Short-term accommodation as a function of addressee language proficiency

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-193
Author(s):  
Cecily Corbett
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Spanish Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Dominican Spanish

Abstract This paper examines patterns of phonetic accommodation as a function of addressee target language proficiency. Specifically, it analyzes short-term adjustments in the articulation of coda consonants /s/, /ɾ/, and /n/ in the speech of eight New York Dominican Spanish speakers during a series of conversations with different addressees – a native speaker and three nonnative Spanish speakers who have varying levels of Spanish proficiency. Results demonstrate that addressee native-speaker status and proficiency play a statistically significant role in both the degree and direction of phonetic accommodation exhibited by the native speaker informants. While the informants converge with both the most- and least-proficient addressees, they initially diverge from the mid-proficient addressee. The study finds that the native speaker informants use overtly-prestigious variants to attune to the academic Spanish of the most-proficient addressees and use covertly-prestigious, emblematic variants with both the mid-proficient and native speaker addressees to demonstrate outgroup and ingroup membership, respectively.

scholarly journals Examining the Impact of Training and Nativeness on Teacher’s self-efficacy in teaching English

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 81-97
Author(s):  
Lina Lafta Jassim
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Foreign Teachers ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of training and 'nativeness' on teacher's self-efficacy in teaching English as a second language. A questionnaire was used and administered to 281 foreign teachers in Nasseria, Iraq. The teacher’s sense of efficacy scale (TSES) was employed to measure a teacher's self-efficacy. Using MANOVA, we tested the impact of teachers’ training and 'nativeness' on a teacher’s self-efficacy. The analysis showed that trained teachers have higher self-efficacy than untrained teachers and further that professional development enhances self-efficacy. The study established that being a native speaker does not necessarily influence a teacher's self-efficacy and goes to support the hypothesis that target language proficiency should not be associated with being a language teacher. Ultimately, policymakers and educational administrators should concentrate on the professional development of language teachers and disband the native/non-native dichotomy.

scholarly journals Examining the Impact of Training and Nativeness on Teacher’s self-efficacy in teaching English

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (9) ◽  
pp. 87-104
Author(s):  
Lina Lafta Jassim
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Foreign Teachers ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of training and 'nativeness' on teacher's self-efficacy in teaching English as a second language. A questionnaire was used and administered to 281 foreign teachers in Nasseria, Iraq. The teacher’s sense of efficacy scale (TSES) was employed to measure a teacher's self-efficacy. Using MANOVA, we tested the impact of teachers’ training and 'nativeness' on a teacher’s self-efficacy. The analysis showed that trained teachers have higher self-efficacy than untrained teachers and further that professional development enhances self-efficacy. The study established that being a native speaker does not necessarily influence a teacher's self-efficacy and goes to support the hypothesis that target language proficiency should not be associated with being a language teacher. Ultimately, policymakers and educational administrators should concentrate on the professional development of language teachers and disband the native/non-native dichotomy.

Writing and Culture in CALL

2019 ◽  
pp. 1579-1603
Author(s):  
Reyes Llopis-García ◽  
Margarita Vinagre
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Target Culture

This chapter discusses the importance of writing as a key ability to address in the foreign/second language classroom. The need to design and implement projects and tasks that foster authentic cultural learning through the meaningful use of written production is addressed, and a project that meets these criteria is presented. This email tandem exchange project was conducted between 94 intermediate-level students (47 pairs) from Columbia University/Barnard College in New York and the Universidad Autonóma de Madrid in Spain during the Fall Semester 2010 (and subsequently in 2011 and 2012). There were several goals to this project: to help improve students' writing skills; to encourage them to learn about culture through authentic and real exposure to the target language (TL onwards, understood as “direct contact with a native speaker”); to foster progress in their use of the TLs through peer-to-peer corrections; and to take an active part in their own learning through self-assessment. Based on students' opinions, this project had a very positive impact on the way they viewed the foreign/target culture on both sides of the Atlantic. It also helped them enhance their written proficiency and acquire a new lexical mastery that would have been impossible through the limited and less-real scope of the classroom.

