Auditory training for experienced and inexperienced second-language learners: Native French speakers learning English vowels

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL IVERSON ◽  
MELANIE PINET ◽  
BRONWEN G. EVANS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Natural Variability ◽  
High Variability ◽  
Auditory Training ◽  
Natural Speech ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Learning English

ABSTRACTThis study examined whether high-variability auditory training on natural speech can benefit experienced second-language English speakers who already are exposed to natural variability in their daily use of English. The subjects were native French speakers who had learned English in school; experienced listeners were tested in England and the less experienced listeners were tested in France. Both groups were given eight sessions of high-variability phonetic training for English vowels, and were given a battery of perception and production tests to evaluate their improvement. The results demonstrated that both groups learned to similar degrees, suggesting that training provides a type of learning that is distinct from that obtained in more naturalistic situations.

scholarly journals Helping Second Language Student Writers Improve Their Revision

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Wenzhe Kang ◽  
Ruiyi Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Writing Ability ◽  
Language Students

Writing ability is a comprehensive evaluation of language learning level. Nowadays, most universities offer writing-related courses to help students lay a good foundation for writing and contribute to their subsequent studies. Compared with native English speakers, second language learners need to do more revision, which is a great challenge for second language learners. Therefore, in this paper, the aim is to make the second language students understand and apply the revision correctly.    

Priming and adaptation in native speakers and second-language learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
EUNJIN CHUN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
L2 Learners

Native speakers show rapid adjustment of their processing strategies and preferences on the basis of the structures they have recently encountered. The present study investigated the nature of priming and adaptation in second-language (L2) speakers and, more specifically, whether similar mechanisms underlie L2 and native language adaptation. Native English speakers and Korean L2 learners of English completed a written priming study probing the use of double object and prepositional phrase datives. Both groups showed cumulative adaptation effects for both types of dative, which was stronger for the structure that was initially less frequent to them (prepositional phrase datives for the native English speakers, and double object datives for the L2 learners). This supports models of priming that incorporate frequency-based modulation of long-lasting activation of structures. L2 learners and native speakers use similar processing mechanisms; differences in adaptation can be accounted for by differences in the relative frequency of structures.

scholarly journals Phoneme acquisition: Infants and second language learners

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
James Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Language Model ◽  
High Variability ◽  
Phoneme Perception ◽  
Infant Language ◽  
Perception Training

This paper argues for explicit phoneme perception training. It discusses infant phoneme acquisition studies and relates these studies to second language learners. The first half of the article is an account of infant language acquisition studies and uses the Native Language Model, as developed by Patricia Kuhl, to conceptualize an infant’s phoneme acquisition process. The second half of this paper deals with what L1 phoneme acquisition means for adult second language learners. Three questions are addressed: First, to what extent can L2 learners’ perceptual patterns be modified after the initial neural commitment? Second, is phonemic training with adult learners worthwhile? And, third, what methodologies are the most effective for modifying an L2 learner’s initial L1 phoneme structure? The techniques discussed are contrastive exposure, making the phoneme salient, and high-variability. 本論は、明示的に行う音素認識トレーニングについて論じる。乳幼児の音素習得研究を論議し、これらの研究を第2言語学習者に関連づける。前半は乳幼児の言語習得研究の説明において、Patricia Kuhlの乳幼児の音素習得プロセスを概念したNative Language Magnet Theoryを用いている。後半では、乳幼児の第１言語音素習得が大人である第2言語学習者にどのような意味を持つのかを述べる。次の3点を検討する。1）第2言語学習者の音素認識パターンは、第1言語でのパターンが確立した後、どの程度修正されることができるのか。2）大人の学習者に対する音素認識トレーニングは価値があるのか。3）第2言語学習者における第１言語の音素構造を修正するには、どのような方法が最も効果的なのか。論議されている手法は、音素を際立たせ、高い変動性をもたらす対照提示である。

scholarly journals Bilingual children with language impairment: A comparison with monolinguals and second language learners

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
VERA F. GUTIÉRREZ-CLELLEN ◽  
GABRIELA SIMON-CEREIJIDO ◽  
CHRISTINE WAGNER
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Accuracy Rates ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Regular Verb

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to examine whether English finite morphology has the potential to differentiate children with and without language impairment (LI) from Spanish-speaking backgrounds and different levels of English proficiency in comparison to Hispanic English speakers and (b) to investigate the extent to which children who are bilingual exhibit differences in their grammatical performance because of cross-linguistic influence from their first language. Seventy-one children between the ages of 4 years, 5 months and 6 years, 5 months were distributed into the following five groups: English as a first language (EL1) speakers with typical language development (TLD), EL1 speakers with LI, Spanish–English bilinguals with TLD, Spanish–English bilinguals with LI, and English as a second language (EL2) learners with TLD were compared on regular verb finiteness and nominative subject use using spontaneous narrative samples. The EL1 children with LI had significantly lower verb accuracy rates than the EL1 controls with TLD. Verb finiteness marking was also a significant discriminator for the bilinguals with LI. There was no evidence of cross-linguistic influence, however. The analysis indicated no significant differences between EL1 and bilingual children on subject or verb use. The EL2 group only presented difficulties with finite verb use. The typological differences between English and Spanish for overt subject use did not seem to affect the performance of either typical or atypical bilingual learners. The findings underscore the need for addressing language dominance in future bilingual studies.

