scholarly journals OBSERVING AND PRODUCING DURATIONAL HAND GESTURES FACILITATES THE PRONUNCIATION OF NOVEL VOWEL-LENGTH CONTRASTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 1015-1039 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Li ◽  
Florence Baills ◽  
Pilar Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Vowel Length ◽  
Hand Gestures ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Disyllabic Words ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Phonological Contrasts

AbstractWhile empirical studies have shown the beneficial role of observing and producing hand gestures mimicking pitch features in the learning of L2 tonal or intonational contrasts, mixed results have been obtained for the use of gestures encoding durational contrasts at the perceptual level. This study investigates the potential benefits of horizontal hand-sweep gestures encoding durational features for boosting the perception and production of nonnative vowel-length contrasts. In a between-subjects experiment with a pretest–posttest design, 50 Catalan participants without any knowledge of Japanese practiced perceiving and producing minimal pairs of Japanese disyllabic words featuring vowel-length contrasts in one of two conditions, namely with gestures or without them. Pretest and posttest consisted of the completion of identical vowel-length identification and imitation tasks. The results showed that while participants improved equally at posttest across the two conditions in the identification task, the Gesture group obtained a larger improvement than the No Gesture group in the imitation task. These results corroborate the claim that producing hand gestures encoding prosodic properties of speech may help naïve learners to learn novel phonological contrasts in a foreign language.

scholarly journals Bilingualism, cognition, and aging

2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUBIN ABUTALEBI ◽  
HARALD CLAHSEN
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Experimental Research ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
The Public ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Cognition And Aging ◽  
The Guardian ◽  
Made In

Topics in psycholinguistics and the neurocognition of language rarely attract the attention of journalists or the general public. One topic that has done so, however, is the potential benefits of bilingualism for general cognitive functioning and development, and as a precaution against cognitive decline in old age. Sensational claims have been made in the public domain, mostly by journalists and politicians. Recently (September 4, 2014) The Guardian reported that “learning a foreign language can increase the size of your brain”, and Michael Gove, the UK's previous Education Secretary, noted in an interview with The Guardian (September 30, 2011) that “learning languages makes you smarter”. The present issue of BLC addresses these topics by providing a state-of-the-art overview of theoretical and experimental research on the role of bilingualism for cognition in children and adults.

scholarly journals News from the pragmatics classroom: Contrasting the inductive and the deductive approach in the teaching of pragmatic competence

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 529-561
Author(s):  
Karen Glaser
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Guided Discovery ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Research Gap ◽  
Pragmatic Skills

Abstract While the role of pragmatic skills in a foreign or second language has been receiving increased attention both from a research and a language teaching perspective, there is still a lamentable scarcity of systematic empirical studies into the effectiveness of instructional methods in the teaching of pragmatics. Addressing this research gap, this article reports about a quasi-experimental study into possible differences between an explicit-inductive and an explicit-deductive instructional approach in the teaching of pragmatic skills in English as a Foreign Language (EFL), more specifically the teaching of offer refusals to 49 advanced adult EFL learners in Germany. The instruction consisted of three 90-minute lessons, which were spread out over the duration of a 15-week academic semester and designed according to the deductive principle and the inductive principle, respectively. While the deductive group was provided with metapragmatic rules directly at the beginning of the instruction, the inductive group only encountered such rules after engaging in language use and guided discovery. Production data was elicited by means of DCTs and role play in a pretest-posttest format. Effectiveness of instruction was operationalized by means of two indicators: Indicator 1 measured the increased usage of the strategies taught in class, while indicator 2 measured the approximation to a native speaker target. The results indicate that the gains in the inductive group surpassed those in the deductive group, suggesting that when situated within the explicit framework, inductive instruction is more effective in the teaching of pragmatic skills.

scholarly journals Foreign language teacher education in psycho-pedagogical research

2019 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-176
Author(s):  
Marianna Levrints
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Language Teacher Education ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

