Papers by Charles M Mueller
This paper contributes to the comparative analysis of religious language through an analysis of s... more This paper contributes to the comparative analysis of religious language through an analysis of specific linguistic features in corpora of contemporary Evangelical Christian and Zen Buddhist texts. Based on a force dynamics framework from cognitive linguistics, this corpus-based study highlights and discusses some important differences between the linguistic patterns in the discourse of these two traditions, specifically in the use of modals. The results show that Evangelical language, with one noteworthy exception, generally makes more frequent use of modals based on positive compulsion. Will is also used more often to mark eschatological concerns and predictions about what Christians will experience and how they will respond. In contrast, the Zen Corpus exhibits greater use of modals associated with contingency and use of distal modal forms such as might and would. The fact that these are often used to hedge statements suggests the Zen authors have a greater tendency to avoid emphatic language. The linguistic patterns can be attributed largely to the texts' discourse contexts and aims: Zen discourse is primarily focused on offering teachings grounded in realizations drawn from the author's practice with only a secondary focus on interpreting and presenting the teachings of authoritative figures within the tradition. The abundance of hedging also reflects Zen authors' suspicions of teachings that put forth a priori claims of absolute truth. In contrast, the focus of Evangelical writers is often on conveying what they regard as the unequivocal truth of the Bible, whether by means of direct quotes, paraphrasing, or interpretative application. The relative avoidance of hedging and preference for modals of strong positive compulsion in the Evangelical texts thus reflect firm convictions regarding the divine authority of Christian scripture. This study demonstrates how corpus-based analysis and cognitive linguistic frameworks can be effectively combined in the study of religious language.
Talking about oneself: Effects of personalized prompts on L2 learners' speech
Journal of Second Language Studies, 2022
Second language instructors often have students talk about their own experiences rather than abst... more Second language instructors often have students talk about their own experiences rather than abstract impersonal topics. Intuitively, such topics seem more likely to encourage student engagement. Unfortunately, virtually no empirical research has examined the effects of personal prompts on spoken output. To address this gap in research, the current study (N = 117) compares the spoken output of Japanese university English students who responded to a personal prompt with students responding to an impersonal prompt. Output was recorded in transcripts and then analyzed using a battery of measures related to complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Findings showed that personalized prompts were associated with greater fluency. Moreover, there was some evidence that impersonal prompts led to output with greater lexical complexity. Rates of accuracy were similar in both groups. Correlational analysis suggested that lexical sophistication was associated with reduced fluency. The conclusion addresses practical implications and avenues for further research.
Contested paths: Analyzing unfolding metaphor usage in a debate between Dawkins and Lennox
Metaphor and the Social World, 2022
Recent studies of metaphor usage (e.g., Cameron, 2011 ; Semino et al., 2013 ) have shifted focus ... more Recent studies of metaphor usage (e.g., Cameron, 2011 ; Semino et al., 2013 ) have shifted focus from relatively static mappings between source and target domains towards an emphasis on how metaphors are appropriated and recontextualized across different genres to convey new meanings and serve new functions. More recently, this emphasis has begun to be applied to the study of metaphor usage in religious discourse ( Pihlaja, 2014 ; Richardson, 2017 ; Richardson et al., 2021 ). The current article investigates how metaphors of movement are used in conjunction with metonymy, force dynamics, and conceptual blending to create particular rhetorical effects in a debate between the atheist Richard Dawkins and the Christian apologist John Lennox. It demonstrates how previous figurative language is expanded and reconfigured during the course of the debate in an attempt to establish situated, dominant conceptualizations.
The Language Teacher, 2021
College-level Japanese learners of English find articles difficult to acquire. To determine which... more College-level Japanese learners of English find articles difficult to acquire. To determine which uses of English articles pose the greatest difficulties to this population, the current study examined first-year students’ (N = 178) performance on an article assessment instrument. Results indicated patterns of difficulty somewhat different from those reported by Liu and Gleason (2002), who conducted research on ESL learners from diverse L1 backgrounds. In the current study, participants displayed greater accuracy on uses that could be captured by easy-to-apply rules involving linguistic form (i.e., those consistently marked by specific lexical items, iterative use of lexical items, or grammatical constructions) and lower accuracy on uses captured primarily by semantic rules. The results are useful to EFL teachers in determining which uses of the articles should receive primary focus in instruction aimed at first-year Japanese college students.
