This study is an investigation of the rhetorical features of research articles (RAs) written by Indonesian academics in the Applied Linguistics discipline. This contrastive rhetoric study addresses the question of whether Indonesian academics have the same or different communicative purposes and use the same or different rhetorical organisation when they write RAs in English and in Indonesian. The analysis focuses on the Introduction and the Discussion sections. The investigation reveals that the majority of RAs published in national accredited Indonesian journals consistently employ the conventional format of English RAs written by native speakers. RAs written by Indonesian academics have similar communicative purposes and use the same rhetorical features whether they write in Indonesian or in English. The comparison demonstrates a relatively consistent realisation of rhetorical organisation between RAs written in English and in Indonesian.

This thesis concerns the nature and development of adult learners' involvement with learning and using Mandarin Chinese in the long term. It examines the interweaving and layering of different settings and different kinds of learning activity in the course of individual learning journeys. The enquiry looks beyond the relatively homogeneous student groups in the Chinese classrooms and lecture halls of large metropolitan universities, and instead gives a voice to the experience of people learning Chinese who are based in country areas, who choose distance learning, who are older, and who study part-time or independently for many years. In conceptualising the dynamics of the language learning journey, the study draws upon aspects of complexity theory, which seeks to understand processes of change in complex adaptive systems by emphasising non-linearity, heterochrony, dynamic relationships and patterning. A 5-year multi-layered longitudinal qualitative case study was conducted with participants who had previous experience of Chinese learning, and of distance learning. Surveys provided extensive reflective data from the larger groups of 41 and 26 participants. To complement this, more frequent in-depth interviews and other activities were conducted with a group of 7 participants, yielding richly contextualised learner stories. In presenting, comparing and analysing the findings, extensive use is made of graphic and narrative techniques. Novel methods of multiple timeline analysis are presented, and the concept of dynamic activity patterns, which link past activity and future plans in respect to particular practices is introduced. The role of individual agency and of desire in identifying opportunities for learning and using Chinese is noted, and the significance of fallow periods within individual learning trajectories is explored from an identity perspective. The influence and effects of long-term Chinese learning in current times, both on individual learners, and through them upon the various contexts and communities which they inhabit, is considered. This research contributes to current scholarly discussion of the language learning which occurs beyond the classroom and in increasingly hybrid settings. Furthermore, within the rapidly expanding disciplinary field of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL), it contributes a better understanding of the efforts, feelings, practices and contexts of individual long-term learners.

The Thesis Defence Examination (TDE) is a vital step for students in many countries to complete their degree. The TDE is defined as a class of communicative events; and it is assumed that, to succeed in performing a specific genre, students should understand the elements of the genre and perform appropriately. Although in some countries, such as Australia, the TDE is not commonly practised, in other countries such as the USA, the UK and Indonesia, the TDE is necessary before students can graduate. In Indonesia, the issue of the poor performance of undergraduate students in their TDEs has been raised by academic communities: many students appear to be competent in their general English, but most of them perform poorly in their TDEs. This thesis will discuss this discrepancy and propose a possible solution.

This thesis is a critical exposition of communication strategies employed by cross-border traders (CBTs) during their trade activities at selected border sites in Southern Africa. The study spotlights the innovative ways by which CBTs circumvent nationally imposed language policies and practices that are a barrier to their communication during trade and, consequently, to their survival in the trade arena. Because modernist standard language ideological frameworks currently dominate the field of linguistic conceptualization and language definition, language practices of transient communities such as cross-border traders remain under-theorized and least appreciated. This thesis, therefore, challenges mainstream conceptualizations of language and their role in shaping simplistic ideas on language. The singular most important innovation of the thesis lies in that it moves away from abstracted notions of language and emphasizes those grounded elements of language that were extrapolated from real language settings and traceable actions of CBTs. Furthermore, the study contributes new theoretical insights on language redefinition and reconceptualization by drawing on observable on-site language practices of cross-border traders at selected Southern African borders and borderlands. What is it that enables the economic trade activities of these 'informal' cross-border traders to thrive in the face of linguistic diversity and nation-state controls? To address this question, the study used data from on-site observable language practices of CBTs as basis for suggesting an alternative philosophy of language and communication. In searching for alternative linguistic trajectories, a revisionist decoloniality epistemology was adopted in framing the theoretical underpinnings of the study. The new alternative linguistic trajectories suggested in the study, point to the need for the redefinition and re-conceptualization of what we mean by language.

