32.3036, Review: Applied Linguistics: Richter (2021)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-32-3036. Tue Sep 28 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.3036, Review: Applied Linguistics: Richter (2021)

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Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2021 00:21:11
From: Clay Williams [williams at aiu.ac.jp]
Subject: English-Medium Instruction and Pronunciation

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36723817


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/32/32-952.html

AUTHOR: Karin  Richter
TITLE: English-Medium Instruction and Pronunciation
SUBTITLE: Exposure and Skills Development
SERIES TITLE: Second Language Acquisition
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2021

REVIEWER: Clay Hunter Williams, Akita International University

SUMMARY

In recent years, we have witnessed a relative explosion in English-medium
tertiary programs worldwide, and with that proliferation of English-medium
instruction (EMI) has come a variety of published research on the topic. One
would expect that Richter’s work detailing one longitudinal study on EMI at a
small(ish) tertiary institution in Austria would be hard-pressed to get
noticed among the pure volume of research on EMI which has been released in
the last decade alone; however, such is not the case, as Richter manages to
approach the topic from a perspective that has received little to no
attention, despite its obvious pertinence – that of the development and
refinement of L2 pronunciation. After a thorough examination of the research
background, including such topics as the role of English-medium instruction in
the context of European higher education, as well as the theoretical rationale
for accent development, the manuscript details a study of Austrian learners in
an EMI degree program. The students’ degree of perceived foreign accent was
measured at the beginning and at the end of the three-year degree. These
accent ratings were analyzed in comparison to a control group of students
studying in a German-medium program. The data was also correlated with survey
data to explore factors that contribute to successful or unsuccessful L2
accent acquisition with the goal of identifying what learner traits facilitate
this process and what sort of a learning environment could be provided in
order to maximize students’ ability to acquire more native-like L2 phonology.

The book starts out with an overview of the goals of the book, introducing the
question of whether EMI instruction impacts the development of L2 phonology
and accent. The first chapter, “Introduction,” gives a basic research
background, looking at the rise of English as a European lingua franca, and
the rise of EMI programs across Europe in response. The author, having been
privy to the creation of such an EMI program in an Austrian University of
Applied Sciences (UAS), provides a brief history of the development of this
bilingual (German and English) BA program in Entrepreneurship, detailing the
search for content lecturers who could teach wholly in the target language of
English (which led to a program largely taught by L1 speakers of English). She
also introduces the reader to the concept and curricular goals of the Austrian
UAS system (“Fachhochschule”), schools which stand apart from regular
universities as tertiary (three-year) degree-granting institutions focusing on
technical skills, such as engineering, business, etc. UAS emphasize practical
training, including internships. They are also characterized by relatively
rigid admission procedures, smaller class size, rigid schedules (often with
fixed groups throughout the course of study), etc. Lecturers are very likely
to have been recruited from the private sector, and many UAS programs require
students to undergo an internship or to study abroad during the duration of
the program. This environment provides a uniquely suitable environment in
which to conduct this study on EMI effects on L2 accent. The author clarifies
that her study is not designed to push the idea of native-like phonology as
the only acceptable accent variant, but rather that the study is simply
attempting to gather empirical data on how content coursework taught in the
target language affects L2 accent production and to garner evidence of what
factors cause the vast degree of variation which so often appears in L2
phonological accuracy between individual students.

Chapter 2, “English-Medium Instruction in European Higher Education,” traces
the rise of English content courses and programs, starting with Content and
Language Integrated Learning (which is largely relegated to primary and
secondary levels of education) and how in the higher education context English
is usually simply the vehicle by which course content is transmitted, thereby
distinguishing EMI wherein the main point in instruction is course content,
not the language itself. The author further distinguishes EMI from English for
Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Special Purposes (ESP), which
similarly focus on language instruction, although instruction in ESP classes
may be designed to impart skills for specific content areas, as opposed to
EAP, which usually teaches more generalized academic language skills. The
author traces in-detail the rapid spread of English-taught programs throughout
Europe, with 725 of such programs being identified in 2001, increasing to 8089
in 2014 (Wächter & Maiworm, 2014). Turning her attention to her own country
and institution, she introduces a bit more about the bilingual program,
introducing the study participants – an EMI group from the bilingual BA
program, and a control group composed of ESP students in the regular
(German-medium) BA program. Both groups are similar in age and ethnic makeup,
as well as the age where they started English study, but the main test
variable is the amount of exposure to L2 English that will take place over the
course of the degree program when the bilingual group is taking approximately
50% of course content in English.