Bulletin of the Faculty of Humanities, Fuji Women’s University, 2019
The aim of this paper is to propose an eight-point framework for reducing plagiarism among univer... more The aim of this paper is to propose an eight-point framework for reducing plagiarism among university students. Prior to presenting this framework, the paper will briefly discuss the definition of plagiarism, reasons why it is a serious problem, and individual and contextual factors that lead students to engage in this unethical behavior. The paper will then discuss how plagiarism can be reduced through the fostering of appropriate attitudes, development of requisite research and writing skills, design of appropriate assignments and curricula, and establishment of consistent institutional guidelines and practices. The final section reflects on some general considerations to be kept in mind when instituting the framework.
Effectiveness of force dynamic explanations of English causative verbs and the role of imagery
Cognitive Linguistics, 2019
The current study examines the effectiveness of a CL-based forced dynamic (FD) lesson relative to... more The current study examines the effectiveness of a CL-based forced dynamic (FD) lesson relative to a more conventional approach that seeks to convey the target semantics through corresponding L1 forms. Exp. 1 (N = 67) examined Japanese EFL students’ acquisition of the English verbs force, get, have, help, let, make, and prevent, comparing the effectiveness of force dynamic explanations with dynamic diagrams and a translation-based approach. Both groups showed significant learning on both the posttest and delayed posttest, but the FD group’s greater gains over the conventional instruction on both the posttest and delayed posttest did not reach significance. Exp. 2 (N = 97) replicated most of the Exp. 1 conditions but with a slightly altered instructional format to ensure participant’s focus on force dynamic relationships. The FD group’s greater gains on a posttest given three weeks following instruction fell short of statistical significance. Exp. 3 (N = 54) compared the effectiveness of a FD lesson using dynamic images with a lesson without such images and found no significant differences between the groups. The three experiments demonstrate that CL-based instruction on force dynamics provides a viable alternative to conventional instruction in which target semantics are conveyed through translation.
The Language Teacher, 2019
Previous research has shown that Japanese learners experience difficulty in developing sensitivit... more Previous research has shown that Japanese learners experience difficulty in developing sensitivity to many English phonemic contrasts. An unexplored area in this research concerns learners’ awareness of which contrasts pose the greatest difficulty. The current research seeks to fill this gap in our understanding by comparing EFL learners’ (n = 63) ranking of nine problematic contrasts with the ranking determined by their actual performance on a minimal pairs test. Results showed that although the participants were aware of oft-discussed problematic contrasts such as /r/ versus /l/, they underestimated the difficulty of other contrasts such as those that occur between final nasals. Results of a posttest given one month following a brief practice session involving feedback resulted in significant improvement (p = .002). Participants’ difficulty rankings are compared with perceptions of native and nonnative English language instructors. Finally, possible explanations for the findings are discussed along with the pedagogical recommendations.
Vocabulary and Learning Instruction, 2018
Over the past 40 years, extensive research has examined the effectiveness of mnemonics for vocabu... more Over the past 40 years, extensive research has examined the effectiveness of mnemonics for vocabulary learning. Much of this research has investigated the keyword method (Atkinson & Raugh, 1975), which involves linking an image related to a to-be-learned L2 word with an image related to a similar-sounding L1 word. Whereas most research has shown the keyword method to be effective (Webb & Nation, 2017) with impressive long-term retention rates (Beaton, Gruneberg, & Ellis, 1995), some have questioned its usefulness, particularly due to the quality of the resulting lexical representations and extended latencies associated with recall (Barcroft, Sommers, & Sunderman, 2011; Van Hell & Candia Mahn, 1997). Other drawbacks of the keyword technique are the equating of dissimilar L1 and L2 phonemes and the difficulty in creating associations for languages with markedly different phoneme inventories. The current study presents a novel approach called the Homonym/ Homophone Association Method (HAM). It overcomes some of the drawbacks of the keyword method by associating meanings of L2 homonyms or homophones, one known by the learner and one unknown. Because the pronunciations of the L2 target words are identical (or nearly identical), learners only need to associate two distinct meanings. A quasi-experiment (N = 71) employing a within-subjects design compared the effectiveness of (1) HAM using researcher- generated associations and images, (2) HAM using self- generated associations, and (3) production practice that involved writing target words in sentences. Results on an unannounced posttest given 3 weeks after instruction suggest an advantage for HAM using researcher-generated associations. Keywords: HAM; keyword method; homonyms; homophones; vocabulary learning; mnemonics; puns; humor
The Bulletin of the Faculty of Humanities, Fuji Women’s University, 2018
While extensive research has been conducted on language learning beliefs of undergraduate college... more While extensive research has been conducted on language learning beliefs of undergraduate college students, scant attention has been focused on the beliefs of graduate students. This study examines graduate students' (N = 81) attitudes toward language learning using the BALLI (Horwitz, 1987). Results are reported, along with an assessment of how well these beliefs are aligned with the consensus of SLA experts.
