Politeness Strategies and Second Language Acquisition

1982 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shigenori Tanaka ◽  
Saiki Kawade
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
English Sentence ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Nonnative Speakers Of English

The two studies reported here investigated the notion ofpolitenessas perceived by native speakers of English and advanced learners of English. The questions which concerned us included: (1) Are native speakers of English really aware of the varying degree of politeness conveyed by a given English sentence?; (2) Is there a high correlation between native speakers of English and advanced learners of English in their politeness judgements?; (3) Do native speakers of English really use different politeness strategies in different situations?; (4) Is there a high correlation between native and nonnative speakers of English in the use of politeness strategies? From a theoretical point of view, Study I was concerned with Lakoff's (1973b) claim that politeness increases with decreasing imposition; Study II was concerned with the distance-politeness hypothesis which predicts that one will use polite strategies in situations where he perceives himself as psychological and/or socially distant from his addresee. From a pedagogical point of view, the comparison of the two studies here suggested that the learner's ability ofjudgingpoliteness in the target language does not necessarily mean that he canusepoliteness strategies appropriately in actual communication situations.

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.

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 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.

Effects of L1 morphological type on L2 morphological awareness

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832199641
Author(s):  
Zhaohong Wu ◽  
Alan Juffs
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Morphological Type ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Morphological Knowledge ◽  
Advanced Learners

Previous studies on bilingual children have shown a significant correlation between first language (L1) and second language (L2) morphological awareness and a unique contribution of morphological awareness in one language to reading performance in the other language, suggesting cross-linguistic influence. However, few studies have compared advanced adult L2 learners from L1s of different morphological types or compared native speakers with advanced learners from a morphologically more complex L1 in their target-language morphological awareness. The current study filled this gap by comparing native English speakers (analytic) and two L2 groups from typologically different L1s: Turkish (agglutinative) and Chinese (isolating). Participants’ morphological awareness was evaluated via a series of tasks, including derivation, affix-choice word and nonword tasks, morphological relatedness, and a suffix-ordering task. Results showed a significant effect of L1 morphological type on L2 morphological awareness. After accounting for L2 proficiency, the Turkish group significantly outperformed the Chinese group in the derivation, morphological relatedness, and suffix-ordering tasks. More importantly, the Turkish group significantly outperformed the native English group in the morphological relatedness task even without accounting for English proficiency. Such results have implications for theories in second language acquisition regarding representation of the bilingual lexicon. In addition, results of the current study underscored the need to guard against the comparative fallacy and highlighted the influential effect of L1 experience on the acquisition of L2 morphological knowledge.

scholarly journals Using Nigerian English in an International Academic Setting

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-158
Author(s):  
Una Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Nonnative Speakers Of English ◽  
The University ◽  
Nigerian Students ◽  
Gain Access ◽  
Better Than

This study examines the English pronunciation of a group of Nigerian students at a university in Sweden from the point of view of their intelligibility to two groups of listeners: 1) native speakers of English who are teachers at the university; 2) nonnative speakers of English who are teachers at the university. It is found that listeners who are accustomed to interacting with international students do better than those who are not, and that native speakers of English do no better or worse than non-native listeners. The conclusion is drawn that locally useful varieties of Nigerian English may not easily be used as for wider communication and that students preparing to study abroad would find it useful to gain access to a more widely intelligible variety.

The role of feedback in adult second language acquisition: Error correction and morphological generalizations

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanne Carroll ◽  
Merrill Swain ◽  
Yves Roberge
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Experimental Setting ◽  
Feedback Session ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Comparison Groups ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Experimental Subjects ◽  
Effects Of Feedback

ABSTRACTThis study looked at the effects of feedback (explicit correction) on the learning of morphological generalizations in an experimental setting. Subjects Were 79 adult native speakers of English with intermediate (39) and advanced (40) levels of proficiency in French. All subjects were individually trained on two rules of French suffixation. Experimental subjects received correction if they gave erroneous responses to stimuli in a “feedback” session. Afterward, all subjects “guessed” responses to novel stimuli and were retested (twice) on the feedback items. Comparison subjects dealt with the same stimuli but were never corrected. Analyses of feedback responses indicated differences in favor of the experimental groups, but comparisons of guessing responses between experimental and comparison groups showed no evidence of learned generalizations. The learning of absolute exceptions was more likely among advanced learners.