This thesis analyses agency in Thai political science texts written at the time of the 2006 'coup d'état'. The rhetorical work of political scientists who write about political events deserves close attention. Intervening in debates about contentious political events is not only rhetorically challenging but can also be professionally and personally fraught for public intellectuals. It is important to understand the linguistic mechanisms by which these scholars exercise agency and persuade readers to a particular point of view. The study argues that agency in discourse can be explored from two perspectives: the agency exercised by writers as they take part in social practices, including in the construction and presentation of their texts, and the agency represented in the content of the texts as social actors are construed as taking part in social practices. These two perspectives are referred to respectively as rhetorical and represented agency. The study seeks to make explicit the linguistic resources that Thai political scientists deploy in the exercise and representation of these two dimensions of agency within the broader context of an escalating social and political conflict. The analysis of rhetorical and represented agency in political science texts requires a theory of language use in social contexts. Systemic functional linguistics (SFL), with its functional model of language oriented to social processes, provides a useful set of resources to analyse agency. SFL provides a theory of genre through which to explore rhetorical agency, in particular, the genres that the writers deploy and how these genres are staged and information flow is managed through the discourse semantic resources of periodicity. SFL also provides a theory of how writers position their texts in relation to other texts and other voices in the resources of appraisal. SFL's theory of grammar, particularly experiential grammar, accounts for the ways in which experience is construed in the clause to determine who does what to whom, under which circumstances and to what effect. To this end, SFL theories of transitivity and Hasan's (1985) -cline of dynamism" are also useful for the analysis of represented agency. The study supplements these SFL tools of analysis with reference to other theories of language and text. In particular, in the analysis of rhetorical agency, the concept of interdiscursivity draws on the work of Bhatia (2010) and Fairclough (2013) to help understand the ways in which texts appropriate different genres and the voices of others. Van Leeuwen's (2008) socio-semantic network also allows for a more delicate analysis iv of the lexical realisations of social actors in the texts that carry both ideological and rhetorical import. The data for the study comprise three texts produced by three well-known Thai political scientists. One text was published online on a university website, one was a keynote speech that was later published as an article in a journal, and the third was an academic article published in the same journal. Rhetorical agency is analysed in terms of the genres of argumentation that are deployed and how meanings are packaged in the three texts in a hierarchy of periodicity using the resources of Theme and New, hyperTheme and hyperNew and macroTheme and macroNew. Rhetorical agency is also characterised by the manner in which the writers appropriate other texts and discourses, which is analysed by means of the discourse semantic resources of appraisal, specifically the resources of engagement. Rhetorical agency is also analysed in terms of van Leeuwen's social actor network, which highlights patterns in the representation of social actors in the texts to reveal the ideological basis of some of these actors. Represented agency is explored through a transitivity analysis to reveal how these social actors are represented as agents or affected participants in the clause. In addition, the analysis of participants and processes in terms of the cline of dynamism highlights more subtle aspects of the representation of agency in these difficult circumstances and offers insights into the values and discourses inherent in the texts. The study demonstrates that a wide range of generic and linguistic resources was deployed to express agency in the Thai political science texts. The writers combined and blended genres and incorporated other voices and discourses in their texts in novel and creative ways. The analysis of represented agency provided clues to the political stance of each of the writers at the time of the coup. A more nuanced understanding of represented agency was established through an analysis of the representation of social actors in terms of the cline of dynamism. These results suggest that a linguistic theory of rhetorical agency requires a broad view of genre to include the notion of interdiscursivity and the integration of clause-level analyses to unpack text in context. Finally, this study illustrates how the exercise and representation of agency is both enabled and constrained not only by relationships of power but also by the linguistic resources available to the Thai writers.

This thesis investigates L2 structural priming in learners of English and the possible role of structural priming in second language acquisition. Three picture description production priming experiments were carried out in which speakers were exposed to prime sentences exhibiting a specific target structure. A pre- and post-test design was deployed to measure learning effects. In Experiment 1, fifty two L2 English speakers took part in a structural priming experiment targeting the production of get passives (e.g., the woman got arrested). Priming and learning effects were weak and were manifested in production of non-get passives. In contrast, in Experiment 2, where thirty eight L2 English speakers took part in another structural priming experiment targeting the production of stranded prepositions in relative clauses (e.g., a bed is something you sleep on), priming and learning effects were strong. The findings of learning through structural priming are interpreted as evidence of implicit learning of L2 structure. However, when the stranded preposition structure was primed in a different sentential context (i.e., the bed was too uncomfortable to sleep on) in a third experiment (n=40) only a weak priming effect emerged and there appeared to be no significant learning effect. These disparate findings suggest that the strength of L2 structural priming and subsequent learning effects might be modulated by the target structure. Implications for second language teaching and learning and theories of second language acquisition are discussed.