OnCUE, 2018
Personalized writing prompts are often used in second language pedagogy to foster more meaningful... more Personalized writing prompts are often used in second language pedagogy to foster more meaningful learning. Unfortunately, few studies have examined the effects such prompts have on learners’ written output. The current research discusses two research strands that may have relevance when considering the effects of such prompts on written products: memory research on the self-reference effect and Robinson’s Cognition Hypothesis. To empirically investigate the effects of writing prompt manipulations on output, an experiment was conducted with 36 Japanese-L1 female EFL participants whose written essays were examined in terms of verbosity, complexity, and accuracy. Based on memory research and the Cognition Hypothesis, it was hypothesized that personalized writing prompts would lead to greater verbosity, less complexity, and less accuracy. While the findings were partly consistent with these hypotheses, it was found that personalized prompts were, in fact, associated with greater accuracy. The results suggest that personalized prompts may be a preferable pedagogic option when the focus is on promoting written fluency. Prompts asking learners to write about other people or to take an impersonal stance, on the other hand, may require greater scaffolding and may need to be introduced later in the task cycle.
第二言語教授法において, ライティングで個人的な内容を指示文(Prompts)とすることは, より意義深い学習を促すためによく利用されている。ところが残念なことに, このような指示文が、学習者の書いた成果物にどのような効果をもたらすかはあまり調査されていない。本研究では, その効果に関連しうる二つの研究－記憶の自己参照効果, およびロビンソンの認知仮説を考拠とした。ライティングにおける個人的な内容の指示文の効果を実験的に調査するため, 英語を外国語として学習する女性日本語母語話者36 名の参加者によって書かれたエッセイを用い, 文章の長さ, 複雑さ及び正確さを分析した。記憶研究および認知仮説に基づき, 個人的なことを書く場合はより長い文章になる一方, 複雑さや正確さはより劣るであろうという仮説が立てられた。結果は仮説と一致する部分があったものの, 正確さについてはより高まることがわかった。したがって, ライティングの流暢さに焦点を当てる場合は, 個人的な内容を指示文とする方がより好ましい教授的選択であると言える。他方, 他者に関することや非個人的な立場をとる内容を指示文とする際は, より強力な足場づくりが必要となり, 学習が進んでから用いるのが望ましいと考えられる．
Initial acquisition of tense-aspect morphology in an artificial language
Second Language Research, 2018
Various explanations have been put forth for the asymmetrical acquisition of tense and aspect mor... more Various explanations have been put forth for the asymmetrical acquisition of tense and aspect morphology across categories of lexical aspect. This experiment tested the adequacy of a subset of such accounts by examining English native speakers’ (n = 40) use of progressive and past tense morphology within activity and accomplishment verb frames during their early acquisition of a miniature artificial language. Participants completed a lesson in which types and tokens of lexical aspect and past and present morphology were balanced. Although significant effects at p < .05 were found for lexical aspect and morphological marking, the interaction between these factors, expected by the aspect hypothesis, was non-significant. The experiment suggests that the effects of lexical aspect may be absent during the earliest phases of second language acquisition or may be due to factors methodologically excluded in this study such as distributional biases in second language input.
JALT Journal, 2017
According to Swales’ (2004) analysis of research articles (RAs), introductions generally involve ... more According to Swales’ (2004) analysis of research articles (RAs), introductions generally involve three “moves”, with Move 1 (M1) establishing a research territory, Move 2 (M2) identifying a gap in existing research, and Move 3 (M3) discussing how the current research addresses this gap. Some cross-linguistic studies have suggested that Asian writers organize introductions differently from English writers, with less use of M2, less employment of direct criticism of previous research, and more cycling of moves. The current study examined 75 applied linguistics RAs written during the last decade (1) in English by English native speakers, (2) in Japanese by Japanese native speakers, and (3) in English by Japanese native speakers. Analysis showed that the RAs written by these three groups exhibited only minor differences. The results suggest that Japanese-authored RAs and English native-speaker RAs are converging around an agreed-upon set of disciplinary expectations.
