scholarly journals Vocabulary growth at tertiary level: How much progress can Serbian EFL learners make in a year?

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 200-218
Author(s):  
Jelena Danilovic ◽  
Tatjana Grujic
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Developmental Process ◽  
Target Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship

The size of L2 learners? vocabulary, both receptive and productive, represents a vital concept in the field of L2 acquisition, given that it determines the degree of success in communication. The larger the vocabulary size of a learner is, the better his/her understanding and ease of communication in the target language. For this reason, a body of research focusing on the developmental process of lexical acquisition in L2 learners of various proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) in different teaching contexts is nowadays steadily expanding. A recent study aimed at investigating the relationship between lexical reception and production in Serbian L1 English L2 learners, English language majors, has indicated that production seriously lags behind reception. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to explore the growth in receptive and productive vocabulary size of B2-level (CEFR) English L2 learners, first year English majors, over a period of a single academic year. The data obtained reveal that the rich L2 input provided in Integrated skills classes, combined with other compulsory and elective courses predominantly held in English, has resulted in the learners? productive lexical knowledge developing faster than their receptive lexical knowledge. This outcome consequently affected the relationship between the learners? receptive and productive vocabulary size - the gap between the two narrowed.

PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT STANDARDS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION RESEARCH

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Tremblay
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Target Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Proficiency Assessment ◽  
Assessment Standards ◽  
The Relationship

The present study aims to sensitize SLA researchers to the importance of documenting and controlling for their participants’ proficiency in the target language, with the goal of establishing more robust proficiency assessment standards in experimental research. First, this article presents a survey of recent (2000–2008) foreign and second-language (L2) acquisition studies that show that such standards have yet to be met. Second, it demonstrates the validity, reliability, and practicality of a cloze (i.e., fill-in-the-blank) test designed to discriminate among L2 learners of French at different proficiency levels. Subject and item analyses are performed on the cloze test scores of 169 L2 learners of French from various language backgrounds. The relationship between these scores and the learners’ language background is examined. Cutoff points between proficiency levels are identified in the data. The test then is shared with scholars so that those working with a similar population of L2 learners of French can also use it.

scholarly journals Where the Wild Things Are

2003 ◽  
Vol 48 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 128-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riitta Oittinen
Keyword(s):  
Picture Books ◽  
English Language ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Forthcoming Book ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Classical Picture

Abstract Translating picture books is a many-splendored thing: it includes not only the relationship between the verbal and the visual (images and other elements) but also issues like reading aloud and child images. In the following, while mainly concentrating on the visual, I will deal with the other questions as well, as they all interact and influence each other. My starting point is translating as rewriting for target-language audiences – we always need to ask the crucial question: “For whom?” Hence, while writing children’s books is writing for children, translating children’s literature is translating for children. (See Hunt 1990:1, 60-64 and Oittinen 2000.) The reasons why I take such a special interest in translating picture books are twofold: cultural and national as well as individual. In Finland, we translate a lot: 70-80% of all the books published for children annually are translations. From the perspective of picture books, the number may be even higher (and 90% of the translations come from the English language; see Rättyä 2002:18-23). Moreover, being an artist and translator of picture books makes me especially keen on the visual as a translation scholar as well. As a case study, I have chosen Maurice Sendak’s classical picture book Where the Wild Things Are and its translations into German, Swedish and Finnish. At the background of my article is my book Translating for Children (2000) as well as my forthcoming book Kuvakirja kääntäjän kädessä on translating picture books. Due to copyright reasons, I only have picture examples from illustrations of my own.

Reading-time studies of second language ambiguity resolution

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 98-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Despina Papadopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Ambiguity Resolution ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Structural Information ◽  
Target Language ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Impact

This article provides a review of studies that have examined the ambiguity resolution strategies employed when processing a second language (L2). The way second language learners parse the L2 input has not yet been thoroughly investigated, although recently there has been an increasing interest in this area. The exploration of the mechanisms L2 learners use to parse ambiguous constructions allows us to examine not only aspects of L2 acquisition that still remain obscure, but also the validity of existing theories of parsing. The studies reported in this article look at three different types of ambiguous construction in the L2, and their results are discussed in relation to the L2 performance pattern. Most of the findings show that even advanced L2 learners are slower readers than native speakers and apply processing routines that depart from those best suited for processing the target language input. In addition, although L2 learners show sensitivity to lexical cues such as verb argument structure when processing the L2 input, they are less likely to rapidly employ structural information on line. The issues of the transfer of processing mechanisms from the first language (L1) to the second as well as the impact of L2 exposure on the adoption of the L2 processing routines are still unresolved and need to be further investigated.