The unprecedented growth in the quantity, as well as quality of publications on language teacher education supported by the domain’s increasing experiential background opens up new avenues for enhancing the effectiveness of foreign language teacher education in Ukraine. Hence, the present paper aims at analyzing and singling out recurrent research themes, defining the mainstream approaches of the field of language teacher education, which constitute the emerging theoretical foundations of the field’s knowledge base. The review of the state-of-the-art publications has enabled the specification of the following research areas, pertinent to foreign language teacher education: language teacher cognition, the knowledge base of language teachers, language teacher identity, reflection, language teacher research and action research, language teacher professionalism, the role of teacher education, effectiveness of teaching, expertise, competence, teacher development and some others. The analysis of research suggests overall proliferation of the number of studies on the problem of language teacher education during the past 30˗40 years. Nevertheless, the comparison of the volume of studies highlighting general aspects of teacher education to those specifically related to foreign/second language teacher education reveals the quantitative advantage of the former. More efforts are needed at elaborating language teacher focused issues which stem from the nature of foreign language as a discipline, the socio-cultural role of language teachers and the role of foreign language in particular. Further limitations of the field-related research base, include: 1) a rather small proportion of empirical studies, necessary to provide informed answers for important questions of language teacher education; 2) the majority of available empirical studies are small-scale and contextually limited, which excludes the possibility of generalizations; 3) the field’s overall reliance on traditions, intuition and practical experience, with little regard for theoretical foundations; 4) paucity of research that present systematic complex generalizations of the field’s knowledge base;

scholarly journals ‘Grandpa’ or ‘opera’? Production and perception of unstressed /a/ and /əʁ/ in German

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Tamara Rathcke ◽  
Christine Mooshammer
Keyword(s):  
Forced Choice ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
The North ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Chance Performance ◽  
Prosodic Phrase ◽  
Male Speaker ◽  
Opera Production ◽  
Better Than

In the description of German phonology, two distinct phonetic symbols are currently recommended for the transcription of the vowels [a] (a central low vowel, phonemically /a/) and [ɐ] (phonemically /əʁ/) in word-final, unstressed positions. The present study examines whether differences between these two vowels exist in production and perception of Standard German speakers from the north of Germany. In Experiment 1, six speakers produced a series of minimal pairs that were embedded in meaningful sentences and varied with respect to their accentuation and position within a prosodic phrase. In Experiment 2, the minimal pairs produced by the six speakers of the first experiment were extracted from their respective contexts and tested with 44 native German listeners in a forced-choice identification task. Perceptual results showed a better-than-chance performance for one male speaker of the corpus only. Phonetic analyses also confirmed that only this male speaker produced subtle, but consistent F2/F3 differences between [a] and [ɐ] while the contrast was completely neutralised in the rest of the corpus. We discuss the role of prosody in vowel neutralisation with a specific focus on unstressed vowels and make suggestions for phonetic and phonological accounts of Standard German.

Non-native Japanese learners’ perception of consonant length in Japanese and Italian

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimiko Tsukada ◽  
Felicity Cox ◽  
John Hajek ◽  
Yukari Hirata
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Two Stage ◽  
Linguistic Experience ◽  
Australian English ◽  
Japanese Learners

Learners of a foreign language (FL) typically have to learn to process sounds that do not exist in their first language (L1). As this is known to be difficult for adults, in particular, it is important for FL pedagogy to be informed by phonetic research. This study examined the role of FL learners’ previous linguistic experience in the processing of a contrast absent in the L1. The FLs under investigation are Japanese and Italian, which both use contrastive consonant length. Two groups of non-native Japanese (NNJ) learners – L1 Australian English (OZ) and L1 Korean – participated in the consonant length identification task. Neither OZ nor Korean has an underlying consonant length contrast, but Korean has non-contrastive lengthening of tense obstruents with corresponding shorter preceding vowels, which may be beneficial in perceiving consonant length in an FL. We have taken a novel, two-stage approach. First, we compared the perception of Japanese long/geminate and short/singleton consonants by the two groups of NNJ learners. Second, we investigated whether FL Japanese learning by the two groups transfers to the processing of consonant length in an unknown language, Italian. Native speakers of Japanese (NJ) and Italian (NI) were included as controls. They were familiar with contrastive consonant length in their L1, but were naïve to the other language. The NJ and NI groups accurately identified the consonant length category in their L1 but were slightly less accurate in the unknown language. The two NNJ groups were generally accurate (> 80%) in perceiving consonant length not only in Japanese, but also in Italian. However, the direction of NNJ learners’ misperception (i.e. singleton as geminate or geminate as singleton) varied, suggesting that some learners, according to their L1, may categorize length in Japanese and Italian differently rather than uniformly applying the concept of [±long].

scholarly journals Perception of Sibilants by Preschool Children With Overt and Covert Sound Contrasts

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (10) ◽  
pp. 3763-3770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Roepke ◽  
Françoise Brosseau-Lapré
Keyword(s):  
Speech Sound ◽  
General Linear Model ◽  
The Other ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Speech Sound Disorder ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
Phonological Representations ◽  
Minimal Pairs ◽  
Preschool Aged Children