It is commonly observed that the lexically dense and stylistically creative language that is char... more It is commonly observed that the lexically dense and stylistically creative language that is characteristic of carefully planned writing or speech differs sharply from the repetitive and predictable patterns found in language produced under time pressure. Human beings seem to have two linguistic modi operandi, one that maximizes expressiveness while disregarding cognitive investment, and another one that minimizes cognitive work through the use of ready made linguistic routines based on prefabricated chunks of language. These linguistic chunks, here referred to as ºformulaic sequences" (FSs), until recently have only received sporadic attention. Generative linguistics (e.g., Chomsky, 1957) in particular, with its focus on the creative competence of the ideal native speaker, has traditionally treated FSs as uninteresting epiphenomena of performance. In recent decades, however, numerous researchers, particularly those with usage based perspectives on acquisition, have taken renewed interest in FSs.
English prepositions have been found to pose tremendous difficulties for English learners . These... more English prepositions have been found to pose tremendous difficulties for English learners . These difficulties can have a debilitating effect on acquisition, as prepositions occur frequently in English, where they account for 12% of word class tokens and are thus more common than adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns (Francis & Kučera, 1982, p. 547). Indeed, prepositions are among the most frequently occurring words in English. For example, of, in, to, for, with, on and at, used as prepositions, are the 3 rd , 6 th , 10 th , 12 th , 15 th , 18 th , and 21 st most common words respectively (p. 465).
Qualitative research focusing primarily on advanced-proficiency second language (L2) learners sug... more Qualitative research focusing primarily on advanced-proficiency second language (L2) learners suggests that online corpora can function as useful reference tools for language learners, especially when addressing phraseological issues. However, the feasibility and effectiveness of online corpus consultation for learners at a basic level of L2 proficiency have been relatively unexplored. The current study of Japanese-L1 (first language) learners in an EFL (English as a foreign language) context (N=117) addresses these gaps in research. A preliminary investigation (Experiment 1) examined EFL learners (n=78) as they used the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA: Davies, 2008–) to revise essays. Experiment 2 (n=39) used a within-subjects comparison to determine whether participants attained greater accuracy in supplying the missing word in a gap-fill test when using an electronic dictionary or COCA. The survey results from the two experiments revealed that participants generally found using an online corpus difficult. In Experiment 2, a paired-samples t-test showed that participants, at an alpha of p=.05 two-tailed, were marginally better able to answer test questions when using the online corpus than they were when using an electronic dictionary, p=0.030. The implications of the study within the context of previous research are discussed along with pedagogical recommendations and possible avenues for future research.
Second language (L2) learners’ successful performance in an L2 can be partly attributed to their ... more Second language (L2) learners’ successful performance in an L2 can be partly attributed to their knowledge of collocations. In some cases, this knowledge is accompanied by knowledge of the semantic and/or grammatical patterns that motivate the collocation. At other times, collocational knowledge may serve a compensatory role. To determine the extent to which second language learners’ interlanguage relies on collocational knowledge in lieu of precise semantic knowledge, an experiment examined the performance of advanced adult English learners (N=90) from Chinese, Korean, and Spanish L1 backgrounds on a fill-in-the-blanks test in which matched items targeted the same specific sense of a preposition but varied in word co-occurrence frequency, as determined through a corpus analysis. An ANOVA indicated that collocational frequencies of the phrase in which the preposition was embedded had a significant effect (p < .001) on the performance of the learners. The study suggests that even fairly advanced NNSs use collocational knowledge when acquiring prepositions’ noncentral senses.
Recent years have witnessed growing interest in cognitive linguistics (CL) and its potential insi... more Recent years have witnessed growing interest in cognitive linguistics (CL) and its potential insights for L2 learning. However, few experimental investigations have applied a CL perspective to instructed L2 learning. English prepositions represent a promising target for the application of CL to instructed L2 learning since, contrary to traditional approaches, CL represents the many meanings associated with a single preposition as being systematically related in principled ways. This article lays out the fundamentals of a CL analysis of the semantics of English prepositions and reports on a quasi-experimental study examining the efficacy of applying a CL approach to instructed L2 learning of the semantics of English to, for and at. Comparison of pre- and post-test results show significant gain scores (p >.0003), indicating that the group of 14 advanced learners who received instruction based on a CL perspective experienced substantial improvement in their understanding of the semantics of the three prepositions.
