In This Issue
Articles
In the full-length research article, Noriko Iwamoto explores the association between self-assessment and L2 speaking proficiency by analyzing their relationship to English-speaking anxiety and motivation, and self-esteem. Iwamoto identifies trends in overestimation and underestimation by learners depending on their English-speaking proficiency, and presents data on the relationship between students’ self-assessments and teacher assessment of student proficiency.
The Perspectives article by Tim Stoeckel, Stuart McLean, Paul Raine, Hung Tan Ha, Nam Thi Phuong Ho, and Young Ae Kim unpacks an online vocabulary testing platform. Stoeckel and colleagues introduce the online resource as one option for teachers and researchers to create, deliver, and score contextualized meaning-recall tests for vocabulary learning. This discussion includes a framework for understanding form-recognition, form-recall, meaning-recognition, and meaning-recall formats with a focus on the amount of contextualization provided in a given test item.
The three Expositions articles are by Paul Nation, Shelley Staples, and Laurence Anthony, and incoming JALT Journal Book Reviews Editor Melodie Cook. In the first article, Nation explains why Japanese learners of English have difficulties with word parts, and how limited knowledge of word parts impacts vocabulary size, reading in English, and language proficiency in general. The second Expositions article by Staples and Anthony clarifies the relevance of corpus linguistics to English language learning and teaching. The authors also note the multi-modal quality of corpus data, and the potential of corpus-based analysis to reveal systemic patterns in everyday language use not necessarily obvious to learners or teachers. In the final Expositions article, Cook provides a concise history of academic book reviews, which serves to clarify their intended purposes as valuable scholarly contributions. This discussion grounds Cook’s outline for JALT Journal’s new, critically-oriented approach to book reviews. The underlying intentions behind this new approach are to provide potential reviewers a platform upon which they can conduct thorough and informed critical analyses of new contributions to our field of research, and to further affirm JALT Journal’s importance to the development of applied linguistic research in Japan and beyond. To facilitate this process, Cook ends her article with guidelines for future book reviewers to consider.
Reviews
This issue features three book reviews. To begin, Ian Allensworth summarizes Ema Ushioda’s call for a new ethical agenda for research into language learning motivation which draws specifically from critical language theory, and even more broadly from critical theory. John Bankier then reviews an edited volume of nine studies into social networks in language learning and language teaching. And finally, Lachlan Jackson takes up David Block’s call for researchers to situate political economy in general, and social class in particular, as central to their work in an emerging neoliberal world with growing inequalities.
Parting Acknowledgements and Farewell from Greg Rouault
In this issue, my last as Reviews Editor (since starting back in May 2012), I would like to take the time to recognize the materials publishers for their support, without which a book reviews column would not be possible. Special appreciation goes to my Assistant Reviews Editors, Bill Snyder and John Nevara (twice!), for their collaborative input and sage counsel. Further acknowledgements go out to the current and past editorial and production teams at JALT Journal and in particular to past JJ Reviews Editors, Bill Perry and Yuriko Kite, for entrusting me to carry on with their great work. Finally, the active engagement and feedback from JALT members, readers of JALT Journal, and the review authors themselves have made this volunteer opportunity a most satisfying experience . . . One which without Paul Lewis’s warmth, Malcolm Swanson’s patience, Theron Muller’s training, and Scott Gardner’s subtlety would not have come to be as a member of JALT Publications.
— Greg Rouault, Reviews Editor (May 2012 - Nov 2023)
From the Editors
The JALT Journal team would like to begin this issue’s editorial note by extending our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Greg Rouault, who has served as JALT Journal’s Reviews Editor from May 2012 to the current November 2023 issue. Greg’s decade-long service to JALT Journal is noteworthy. He has been an important contributor to the health and strength of the journal, a thread between various phases in the journal’s evolution, and a supporter of and facilitator for more than 150 academics, some of whom began their scholarly careers with book reviews. Academic discourse would simply not exist without the volunteer spirit and actions of countless academics worldwide, and Greg’s contribution has been impressive in this regard to say the least. Thank you, Greg. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors. Taking Greg’s place is incoming Reviews Editor Melodie Cook, who is a former editor (May/November issues 2014 and 2015) of the JALT Journal. We look forward to working with her in her new role, and we encourage readers to read her Expositions article about book reviews in the current issue. JALT Journal has another new member of the editorial team, with Joe Geluso joining us as English-language Assistant Editor.
As we all continue to navigate the personal, professional, and academic changes and developments resulting from shifting back to pre-pandemic practices, the JALT Journal editorial team would like to thank the Publications Board, Editorial Advisory Board, additional readers, copy editors, and the production team for their unwavering support. We would like to reiterate that JALT Journal maintains its commitment to publishing high-quality English-language and Japanese-language research relevant for language learning and teaching within the Japanese context and beyond. We invite readers to read our “Aims and Scope” section in the backmatter, and consider submitting their research for publication in JALT Journal. Submissions in English should be submitted to our online submission platform at https://jalt-publications.org/content/index.php/jj/information/authors in either Rich Text or Microsoft Word Format (NOT PDF). Materials in Japanese should be emailed to the Japanese language-editor, Kiwamu Kasahara at jaltpubs.jj.ed.j@jalt.org. Please refer to the Back Matter for further details. In addition, from the May 2024 issue, the Appendix section for all articles will transition to an online-only format. These will be made accessible through the JALT Journal website.
— Dennis Koyama, JALT Journal, Editor
— Jeremie Bouchard, JALT Journal, Associate Editor
— Joe Geluso, JALT Journal, Incoming Assistant Editor
