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Abstract In this review of System's scholarship on the learning and teaching of languages other than English (LOTEs), we focus on 12 articles on language pedagogy and language learners, selected from a total of 208 relevant articles published in the journal (until 2020). The review affirms the journal's commitment to the dissemination of scholarship for language teachers to address ‘all languages’. It identifies the evolving research trajectory targeting language learners and their language development through increasingly sophisticated methodologies. These have helped to generate deeper insights into the role of language learner characteristics in language learning. Articles on language pedagogy, which are closely associated with studies on language learners and their language development, have addressed a variety of topics, such as reading, pronunciation, task motivation and engagement, story retelling, group cohesion, and classroom management. We conclude the review with our thoughts on which research areas could be more fully represented within the journal in order to fulfil its mission statement.

English-medium instruction (EMI) has become increasingly popular in higher educational institutions across the world due to the prominence of English and the internationalization of higher education. Nevertheless, limited research to date has investigated its impacts on content learning through objective measures. The present study addresses this gap by examining whether students taught in English at a university in China perform differently in a business course from their counterparts taught in Chinese and how English-taught students’ English proficiency and academic ability (as measured by grade point average) relate to their EMI academic outcomes. The study employed a quasi-experimental design and adopted inter-translated versions of the same syllabus, textbook, class materials, and exam paper for the English- and Chinese-medium classes. It found no significant differences in students’ academic outcomes (i.e., total score, assignment, participation, and final exam) between the English- and the Chinese-taught classes. It also showed that both English proficiency and academic ability were statistically significant predictors of English-taught students’ academic outcomes with academic ability being a much stronger predictor than English proficiency. These findings add to a growing but still limited body of evidence on the impacts of EMI on content learning and point to several important implications for EMI.

One of the longstanding mysteries of English poetry is the identification of the “two-handed engine” from John Milton’s 1638 poem “Lycidas,” with which Saint Peter threatens to “strike once, and strike no more” the clergy who have been remiss in their duties. A new way of looking at the image is to read the entire passage with George Lakoff and Mark Turner’s theory of conceptual metaphors in mind. The strength of this approach is to show that identification of the two-handed engine should be considered within the context of the entire poem. As many commentators have argued, Lycidas’s posthumous fate as the “genius of the shore” does not rest solely in the actions of Saint Peter, but instead involves a reconciliation that amalgamates elements of both Christianity and the classical world as well as nature. The conceptual metaphor thus provides a single combinatory image.

In the current study, late Chinese–English bilinguals performed a facial expression identification task with emotion words in the task-irrelevant dimension, in either their first language (L1) or second language (L2). The investigation examined the automatic access of the emotional content in words appearing in more than one language. Significant congruency effects were present for both L1 and L2 emotion word processing. Furthermore, the magnitude of emotional face-word Stroop effect in the L1 task was greater as compared to the L2 task, indicating that in L1 participants could access the emotional information in words in a more reliable manner. In summary, these findings provide more support for the automatic access of emotional information in words in the bilinguals’ two languages as well as attenuated emotionality of L2 processing.

Abstract The investigation of potential stylistic differences between translated and non-translated texts has been proven to be a promising line in corpus-based translation studies, yet similar research on the product of interpreting seems both smaller in scale and slower in development. This study compares the use of hedges in interpreted and spontaneous English speeches collected in similar settings. Specifically, we gathered the two types of speech data from Chinese and American political press briefings respectively and analyzed their differences in the employment of various hedging devices. The results show that interpreted speeches not only contain significantly fewer hedges but they are also dependent on a narrower range of such devices than spontaneous speeches, which is consistent with the tendency towards simplification in translations. Also, our findings suggest that interpreted and spontaneous speeches tend to follow distinct hedging patterns in terms of preferred linguistic choices. Potential factors triggering such differences are discussed.