Chapter 3, “Language Learning in the English Medium Classroom,” conducts an
extensive literature review of theories and hypotheses relevant to language
acquisition in the EMI context, with particular emphasis on acquisition of L2
phonology and accent development. In particular, the text reviews Krashen’s
Input Hypothesis (e.g., Krashen, 1981) along with the associated
Acquisition-Learning, Monitor, Natural Order, and Affective Filter Hypotheses.
While the importance, intuitiveness, and relatively wide-spread acceptance of
Krashen’s ideas are noted, critiques of the Hypotheses are also given full
attention. From the Input Hypothesis model, the author switches to a review of
Swain’s Output Hypothesis (e.g., Swain, 1985) and Long’s Interaction
Hypothesis (e.g., Long, 1996) before shifting to a long review of Vygotsky’s
Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky, 1978). The author notes that, as much as these
theories have contributed to the development of classroom-based language
instruction (especially at the secondary school level), “[i]n a traditional
university context, however, these forces are often restricted by
organizational, practical and technical constraints. Very often, overcrowded
lecture halls filled with hundreds of students leave little room for output
let alone interaction among the learners” (Section 3.1.4, paragraph 4, lns.
2-4); however, the Austrian UAS system’s small class size and
interaction-based instructional stylings make it a better platform for
empirical research on such hypotheses. The author then shifts her attention
directly to the issue of L2 phonology acquisition. The concept of “foreign
accent” is explained and an extensive literature review on accent studies
ranging from Critical Period Hypothesis and age studies to perceptual models
such as Flege’s (1995) Speech Learning Model, as well as Contrastive Analysis
(Lado, 1957), and Interlanguage (Selinker, 1969) to account for why
fossilization occurs so prominently in the realm of accent. From here, the
author discusses the perceived advantages of EMI, reviewing research findings
that learners in CLIL and EMI classroom environments make measurable
linguistic gains. On the specific issue of phonological gains, however, the
author reviews the literature to find that CLIL instructional impact on L2
pronunciation is relatively modest and research into phonological gains by
learners in EMI environments “are practically non-existent” (Section 3.3.2,
paragraph 8, ln. 2), with only two previous studies being found, and neither
of them being particularly relevant to the central thesis of the manuscript,
as one of these studies was conducted in an English-speaking country (thereby
exposing students to massive amounts of input outside of the classroom), and
the other was a report on students’ self-perception of pronunciation gains in
the EMI context, which, while interesting, is by its nature more subjective.

It is at this point that the author reports the actual study which is the
rationale of the manuscript. The test materials (i.e., a reading test and a
speech test wherein subjects narrated a cartoon) are described, along with the
program that was created for raters to use in their evaluation of speech
samples. The testing and rating processes are described in detail. An analysis
of results finds that the EMI group outperformed the control group (composed
of students from the German-medium degree program) across the board at both
test periods (i.e., near the beginning and the end of the degree program,
respectively). Nevertheless, both groups improved significantly over the
course of the program, and testing revealed no significant difference between
groups in the amount of improvement. Student self-assessment data was also
analyzed, finding students to have a sharply more negative impression of their
own accents than the actual rater data would suggest. 

Chapter 4, “Factors Influencing L2 Pronunciation Mastery,” explores individual
difference factors which may exert influence over the development of L2
accent. The relevant literature is reviewed on subjects such as language
attitudes, identity, motivations for learning, language anxiety, formal
instruction on L2 pronunciation, gender, musical ability, and
degree/length/type of language exposure. Turning to her own data set, the
author then looks at two cases from her own study – one characterized as
highly successful learner, and the other as an unsuccessful learner (these
were the highest and lowest scoring study participants, respectively)– in
order to assess to what degree these individual difference attributes were
predictive of learners’ success (or lack thereof) at ameliorating their L2
accent during the course of their studies at the UAS. Contrasts were found in
age of initial learning, attitudes about pronunciation, interest in English
language and culture, gender, media exposure, and self-perceived language
skill. Additionally, whereas the successful learner had participated in an
internship in the United States during the course of the degree program, the
unsuccessful learner had studied abroad in South Korea. Comparing the test and
control groups, the EMI group was found to have significantly higher
motivation to improve their English and in particular their pronunciation.
Additionally, the EMI group was more prone to consuming English media and much
more likely to have spent an exchange semester abroad (albeit only 38% of them
did so in an English-speaking country).

Chapter 5, “The Development of the Austrian Accent in the EMI Classroom,”
contrasts the phonology of German (with particular focus on Austrian German)
with that of English (both received pronunciation and General American English
are treated within). Phonemes, phonotactic restrictions, and suprasegmental
features are all described in order to create a picture of what L1 features
are most likely to surface when Austrians learn English. Collating this with
the study data, the author breaks down the sorts of pronunciation errors
participants made during the reading test, and in how frequent those errors
were. The consonant sound [ð] and the diphthong [ei] were found to be
particularly troublesome for learners, as was suprasegmental linking such as
in the phrase “when_a traveller.”

