Phonological development in two-way bilingual immersion

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mandy Renee Menke
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Language Immersion ◽  
Phonological Development ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Immersion Programs ◽  
Foreign Language Immersion

In spite of the well-documented advantage of an early age of acquisition, findings from one-way (foreign language) immersion programs suggest that this instructional context is insufficient for acquisition of nativelike articulations by child foreign language learners. It has been suggested that the lack of exposure to native speaking peers may contribute to reported non-native pronunciation. This study expands upon the previous research with child second language learners of Spanish, exploring how children, who learn academic content in Spanish, alongside native Spanish-speaking peers produce the Spanish vowels. Few differences are observed between the learner and peer native speaker groups, suggesting that the direct contact with native speakers of Spanish afforded by two-way bilingual immersion promotes phonological acquisition.

The Business of Pragmatics. The Case of Discourse Markers in The Speech of Students of Business English and English Linguistics

2011 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 10-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lieven Buysse
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Business English ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Native Speech

Abstract This paper investigates how foreign language learners use discourse markers (such as so, well, you know, I mean) in English speech. These small words that do not contribute much, if anything at all, to the propositional content of a message but modify it in subtle ways, are often considered among the last elements acquired in a foreign language. This contribution reports on close scrutiny of a corpus of English-spoken interviews with Belgian native speakers of Dutch, half of whom are undergraduates majoring in Commercial Sciences and half of whom are majoring in English Linguistics, and sets it off against a comparable native speaker corpus. The investigation shows that the language learners exhibit a clear preference for “operative discourse markers” and neglect or avoid “involvement discourse markers”. It is argued that in learner speech the former take on functions typically fulfilled by the latter to a greater extent than in native speech, and that in some cases the learners revert to a code-switching strategy to cater for their pragmatic needs, bringing markers from Dutch into their English speech. Finally, questions are raised as to the place of such pragmatic devices in foreign language learning.

The development of vocabulary and morphological awareness: A longitudinal study with college EFL students

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 877-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yih-Lin Belinda Jiang ◽  
Li-Jen Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Parts Of Speech ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Academic Year

AbstractWhile the relationship between vocabulary, morphological awareness, and reading comprehension has been examined extensively, research on this relationship among adult second language learners has only been explored recently. The present study addresses this gap by examining how adult English as a foreign language learners developed different types of English vocabulary and morphological awareness over the course of one academic year. Participants included 523 college freshmen in Taiwan with varying reading proficiency levels. Results from a series of mixed-measure analyses of variance revealed that (a) even the more proficient college English as a foreign language learners failed to fully grasp morphological principles; (b) the gap in vocabulary between the less skilled readers, the average, and the skilled readers widened significantly over the course of one academic year; (c) the effect of phonological and orthographic changes involved in morphologically complex words differed for the assessment of base meaning, but did not vary across proficiency levels; (d) progress in different aspects of morphological awareness, such as interpreting the meaning of the suffix or identifying the base of a morphologically complex word, varied significantly among readers of different proficiency levels; and (e) suffixes of different parts of speech posed different challenges to learners. Theoretical and pedagogical implications of the findings are discussed.

AGE AND ULTIMATE ATTAINMENT IN THE PRONUNCIATION OF A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Bongaerts ◽  
Chantal van Summeren ◽  
Brigitte Planken ◽  
Erik Schils
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Late Start ◽  
Ultimate Attainment

This paper reports on two studies that addressed the issue of ultimate attainment by late second language learners. The aim of the studies, which included a carefully screened group of highly successful Dutch learners of English in their designs, was to determine whether or not late second language learners who had achieved a nativelike performance in the pronunciation of a second language could be identified. Speech samples provided by two groups of learners, one of which consisted of highly successful learners only, and a native speaker control group were rated for accent by native speakers of English. The ratings obtained by some learners were within the range of the ratings assigned to the native speaker controls. Such results suggest that it is not impossible to achieve an authentic, nativelike pronunciation of a second language after a specified biological period of time. Examination of the learning histories of the highly successful learners lead the authors to argue that certain learner characteristics and learning contexts may work together to override the disadvantages of a late start.

Pragmatic development in L2 use of criticisms

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 163-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thi Thuy Minh Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Pragmatic Development ◽  
Efl Context ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Per Se

This paper presents a study of the development of L2 pragmatic competence in the speech act of criticisms. Data were collected from three proficiency groups of Vietnamese foreign language learners of English via a conversation elicitation task and a written questionnaire. An interview was also conducted to probe into the learners’ pragmatic decision-making. Results show that the strongest difference among the learners lay in the area of modifiers to criticisms, rather than in the criticism strategies per se. Specifically, as the learners became more proficient in the L2, they mitigated their criticisms more often, thanks to a better control over language processing. However, they still lagged far behind the native speaker group in the frequency of their use of mitigators. These proficiency effects were explained by the EFL context, which probably did not much facilitate pragmatic development, given the learners’ insufficient exposure to the target norms.

