motivates them in their language classrooms, as well as a number of interesting differences. Foreign language teaching stakeholders should consider the results of the study when planning instruction, instructional materials, and programming in order to better meet the motivational profile of their students.

The study investigated the effectiveness of Conversation-Analysis-informed (CA-informed) sitcom lessons in enhancing conversation abilities of Thai learners of English. The participants included 42 high school students enrolled in an English for Communication course at a public high school in Southern Thailand. Through 15-week sitcom lessons, they were taught how to construct conversation sequences to accomplish such sequential actions as greeting and leave-taking, (dis)agreement, new announcement, compliment, invitation, and request, as well as to collaboratively analyze conversations from the sitcoms and role-play them at the end of each lesson. Before and after the series of lessons, the participants were engaged in role-play conversations that were videotaped for subsequent assessment of their conversation abilities. The findings from both comparative statistical and close single-case analyses revealed significant improvements in all of the aspects assessed, especially regarding grammar and appropriacy. Therefore, it is recommended that EFL teachers should implement CA principles to the teaching of English conversation and integrate conversations from authentic materials such as sitcoms to strengthen English language learners’ conversation abilities.

This article reports the results of a study involving the Conversation Analysis (CA) of self-initiated self-repair structures in classroom conversations. The study aimed to cast light on self-initiated repairs practiced by advanced EFL learners. The data were collected in 2018. Forty proficient EFL students participated in the study. 72 hours of videotaped single-sex conversations were collected through classroom observations, and follow-up interviews were conducted, both at three different language institutes in Isfahan, Iran. The CA approach was employed as the theoretical framework for this study. The students’ utterances were analyzed qualitatively. It was found that Iranian EFL learners practice 4 self-initiated self-repair structures, namely, replacing, inserting, deleting and aborting. Finally, the collected data were compared to those used by English native speakers. The results showed that the most frequent self-initiated self-repair structure employed by the participants in both cultures is replacing.

This paper examines power and solidarity of the second person singular pronoun ke [ke] that is often used informally by Acehnese speakers while speaking Indonesian across four extra-linguistic factors: age, sex, relationship with interlocutor, and social class. Data were collected using three instruments: a socio-demographic questionnaire, a close-ended questionnaire and interviews. Approximately 30 students from Syiah Kuala University who were born and raised in Banda Aceh participated in this study. The findings indicate that ke in the age factor is preferred most by the same age group; meanwhile the sex factor showed more ke to be used by females compared to males. The relationship with interlocutor factor showed that friends used more ke than family and stranger. In the social class factor, those in a higher social class use more ke than the middle and lower classes. The respondents’ choice of pronoun from these factors was higher with title and name in general. Perhaps this is influenced by the Acehnese culture where title is still preserved when calling older or younger interlocutors. It was concluded that ke is viewed as disrespectful by the Acehnese elders or older generations.

Death is accompanied by the performance of a series of rituals and rites which connect the dead and the living. This study is a functional-semiotic analysis of burial rituals and rites in Elugwu Ezike, in Igbo land, Enugu State, Nigeria. The main objectives of the study are to examine the context and functions, as well as signs and symbols, involved in funeral rituals and rites in Elugwu Ezike Igbo. Data for the study were collected through oral interview and participant observation at funerals in Elugwu Ezike, and documented materials on burial rites and rituals. The paper utilizes the functional and semiotic theories for the analysis of the data. It is observed in this study that burial rites and rituals are representations of cultural performances which mark a people’s life experience. These funeral rites and rituals are an expression of the people’s thoughts, emotions, social organization, and cultural identity. It is also observed in recent times that the waves of modernity, Islam and Christianity have had positive and negative impacts on the performance of traditional funeral rites and rituals in Elugwu Ezike.