This thesis investigates the processes learners go through in learning the pronunciation of a second language, and how teachers can facilitate these processes. Its focus on the cognitive has led to the development of general teaching principles and the development of theory. It brings theory and practice together by using practice to inform theory and theory to re-inform practice. A broad multi-disciplinary approach has been taken, drawing on insights from phonology and L2 speech research, pronunciation pedagogy, and theoretical insights from SLA (Second Language Acquisition), socio-cultural theory and educational psychology, and bringing these together under a unifying theory of Cognitive Phonology. The empirical evidence to support both the theoretical and practical conclusions reached is provided through a progressive series of qualitative and quantitative studies. These studies all focus on difficulties in pronouncing syllable codas, i.e. epenthesis (the addition of a vowel) and absence (inappropriate omission of a consonant), in the context of adult high-intermediate level ESOL students resident in New Zealand. ... This thesis finds there is a role for form-focused instruction and corrective feedback in pronunciation learning. While this is in line with many views within SLA theory, it is only by turning to Cognitive Phonology that the necessary distinctions can be drawn between types of instruction in order to reveal what it is that makes explicit instruction effective. These theoretical insights are shown to have practical applications for the classroom.

There are several previous studies on Vietnamese terms of address and reference. Included among them are several Vietnamese grammar books. However, most such studies consist of a collage of the various forms of address in this language, including their denotative meanings and general usage (Cooke, 1968; Thompson, 1987; Nguyễn Đình-Hòa, 1997). Others discuss the pragmatic aspects of the usage of particular terms of address, for example, the social meanings of personal pronouns (Nguyễn Phú Phong, 2002; Nguyễn Văn Thành, 2003), and kinship terms (Spencer, 1945; Benedict, 1947; Nguyễn Tài Cẩn, 1975; Luong, 1984; Lê Biên, 1999; Cao Xuân Hạo, 2003; Szymańska-Matusiewicz, 2014). Also, there are studies that illustrate the complexity of the usages of these terms to convey politeness and appraisal (Vũ Mai Yên Trần, 2011; Phuc Thien Le, 2013; Ngo & Unsworth, 2011). However, apart from those denotative and social meanings that Vietnamese terms of address convey, it is also their affective meanings, or the emotional messages transferred through switches of these terms during conversations that constitute the complexity and also the unpredictability in Vietnamese address practice. This thesis builds on and extends this previous body of literature by providing empirical evidence through systematic data collection and analysis, including conversation analysis of telenovelas, content analysis of movie subtitles, EFL students‘ translation tasks, and professional translation works. With a special focus on switches of address terms during speech events among Vietnamese speakers, this study examines the situation-regulated affective meanings of Vietnamese terms of address, which are not their intrinsic property. It argues that it is important to study how these terms are employed in different contexts for different purposes, especially for the purpose of expressing one's emotions. Multiple sources of data were used. These include a total of 147 episodes of television series, equal to approximately 110 hours, of two Vietnamese telenovelas; a review of 5 professional translation works (English to Vietnamese and Vietnamese to English); 49 translation papers performed by third-year students who majored in English (Translation and Interpretation) from the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Dalat (Vietnam); a questionnaire for teachers of translation and interpretation courses that sought to better understand EFL students' translation outcomes; and face-to-face interviews with two professional translators (one in Sydney and another in Hanoi). The major findings of the study indicate that interactants' choices of address terms demonstrate their different states of attitude or emotion, which strengthens the argument that Vietnamese address terms have affective meanings, most of which are not an innate property, but can be revealed and interpreted in combination with other address terms and the situational context. The research results confirm and illustrate the general view among scholars that unlike those of many other languages, Vietnamese address terms pose major translational challenges particularly as a consequence of such factors as the relationships between the interlocutors, their relative age, and social, cultural, and emotional status. Overall, the originality and significance of this thesis lie in its innovative interdisciplinary approach that combines three branches of applied linguistics, namely pragmatics, translation studies and EFL teaching. These sub-fields of applied linguistics are usually studied in isolation of each other, thus overlooking the insights to be gained from a more integrated approach where the three are treated as complementary. The thesis innovatively uses insights from these three areas of research to contribute new empirical and theoretical ideas on how terms of address implicate emotions of speakers. The study draws on Vietnamese terms of address to illustrate the particular point about linkages between linguistic usages and the expression of emotions, and also the difficulties in solving the gaps or discrepancies between Vietnamese and a language such as English during the translation process.

