scholarly journals Language Experience and Phonetic Training as Factors Influencing Timing Organisation in Polish Learners of English

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-198
Author(s):  
Anna Gralińska-Brawata
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
First Year ◽  
Language Experience ◽  
Speech Rhythm ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

The paper investigates the dynamics of speech rhythm in Polish learners of English and, specifically, how rhythm measurements revealing durational characteristics of vocalic and consonantal intervals through the measures (%V, ΔV, ΔC, VarcoV, VarcoC and nPVI) change along the process of second language acquisition as a result of language experience and phonetic training, and influence rhythmic characteristics of L2 English. The data used for the analysis come from 30 Polish first-year students of the University of Łódź recorded reading two texts (English and Polish) during two recording sessions separated by a 7-month period of language studies and compared to the data obtained from the recordings of native speakers of English. The experiment aims at verifying whether the participants achieve progress in the rhythm measure scores under the influence of language experience and phonetic training, as it has already been confirmed that general proficiency of non-native speakers of English is a key factor contributing to the successful production of rhythmic patterns in English (Waniek-Klimczak 2009, Roach 2002). The results have shown no substantial and consistent progress for the whole group and across all the measures. Statistical tests, however, have revealed significant changes in the subjects' performance with respect to the vocalic measures ΔV and VarcoV. This may reflect the effect of the type of phonetic training the students are offered, which is segment-based with particular emphasis on vowels.

scholarly journals A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Perceptions Regarding Human Trafficking

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Adam Tanielian ◽  
Sangthong Tanielian
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Cultural Comparison ◽  
Cultural Perceptions ◽  
Factors Associated ◽  
Awareness Campaigns ◽  
Cross Cultural Comparison ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

This study surveyed 135 individuals, of which 68 were native speakers of English and 67 were native speakers of Thai. Respondents answered questions on issues related to human trafficking, its causes, and potential solutions. Statistical tests showed significant variance in opinions between language and other groups regarding factors associated with trafficking, and regarding the potential impacts of legalization of prostitution. Thai responses reflected collectivist cultural perceptions while English responses reflected more individualistic views. Males and English speakers were most likely to think legalized prostitution would lead to a reduction in human trafficking while females and Thais were most likely to believe legalized prostitution would increase trafficking. Responses to an open-ended question showed participants felt similarly about potential remedies for human trafficking, including information and awareness campaigns, interaction between civilians and police, increased penalties for offenders, and reduction in macro-environmental variables such as poverty.   

Requests in English by second-language users

1998 ◽  
Vol 119-120 ◽  
pp. 123-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.A. Kasanga
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Additional Data ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Limited Range ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge

Abstract The study of learners' pragmatic and discourse knowledge, also known as "interlanguage pragmatics", is now an important preoccupation of second-language acquisition (SLA) research. Spurred by this growing interest in interlanguage pragmatics and with a view to contributing to this field of research I conducted a study of requests in English produced by English as a second language (ESL) university students in their daily interaction mainly with lecturers. I collected the data for this study by means of observation and by recording "golden episodes of requesting behaviour in students' spontaneous speech. For comparative purposes, I elicited additional data by means of a discourse-completion task (DCT). One finding is that the students' knowledge of contextual use of requesting strategies in English is inadequate because their requests are of (very) limited range and inappropriate in context. The in-appropriacy of the requests was confirmed by native speakers' judgments. One explanation of the inadequacy of the students' pragmatic knowledge is the lack of exposure to the whole gamut of requesting devices. Another may have a strategic dimension. Also important is the explanation of transfer from the first language/s (Ll/s) : learners may be simply carrying over into English structures translated from their L1. From a pedagogical point of view, it is suggested that discourse and pragmatic knowledge be systematically taught to avoid miscommunication and negative reactions from native and competent non-native speakers of English. The suggestion of teaching pragmatic knowledge seems to be supported by the finding about one subject who, after exposure to a variety of requesting expressions, seemed to modify the pattern of her requests.