Word-generation tasks have been frequently used in behavioral and neuroimaging research to explore the mechanisms of semantic retrieval and competition during language production. In the current study, we set out to explore the lexical competition effects in a verb-generation task among Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners with the repetition priming paradigm, in which items had either one dominant response (low competition, LC) or no such dominant response (high competition, HC). Effects of lexical selection demands were observed in English verb generation task, indicating there were lexical competition effects. In addition, the mean response time (RT) of studied HC and LC stimuli was significantly shorter compared to that of non-studied ones, suggesting there were repetition priming effects. Taken together, the current study provides evidence supporting the role of lexical competition and repetition priming effects during second language (L2) verb generation.

Background and objective: associations between gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and atrial fibrillation (AF) are inconclusive. Some studies found that AF was a risk factor for GERD whereas other studies showed opposite results. The primary objective of this study was to systematically evaluate whether GERD and AF have a bidirectional association using a meta-analysis. Methods: a systematic review was conducted of studies on the association between GERD and AF, written in the English language and included in Cochrane CENTRAL, PubMed and EMBASE until February 2017. The search was limited to longitudinal, case-control, and cross-sectional studies. Results: among 548 studies found in the above-mentioned databases, seven fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Among these seven studies, two were longitudinal studies, two were case-control studies, and three were cross-sectional studies. The summary adjusted relative risks (RRs) for AF-induced GERD and GERD-induced AF were 1.54 (95% CI, 1.08-2.17) and 1.06 (95% CI, 0.86-1.31), respectively. The subgroup analysis showed that the associations were not significantly modified by sample size, study design, age, or geographic area. Conclusions: this meta-analysis supported the association of AF with increased risk of GERD.

Language switching involves multiple processing stages. Previous studies have not dissociated the cognitive process underlying language form switches and concept switches. Here, we examined the two factors using a novel language-switching paradigm. Chinese-English bilinguals named individually presented pictures in either Chinese or English according to a language cue. Pictures in two consecutive trials represented either identical, semantically related, or unrelated concepts. Results showed both language (form) switch costs and concept switch costs. The interaction between these two factors suggested that the effects were additive, with the longest naming response times observed when two pictures were semantically unrelated and involved a switch between languages. These findings suggest that the functional loci of the language control mechanism occur at multiple processing stages. Implications of the findings are discussed within current models of language processing in bilinguals.

Abstract Fluency is an important, yet insufficiently understood, construct in interpreting studies. This article reports on an empirical study which explored the relationship between utterance fluency measures and raters’ perceived fluency ratings of English/Chinese consecutive interpreting. It also examined whether such relationship was consistent across interpreting directions and rater types. The results partially supported the categorization of utterance fluency into breakdown, speed and repair fluency. It was also found that mean length of unfilled pauses, phonation time ratio, mean length of run and speech rate had fairly strong correlations with perceived fluency ratings in both interpreting directions and across rater types. Among a number of competing regression models that were built to predict raters’ fluency ratings, a parsimonious model, using mean length of unfilled pauses and mean length of run as predictors, accounted for about 60% of the variance of fluency ratings in both directions and across rater types. These results are expected to help create, rewrite and modify rubrics and scalar descriptors of fluency scales in rater-mediated interpretation assessment and to inform automated scoring of fluency in interpreting.

These reports forms part of a set of two reports that examine key influences on children’s Maths, English and social behavioural outcomes (self-regulation, pro-social behaviour, hyperactivity and anti-social behaviour) in Year 6 and on their progress across Key Stage 2. The sister report describes the results of analyses on children’s social/behavioural outcomes (ref: DCSF-RR049).\ud \ud The report is from the effective pre-school and primary education 3 to 11 project (EPPE 3 to 11) which is longitudinal study using multi-level modelling investigating the effects of home background, pre-school and primary education on pupils’ attainment and social / behavioural development.\ud \ud Around 3,000 children were recruited from 141 pre-school settings in 6 English LEAs at the age of 3+ between 1996 and 1999. The study followed these children through pre-school and into more than 900 primary schools in 100 local authorities.