The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate what makes children's animated television shows (CATS) so apparently engaging, and what kinds of values are being promoted by the phenomenally popular characters in these shows. The investigation is pursued from a semiotic perspective of engagement and value positions - theoretically and methodologically necessitating a bringing together of recent systemic functional linguistic (SFL) research into linguistic resources for conveying attitude, and systemic functional semiotic (SFS) research on the resources of images for constructing viewer/image interaction. By examining the interplay between the two semiotics, image and verbiage, in the way they afford interpersonal meaning in animated texts, this research aims to give insights into how CATS contribute to the cultural participation of young children (0-6 years) within a digital consumer context.
The research method involved four stages. The first stage consisted of a parent survey which yielded the wide range of young children's television (animated and non-animated) programs from which two episodes of CATS were selected: Dora the Explorer (DTE) and Charlie and Lola (C&L). Analysis of the narrative structure of each CATS, characterising the second stage revealed the difference between a quest challenge and a quest contest. The third stage, examined the dialogic discourse of each CATS to reveal two kinds of viewer roles: an active team member role and an active interpretative confidant role. The description of the distinctive nature of each viewer role was enabled through intermodal analysis. The analysis of the language and image resources in DTE revealed the engagement strategies that encourage inclusion through opportunities to rally together as a team and celebrate success, whereas, the analysis of the language and image resources in C&L revealed engagement strategies that invited interpretation of the familial banter between two siblings. The analysis of the fourth stage focused on the evaluative resources of language and image revealing how the discourse of each quest promotes prosocial values. The study found that the quest challenge (DTE) invests considerable work to share the values of social responsibility through the deployment of evaluative resources, while the quest contest (C&L) was found to use evaluative resources to manage the positive family values of congenial relations and mutual respect.
It is through the detailed investigation of the interactive relationships that this research produced an understanding of the structures that are crafted to promote socialisation and enculturation practices to young children, as well as the multimodal construction of interpersonal meaning in CATS. The implication of these findings may assist early childhood practitioners to recognise the beneficial contribution CATS can make as resources to a contemporary early childhood values curriculum.

Government first provided education to students living in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, in the 1950s. After 50 years, numerous government reports show that the vast majority of Indigenous students in remote communities do not succeed in learning basic English, literacy and numeracy. Galiwin'ku is a large Northern Territory Aboriginal community or township on Elcho Island, North-east Arnhem Land. Nearly all of the Aboriginal people there speak an Indigenous language (Yolŋu Matha) as their first language(s). Most students begin school with little or no knowledge of English language. The school at Galiwin'ku, Shepherdson College, is an accredited Two Way or bilingual school. Higher achieving students in remote Indigenous schools generally achieve just below Australian benchmark levels in numeracy at grade 3, but fall further behind by grade 5. Student achievements at school level off in most aspects of the curriculum. Many, if not most high school age Indigenous students, remain at around grade 3 levels of English and literacy and numeracy competency (Public Accounts Committee 1996) (PAC). The questions this thesis seeks to address are: do the Indigenous children at Galiwin'ku learn their own language thoroughly, to age appropriate norms? If the students 'are' learning their own language to age appropriate norms, what are they doing in English? Does the data gathered on the students' English give insights into how educators might assist the students in learning English better? Are there linguistic and/or other factors, which might be constraining Indigenous students from learning English (and literacy and numeracy) at Galiwin'ku? The study involved recording children describing pictures from storybooks and cartoons in Yolŋu Matha and English. Teachers at the school were asked to complete questionnaires (voluntary) about their qualifications, experience and views on teaching in an ESL situation in an Indigenous school. Factors that affect Indigenous children from succeeding at school were investigated from government reports of inquiries into Indigenous education and health.