Universal Grammar and the acquisition of French verb movement by native speakers of English

1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Hawkins ◽  
Richard Towell ◽  
Nives Bazergui
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Syntactic Differences

White (1989) has shown that L1 English-speaking learners of L2 French appear to be more successful in acquiring the postverbal location of French manner and frequency adverbs than L1 French-speaking learners of L2 English are in acquiring the preverbal location of English manner and frequency adverbs. One implication of recent work by Pollock (1989) on the structure of English and French clauses is, however, that the task of acquiring the placement of manner and frequency adverbs should be the same for both sets of learners, because English provides learners with as much positive syntactic evidence for preverbal manner/frequency adverbs as French does for the postverbal location of such adverbs. The problem, then, is to explain why there should be this difference in success. On the basis of a detailed study of the developing intuitions of English-speaking adult learners of L2 French it is suggested in this article that the English-speakers' success is only apparent. Both groups of learners have great difficulty in resetting a parametrized property of the functional category Agr, but the English- speaking learners of French are able to make use of nonparametrized properties of Universal Grammar to handle surface syntactic differences between English and French, properties which are not so readily available to the French-speaking learners of English. It is suggested that this finding is in line with an emerging view about the role of parametrized functional categories in second language acquisition.

Lexical and discourse factors in the second language acquisition of Spanish word order

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy Jandrey Hertel
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Spanish Word ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Beginning Learners

This study investigates the acquisition of Spanish word order by native speakers of English. Specifically, it considers the development of sensitivity to the distinct interpretations of subject-verb (SV) vs. verb-subject (VS) order, as determined by lexical verb class (unaccusative and unergative verbs) and discourse structure.Participants included a native speaker control group and learners at four proficiency levels. Results from a contextualized production task indicate that beginning learners transferred the SV order of English for all structures. Intermediate learners showed a gradual increase in the production of lexically and discourse-determined inversion, although their data was also characterized by indeterminacy and variability. The advanced learners demonstrated a sensitivity to the word order effects of unaccusativity and discourse factors, but also tended to overgeneralize inversion to unergative verbs in a neutral discourse context.

scholarly journals The Use of Personal Pronouns in the Writing of Argumentative Essays by EFL Writers

RELC Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-19
Author(s):  
Robert MacIntyre
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Year ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Pedagogical Approach ◽  
Japanese University ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Style Guides

In many academic writing textbooks and style guides the use of personal pronouns is not encouraged. This is particularly problematic for non-native speakers of English trying to express themselves in a second language as, although personal pronouns are a clear signal of the writers’ identity and presence in a text, they are usually advised not to use them. Therefore, in order to understand more about the use of personal pronouns by non-native speakers, this study examined a corpus of argumentative essays written by first-year Japanese university students. Whilst the use of personal pronouns has been well documented, there has been less written about how we, as educators, can help our learners understand how to use them to shape their identities as academic writers. Therefore, this article attempts to address this by suggesting a possible pedagogical approach to teaching the use of personal pronouns in academic writing.

scholarly journals Phrase frequency, proficiency and grammaticality interact in non-native processing: Implications for theories of SLA

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kailen Shantz
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Rule Based ◽  
Grammatical Development ◽  
Developmental Shift ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Linguistic Input

This study reports on a self-paced reading experiment in which native and non-native speakers of English read sentences designed to evaluate the predictions of usage-based and rule-based approaches to second language acquisition (SLA). Critical stimuli were four-word sequences embedded into sentences in which phrase frequency and grammaticality were crossed in order to examine whether grammatical processing is modulated by phrase frequency. The magnitude of grammaticality effects for native speakers did not differ by phrase frequency, indicating that phrase frequency does not modulate native grammatical processing. Phrase frequency did, however, modulate the magnitude of non-native grammaticality effects. This modulating effect of phrase frequency on grammatical processing for non-native speakers depended on proficiency, showing a u-shaped change in the size of grammaticality effects relative to speaker proficiency. The overall pattern of change in grammaticality effects suggests a gradual developmental shift in grammatical processing from an initial reliance on phrase frequency to an eventual abstraction of generalizable rules from the linguistic input once sufficient experience has accumulated. Results suggest that second language (L2) grammatical development relies on a combination of both usage-based and rule-based knowledge and processing, rather than exclusive reliance on one or the other.

scholarly journals Features of the Development of Auditory and Pronunciation Skills in Online German Classes

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olena H. Vasylchenko
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
National University ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Video And Audio ◽  
Two Stages

