Phonological features that predict accentedness, comprehensibility, and perceived teaching suitability in Arizona K-12 teachers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan Kerry Moran
Keyword(s):  
Individual Variability ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Educational Stakeholders ◽  
Administrative Practice ◽  
Phonological Features ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking ◽  
K 12

Abstract Motivated by a proposed administrative practice that would have discriminated against non-native English speaking (NNES) teachers, this study described an extensive phonological analysis on speech samples from ten certified Arizona teachers to investigate linguistic features that differentiate native English speaking (NES) teachers from NNES teachers. In addition, educational stakeholders (n = 141) impressionistically evaluated the speech samples for comprehensibility, accentedness, and perceived teaching suitability. Phonological features were used to predict listeners’ ratings on these three constructs. Multiple phonological features were found to predict comprehensibility, accentedness, and perceived teaching suitability, but each construct was predicted by a unique set of features. Lastly, stakeholders’ evaluations of NES and NNES teachers were analyzed. Despite individual variability in many of the features of NNES and NES teachers’ speech, educational stakeholders rated NNES teachers as more accented, less comprehensible, and less suited to teach.

A cross-linguistic study on the linguistic expressions of Cantonese and English requests

Pragmatics ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 395-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Lee
Keyword(s):  
Social Factors ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Direct Sequence ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Academic Context ◽  
Linguistic Study ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Native English Speaking

This study investigates the cross-linguistic devices of requests written by native English-speaking (NSE) and native Cantonese-speaking (NCS) respondents in an academic context on the basis of 197 discourse completion tests. Both groups asked in a direct sequence accompanied by a different proportion of syntactic and lexical devices to reduce directness. NES used a higher frequency and a wider range of syntactic downgraders than NCS. NCS, however, used a higher frequency of lexical downgraders and a greater number of combinations of lexical devices than NES. The cross-linguistic comparison of the linguistic features of Cantonese and Engish requests demonstrates how the distinctive linguistic properties of each language and social factors combine to constitute a request. Further investigation could be made between idealized and authentic English and Cantonese requests for a range of age groups and contexts, or to compare the linguistic forms of requests made by NCS in English with the linguistic forms of requests made by NES in Cantonese.

Strategies For Improving Academic Performance By Non-Native English Speakers In Graduate Programs

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracye A. Todd ◽  
Terrye A. Stinson ◽  
Thillainatarajan Sivakumaran
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Graduate Programs ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Academic Needs ◽  
The Past ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking ◽  
K 12

Over the past decade, the number of non-native English speaking students in higher education has increased dramatically. Educators at all levels have experienced challenges in meeting the academic needs of these students and continue to seek strategies for addressing these challenges. This paper describes some of this research related to K-12 and suggests ways for applying the results to improve the academic performance of non-native English speaking students in U.S. graduate programs. Educators in higher education can benefit from the research focused on K-12 and should seek ways to replicate the successful strategies in the graduate classroom.

Inadvertent Exemplars: Life History Portraits of Two Socially Just Principals

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Scanlan
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Life History ◽  
Elementary Schools ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Public Elementary Schools ◽  
White Middle Class ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Native English Speaking

This study creates life history portraits of two White middle-class native-English-speaking principals demonstrating commitments to social justice in their work in public elementary schools serving disproportionately high populations of students who are marginalized by poverty, race, and linguistic heritage. Through self-reported life histories of these principals, I create portraits that illustrate how these practitioners draw motivation, commitment, and sustenance in varied, complicated, and at times contradictory ways.

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