This study verifies predictions of hypotheses about second language learners’ development of English relative clauses (RCs) with data of written Hong Kong English (HKE) and identifies quantitative and qualitative differences in attributes of RCs between HKE and British English (BrE). Data were collected from the Hong Kong and Great Britain components of the International Corpus of English. wh relatives and that relatives were identified and coded. Frequencies of occurrence of distinct types of RCs in the Hong Kong component were compared to evaluate whether predictions of the three hypotheses are supported. RCs in the two components of the corpus were compared quantitatively and qualitatively. Hypotheses about second language learners’ development of English relative clauses and comparisons between relative clauses in the two varieties can inform English language education in foreign language classrooms to embrace variational diversity of the English language.

Research contributes to our world in many different ways, and impact is the benefit research brings to society, outside of academia. In this talk entitled "Research into Second Language Acquisition: Dissemination of Results and Impact," the presenter will first present two research questions and how they set about investigating them. The two research questions are (a) What is the most effective way of teaching business English / workplace English? and (b) How can instruction support the second language development of L2 learners? The presenter will then explain how the research is made accessible to students and suggest what the social impact of their research has been.

Increasingly, educators are seeking more collaborative and student-centred pedagogies in the language classroom. One area that has the potential for realizing these goals is learner-based teaching. This study investigated students' attitudes towards learner-based teaching in their classrooms. Twenty-eight Japanese university students working in groups developed teaching content at two intervals over the duration of one semester. The groups then proceeded to teach the content to their classmates. Results from a post-performance questionnaire indicate that while creating their own content was challenging for students, especially when placed with non-familiar group members, most students signalled that it was overall an enjoyable experience. A further finding of this study that may have implications for language practitioners is that most students preferred more involvement in content creation for their classes.

In previous studies, researchers have argued that teaching in the target language (L2) is the most effective approach (Krashen & Terrell, 1983, p. 9). Recent studies show, however, that using students’ language (L1) can offer a variety of benefits to language learners (LLs) (Leeming, 2013; Bartlett, 2017; Inada & Inada, 2021). In the following presentation, I will present the results of the first stage of a long-term data collection, which explored university LL perspectives regarding English-only and Japanese-only lessons. In this study, students enrolled in compulsory English lessons at a Japanese university completed a survey at 3 different times throughout the first semester. Results from initial data collection show that students prefer neither L1- nor L2-only lessons, but a mixed usage of both. The presentation will conclude with advice for language teachers. Specifically, how to find balance in your language use, and how your language use can affect learner development.

Despite its importance in developing communicative competence, pragmatic awareness is less likely to be addressed in EFL classrooms, possibly leading to misunderstandings and breakdowns when learners are engaged in practical communication in various sociocultural contexts. Unfortunately, this lack of pedagogical emphasis appears to be mainly due to low pragmatic awareness among teachers. The purpose of this study is to explore ways to raise such awareness and promote pragmatic pedagogy by qualitatively analyzing data from interviews with Japanese teachers of English. The results suggest that integrating pragmatics and grammar pedagogy can be an effective and feasible approach. In addition, this integration may become even more compelling when combined with classroom efforts to prepare students for various examinations which can have a major impact in many Asian EFL contexts. It is time to start focusing on what students really need to learn both inside and outside the school framework.