Difficulties understanding L2 speech due to discourse- versus word-level elements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Listening Task

Abstract In this article, the constructs of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and discourse-level understanding in second language (L2) speech are analyzed for their conceptual and methodological characteristics. The analysis is complemented by a case study of listeners’ understanding of two matched L2 English speakers, who completed three speaking tasks over 17 weeks. One listening task focused on word/phrase recognition and one focused on semantic and pragmatic understanding. Results showed two different profiles for the two speakers. When listeners had difficulty understanding, for one speaker it was often due to word/phrase recognition problems, while for the other speaker it was often due to ambiguity in the pragmatic or functional meaning of the speech. Implications are discussed for the ways in which L2 speech is elicited, evaluated, and taught.

How native and non-native English speakers adapt to humor in intercultural interaction

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy D Bell
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Intercultural Interaction ◽  
Second Language Speakers ◽  
Negative Message ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

AbstractHumor can often carry an implicit negative message and thus be potentially dangerous to use. In addition, it is culturally and linguistically complex and sophisticated. Because of these things, it poses a challenge for L2 (second language) speakers and we might expect to see attempts at humor failing and causing offense in intercultural interaction. This paper reports on a study that examined humor in interaction between native and non-native speakers of English and found that humor did not seem to be a cause of conflict because of adjustments speakers made to their speech and their situated interpretations of meaning. In general, taboo topics and potentially dangerous forms of humor were avoided and humor was carefully contextualized. Native speakers reported being careful about the vocabulary they used in creating humor and both sides appeared to approach humor in intercultural communication prepared to accommodate the other and with an attitude of leniency.

scholarly journals (Not) acquiring meaning in a second language: Are input deficits key?

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 204
Author(s):  
Barbara C. Malt ◽  
Xingjian Yang ◽  
Jessica Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Learning Problem ◽  
Word Meanings ◽  
Learning Contexts ◽  
Choice Performance ◽  
Novel Words

Word meanings are not always parallel across languages, and second language (L2) learners often use words in non-native ways. Is the learning problem inherent in maintaining conflicting word-to-meaning mappings within an integrated lexical network, or is it due to insufficient attention to and input for acquiring L2 mappings? To help discriminate between these possibilities, we gave English speakers repeated exposures to 40 brief videos of actions, labeled with five novel words that cross-cut English labeling patterns. Half the participants were told only to learn the labels for the actions. The other half were told to figure out their meanings, which might differ from English. The Figure Out Meanings group made test choices faster and were also slightly more likely to produce definitions capturing the intended meanings. However, both groups performed well above chance in generalizing the novel words. High levels of choice performance for both groups point to insufficient input, rather than inherent properties of lexical networks, as the critical limiting factor in more typical L2 learning contexts. Speed and definition performance hint at some advantage to explicit attention in sorting out L1-L2 differences.

scholarly journals Extrametricality and second language acquisition

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Phonetic Cues ◽  
The Right

This paper examines how native English speakers acquire stress in Portuguese. Native speakers and second language learners (L2ers) of any given language have to formulate word-level prosodic generalizations based on a subset of lexical items to which they have been exposed. This subset contains robust as well as subtle cues as to which stress patterns are more or less productive, so that when speakers encounter novel forms they know which stress position is more likely. L2ers, however, face a much more challenging task, mainly if they are adults and have long passed the critical period. These difficulties are particularly notable in word-level prominence, where several interacting phonetic cues are involved. The trends observed across three proficiency levels in the judgement task described in this paper are consistent with a foot-based analysis, and show that L2ers successfully reset extrametricality (Yes in the L1; No in the L2) and shift the default stress position from antepenult (L1) to penult (L2). The latter is expected to follow from the former in a foot-based approach where feet become aligned to the right edge of the word as extrametricality is reset to No.

Whose? L2-English speakers' possessive pronoun gender errors

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 318-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
INÉS ANTÓN-MÉNDEZ
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Automatic Processes ◽  
Possessive Pronoun ◽  
Other Hand

This article reports the results of an experiment on production of his/her in English as a second language (L2) by proficient native speakers of Italian, Spanish, and Dutch. In Dutch and English, 3rd person singular possessive pronouns agree in gender with their antecedents, in Italian and Spanish possessives in general agree with the noun they accompany (possessum). However, while in Italian the 3rd person singular possessives overtly agree in gender with the possessums, in Spanish they lack overt morphological gender marking. Dutch speakers were found to make very few possessive gender errors in any condition, Spanish and Italian speakers, on the other hand, behaved like Dutch speakers when the possessum was inanimate, but made more errors when it was animate (e.g., his mother). Thus, even proficient L2 speakers are susceptible to the influence of automatic processes that should apply in their first language alone. The pattern of results has implications for pronoun production and models of bilingual language production.

scholarly journals Teaching in the Absence of a Standard Language. A Case Study of Upper Sorbian

2018 ◽  
pp. 157-167
Author(s):  
Eduard Werner
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Everyday Language ◽  
The One ◽  
Phonetic Representation

The teaching of Upper Sorbian (USo) is of increasing importance for the survival of this language. A challenge faced by learners is the lack of standardisation. Reliable standardisation has been conducted only in the area of orthography, which offers little indication about pronunciation. Pronunciation, however, is generally missing in all USo dictionaries, and teaching materials offer only general observations. Learners of USo mostly belong to one of two groups which require different teaching strategies: on the one hand, second-language learners aim to achieve authentic pronunciation; native speakers, on the other hand, struggle with the contrast between the standardised etymological orthography and the phonetic representation in everyday language (partly addressed in Šołćina 2014a/b).

