Learning how to learn pragmatics

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoko Taguchi ◽  
Xiaofei Tang ◽  
Joy Maa

Learning strategies are self-generated actions taken to make learning more efficient,productive, and transferable to new settings (Oxford, 1990, 2011). We can teach students how to use learning strategies efficiently, helping them gain autonomy and control of their own learning process. This study applied strategy instruction to pragmatics learning in a second language (L2). Adapting Oxford's (2011) taxonomy, we taught L2 learners various cognitive and metacognitive strategies, including how to pay attention to select pragmatic features, and how to monitor and evaluate their learning of the features. Four L2 Chinese learners and six L2 Japanese learners in a US university received strategy instruction on targeted pragmatic features (i.e., conversation opening/closing; indirect meaning). The instruction was followed by a two-week period in which students kept a daily journal recording their experiences with the targeted features. Interviews were conducted at the end to gauge students' reflections of the strategy applications. Results showed that students noticed targeted pragmatic features in available resources, but there was imbalance in the degree of noticing and types of strategies used.

Author(s):  
Shuyi Yang

Abstract As a partial replication of Tagashira, Kida, and Hoshino (2010), the present study examined first language (L1) translation familiarity effect on second language (L2) antonym acquisition among English-speaking intermediate-level Chinese learners. Fifteen students learned 15 antonymous pairs with familiar or unfamiliar L1 translations and completed two multiple-choice posttests. Their learning strategies were also collected. Results showed (a) a delayed L1 familiarity effect, (b) better retention and lower interference of L2 pairs with familiar L1 translations, (c) low retention of L2 pairs with unfamiliar L1 translations for both words, and (d) more orthographic elaboration strategies employed. The findings suggest that L2 instructors present antonyms in pairs, avoid providing a single, unfamiliar L1 translation, and encourage the use of orthographic elaboration strategies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeng Liyun ◽  
Mao Zhicheng ◽  
Jiang Lin

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the effect of the continuation task (CT) on the acquisition of the Chinese spatial phrase structure (SPS) by learners of various L1 backgrounds learning Chinese as a second language (CSL). Two groups of participants were formed: a continuation group and a reading comprehension group. The former was required to continue in Chinese a text with its ending removed, while the latter needed to complete the Q&A questions after reading the same text. The effect of the tasks was measured by examining the CSL learners’ correct use of the Chinese SPS in three aspects — the circum-construction, the use of prepositions and the use of the locative. The study found that the continuation group made significant improvement from the pretest to the posttests while the reading comprehension group did not. Moreover, the continuation group outperformed the reading comprehension group significantly in the posttests, though there was no significant difference between them in the pretest. The results showed that CT can facilitate CSL learners’ acquisition of the Chinese SPS, with a better effect than the reading comprehension task.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heri Yudiono

Revitalization of vocational education must be designed and developed according to the needs of industry through appropriate learning innovations. The selection of the right learning method influences the graduate competencies and learning experiences of students. This study aims to analyze the learning process based on industrial products in mechanical practices. The analysis of the learning process includes giving aperceptions and motivation, mastering learning materials, learning strategies implementation, learning resources or media, involving students, and closing the learning process. The research method used experimental with a static group comparasion design. The design of this study used two groups consist of experimental and control group. Experimental group is respondents who used industrial products-based learning and control group is respondents who used conventional learning (job sheet-based). The sampling used simple random sampling method. Each group consist of 20 respondents. The research respondents were students of the Mechanical Engineering Department Universitas Negeri Semarang who have passed the Mechanical Process I lesson. The study result is there are differences in the mechanical practices process using industrial products-based learning and conventional learning (job sheet-based). Implementation of learning in relation to the gift of apperception and motivation, mastery of learning materials, application of learning strategies, assembling of learning resources or learning media,  participation of students in learning process, and closing the learning process is better to use the industrial products-based learning compare with conventional learning


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
P. M. Binu

The past few decades have seen a great amount of second language acquisition research on language learning strategies. Most of the research on strategy instruction had more practical goals than mere theoretical understanding. These practical goals are different ways of equipping learners with self-learning strategies. The latest developments in education and research, especially with the incorporation of neurosciences, psychology, and information technology have provided promising solutions to most of the problems faced by the low proficiency learners in second language acquisition. They also have given birth to numerous learning tools and methods of instruction. As a result, teachers can now rely on various sources of information and communication technology and use individualized instructional strategies to provide adequate support to these struggling learners especially for enhancing their writing skills. However, they need to be careful in providing support because an excessive amount of support may hinder the learners’ ability to work independently and develop critical thinking skills.


2022 ◽  
Vol 04 (01) ◽  
pp. 686-701
Author(s):  
Magda Hamid KAMBASH ◽  
Nidal Fadel ABBAS ◽  
Esraa Fadel ABBAS

