scholarly journals French as a foreign language in the Netherlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 114-127
Author(s):  
Evi van Tessel ◽  
Marco Bril
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Secondary Education ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Preference Task ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence

Abstract Exposure to English is more extensive in today’s society than to French. In this study we investigated crosslinguistic influences from Dutch and/or English to language performances in French as a foreign language, while controlling for language proficiency in French, English and Dutch, and exposure to English. We tested Dutch learners of French (n = 65) with respect to the acceptability of reduced relative clauses and attachment preferences in full relative clauses. The results showed crosslinguistic influence in the acceptability task and the preference task from English and Dutch respectively. Furthermore, language proficiency in English seems to affect attachment preferences in French. We concluded that these findings support the Linguistic Proximity Model (Westergaard et al. 2017) and that French in Dutch secondary education might be a third language, instead of a second language.

Commitment in L3 relationships: Sacred vows or polyamory?

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832098804
Author(s):  
David Stringer
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Acquisition Process ◽  
Third Language ◽  
L3 Acquisition ◽  
Acquisition Device ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
The Mind ◽  
N Acquisition ◽  
Full Copy

Westergaard (2019) presents an updated account of the Linguistic Proximity Model and the micro-cue approach to the parser as an acquisition device. The property-by-property view of transfer inherent in this approach contrasts with other influential models that assume that third language (L3) acquisition involves the creation of a full copy of only one previously existing language in the mind. In this commentary, I review Westergaard’s proposal that first language (L1), second language (L2), and L3 acquisition proceed on the basis of incremental, conservative learning and her view of the parser as the engine of the acquisition process. I then provide several arguments in support of her position that crosslinguistic influence in L n acquisition may flow from any previously acquired language.

scholarly journals Levels of tests of Russian as a foreign language in terms of school age characteristics

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-234
Author(s):  
Nadezhda A. Dubinina ◽  
Dmitrii V. Ptiushkin
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
School Students ◽  
Second Language Proficiency ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
Guidelines And Recommendations

The current paper discusses possibilities for school students to successfully pass TORFL-I/B1, TORFL-II/B2 and TORFL-III/C1. The relevance of this article is determined by the fact that despite Russian as a foreign (second) language has been taught within the framework of the TORFL system for more than two decades, there is a shortage of methodological material aimed at preparing school students for TORFL. In addition, the issue of choosing the level of testing in accordance with the level of Russian language proficiency and taking into account age specifics is not sufficiently covered in Russian academic literature. The aim of this paper is to define age reference marks for school students who plan to pass TORFL. The materials to review and analyse were the works of Russian and foreign researchers in the field of foreign (second) language proficiency, language development of children and adolescents, assessment of school students communicative competence, language assessment, and correlation of these data with the requirements for completing tasks of the TORFL-I/B1, TORFL-II/B2, TORFL-III/C1 Writing subtests selected as an example. The paper has resulted in providing recommendations on the choice of examination level for senior and junior school students, within the framework of TORFL-I/B1, TORFL-II/B2, TORFL-III/C1, which can also be used in the development of training courses in Russian as a foreign language for schools. The authors concluded that there is need to develop a new methodological area in testing of Russian as a foreign language system capable to provide guidelines and recommendations for preparing school students for examinations, and designing TORFL training courses and teaching materials according to the school students age.

Leerlingkenmerken en Taalvaardigheid in Het Turks en Het Nederlands

1990 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geert Driessen ◽  
Kees de Bot
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
Migrant Children ◽  
Second Language Proficiency ◽  
Global Factor ◽  
Language Tests ◽  
Proficiency Scores

Evaluation of the effect of mother tongue teaching to migrant children in the Netherlands. Data are presented on first- and second-language proficiency of the Turkish sample (n=368). The aim of the investigation was to find out to what extent learner characteristics influence proficiency scores. It is concluded that the correlation between first and second-language proficiency is particularly low, which does not support Cummins' interdependency hypothesis. Interestingly parents' interest in school is an important global factor. Age on arrival appears to be of little importance for scores on the first-language tests. This suggests that children who have lived in the Netherlands for most of their lives, still show a continued development of their mother tongue.

scholarly journals Motivation and Second Foreign Language Proficiency: The Mediating Role of Foreign Language Enjoyment

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 1302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhang ◽  
Dai ◽  
Wang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Linear Regression Analysis ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Shaanxi Province ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Proficiency ◽  
Senior English

Inadequate research attention has been paid to the learning of a third language. For this reason, this study explores senior English major students’ learning of additional foreign languages in seven universities in Shaanxi Province, China. The study examines the relationship between the participants’ motivation and language proficiency through a questionnaire, and the collected data are analyzed using hierarchical linear regression analysis. The results identify that the participants’ instrumental and integrative motivations positively influence their second foreign language proficiency. Further analysis reveals that the connection between the participants’ motivation and language proficiency is mediated by foreign language enjoyment. These findings form the basis of our suggestions for the sustainable learning and teaching of foreign languages in universities.