An appraisal of the mother tongue for early child education in Nigeria

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-220
Author(s):  
Babatunji Hezekiah Adepoju
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Target Language ◽  
School Age Children ◽  
Government Schools ◽  
Nigerian Child ◽  
Child Education ◽  
The Rich

Abstract This article provides an overview of the use of the mother tongue (MT) in child education in the Nigerian context. We explicate previous government efforts at focusing on the native language as a means of improving learning in the early years, particularly in training the Nigerian child. We also address the obstacles to government's attempts at de-emphasising the place of English in the Nigerian polity. Without doubt, the English language is regarded by the citizenry as the language of now and the future. The belief is that school-age children and their parents are more comfortable with English than any other language. The policy of the adoption of an indigenous language as the instruction medium in the lower primary school is at variance with parents' desire to make their children speak English as the first language (L1). Our recommendation is that uniformity of policy implementation will reduce conflicts as the schools of the rich/elites and non-fee-paying government schools are made to employ the same medium to instruct the pupils. The above claims are supported by preliminary findings from observations, data from the administered questionnaire and interviews conducted to determine people's attitude towards the use of English and/or indigenous languages in the education of the child. Following Krashen's theory of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), which highlights the significance of exposure to and interaction in the target language, we conclude that, if English language remains the medium of instruction in the classroom, Nigeria and other African nations with similar linguistic complexities will be saved from further confusion and inconsistencies in educational policies, even as the MT will still function in other aspects of national life.

Developmental stages in receptive grammar acquisition: A Processability Theory account

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 523-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aafke Buyl ◽  
Alex Housen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Developmental Stages ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
English Grammar ◽  
Grammar Acquisition ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Processability Theory ◽  
Grammar Knowledge ◽  
The Relationship

This study takes a new look at the topic of developmental stages in the second language (L2) acquisition of morphosyntax by analysing receptive learner data, a language mode that has hitherto received very little attention within this strand of research (for a recent and rare study, see Spinner, 2013). Looking at both the receptive and productive side of grammar acquisition, however, is necessary for a better understanding of developmental systematicity and of the relationship between receptive and productive grammar acquisition more widely, as well as for the construction of a comprehensive theory of second language acquisition (SLA). In the present exploratory study, the receptive acquisition of L2 English grammar knowledge is studied cross-sectionally within a Processability Theory (PT) framework (Pienemann, 1998, 2005b), a theory of L2 grammar acquisition which makes explicit predictions about the order in which L2 learners learn to productively process different morphosyntactic phenomena. Participants are 72 francophone beginning child L2 learners (age 6–9) acquiring English in an immersion program. The learners’ ability to process six morphosyntactic phenomena situated at extreme ends of the developmental hierarchy proposed by PT was tested by means of the ELIAS Grammar Test, a picture selection task. Overall, the developmental orders obtained through implicational scaling for the six target phenomena agreed with PT’s predictions, suggesting that similar mechanisms underlie the acquisition of receptive and productive L2 grammar processing skills.

scholarly journals An Analysis of EFL Learners' Vocabulary and Lexical Collocational Knowledge

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ardi Nugroho
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Significant Positive Correlation ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
L1 Influence ◽  
Lexical Collocations ◽  
The Relationship

<p>One of the problems that EFL learners, more specifically Indonesian learners of English, often face deals with collocation. A possible reason for why learners often make inaccurate collocations is the influence of the learners’ L1 or mother tongue. Another likely reason for the learners’ inability to produce native-like collocations is their lack of vocabulary knowledge. So how exactly does one measure learners’ vocabulary knowledge? One way of doing it is by looking at their vocabulary size and depth as well as their receptive and productive vocabulary. From this, the writer has become interested in exploring the relationship between learners’ vocabulary and collocational knowledge, as well as the learners’ L1 influence on their collocation recognition and production. The source of data for the current research is students from the second and fourth semesters of the English Language and Culture department at Bunda Mulia University. In order to measure these variables, the following tools are used: the Vocabulary Size Test (Nation and Beglar, 2007), the Words Associate Test (Read, 1998) and an adapted version of Gyllstad’s (2007) receptive and Nikonzika’s (2012) productive collocation tests. Each of the variables is analyzed using the Pearson product-moment correlation. The findings show that there is a significant positive correlation between the students’ vocabulary knowledge and English lexical collocational knowledge. It is also found that the students’ L1 directly influences their recognition and production of English lexical collocations.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong> vocabulary size and depth, receptive and productive collocation</p>