Two experiments were conducted to determine whether explicit instruction focusing on metaphorical... more Two experiments were conducted to determine whether explicit instruction focusing on metaphorical collocations would promote the incidental noticing of similar phrases by English learners during a subsequent reading task. Noticing was operationalized using the remember-know protocol and learning was measured on a fill-in-the-blanks test. In Experiment 1 (N = 36), within-subjects comparisons showed that explicit instruction led to more incidents of noticing (p < .001). Experiment 2 (N = 24) sought to extend the findings by examining whether self-referential questions during instruction would lead to greater noticing compared to depersonalized questions. Experiment 2 confirmed the first experiment’s finding of effects of explicit instruction on noticing, but failed to show significant effects for self-referential prompts on subsequent noticing, although such prompts did lead learners to produce higher word counts during the writing task. The two experiments suggest that explicit instruction promotes incidental noticing of important semantic contrasts in subsequent input.
This paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental effects-of-instruction study examining the... more This paper reports the results of a quasi-experimental effects-of-instruction study examining the efficacy of applying a Cognitive Linguistic (CL) approach to L2 learning of the semantics of English modals. In spite of their frequency in typical input, modal verbs present L2 learners with difficulties, partly due to their inherent complexity — modals typically have two divergent senses — a root sense and an epistemic sense. ELT textbooks and most grammar books aimed at L2 teachers present the two meanings as homophones, failing to address any systematic semantic patterning in the modal system as a whole. Additionally, ELT texts tend to present modals from a speech act perspective. In contrast, CL analyses (e. g., Langacker 1991; Nuyts 2001; Sweetser 1990; Talmy 1988) offer both a systematic, motivated representation of the relationship between the root and epistemic meanings and a rather precise representation of the semantics of each modal. To test the pedagogical effectiveness of a CL account of modals, an effects-of-instruction study was conducted with three groups of adult, high-intermediate ESL learners: a Cognitive treatment group, a Speech Acts treatment group, and a Control group. Results of an ANCOVA indicated that the Cognitive treatment group demonstrated significantly more improvement than the Speech Acts treatment group. The experiment thus lends empirical support for the position that CL, in addition to offering a compelling analytical account of language, may also provide the basis for more effective grammar instruction than that found in most current ELT teaching materials.
Books by Charles M Mueller
Modern Buddhist and Christian Mysticism: Construal and Transformation, 2025
Investigations of mysticism often focus on the past, while largely ignoring current developments.... more Investigations of mysticism often focus on the past, while largely ignoring current developments. This book contributes to a reversal of that trend with a rigorous examination of a wide selection of contemporary Buddhist and Christian authors. The focus is on the intriguing intersections and subtle divergences now emerging in areas such as ineffability, nonconceptuality, paradox, inverted agency, unity, and self-dissolution. The analysis combines the theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics with a range of methodological approaches, from discourse and thematic analysis to corpus linguistics. Wide-ranging, systematic, and informative, the book is invaluable to all of those interested in the phenomenon of mysticism within the modern world.
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Papers by Charles M Mueller
第二言語教授法において, ライティングで個人的な内容を指示文(Prompts)とすることは, より意義深い学習を促すためによく利用されている。ところが残念なことに, このような指示文が、学習者の書いた成果物にどのような効果をもたらすかはあまり調査されていない。本研究では, その効果に関連しうる二つの研究－記憶の自己参照効果, およびロビンソンの認知仮説を考拠とした。ライティングにおける個人的な内容の指示文の効果を実験的に調査するため, 英語を外国語として学習する女性日本語母語話者36 名の参加者によって書かれたエッセイを用い, 文章の長さ, 複雑さ及び正確さを分析した。記憶研究および認知仮説に基づき, 個人的なことを書く場合はより長い文章になる一方, 複雑さや正確さはより劣るであろうという仮説が立てられた。結果は仮説と一致する部分があったものの, 正確さについてはより高まることがわかった。したがって, ライティングの流暢さに焦点を当てる場合は, 個人的な内容を指示文とする方がより好ましい教授的選択であると言える。他方, 他者に関することや非個人的な立場をとる内容を指示文とする際は, より強力な足場づくりが必要となり, 学習が進んでから用いるのが望ましいと考えられる．
Books by Charles M Mueller