Prototype effects in first and second language learners: The case of English transitive semantics

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 618-639 ◽  
Author(s):  
SARUT SUPASIRAPRAPA
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
False Positive ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Adult Esl ◽  
Esl Learners

According to usage-based approaches to language acquisition, linguistic constructions should display prototype effects, or graded category membership (e.g., Bybee, 2010). Using the prototype-plus-distortion methodology (Franks & Bransford, 1971), Ibbotson, Theakston, Lieven, and Tomasello (2012) have provided evidence for prototype effects in adult native English speakers, who had false-positive recognition of sentences with prototypical transitive semantics as having been previously encountered after being exposed to non-prototypical transitive semantics. In the current study, I adopted this methodology and investigated whether the effects can be replicated and additionally observed from English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners. Results from two groups of adult native English speakers (N=20 and N=21), each exposed to a different stimuli set, suggested some, but not strong, effects and revealed the complexity of the use of this methodology with linguistic materials. Moreover, no effects were observed from advanced adult ESL learners (N=22), suggesting possible differences between first and second transitive semantic representations.

scholarly journals Extrametricality and second language acquisition

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Phonetic Cues ◽  
The Right

This paper examines how native English speakers acquire stress in Portuguese. Native speakers and second language learners (L2ers) of any given language have to formulate word-level prosodic generalizations based on a subset of lexical items to which they have been exposed. This subset contains robust as well as subtle cues as to which stress patterns are more or less productive, so that when speakers encounter novel forms they know which stress position is more likely. L2ers, however, face a much more challenging task, mainly if they are adults and have long passed the critical period. These difficulties are particularly notable in word-level prominence, where several interacting phonetic cues are involved. The trends observed across three proficiency levels in the judgement task described in this paper are consistent with a foot-based analysis, and show that L2ers successfully reset extrametricality (Yes in the L1; No in the L2) and shift the default stress position from antepenult (L1) to penult (L2). The latter is expected to follow from the former in a foot-based approach where feet become aligned to the right edge of the word as extrametricality is reset to No.

scholarly journals Second Language Learners’ Coping Strategy in Conversations with Native Speakers

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-183
Author(s):  
Sachiko Terui
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
The Many ◽  
Communicative Strategy

One of the many strategies that many international students employ to cope with their lack of English proficiency is to pretend to understand or not to understand the conversational content exchanged with native English speakers. Combining autoethnography and iterative interviews this research explores the pretending behavior profoundly from non-native speakers’ perspectives. During the iterative interviews, six students shared their personal experience specified in pretending behaviors. This study aims at informing the second language learning experience and promoting mutual understanding between native and non-native speakers in multi-lingual and multi-cultural societies. As a result, under the metatheme (Tesch, 1987) of pretending in conversation, pretending as a Communicative Strategy, eleven themes emerged. 

scholarly journals Language transfer and positional bias in English stress

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Positional Bias ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Generalize Weight

This paper shows that L1 transfer may not be effectively maintained in the interlanguage due to confounding factors in the L2. When two factors, A and B, are correlated in the L2, second language learners may only acquire B, even if A is present in the L1. Transfer may not be effective because B, being more robust in the input, conceals A. Native speakers, on the other hand, generalize A in spite of B. The variables in question are weight-sensitivity (A) and positional bias (B) in English, both of which can predict the location of stress in the language. I show that two seemingly target-like groups of second language learners of English (speakers of Mandarin and speakers Portuguese) fail to accurately generalize weight-sensitivity in the language, and instead display response patterns which are predictable given the existing positional bias in English stress.

scholarly journals Utilizing Smartphones to Enhance Students ‘Learning of English Language

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 67-76
Author(s):  
S. Subha ◽  
Dr S Diravidamani
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Smart Phone ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Smart Phones ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Learning English

Technology plays a momentous role in almost all the fields mainly far –reaching in educational field. It provides creative freedom, endless resources and learning materials. In the current scenario, students engage themselves in the recent technological advancements which not only kill their time but also entertain them all the time. So, the Teachers can take up these technological tools in their hands to inculcate English language to the younger generation instead of following the traditional method of teaching. Now-a-days, Smart phones have reached all the hands in the world including the rural people and made everything easier. By using   smart phones effectively in Language classrooms, English language teachers can provoke interest among the non –native learners in learning English Language. Smart phone is a tool which presents visually attractive materials to the students that would be very much appealing to the second language learners. Through this, the four basic communication skills (LSRW Skills) of the second language learners can be enriched and refined .Thus, this paper predominantly focuses on the  pros and cons of using smart phones in learning English  based on the feedback  accrued  from the undergraduate students .

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