Negation in L2 Acquisition and Beyond

2020 ◽  
pp. 614-632
Author(s):  
Liliana Sánchez ◽  
Jennifer Austin
Keyword(s):  
Relative Position ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Early Research ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter provides an overview of generative research on the acquisition of negation by multilingual learners. While early research compared the development of negation in adult L2 learners with L1 children to assess L2 learners’ access to Universal Grammar), subsequent studies focused instead on how verbal feature specification influences L2 acquisition of the relative position of negation and verbs. More recently, research on L2 negation has examined what the earliest stages of the acquisition of negation reveal about the relationship between the lexicon and syntax and has compared adult and child L2 acquisition. Other recent studies have examined the acquisition of relative scope and the source of difficulties in the L2 acquisition of negation at the interface between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

scholarly journals Integrating Cloud World Synergy in ELT to Adults: Perspectives of Handheld Technologies

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 150
Author(s):  
Mohammed Abdulgalil Abugohar ◽  
Kamariah Yunus ◽  
Ghaleb Rabab'ah ◽  
Tarig Awad Eltahir Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
The Rich

<p>The outcomes of modern technology have turned real-world interaction into a virtual community, then into a cloud one. These giant leaps aided by the excitement created by the possibilities inherent in learning through handheld technologies made using mobile devices in English language teaching (ELT) indispensable. This paper is aimed to deeply overview available handheld technologies and their features that can enable teachers in their mission. It investigates the synergy of a group of mobile devices of smartphones, tablets, iPods, iPads, E-readers, and classroom response systems, among others. These devices have been effective in everyday activities, and are expected to enrich ELT, especially in communities where there is a lack of community of practice (CoP) on the target language. To this aim, this paper was cored around reviewing the potential handheld technologies have in language classrooms. The main data were obtained from the rich body of literature, shedding more light on their properties in creating interactive communication in and out of classrooms. The findings revealed that handheld technologies can be successfully integrated into English language teaching and learning. Pedagogically, teachers are encouraged to exploit mobile devices into their classroom practices after closely testing their specifications, and scanning their advantages and shortcomings.</p>

Lateral Preference and L2 Proficiency

1994 ◽  
Vol 103-104 ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Cem Alptekin ◽  
Elif Çetin
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Hemispheric Specialization ◽  
School Setting ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
Lateral Preference ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Standardized Measure ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This study investigates the relationship between the L2 proficiency of advanced EFL learners and biological lateral preference. The former is thought of as the person's advanced ability in English, developed within a school setting and involving both reading comprehension and grammatical and lexical knowledge - as represented by the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency. The latter is conceptualized as a continuous and multifactorial construct that predicts the degree of the hemispheric specialization of cognitive functions in the human brain as well as the degree of hemisphericity as a personal trait. It is measured by the Lateral Preference Schedule, developed as an instrument to meet the research and clinical needs for a standardized measure of lateral preference. Sixty university students majoring in TEFL participated in the study. Overall, the findings suggest that, from the various lateral preference patterns, only those which involve footed-ness and handedness are related to L2 proficiency. The findings further suggest that the relationship between lateral preference and L2 proficiency is independent of differences in gender.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Vocabulary Size and Reading Comprehension of ESL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Engku Haliza Engku Ibrahim ◽  
Isarji Sarudin ◽  
Ainon Jariah Muhamad
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
English Language ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Intensive English ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Admission Requirements ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
The Relationship

<p>There are many factors that contribute to one’s ability to read effectively. Vocabulary size is one important factor that enhances reading comprehension. The purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between students’ reading comprehension skills and their vocabulary size. A total of 129 pre-university students undergoing an intensive English language programme at a public university in Malaysia participated in this study. A correlational analysis was employed to ascertain the relationship between scores in the reading comprehension component of the institutionalised English Proficiency Test (EPT) and the Vocabulary Levels Tests (Nation, 1990). Based on Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, there was a moderate correlation (r=0.641) between scores in the EPT reading comprehension and Vocabulary Levels Tests. The relationship was statistically significant at p&lt;0.01 level. The findings also indicate that all students (100%) were able to fulfil the minimum admission requirements for the reading skill (Band 5.5) in the EPT even though only half of the students (54.3%) reached the mastery level at the 5,000 word level. The findings provide useful insights into the prediction of ESL students’ performance in reading and the teaching of vocabulary in the ESL context.</p>

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