The sixth chapter, “Conclusion,” summarizes the study and its results, and
introduces possible limitations to the study (e.g., a relatively small sample)
and makes suggestions for further research in other European tertiary
education settings. The author draws implications from the study that, as her
study showed clear pronunciation improvements over time, foreign accent should
be seen as something whose causal factors extend far beyond mere biological
constraints. She asserts that, while the data showed a clear difference
between EMI and German-instructed students, the “study environment created by
the UAS fosters and promotes incidental pronunciation acquisition although the
focus of the EMI and the ESP courses lies elsewhere” (Section 6.4, paragraph
3, ln. 24-25) and may therefore be a model worth exploring for other EMI
programs. 

EVALUATION

The book’s central topic, the exploration of the impact of EMI on the
acquisition of pronunciation skills, is a welcome addition to the body of
linguistic research, and the prior absence of focused study on this theme
seems strange in retrospect. The study which provides the foundation for the
manuscript is well conceived and executed with virtually unassailable
methodology. While the book certainly was written with a European (and, in
terms of accent analysis, at least, German-speaking, as well) audience in
mind, the issues raised regarding phonological development through content
(i.e., non-linguistic-focused) courses in an EMI setting are both relevant and
interesting far beyond Austria. Considering the rapid proliferation of EMI
programs and institutions across the world, the content could be of
considerable interest to applied linguists globally. 

Literature sections of the manuscript shine as the author takes a
thorough-yet-accessible approach. The amount of information presented is
voluminous, but Richter does an admirable job of cutting through the research
fog in clearly articulating main points and implications. While the manuscript
would certainly not function well as an introductory text on any of the issues
of language acquisition presented within, I did find myself wanting to
recommend sections (esp. Ch. 3) as review texts to students in my linguistics
classes as I could readily imagine the author’s clear, concise descriptions
and explanations would provide welcome clarification to anyone whose
understanding of these hypotheses and theories were shaky or had faded with
time. 

The writing style, while clear and precise, does suffer from the author’s
overreliance on acronyms, which tends to have a markedly negative effect on
readability. Fortunately, the author does provide a definition sheet at the
beginning, which helps to mitigate the confusion from this issue (note:
keeping a bookmark there is highly recommended). The author also intersperses
bits of the study methodology, analysis, and results among multiple chapters
(which include multiple other topics). This organizational scheme works if one
is reading straight through the manuscript, but it would hamper one’s ability
to find specific points of information or references after the initial
reading. Overall, if the actual research report were consolidated into a
unified section in the usual presentational order for methods sections from
research studies (i.e., participants, materials, procedures, etc.), such would
make it considerably more “academic-reader-friendly,” as well as making the
text more useful as an academic reference.

While the overall theme of the central study described in the manuscript is
clearly important, and the evidence marshalled well merits to initiate a
robust debate over the development of L2 accent, the author may be perceived
at times as being overly bold in some of her claims, particularly as concerns
the Critical Period Hypothesis. For example, she asserts that the finding of
accent improvement by (adult) tertiary students directly contradicts CPH
tenets; however, as even the application of CPH to second language acquisition
is highly contested, such could readily be considered as a contestable
declaration. While there is indeed a robust field of research into the
possibility of biological limitations to accent development (which is even
reviewed extensively in this manuscript), one would be hard-pressed to find
anyone seriously asserting that adult L2 pronunciation cannot ever improve.
Ultimately, the issue of pronunciation is so multi-faceted, and learners are
so variable, as to virtually preclude projections of ultimate phonological
attainment based on something as simple as age.

All in all, the book is well written, highly informative, and of high interest
to anyone interested in either EMI research or accent attainment research. 

REFERENCES

Krashen, S.D. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language
Learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Lado, R. (1957) Linguistics across cultures. Ann Arbor MI: University of
Michigan Press.

Long, M.H. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language
acquisition. In W.C. Ritchie and T.K. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second
language acquisition (pp. 413–468). New York: Academic Press.

Selinker, L. (1969). Language transfer. General Linguistics, 9(2), 67–92.

Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input
and comprehensible output in its development. In S.M. Gass and C. Madden
(Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235–253). Rowley, MA:
Newbury House.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher
psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Wächter, B. and Maiworm, F. (Eds.) (2014). English-taught programmes in
European higher education: The state of play in 2014. Bonn: Lemmens.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Clay Williams is an associate professor in the English Language Teaching
Practices program in the Graduate School of Global Communication and Language
at Akita International University in Japan. His primary areas of research
include cross-script effects on L2 literacy development, lexical access in
non-alphabetic script reading, and adapting L2 teaching methodologies to East
Asian classroom contexts. His latest books include ''Teaching English Reading
in the Chinese-speaking World: Building Strategies Across Scripts'' and
''Teaching English in East Asia: A Teacher’s Guide to Chinese, Japanese, and
Korean Learners.''





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