Session 7F

The VILLA project, Varieties of Initial Learners in Language Acquisition (Dimroth et al., 2013; VILLA Field Manual, 2022) managed to find a format in which the very initial stages of adult language acquisition could be investigated by having the most control over input as possible (Flege 2009). The researchers recruited one single teacher, teaching a carefully devised curriculum for both learning conditions (form- vs. meaning-based) to all of the thoroughly selected participants with no prior knowledge of the language (Polish), thus ensuring uniformity in entry level, input, and exposure duration. In this longitudinal experiment (two weeks), 162 adult learners of five different project countries with five different L1s, recruited from universities of the Netherlands (Nijmegen), the UK (York), France (Paris), Germany (Osnabrück) and Italy (Pavia) took part in a Polish language course in which they were exposed to 14 hours of monolingual input in 10 sessions.
End 2021, integrated databases became available (Villa Manual 2022), finally enabling to answer two general research questions:
Do the meaning- and form-based learning conditions give different language learning successes?Can individual learner differences predict language learning success?We selected tests that had been administered at a minimum of two time intervals, and that covered different language domains: Word Recognition, Grammaticality Judgment and Phoneme Discrimination. We applied linear mixed effects regression.
We found clear progress both in Word Recognition and Grammaticality Judgment, but no significant effect of learning condition. For Phoneme Discrimination, testing a phonological distinction present in Polish, but not in the L1s of the learners, we found no significant effects at all. The answer to research question 1 is a clear "no". 
We had a large set of individual learner variables related to executive functions (Digit Span, Letter Number Sequencing, Flanker), Perceptual Preference (Barsch), Language Aptitude (Llama B (Word Learning sills), Llama D (Phonological Recogntion) and Llama F (Grammatical Inferencing)), personality (NEO FFI-3 and ISALEM-97), and motivation (AMTB). We found that only Llama D, Llama F, Raven, and motivation were successful predictors for progress in two of the three language tests. None of these variables had any influence on the results in the Phoneme Discrimination, although several participants could discriminate the unknown sounds in question. Returning to our second research question, the answer is a qualified "yes". It seems that although learner variables can have predictive value, they are not solely responsible for learning success.
In the last part of our presentation, we will address possible theoretical implications of our results, taking into account the learnability of various linguistic elements, and the variability between language components.


Dimroth, C., Rast, R., Starren, M., & Watorek, M. (2013). Methods for studying the acquisition of a new language under controlled input conditions: the VILLA project. Eurosla Yearbook, 13(1), 109–138. https://doi-org.ru.idm.oclc.org/10.1075/eurosla.13.07dim
Flege, J. (2009). Give input a chance! In T. Piske & M. Young-Scholten (Eds.), Input Matters in SLA (pp. 175-190). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
VILLA Field Manual (2022), team villa researchers. Wissenschaftliche Schriften der WWU Münster.

Over the years, much research into English for Academic Purposes (EAP) has focused on course design, course outcomes regarding specific skills (e.g., writing essays) and assessment criteria and practices (e.g., Nagy and Townsend, 2012; Wingate and Harper, 2021). More recently, researchers have also looked into what students and teachers believe about what and how to learn and teach EAP (e.g., Basturkmen, 2019; Blaj-Ward, 2014). In line with the latter, this paper presents data on student and teacher beliefs about EAP of an underresearched population in a unique context, that is, highly educated refugees learning English for university entry from a group of dedicated volunteer teachers.
We provide quantitative survey data from refugees and asylum seekers in the Netherlands (N= 150) of various national and linguistic backgrounds, with the majority speaking (Syrian) Arabic or Turkish as their mother tongue. Due to their migration experience, most had a disrupted educational and/or professional biography, meaning that they were currently not able to pursue their academic studies or profession. Given that excellent English (at least B2) is required for university studies and jobs at academic levels in the Netherlands, participants self-enrolled for the courses offered by the volunteer organisation in order to reach their goals.
Student participants provided answers on their demographic and educational background and answered open and closed questions regarding their experiences, beliefs and expectations about English learning. Questions targeted among others material and language learning resources, the importance of different skills, their own strengths and weaknesses as a language learner as well as what they hoped to learn from and see in their teacher.
This information was matched with a qualitative study into beliefs about EAP teaching to this specific population based on interviews with N=5 teachers (4 female; 1 male) who volunteered in the organisation. Teachers had differing amounts of teaching experience (from none to more than 10 years) and qualifications. Only one of them had the priorly worked with refugee learners.
Our findings demonstrate that learners and teachers seem to agree on important aspects of EAP, for example, the need to develop academic writing skills. Yet, the data also demonstrate substantial differences between learners, who wish to work towards more utilitarian goals such as passing the IELTS test, and teachers, who aim for more long-term goals such as improving students' academic integration. We will discuss our findings in light of recent research into teacher cognition and EAP course design while also highlighting the unique setting of our research, that is, refugees taking EAP classes provided by volunteer teachers.


References
Basturkmen, H. (2019). ESP teacher education needs. Language Teaching, 52(3), 318-330.
Blaj-Ward, L. (2014) Researching Contexts, Practices and Pedagogies in English for Academic Purposes. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nagy, W., & Townsend, D. (2012). Words as tools: Learning academic vocabulary as language acquisition. Reading Research Quarterly, 47(1), 91-108.
Wingate, U., & Harper, R. (2021). Completing the first assignment: A case study of the writing processes of a successful and an unsuccessful student. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 49, 100948.