English spelling: where do -tion and -sion come from?

English Today ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 243-245
Author(s):  
Michael Bulley
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Classical Form ◽  
Renaissance Period ◽  
Historical Fact ◽  
Norman Invasion ◽  
English Spelling

In Issue 135 (Volume 34, Number 3, September 2018) of English Today there was an article by Blasius Achiri-Taboh entitled ‘English spelling: Adding /ʃən/ (or /ʒən/) to base-words and changing from -tion to -sion.’ The author's stated aim was to provide help for deciding the forms of these words and whether -tion or -sion was the correct ending. All the words he cited were ones that can be traced back to Latin or French. That is to say, they are Latinate words that became part of the English language either in a French form as a result of the Norman invasion in the 11th century or later as a modification of a classical form in the Renaissance period. This historical fact was not mentioned in the article. I acknowledge that the purpose of the article was to give guidelines for spelling, particularly perhaps for non-native speakers, and that it might be going too far to suggest that, if you wanted to be able to spell these words correctly, you could learn Latin and maybe French too, but it seemed to me that the author's assertions misrepresented the nature of those English words. I should like therefore to discuss certain points of the article, in the order they were presented.

scholarly journals An Overview of the Persian EFL learners’ Spelling Difficulties

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Maryam Alipour ◽  
Khazriyati Salehuddin ◽  
Siti Hamin Stapa
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Comprehensive Literature Review ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
English Spelling

Spelling is considered a difficult skill for foreign and second language learners of English as the ability to spell in English language comes with a lot of effort, particularly when the English spelling system is known to be a complex system, even among native speakers. The difficulties could be linguistic and extra-linguistic. This conceptual paper reviews the differences and similarities between English and Persian spelling system, the sages of spelling difficulties among children, particularly the approach suggested by Tabrizi, Tabrizi, and Tabrizi (2013)in which the stages of learning spelling among Iranian learners are analyzed. The types of morphological, phonological, and orthographical spelling difficulties, factors contributing to the spelling difficulty, as well as a comprehensive literature review of EFL studies conducted on English spelling are provided in this paper. Finally, the mental processing and the role of memory are discussed briefly. It was concluded that examining the differences between the learners’ first language and English language may provide useful insights into the English spelling problems faced by EFL learners.

THE USE OF SKILLS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND DEVELOPING A BASIS FOR READING AND LEARNING

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (7) ◽  
pp. 2263-2267
Author(s):  
Lirije Ameti
Keyword(s):  
Learning Style ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Active Reading ◽  
Reading Efficiency ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Paper Work ◽  
Source Of Information

This theme:” The Use of Skills and particularly Developing a Basis for Reading and Learning” is very broad, interesting, challenging and very useful at the same time. It is very useful for teachers and students during lectorical exercises which require a joint effort of participating interactively in class in order to be more efficient, flexible and pragmatic in order to achieve the main goal of learning and improving English Language. This source of information is useful for native speakers as well as for us, that are learning and improving English Language as a second language that intend to be future teachers or interpreters from English to respective languages.To Learn and improve English language are used the four main skills: Listening, Reading, Speaking (Communicating) and Writing. During lectures in order to practice and elaborate each of the skills, teachers and students encounter into different situations that in order to answer or conduct one of the skills you will have to answer and imply flexibility and efficiency by giving answers by all the other subjects which I consider an interweave of grammar, morphology, syntax, phonology, and for style of language explanations from theory of literature. And to grasp the main purpose or idea of the author to have general knowledge of different fields in life such as social, psychological, economical, historical ect.Through this paper work I will try to demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages of using the first main skill which is Reading, how to analyze the reading efficiency and learning style, how to develop the reading flexibility, principles of efficiency, evaluating the rate of reading and flexibility the factors that have impact in reading efficiently. Shortly as well is mentioned critical thinking and active reading which guides toward thinking and improving concentration. Finally, how to monitor comprehension the factors that impact upon reading which require pre-reading, rereading and prediction to retain elevating results.

scholarly journals Predictive processes during simultaneous interpreting from German into English

Interpreting ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ena Hodzik ◽  
John N. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Transitional Probability ◽  
Semantic Cues ◽  
Simultaneous Interpreting ◽  
Spoken Language Processing ◽  
Advanced Students ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Predictive Processes

We report a study on prediction in shadowing and simultaneous interpreting (SI), both considered as forms of real-time, ‘online’ spoken language processing. The study comprised two experiments, focusing on: (i) shadowing of German head-final sentences by 20 advanced students of German, all native speakers of English; (ii) SI of the same sentences into English head-initial sentences by 22 advanced students of German, again native English speakers, and also by 11 trainee and practising interpreters. Latency times for input and production of the target verbs were measured. Drawing on studies of prediction in English-language reading production, we examined two cues to prediction in both experiments: contextual constraints (semantic cues in the context) and transitional probability (the statistical likelihood of words occurring together in the language concerned). While context affected prediction during both shadowing and SI, transitional probability appeared to favour prediction during shadowing but not during SI. This suggests that the two cues operate on different levels of language processing in SI.