The relevance of the research is determined by the need to find new methods of teaching a foreign language in the context of the transition to an online learning environment, which will contribute to ensuring an appropriate level of development of future specialists' communicative foreign competence. The purpose of the study is to determine the features of the development of students' phonetic competence in online German classes on the example of the pedagogical activity of teachers of the I.I. Mechnikov Odessa National University. The study of the selected problems was carried out in two stages based on logical and system approaches using general scientific methods, including the method of analysis, synthesis, comparison, concretisation, systematisation, and the method of analogies. It was identified that the modern educational space is characterised by the digitalisation of the educational process, as a result of which approaches to teaching a foreign language are changing. The paper considers foreign practices of using multimedia technologies in foreign language classes to form students' auditory and pronunciation skills in online learning. The necessity of changing the conventional methods of teaching an introductory phonetic course in a foreign language according to the requirements of distance learning was substantiated. It was established that the key factor in the development of auditory and pronunciation skills in online German classes is the use of video and audio materials (video conferences and messengers), animated images of articulation of sounds, as well as a system of exercises for the practical application of the theoretical knowledge obtained. On the example of teaching an introductory phonetic course in German for first-year students of the Department of International Relations of the I.I. Mechnikov Odessa National University, the basic principles of using mobile applications in the process of distance learning, including Padlet, LearningApps, Voki, PicVoice, and ChatterPix are described. The prospects for further research lie in the practice of using the online environment of an introductory German phonetic course among students of related specialisations

scholarly journals MIND MAPS IN EFL SPEAKING CLASSES: A CASE STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Phan Van Hoa ◽  
Ngo Thi Hien Trang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Mapping Technique ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
Speaking Skill ◽  
Mind Maps ◽  
The University

Speaking, one of the two productive skills, has been paid much attention to by first-year students at the Faculty of English, University of Foreign Language Studies - The University of Danang (FE, UFLS - UD). There are a variety of strategies and techniques assisting EFL teachers and learners, and mind mapping technique is among these which could be implemented to improve teaching and learning performances in general and speaking skill in particular. Mind maps are being taken advantage of by EFL students in classes to improve their speaking skill. In this study, the researchers have assumed that mind maps have the facilitating impact on the oral speech performance of the first-year students at FE, UFLS - UD. We have conducted this research quantitatively and qualitatively whose data is from interview questions and a set of questionnaires for first-year students, and the researchers’ classroom observation. This is a case study which aims to explore the reality of using mind maps including the frequency, speaking stages, and freshmen’s attitudes when utilizing this technique to enhance this skill. Its suggestions could be applied in teaching and learning English speaking skill effectively.

scholarly journals A influência da idade na inteligibilidade e no grau de sotaque estrangeiro de alunos brasileiros de inglês de nível avançado

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronaldo Mangueira Lima Jr
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Exceptional Learners

Resumo Este estudo investigou a influência que a idade com a qual brasileiros começam a estudar inglês no Brasil pode ter na sua pronúncia ao final do curso avançado de inglês, mais especificamente na inteligibilidade e no grau de sotaque estrangeiro. Alunos que estavam cursando o último semestre de seus cursos e haviam começado o curso em diferentes idades foram gravados lendo um parágrafo e falando espontaneamente. Um grupo controle de falantes nativos de inglês também foi gravado desempenhando as mesmas tarefas. Os níveis de inteligibilidade e de grau de sotaque estrangeiro dos participantes foram avaliados por um painel de nove juízes, e os resultados mostram uma tendência de declínio na pronúncia com o aumento da idade de início do curso, com um grande declínio mesmo entre o grupo controle e os aprendizes mais novos. Alguns aprendizes excepcionais, com níveis de inteligibilidade e de grau de sotaque estrangeiro próximos aos dos falantes nativos, foram encontrados. Os resultados estão alinhados ao conceito de aquisição de segunda língua como sistema dinâmico, sob a qual os dados foram analisados. Palavras-chave: Aquisição de segunda língua. Aquisição fonológica. Pronúncia. Inglês-L2. Inteligibilidade.   The influence of age on intelligibility and rate of foreign accent of Brazilian advanced learners of English  Abstract This study has investigated the influence that the age in which Brazilian learners begin to study English in Brazil may have on their pronunciation at the end of their advanced English courses, especially on their intelligibility and rate of foreign accent. Learners who were in the last semester of their courses and who had begun studying at different ages were recorded reading a paragraph and speaking spontaneously. A control group of native speakers of English was also recorded performing the same tasks. Participants’ levels of intelligibility and of rate of foreign accent were assessed by a panel of nine judges and the results show a tendency of decline in their pronunciation as the age in which they began studying increases; with a sharp decline even between the control group and the earliest starters. A few exceptional learners, with intelligibility and rate of foreign accent levels close to those of the native speakers, were found. The results are aligned with the concept of second language acquisition as a dynamic system, under which the data were analyzed. Keywords: Second language acquisition. Phonological acquisition. Pronunciation. English as a foreign language. Intelligibility.

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