Using regressions to explore deviations between corpus data and a standard/target: two suggestions

Corpora ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Th. Gries ◽  
Sandra C. Deshors
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Predictive Accuracy ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
The One

The main goal of this study is to develop more appropriate ways to study variation between corpus data that instantiate a linguistic standard or target on the one hand, and corpus data that are compared to that standard, or that represent speakers that may aspire to approximate the target (such as second- or foreign-language learners). Using the example of SLA/FLA research, we first, briefly, discuss a highly influential model, Granger's (1996) Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis (CIA), and the extent to which much current research fails to exploit this model to its full potential. Then, we outline a few methodological suggestions that, if followed, can elevate corpus-based analysis in SLA/FLA to a new level of precision and predictive accuracy. Specifically, we propose that, and exemplify how, the inclusion of statistical interactions in regressions on corpus data can highlight important differences between native speakers (NS) and learners/non-native speakers (NNS) with different native linguistic (L1) backgrounds. Secondly, we develop a two-step regression procedure that answers one of the most important questions in SLA/FLA research – ‘What would a native speaker do?’ – and, thus, allows us to study systematic deviations between NS and NNS at an unprecedented degree of granularity. Both methods are explained and exemplified in detail on the basis of over 5,000 uses of may and can produced by NSs of English and French and Chinese learners of English.

Picture or non-picture? The influence of narrative task types on lower- and higher-proficiency EFL learners’ oral production

2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuyan Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Structural Complexity ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Task Types

Abstract Picture-based storytelling tasks, i. e. telling a story relying on some pictures, and short speech tasks, i. e. producing a speech with a given topic without pictures, are two types of oral narrative tasks widely adopted in previous studies. However, few have discussed what effects these two types of tasks may exert on second language learners’ speaking performance. In this study, sixty English as a foreign language learners, divided into lower- and higher-proficiency groups, performed a picture-based storytelling task and a short speech task. Stimulated recalls were collected from seventeen participants. Their oral discourses were analysed in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Stimulated recalls were analysed based on Levelt’s speaking model. The short speech tasks raised participants’ accuracy and lexical complexity and were more effective for higher-proficient learners regarding structural complexity. The findings yield suggestions for designing oral narrative tasks for EFL learners with different L2 proficiency levels.

scholarly journals Advanced second language learners experience difficulties processing reduced word pronunciation variants

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Ernestus ◽  
Mirte E. Dikmans ◽  
Ghislaine Giezenaar
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Reduced Word ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Syntactic Information

Abstract Words are often pronounced with fewer segments in casual conversations than in formal speech. Previous research has shown that foreign language learners and beginning second language learners experience problems processing reduced speech. We examined whether this also holds for advanced second language learners. We designed a dictation task in Dutch consisting of sentences spliced from casual conversations and an unreduced counterpart of this task, with the same sentences carefully articulated by the same speaker. Advanced second language learners of Dutch produced substantially more transcription errors for the reduced than for the unreduced sentences. These errors made the sentences incomprehensible or led to non-intended meanings. The learners often did not rely on the semantic and syntactic information in the sentence or on the subsegmental cues to overcome the reductions. Hence, advanced second language learners also appear to suffer from the reduced pronunciation variants of words that are abundant in everyday conversations.

Extended discourse in first and second language acquisition: A challenge and an opportunity

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine E. Snow
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Educational Setting ◽  
Word Generation ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Effective Component

AbstractFirst language learners acquire vocabulary in the context of participation in discourse, and the quantity and richness of that discourse is the best predictor of their progress. Similarly, we argue, engagement in discourse, in particular debate and discussion, is an effective component of classroom instruction for second and foreign language learners. Evidence supporting the effectiveness of a particular discussion-based program, Word Generation, is presented, in particular its effectiveness with current and former second language learners of English. Principles implemented in Word Generation that could be applied in any educational setting are identified.

scholarly journals A Review and Research Methodology of Chinese University EFL Students’ Perspectives on Anxiety in Native and Non-Native English Speaker Classes

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Huibin Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Foreign Language Anxiety ◽  
Foreign Language Teachers ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Acquisition ◽  
Efl Students

<em>The aim of this paper is to reveal how native and non-native speaker EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers influence students’ levels of Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA) in classrooms. Researchers in the area of second and foreign language acquisition have long been studying the role that anxiety plays among foreign language learners. Their findings are reported and analyzed in the first part of this paper. Then, research methodology is presented on two groups of students (180 in total) of whom 90 is in NS (Native Speaker) class and 90 in NNS (Non-Native Speaker) class taking English as a foreign language course for 4 hours a week at one university in China.</em>

Do foreign language learners also have constructions?

2005 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 182-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Th. Gries ◽  
Stefanie Wulff
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
German Translation ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Rule Out

In Construction Grammar, the ultimate grammatical unit is the construction, a conventionalized form-meaning pairing. We present interrelated evidence from three different methods, all of which speak in favor of attributing an ontological status to constructions for non-native speakers of English. Firstly, in a sentence-fragment completion study with German learners of English, we obtained a significant priming effect between constructions. Secondly, these priming effects correlate strongly with the verb-construction preferences in native speaker corpora: verbs which are strongly associated with one construction resist priming to another semantically compatible construction; more importantly, the priming effects do not correlate with verb-construction preferences from German translation equivalents, ruling out a translational explanation. Thirdly, in order to rule out an alternative account in terms of syntactic rather than constructional priming, we present semantic evidence obtained by a sorting study, showing that subjects exhibited a strong tendency towards a construction-based sorting, which even reflects recent explanations of how constructions are related.

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