Turtles all the way down: Micro-cues and piecemeal transfer in L3 phonology and syntax

2020 ◽  
pp. 026765832094103
Author(s):  
John Archibald
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
First Language ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Third Language Acquisition ◽  
The One ◽  
Crosslinguistic Influence ◽  
The Way

There are several theories which tackle predicting the source of third language (L3) crosslinguistic influence. The two orthogonal questions that arise are which language is most likely to influence the L3 and whether the influence will be wholesale or piecemeal (property-by-property). To my mind, Westergaard’s Linguistic Proximity Model (LPM) is preferable to other theoretical models (say Rothman’s Typological Primacy Model) insofar as it is consistent with many aspects of L2/L3 phonological learnability that I am familiar with. Westergaard proposes a structure-based piecemeal approach to the explanation of third language acquisition (L3A). The model is driven by parsing and dictates that the first language (L1) or second language (L2) structure which is hypothesized to be most similar to the L3 structure will be the one to transfer.

Vocabulary learning

2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farzad Dibaj
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Knowledge Scale ◽  
Word Difficulty

The purpose of this study is to compare the vocabulary learning of monolingual learners of English as a second language with bilingual learners of English as a third language. The study is based on data from 52 monolingual Persian-speaking learners of English and 45 bilingual Azeri-Persian-speaking learners of English. All the participants were females studying English as a foreign language at two universities in Iran. The informants were exposed to two incidental and four intentional vocabulary learning exercises. They were then measured at four difficulty levels using the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (Paribakht & Wesche, 1997). Variables such as English language proficiency, intelligence, family educational background, gender, age and type of university were controlled. The third language learners outperformed their second language counterparts at all word difficulty levels. The findings are discussed in relation to bilinguals’ higher level of executive and inhibitory control.

Mustafa op de Mavo

1985 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 65-72
Author(s):  
René Appel
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Secondary Education ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Linguistic Minority ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency ◽  
Dutch Language

In this article the results of an explorative study of the Dutch language proficiency of advanced second-language learners are presented. The proficiency in Dutch of a group of 17 students from non-indigeneous linguistic minority groups was compared with the Dutch proficiency of 17 native age-mates. In each group, 16 of the 17 students went to a 'MAV0', an intermediate level of secondary education. Their Dutch language skills were measured by analyzing spontaneous language samples and by administering some tests. In general, the second-language learners (the A-group) were shown to have a lower Dutch language proficiency than the native students (the N-group), and especially with respect to their scores on the tests. It was tentatively concluded that the students from the Α-group had a Dutch language deficiency in the area of Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. Their Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (the concepts CALP and BICS are borrowed from Cummins' theoretical framework) were more or less similar to the skills of native Dutch students. Students from linguistic minority groups might succeed in higher levels of secondary education if their CALP were brought to a higher level, since CALP correlates strongly with the kind of language proficiency demanded in school.

scholarly journals Language Proficiency through Vocabulary Development: A Framework

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boumediène BENRABAH
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Threshold Level ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
English As Foreign Language ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
Language Proficiency Test ◽  
Experimental Group

The global aim of the present research paper is an attempt to reach a threshold level of the learning of a foreign language (English) through the development of vocabulary. Observing the very limited rate of use of English in the Algerian community, English as Foreign Language (EFL) students, actually, need to progress in the mastery of that language by reading and/or listening to texts or messages intensively. To achieve this goal, subsequent procedures should take place by giving the foreign language a rather more appreciable position in the community such as the one held by a second language. To be down-to-earth, a brief survey on the linguistic situation in Algeria is exposed where neat clarification of second-foreign language status in the community is laid out to show that the more a (foreign) language is explicitly exposed in its manifold forms, the more are learners, in that community, likely to acquire it as a second language. However, the assumption of presenting the receptive skills (reading and listening) as the most appropriate means for the growth of foreign language vocabulary is supported by Krashen’s input theory where any input to be understood, should come at EFL learners’ capacity to read/listen and decode easily the meaning. In due course, First year EFL students have been subject to a language proficiency test-‘a pre-test then a post-test’. This typical experimental design is an intervention study which contains two groups: ‘the treatment or experimental’ group which receives the treatment, or which is exposed to some special conditions of intensifying vocabulary learning through a varied, comprehensible input; and a second group of EFL learners- the control group- whose role is to provide a baseline. The findings showed better scores among the experimental group compared to the other group. Actually, the results proved the adequacy of the adopted theory.

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