The expectation marker of course in a cross-linguistic perspective

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen ◽  
Karin Aijmer
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theoretical Point ◽  
Pragmatic Markers ◽  
Semantic Fields ◽  
Explanatory Account ◽  
Semantics And Pragmatics ◽  
Multilingual Corpus ◽  
Core Meaning

The study of of course presented in this article has an applied, a descriptive and a theoretical aim. Since of course proves to be very frequent in English, learners will need to know what meanings the item has and in what pragmatic contexts it is used. It has indeed been shown that some learners tend to use of course in contexts where it is felt by native speakers to be inappropriate. In order to explain such inappropriate uses we need detailed descriptions of the semantics and pragmatics of of course. From a theoretical point of view such multifunctional items raise the question of whether semantic polysemy or pragmatic polysemy is the best explanatory account. It is argued in this paper that empirical cross-linguistic work can contribute to providing answers to all three research questions. First, the study of correspondences and differences between languages with regard to the meanings and uses of pragmatic markers is a necessary step in the explanation of learner problems. Second, the bidirectional approach to equivalents, which involves going back and forth from sources to translations, enables us to show to what extent the equivalents have partially overlapping pragmatic functions. An in-depth comparison of the semantic fields in which the translation equivalents operate is the ultimate goal. Third, the translation method helps to see to what extent a core meaning account is justified. In this paper three languages are brought into the picture, viz. English, Swedish and Dutch. The cross-linguistic data have been gathered from three translation corpora, i.e. the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus, the Oslo Multilingual Corpus and the Namur Triptic Corpus.

scholarly journals On the Pedagogical Relevance of Strategic Competence

1986 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahereh Paribakht
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Negotiation Of Meaning ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Strategic Competence ◽  
Adult Esl ◽  
Communication Situations ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Linguistic Material

This paper is a report on a study concerned with the identification of target language linguistic material essential for the learners' use of communication strategies (CS) in survival situations. Subjects were 40 adult ESL students and 20 native speakers of English. A concept-identification task was used to elicit these speakers' CS. Given that the taxonomy of CS developed in the study was based on the type of knowledge utilized by the speakers, it was possible to identify the semantic, as well as the typical syntactic patterns, required for their implementation. These linguistic manifestations of CS can serve as a basis for developing L2 teaching materials with the aim of preparing L2 learners to function successfully in problematic communication situations. An appropriate sequence for the presentation of such material is proposed based on the frequency of their application in the negotiation of meaning by the speakers in this study.

The acquisition of relative clauses by Spanish-Basque learners of L3 English: does dominance play a role?

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Ramos Feijoo ◽  
María del Pilar García Mayo
Keyword(s):  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Internal Factors ◽  
Language Dominance ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Abstract Several studies in the area of third language acquisition (L3A) have considered various factors influencing this process, but the effect of language dominance has not been thoroughly examined. The main goal of this study is to investigate whether the acquisition of relative clauses (RCs) in L3 English is influenced by language internal factors, such as the syntactic features of the target language, or by external factors in the form of cross-linguistic influence (CLI). A total of 90 participants (40 Spanish-dominant, 40 Basque-dominant, 10 L1 Spanish-L2 English) and 10 native speakers of English completed a production and a comprehension task. Findings show that the L3 learners’ production of RCs seems to be driven by language internal factors, whereas their comprehension appears to be influenced by their previously acquired languages, mainly by Spanish. It is concluded that neither language dominance nor other traditionally considered factors play a determinant role in the acquisition of RCs in L3 English by these participants.

The Use of Videoconferencing and Unprescribed Conversation for Listening Comprehension in L2 Spanish

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Laurie Massery ◽  
Claudio Fuentes
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
System Data ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Guided Instruction

The following research investigates the effect that unprescribed1 conversation with native speakers of the target language had on learners' L2 listening comprehension skills at the beginning (n=21) and advanced intermediate levels of Spanish (n=27). Treatment groups completed two-thirty-minute conversations with native speakers via videoconferencing throughout the semester, while the control groups carried out unilateral oral exams using the Canvas course management system. Data was collected using the Avant Stamp Test, an online testing program that is based on the national standards outlined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (i.e., ACTFL). The results of the study revealed that learners at the Intermediate I (InterI) level significantly improved as a result of the oral interactions, while the Intermediate II learners (InterII)—who possessed more developed grammatical and lexical skills, as well as overall experience in L2 than their Intermediate I level counterparts—did not significantly improve as a result of the treatment. Although many of the studies in this area of inquiry emphasize the need for guided instruction, explicit strategy and lexical recognition in aural development, it is argued here that unprescribed conversation with native speakers—a much less contrived and more authentic approach to aural acquisition—can also significantly improve listening ability in L2. Therefore, with the present study, the authors contribute to current literature in Second Language Acquisition that centers on aural development and the role of native speaker interaction in learners' auditory growth.

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