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Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching
Department of English Studies, Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts, Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz

SSLLT 6 (4). 2016. 559-560
doi: 10.14746/ssllt.2016.6.4.1

http://www.ssllt.amu.edu.pl

Editorial

The last 2016 issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching in-
cludes six papers, five of which are reports of original research projects and one
is a conceptual piece. The initial two contributions are concerned with different
aspects of pragmatics, both with respect to the teaching of this subsystem and
the process of its acquisition. In the first of these, Andrew D. Cohen addresses
the crucial issue of how native and non-native teachers of second and foreign
languages deal with sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic features in their clas-
ses. He reports the findings of an online survey of 113 teachers of different ad-
ditional languages from across the world, which demonstrated that while there
exist many similarities between the native and non-native instructors, the for-
mer are often at an advantage, although they by no means confine themselves
to reliance on their intuition. In the second, Qiong Li undertakes a synthesis of
26 original longitudinal research studies on naturalistic pragmatic development
in adult learners with the purpose of identifying patterns of variation in the ac-
quisition of pragmatic features and providing potential explanations for the oc-
currence of such variation. The analysis showed that there are differences in the
rate of development of various aspects of pragmatics (e.g., speech acts vs. lexi-
cal features), which can be accounted for in terms of factors related to the target
language (e.g., the frequency of the feature in the input), the situation (e.g.,
social status) and the learner (e.g., initial knowledge about the target feature).
The following two papers shift the emphasis to the role of individual factors in
the process of second language acquisition, more specifically the contributions
of motivation and willingness to communicate (WTC). Ali Al-Hoorie reports the
results of a survey study conducted among 311 young Arabic adult learners of
English as a foreign language, providing evidence, somewhat in contrast to much
previous research, that achievement in second language learning is a function
of implicit attitudes to L2 speakers and L2 learning experience rather than the
ought-to self or attachment to the L1 group, with such constructs as the ideal L2



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self or intended effort being unrelated to success. The study by Mystkowska-
Wiertelak investigated fluctuations in WTC of advanced learners of English during
seven conversation classes which she taught over the period of one semester.
Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data gathered by means of self-assess-
ment girds, interviews, questionnaires and detailed lesson plans indicated that
WTC was indeed in a state of flux, both within single lessons and over time, with
such changes being attributed to an intricate interplay of contextual and individ-
ual factors. The last two contributions focus on the role of critical thinking in for-
eign language learning. Jelena Bobkina and Svetlana Stefanova present a model
of teaching critical thinking skills with the help of literature, arguing that such skills
can be fostered through encouraging critical reader response to fictional work
embedded in social phenomena as well as illustrating how this model can be ap-
plied to classroom practice. In the last paper, Paweł Sobkowiak underscores the
interdependence of critical thinking and the development of intercultural compe-
tence, discussing the findings of a study of 20 coursebooks used in the Polish con-
texts and concluding that activities used in these coursebooks fall short of achiev-
ing either goal. As always, I am confident that all of the papers included in the
present issue will provide food for thought to the readers and serve as a spring-
board for future empirical investigations that will help us better understand the
exceedingly complex processes of second language learning and teaching.

As the year 2016 is drawing to a close, it is fitting to take stock of the status
of the journal over the last twelve months. To put it briefly, it has been a good
year for SSLLT, which has seen the publication of 25 excellent articles, most of
which were reports of original research studies, 9 reviews of recently published
books, as well as a special issue on the latest developments in instructed second
language acquisition. My sincere thanks go to all contributors, both successful
authors as well as those whose submissions could not in the end be published,
all the reviewers, whose constructive, detailed comments helped the authors
considerably enhance the quality of their work and, in particular, Hossein Nas-
saji, the guest editor of the special issue, who managed to get together such an
impressive group of specialists in the field. The new year is shaping up to be an
equally successful one for the journal and I am positive that we will be able to
bring to the community a number of high quality papers, some of which will be
part of the projected state-of-the-art special issues on individual differences, ac-
quisition of grammar and language learning strategies.

Mirosław Pawlak
Adam Mickiewicz University, Kalisz, Poland

State University of Applied Sciences, Konin, Poland
pawlakmi@amu.edu.pl