A key piece of a validity argument for a language assessment tool is clear overlap between assessment tasks and the target language use (TLU) domain (i.e., the domain description inference). The TOEFL 2000 Spoken and Written Academic Language (T2K‐SWAL) corpus, which represents a variety of academic registers and disciplines in traditional learning environments (e.g., lectures, office hours, textbooks, course packs), has served as an important foundation for the TOEFL iBT® test's domain description inference for more than 15 years. There are, however, signs that the characteristics of the registers that students encounter may be changing. Increasingly, typical university courses include technology‐mediated learning environments (TMLEs), such as those represented by course management software and other online educational tools. To ensure that the characteristics of TOEFL iBT test tasks continue to align with the TLU domain, it is important to analyze the registers that are typically encountered in TMLEs. In this study, we address this issue by collecting a relatively large (4.5 million words) corpus of spoken and written TMLE registers across the six primary disciplines represented in T2K‐SWAL. This corpus was subsequently tagged for a wide variety of linguistic features, and a multidimensional analysis was conducted to compare and contrast written and spoken language in TMLE and T2K‐SWAL. The results indicate that although some similarities exist across spoken and written texts in traditional learning environments and TMLEs, language use also differs across learning environments (and modes) with regard to key linguistic dimensions.

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In the realm of language proficiency assessments, the domain description inference and the extrapolation inference are key components of a validity argument. Biber et al.’s description of the lexicogrammatical features of the spoken and written registers in the T2K-SWAL corpus has served as support for the TOEFL iBT test’s domain description and extrapolation inferences. In the time since the T2K-SWAL corpus was collected, however, university learning environments have increasingly become technology-mediated. Accordingly, any description of the linguistic features of university language should account for the language produced in technology-mediated learning environments (TMLEs) in addition to non-technology-mediated learning environments (non-TMLEs). Kyle et al. recently began to address this issue by collecting a corpus of TMLE language use, which they then compared to language use in non-TMLEs using multidimensional analysis (MDA). The results indicated both similarities and substantive differences across the learning environments, but the study did not investigate the effects of particular registers on these results. In this study, we build on previous research by investigating lexicogrammatical features of specific spoken and written registers across technology-mediated and non-technology-mediated learning environments.

Teaching and testing second language pragmatics and interaction: A practical guide. Roever, C. Routledge, 2022.

This paper investigates how an English as a second language (ESL) teacher manages student embarrassment in the adult ESL classroom. Data consist of approximately 4 hours of video-recorded classroom interactions at a low-intermediate adult ESL class in the United States. Participants include a female teacher and eight adult English learners of various L1 backgrounds. Using conversation analysis, this paper describes several ways in which the teacher orients to potential displays of student embarrassment during classroom interactions: (1) excusing the failure and inviting peer support, (2) excusing the failure and providing a factual account, and (3) attributing the failure to creativity. The findings of this study contribute to the growing literature on contingency in teacher talk (e.g. Waring, 2016;Waring, Reddington, & Tadic, 2016) by identifying a set of teaching practices teachers can use to remediate student embarrassment. The study also contributes to the limited literature on embarrassment in interaction (e.g. Heath, 1988;Sandlund, 2004) by examining the sequential environments of embarrassment in the adult ESL classroom, the characteristics of and orientations to embarrassment, and how such sequences are made relevant by the participants in classroom talk-in-interaction.

Despite rising interests in the manifestations of second language (L2) interactional competence (IC) in online language learning activities (e.g., Balaman & Sert, 2017a, 2017b; González-Lloret, 2016), the intersection between epistemic and affective stancetaking in the online space remains largely unexplored. This paper examines how an intermediate-level learner jointly managed epistemics and affect with a tutor in a teleconference session designed as a conversation-for-learning. The analysis focuses on web search sequences occasioned by emergent asymmetries in the ongoing talk, and how the participants leveraged resources to negotiate knowledge positions and index emotions during online searches. Findings reveal that epistemic and affective stance management actions are a prominent aspect of online search sequences. For example, during an online search, the tutee demonstrates his L2 IC by citing and attributing responsibility to the source in response to epistemic primacy challenges. In the process, he also utilised affective resources such as laughter and a term of endearment to delicately manage disagreements. By focusing on the management of epistemic and affective stances, this study informs pedagogical decisions about the use of online searches in L2 learning activities.

Drawing on multimodal conversation analysis and past literature on synchronization, this study sheds light on the temporal properties of embodied remembering, which we define as co-operative enactment(s) of a mutually-established recollectable. Our main argument is that the nature of a recollectable shapes the practical organization of embodied remembering. To demonstrate this, we investigate the phenomenon in three performance-based settings: (a) taiko ensemble rehearsal, (b) Korean TV show, and (c) ESL service-learning reflection. In each setting, participants jointly produce a (quasi-)synchronized performance, but for different purposes: to advocate one version of choral chanting against the other, to demonstrate one’s knowledge of choreographic moves and understanding of an expert correction in the pursuit of humor, and finally, to foster peer solidarity through nonserious competition. Detailed analysis uncovers varying degrees of performative precision, through which participants display their in-situ understanding of the consequentiality of achieved synchrony for the task-at-hand. The temporal unfolding of embodied remembering is locally shaped by participants’ mutual orientation to a given activity context and the nature of a recollectable. Participants’ orientation to relevant performative precision is embodied in the very way they enact the recollectable.

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