The use of modern teaching strategies aims to develop the practices of ‎female learners inside and outside the classroom, which contributes to ‎changing the role of the student from a negative role to a positive role in ‎general. Therefore, learning strategies have become involved in the ‎application of many educational and teaching programs and curricula, as ‎they greatly help in conveying information to the learner. With less ‎effort and time, except that the material to be learned is theoretical or ‎practical. In light of what the current era is witnessing of a huge ‎knowledge explosion and a wide technological revolution that covered ‎various areas of life, it has become necessary for researchers to be ‎interested in searching for ways to ensure the development of thinking ‎among learners, which is one of the foundations of correct learning, ‎some strategies, means and methods used in the learning process help. ‎To bring the learner to a stage where he can access knowledge on their ‎own by applying that knowledge and using it to overcome the problems ‎they face in their daily lives. He has to use different and multiple ‎methods and methods, and this requires him to be familiar with how ‎learning takes place, and how the teaching methods and means used ‎affect the speed of achieving the goal of the learning process and the ‎success of applying the educational curriculum and achieving its goals‏.‏ One of the features of the modern era is technological progress in ‎various fields and situations of life, as rapid change has become a feature ‎of the era in which we live. There is no doubt that its use affects all ‎aspects of life, including education and teaching, and with this clear ‎progress in the level of mastery of learning skills in sports events around ‎the world, it has become necessary to use learning strategies in ‎programs and curricula for teaching and teaching physical education and ‎learning basic skills for all games and events Sports, including volleyball‏.‏ The researchers found the lack of use of modern strategies in the ‎educational process, and despite their active role in learning basic skills ‎using modern methods, it requires the presence of exercises that ‎contribute to learning basic skills in volleyball, whose weakness emerged ‎from the research sample, which casts a clear shadow on the ‎performance and levels of learners. The aim of the research is to prepare ‎special exercises According to the brain-based learning strategy in ‎learning some basic volleyball skills for students of the second average, ‎and to identify the effect of special exercises according to the brain-‎based learning strategy in learning some basic volleyball skills for ‎students of the second average, and to identify the preference of the ‎experimental and control groups in learning some basic volleyball skills ‎for female students. The second is average. The researchers used the ‎experimental approach for the experimental and control groups, and the ‎research sample was represented by (30) students, then the sample was ‎divided into an experimental group of (15) female students and a control ‎group of (15) female students.


Humaniora ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1146
Author(s):  
Agustian Agustian ◽  
Lydia Anggreani

With the increase of Chinese learners, a number of people who attend Chinese Proficiency Test also have continued to increase. To cope with this test, Chinese Department BINUS University sets up HSK Preparation Class for its students. In this class it is found that students have some difficulties with this subject. One of them is reading part. Therefore this study was conducted through analysis of third grade students of HSK Preparation Class to find out what their problems are, to provide some suggestions, and to comment that can be used in teaching and learning process. This study is hoped to be able to provide some advice and help forteachers and students having HSK Preparation Class.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Lydia Anggreani

Chinese has become the world’s second language. Each language has its own law, as is the Chinese. Indonesian students have difficulty in learning Chinese which are are not surprising. Every language has various characteristics, so do Chinese and Bahasa Indonesia. Article analyzes difficulties to learn Chinese, especially for Indonesian students, those are tone, grammar, sounds of “er hua” such as Alice retroflex. The respondents are 100 Indonesian students who are randomly selected for testing samples analyzed. Since there is no tone in Bahasa Indonesia, it makes a lot of Indonesian students in the learning process often appear in Chinese foreign accent phenomenon. This article expects to explore the problem by studying the formation of the causes and solutions. Indonesian students learning Chinese was designed to provide some teaching and learning strategies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832110662
Author(s):  
Lulu Zhang

The current study investigates second language acquisition of Chinese object ellipsis to probe the development of features transferred from learners’ native language without robust confirming or disconfirming evidence in the second language (L2) input. It is argued that Chinese allows object ellipsis licensed by a verb with a [VCase] feature but not by a verb with a [Vnon-Case] feature. In contrast, Korean allows object ellipsis to be licensed by both types of verbs, whilst English prohibits both. An acceptability judgement task was conducted among first language (L1) English and L1 Korean L2 Chinese learners from elementary to advanced levels, with the results showing that the [Vnon-Case] feature was assembled in the Chinese grammars of English and Korean elementary L2 learners; however, it gradually lost its vigour and licensing power for object ellipsis in intermediate L2 grammars and was successfully removed from licensing object ellipsis in advanced L2 grammars. These findings support predictions by Yuan regarding a feature’s dormant status and modify Yuan’s predictions regarding a dormant feature’s consequences.


1999 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Nadia Eversteijn ◽  
Jeanne Kurvers

The language learning strategies of adult second-language learners get more important as education concentrates more on individualisation and flexibility. In a multiple case study, it was examined which learning strategies were utilised by some lower educated, second-language learners who were working on their own in a class room, with a system called 'Indiflex' It was concluded that observing is a useful method to make learning strategies operational. Starting learners of Dutch as a second language already turned out to use a broad range of social, cognitive and metacognitive strategies. As learners make more progress in the language, the number of negative strategies (skipping difficult tasks for example) and social strategies (like asking for help) seems to decrease in favour of cognitive and metacognitive strategies like looking something up in a dictionary and deducing a word's meaning from its context.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed H. Naif ◽  
Noor Saazai Mat Saad

Adult Arab learners of Finnish as second language (FSL) often encounter communication difficulty when dealing with official documents. They also cannot help their children in their school homework. FSL proficiency is an essential requirement to get an employment and to obtain the Finnish citizenship. The aim of this paper is to explore the use of the language learning strategies by a number of adult Arabs learning FSL in Finland. In addition to issues and difficulties related to the learning process encountered by this category of learners. Oxford’s Strategy Inventory for language learning was used for the purpose of data collection and SPSS programme was employed to analyse data collected from the questionnaire, however, interview data were analysed manually. 30 (20 male and 10 female) adult Arab FSL learners taking beginning level course in Finnish at Helsinki School for Adult Learners participated in the current study. The results showed that adult Arab learners of Finnish used the language learning strategies at medium level with the average of (m=3.25). The results also showed a number of challenges that impede their second language learning process like the low literacy level of the learners, lack of communication with the Finnish society, and difficulties in reading and writing in Finnish.


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