English language schooling, linguistic realities, and the native speaker of English in Hong Kong

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette G. Hansen Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Government School ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

AbstractThe study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities.TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.

scholarly journals Proficiency Differences in Syntactic Processing of Monolingual Native Speakers Indexed by Event-related Potentials

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (12) ◽  
pp. 2728-2744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Pakulak ◽  
Helen J. Neville
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Proficiency Scores

Although anecdotally there appear to be differences in the way native speakers use and comprehend their native language, most empirical investigations of language processing study university students and none have studied differences in language proficiency, which may be independent of resource limitations such as working memory span. We examined differences in language proficiency in adult monolingual native speakers of English using an ERP paradigm. ERPs were recorded to insertion phrase structure violations in naturally spoken English sentences. Participants recruited from a wide spectrum of society were given standardized measures of English language proficiency, and two complementary ERP analyses were performed. In between-groups analyses, participants were divided on the basis of standardized proficiency scores into lower proficiency and higher proficiency groups. Compared with lower proficiency participants, higher proficiency participants showed an early anterior negativity that was more focal, both spatially and temporally, and a larger and more widely distributed positivity (P600) to violations. In correlational analyses, we used a wide spectrum of proficiency scores to examine the degree to which individual proficiency scores correlated with individual neural responses to syntactic violations in regions and time windows identified in the between-groups analyses. This approach also used partial correlation analyses to control for possible confounding variables. These analyses provided evidence for the effects of proficiency that converged with the between-groups analyses. These results suggest that adult monolingual native speakers of English who vary in language proficiency differ in the recruitment of syntactic processes that are hypothesized to be at least in part automatic as well as of those thought to be more controlled. These results also suggest that to fully characterize neural organization for language in native speakers it is necessary to include participants of varying proficiency.

scholarly journals Using English Movie with Delay and Non Delay Subtitle to Improve Listening Skill

LETS ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Muh. Ikhlasul Amal ◽  
Syahdan ◽  
Risal Pandi ◽  
Halid M ◽  
Arialdi
Keyword(s):  
Learning Process ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Listening Skills ◽  
Listening Skill ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Teaching Learning

The aim of the study was  to  analyze  and  describe  the  process of  improving students’ listening skill for eleventh grade students of MAN 1 Majene, West Sulawesi Province through  watching English movies. The subject of this research is XI Agama 2 Class that consisted of 16 students. The method used in this study is Classroom Action Research (CAR) which the writer works  collaboratively with the English teacher. The results in this study indicate that there  was  improvement of the students’ skill listening. Most of the students gradually gained good scores at the end of the cycle. The data were collected from a questionnaire, observation note of performance, pre-test and post-test. The study was conducted with cycle model through the steps of planning, conducting, observation, and reflection. The results of this study show a significant relationship between students' learning by English movie with delay subtitle related to their listening skills as shown in their improvement of post- test and positive responses of students than  E nglish movie  with not delay. The questionnaire shows that more than 75% students felt easy to understand listening materials from native speakers. Consequently, it was suggested that teaching learning process using English movie with English subtitle is recommended  into  learning  process  to  improve students' listening skills in English language classroom. In conclusion, watching English movie can improve students listening skill.

scholarly journals English as a Lingua Franca Approach: Implications and Limitations in Saudi English as a Foreign Language Classrooms

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 96-104
Author(s):  
Samar Alharbi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
English As Foreign Language ◽  
The World ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Foreign Language Classrooms ◽  
Global Language

English language considers a global language spoken by a majority of people around the world. It is a language used mainly for communication, trades and study purposes. This widespread of English language being wildly spoken lead to different varieties of English as a lingua franca (ELF) means that non native speakers of English still be able to communicate with each other. Using ELF as a legitimate variety of English in language classrooms is questioned by some researchers. This paper will provide an overview of the concept of ELF. It will also present implications and limitations of using ELF in Saudi English as foreign language classrooms.

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