WoPaLP

Welcome to the second volume of WoPaLP - Working Papers in Language Pedagogy. We are glad to see that this journal seems to be establishing itself in the profession: we have received a large number of submissions for this volume, and some are already trickling in for the next one. We hope that the articles we have selected for inclusion will continue to serve as an encouragement and model to novice and experienced researchers to carry out and write up research in their own fields of interest related to language learning, language teaching or language use from a pedagogical perspective.

We would like to express our gratitude to the members of the Advisory and Editorial Boards of the journal, who have provided their expert opinion to improve the standards of the papers. The reviewing process at WoPaLP does not only concern the contents and the research process of the papers but the actual writing up as well. Our thanks go out to the proofreaders, who have made sure that the language is accurate and appropriate.

It is a coincidence, but similarly to the first one, this volume also contains seven articles which represent a wide range of language pedagogy research. The papers come from the areas of discourse and genre analysis, the study of lexis, as well as language learning and language teaching processes. The first three articles have a strong discourse orientation. Gyula Tankó and Gergely J. Tamási propose and test a taxonomy of argumentative thesis statements in an attempt to explore student preferences for argumentative thesis statement types in essay writing. Ildikó Furka’s paper proposes a model for the description of the rhetorical structure of motivational letters and CVs written by Hungarian EFL students from the perspectives of discourse analysis and intercultural competence. Anna Trebits’s corpus-based analysis explores the characteristics of lexical elements in English language documents of the European Union. The results of her findings may directly contribute to the development of special English language course materials for EU and international relations courses. The ensuing articles focus more directly on the process of language learning and teaching in the Hungarian EFL context. Zsuzsa Tóth’s paper reports on the adaptation of a well-established foreign language anxiety scale for use in the Hungarian EFL setting. Gabriella Mezei describes the self-regulation and motivational dispositions of two successful adult language learners, while Ilona Huszti provides case studies of six Transcarpathian Hungarian learners focusing on miscues in reading aloud in English as a foreign language. In the final article of this volume, Adrienn Menyhárt looks at the issues of teacher motivation and self-perception in the Hungarian university context. Her main aim is to reveal whether university teachers see themselves as teachers or lecturers and to explore what motivates or demotivates them to behave as teachers who teach interactive, student-centered seminars.

We hope you will find this second volume of WoPaLP of interest to your teaching and research context, and look forward to your comments and contributions so that we can continuously improve the quality of the journal.

Enjoy reading.

The editors

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Articles

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Gyula Tankó & Gergely J. Tamási: A Comprehensive Taxonomy of Argumentative Thesis Statements: A Preliminary Pilot Study

Ildikó Furka: The Curriculum Vitae and the Motivational Letter: A Rhetorical and Cultural Analysis

Anna Trébits: English Lexis in the Documents of the European Union – A Corpus-Based Exploratory Study

Zsuzsa Tóth: A Foreign Language Anxiety Scale for Hungarian Learners of English

Gabriella Mezei: Motivation and Self-regulated Learning: A Case Study of a Pre-intermediate and an Upper-intermediate Adult Student

Ilona Huszti: The Micro Level of Reading Miscues: Case Studies of Six Learners

Adrienn Menyhárt: Teachers or Lecturers? The Motivational Profile of University Teachers of English

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