Production of Subject-Verb Agreement in Spanish as a Second Language

2003 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet Nicol ◽  
Delia Greth
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Error Patterns ◽  
Verb Agreement ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Semantic Variables ◽  
Advanced Proficiency

Abstract. In this paper, we report the results of a study of English speakers who have learned Spanish as a second language. All were late learners who have achieved near- advanced proficiency in Spanish. The focus of the research is on the production of subject-verb agreement errors and the factors that influence the incidence of such errors. There is some evidence that English and Spanish subject-verb agreement differ in susceptibility to interference from different types of variables; specifically, it has been reported that Spanish speakers show a greater influence of semantic factors in their implementation of subject-verb agreement ( Vigliocco, Butterworth, & Garrett, 1996 ). In our study, all participants were tested in English (L1) and Spanish (L2). Results indicate nearly identical error patterns: these speakers show no greater influence of semantic variables in the computation of agreement when they are speaking Spanish than when they are speaking English.

Development and regional planning within the decentralized administrative frame: case study (the Jordanian Experiment)

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 60-72
Author(s):  
Mansour Safran
Keyword(s):  
Regional Planning ◽  
The Other ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Administrative Procedures ◽  
The Way

This aims to review and analyze the Jordanian experiment in the developmental regional planning field within the decentralized managerial methods, which is considered one of the primary basic provisions for applying and success of this kind of planning. The study shoed that Jordan has passed important steps in the way for implanting the decentralized administration, but these steps are still not enough to established the effective and active regional planning. The study reveled that there are many problems facing the decentralized regional planning in Jordan, despite of the clear goals that this planning is trying to achieve. These problems have resulted from the existing relationship between the decentralized administration process’ dimensions from one side, and between its levels which ranged from weak to medium decentralization from the other side, In spite of the official trends aiming at applying more of the decentralized administrative policies, still high portion of these procedures are theoretical, did not yet find a way to reality. Because any progress or success at the level of applying the decentralized administrative policies doubtless means greater effectiveness and influence on the development regional planning in life of the residents in the kingdom’s different regions. So, it is important to go a head in applying more steps and decentralized administrative procedures, gradually and continuously to guarantee the control over any negative effects that might result from Appling this kind of systems.   © 2018 JASET, International Scholars and Researchers Association

The Relationship between Working Environment and Internship Satisfaction Level: A Case Study Of A 4-Star Hotel Restaurant In Germany

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 276-291
Author(s):  
Chatarina Natalia Putri
Keyword(s):  
Career Development ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Satisfaction Level ◽  
Supervisory Support ◽  
Support Organization ◽  
The Relationship

There are many factors that can lead to internship satisfaction. Working environment is one of the factors that will result to such outcome. However, many organizations discarded the fact of its importance. The purpose of this study is to determine whether there is a significant relationship between working environment and internship satisfaction level as well as to determine whether the dimensions of working environment significantly affect internship satisfaction. The said dimensions are, learning opportunities, supervisory support, career development opportunities, co-workers support, organization satisfaction, working hours and esteem needs. A total of 111 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and were processed by SPSS program to obtain the result of this study. The results reveal that learning opportunities, career development opportunities, organization satisfaction and esteem needs are factors that contribute to internship satisfaction level. In the other hand, supervisory support, co-workers support and working hours are factors that lead to internship dissatisfaction. The result also shows that organization satisfaction is the strongest factor that affects internship satisfaction while co-workers support is the weakest.

A CASE STUDY OF NL INFLUENCE IN UNIS FKIP ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS' INTERLANGUAGE

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-54
Author(s):  
Irmala Sukendra ◽  
Agus Mulyana ◽  
Imam Sudarmaji
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Similar System ◽  
The One ◽  
L1 Acquisition

Regardless to the facts that English is being taught to Indonesian students starting from early age, many Indonesian thrive in learning English. They find it quite troublesome for some to acquire the language especially to the level of communicative competence. Although Krashen (1982:10) states that “language acquirers are not usually aware of the fact that they are acquiring language, but are only aware of the fact that they are using the language for communication”, second language acquisition has several obstacles for learners to face and yet the successfulness of mastering the language never surmounts to the one of the native speakers. Learners have never been able to acquire the language as any native speakers do. Mistakes are made and inter-language is unavoidable. McNeili in Ellis (1985, p. 44) mentions that “the mentalist views of L1 acquisition hypothesizes the process of acquisition consists of hypothesis-testing, by which means the grammar of the learner’s mother tongue is related to the principles of the ‘universal grammar’.” Thus this study intends to find out whether the students go through the phase of interlanguage in their attempt to acquire second language and whether their interlanguage forms similar system as postulated by linguists (Krashen).

‘Behind the Poetic Fiction’: Freud, Schnitzler and Feminine Subjectivity

2004 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-223
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Goodstein
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
The Other ◽  
Modernist Literature ◽  
Arthur Schnitzler ◽  
Feminine Subjectivity ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Poetic Fiction ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theories

In 1922 Sigmund Freud wrote to fellow Viennese author and dramatist Arthur Schnitzler: ‘I believe I have avoided you out of a sort of fear of my double’. Through a series of reflections on this imagined doubling and its reception, this paper demonstrates that the ambivalent desire for his literary other attested by Freud's confession goes to the heart of both theoretical and historical questions regarding the nature of psychoanalysis. Bringing Schnitzler's resistance to Freud into conversation with attempts by psychoanalytically oriented literary scholars to affirm the Doppengängertum of the two men, it argues that not only psychoanalytic theories and modernist literature but also the tendency to identify the two must be treated as historical phenomena. Furthermore, the paper contends, Schnitzler's work stands in a more critical relationship to its Viennese milieu than Freud's: his examination of the vicissitudes of feminine desire in ‘Fräulein Else’ underlines the importance of what lies outside the oedipal narrative through which the case study of ‘Dora’ comes to be centered on the uncanny nexus of identification with and anxious flight from the other.

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