Purpose This study explores the role of overt and covert contrasts in speech perception by children with speech sound disorder (SSD). Method Three groups of preschool-aged children (typically developing speech and language [TD], SSD with /s/~/ʃ/ contrast [SSD-contrast], and SSD with /s/~/ʃ/ collapse [SSD-collapse]) completed an identification task targeting /s/~/ʃ/ minimal pairs. The stimuli were produced by 3 sets of talkers: children with TD, children with SSD, and the participant himself/herself. We conducted a univariate general linear model to investigate differences in perception of tokens produced by different speakers and differences in perception between the groups of listeners. Results The TD and SSD-contrast groups performed similarly when perceiving tokens produced by themselves or other children. The SSD-collapse group perceived all speakers more poorly than the other 2 groups of children, performing at chance for perception of their own speech. Children who produced a covert contrast did not perceive their own speech more accurately than children who produced no identifiable acoustic contrast. Conclusion Preschool-aged children have not yet developed adultlike phonological representations. Collapsing phoneme production, even with a covert contrast, may indicate poor perception of the collapsed phonemes.

scholarly journals Investigating the Role of Foreign Language Anxiety in Explicit and Implicit L2 Knowledge

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 365
Author(s):  
Runhan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Course Grades ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Negative Role ◽  
Self Assessments

Empirical studies have provided evidence for the negative role of foreign language anxiety in language proficiency measured via final course grades, self-assessments, objective language tests, and GPAs. However, its role in language proficiency from the perspective of explicit and implicit L2 knowledge is under-investigated. The current study therefore investigates the relationship between foreign language anxiety and explicit and implicit L2 knowledge in an English as a foreign language context. Participants were 156 university-level non-English majors. The results of the t test and multiple regression analyses showed that foreign language anxiety has a negative role in implicit L2 knowledge and also can predict it, but it was not found to have a significantly negative role in explicit L2 knowledge. The nature of the tests and knowledge may account for the results.

The roles of attention and (un)awareness in SLA: Conceptual replication of N. C. Ellis & Sagarra (2010a) and Leung & Williams (2012)

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald P. Leow
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Methodological Issue ◽  
L2 Learning ◽  
Potential Benefits

There is no doubt that attention and (un)awareness in second/foreign language (L2 learning) are two constructs that have permeated, explicitly or implicitly, second language acquisition (SLA) studies since their inception. Indeed, we have witnessed several empirical studies attempting to probe more deeply into the roles of these two constructs in the L2 learning process. Given the challenging methodological issue of eliciting and interpreting data on such internal processes, this paper underscores the importance and benefits of conducting replications of studies investigating both the roles of attention and awareness, or lack thereof, in the L2 learning process. A report on two key SLA studies is provided and several suggestions for replication are made for each study together with their accompanying potential benefits.

THE ROLE OF GESTURE IN DOCUMENT EXPLANATION BY EMBODIED CONVERSATIONAL AGENTS

2008 ◽  
Vol 02 (01) ◽  
pp. 47-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
TIMOTHY BICKMORE ◽  
LAURA PFEIFER ◽  
LANGXUAN YIN
Keyword(s):  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Evaluation Study ◽  
Embodied Conversational Agents ◽  
Conversational Agents ◽  
Hand Gestures ◽  
Embodied Conversational Agent ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Low Levels

We describe two empirical studies of how professionals explain documents to lay clients who have varying levels of knowledge about the domain under discussion. We find that hand gestures, and in particular deictic gestures by the professional at various parts of the document play a major role in explanations of documents with clients in face-to-face settings. We describe a preliminary computational model of document explanation by an embodied conversational agent, in which appropriate form and location of hand gestures are used by the agent in explaining a document to a user. Results from a pilot evaluation study indicate that individuals with low levels of domain knowledge prefer receiving explanations from such an agent rather than from a human. Examples are drawn from the healthcare domain, in which research consent forms and hospital discharge instruction forms are used as the documents being explained, and health literacy is used as the measure of client domain knowledge.

scholarly journals The Academic Motivation and Engagement of Students in English as a Foreign Language Classes: Does Teacher Praise Matter?

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunju Peng
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Motivation ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Teacher Praise ◽  
Motivation And Engagement ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Theoretical Evidence ◽  
The Impact

Given the undeniable role of English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ academic motivation and engagement in L2 success, identifying the antecedents of these positive academic behaviors seems essential. Accordingly, many empirical studies have probed into the impact of students’ personal factors on their motivation and engagement. Yet, not much attention has been paid to the role of teachers’ communication behaviors, notably praise. Additionally, no review has been performed in this regard. The present review study intends to address these gaps by explaining teacher praise and its positive outcomes for EFL students’ motivation and engagement. In light of the empirical and theoretical evidence, the role of teacher praise in improving students’ academic motivation and engagement was proved. The paper concludes with some pedagogical implications.

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