LINGUISTIC CORRELATES OF SECOND LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael H. Long ◽  
Kira Gor ◽  
Scott Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Telephone Interview ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Second Language Proficiency ◽  
Instructional Process ◽  
Proficiency Levels

With Russian as the target language, a proof of concept study was undertaken to determine whether it is possible to identify linguistic features, control over which is implicated in progress on the Interagency Linguistic Roundtable (ILR) proficiency scale, thereby better to inform the instructional process. Following its development in an instrumentation study, a revised version of a computer-delivered battery of 33 perception and production tasks was administered to 68 participants—57 learners between levels 2 and 3 (21 at ILR 2, 18 at 2+, and 18 at 3) on the ILR scale, and 11 native speaker controls—whose proficiency was tested via an ILR oral proficiency telephone interview. The tasks sampled subjects’ control of Russian phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis, and collocations. Relationships between control of the linguistic features and the ILR levels of interest were assessed statistically. All 33 tasks, 18 of which assessed learners’ abilities in perception and 15 of which assessed their abilities in production, were found to differentiate ILR proficiency levels 2 and 3, and a subset was found to also distinguish levels 2 and 2+, and 2+ and 3. On the basis of the results, a checklist of linguistic features pegged to proficiency levels was produced that can be useful for syllabus designers, teachers, and learners themselves as well as providing the basis for future diagnostic tests.

Email Tandem Exchanges as a Tool for Authentic Cultural Learning

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 43-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reyes Llopis-García
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Target Languages ◽  
Target Culture

This paper presents the description of an email Tandem exchange project conducted between 94 intermediate-level students (47 pairs) from Columbia University/Barnard College in New York and Universidad Autonóma de Madrid in Spain during the Fall Semester 2010. There were several goals to this project: to help improve students’ writing skills; to encourage them to learn about culture through authentic (understood as ‘direct contact with a native speaker’) and real exposure to the target language; to foster progress in their use of the target languages through peer-to-peer corrections; and to take an active part in their own learning through self-assessment. Based on students’ opinions, this project had a very positive impact in the way they viewed the foreign/target culture on both sides of the Atlantic. It also helped them enhance their written proficiency and acquire a new lexical mastery that would have been impossible through the limited and less-real scope of the classroom.

Writing and Culture in CALL

2014 ◽  
pp. 129-151
Author(s):  
Reyes Llopis-García
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Direct Contact ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Target Culture

This chapter discusses the importance of writing as a key ability to address in the foreign/second language classroom. The need to design and implement projects and tasks that foster authentic cultural learning through the meaningful use of written production is addressed, and a project that meets these criteria is presented. This email tandem exchange project was conducted between 94 intermediate-level students (47 pairs) from Columbia University/Barnard College in New York and the Universidad Autonóma de Madrid in Spain during the Fall Semester 2010 (and subsequently in 2011 and 2012). There were several goals to this project: to help improve students’ writing skills; to encourage them to learn about culture through authentic and real exposure to the target language (TL onwards, understood as “direct contact with a native speaker”); to foster progress in their use of the TLs through peer-to-peer corrections; and to take an active part in their own learning through self-assessment. Based on students’ opinions, this project had a very positive impact on the way they viewed the foreign/target culture on both sides of the Atlantic. It also helped them enhance their written proficiency and acquire a new lexical mastery that would have been impossible through the limited and less-real scope of the classroom.

scholarly journals Examining the Impact of Training and Nativeness on Teacher’s self-efficacy in teaching English

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (8) ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Lina Lafta Jassim
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Foreign Teachers ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
The Impact

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of training and 'nativeness' on teacher's self-efficacy in teaching English as a second language. A questionnaire was used and administered to 281 foreign teachers in Nasseria, Iraq. The teacher’s sense of efficacy scale (TSES) was employed to measure a teacher's self-efficacy. Using MANOVA, we tested the impact of teachers’ training and 'nativeness' on a teacher’s self-efficacy. The analysis showed that trained teachers have higher self-efficacy than untrained teachers and further that professional development enhances self-efficacy. The study established that being a native speaker does not necessarily influence a teacher's self-efficacy and goes to support the hypothesis that target language proficiency should not be associated with being a language teacher. Ultimately, policymakers and educational administrators should concentrate on the professional development of language teachers and disband the native/non-native dichotomy.

scholarly journals On the Acceptance of the Null That by Bilingual Catalan/Spanish L2 Learners of English

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Mireia Llinàs-Grau ◽  
Aurora Bel
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Relevant Issue ◽  
Specific Instruction ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Complement Clauses ◽  
The One

The research presented in this article aims at providing new data on L2 learner knowledge and recognition of the null that in complement clauses. The speech of English native speakers reveals a kind of variation which implies that where that may be present or absent in clauses selected by many common verbs such as say or think there is no preference for one of the two options. In this article, judgement data of bilingual Catalan/Spanish upper-intermediate and advanced L2 learners of English are analysed bearing in mind two possible factors that, according to previous research, may influence the acceptance of this phenomenon, level of proficiency and absence versus presence of instruction. A relevant issue regarding this construction is that performing like a native does not always imply using one grammatical structure in the target language and gradually doing away with the use of another ungrammatical one; it rather implies being able to detect native speaker frequency in the use of one of the two possible options, overt that usage or the null that. Our results show that learning in this domain depends more on degree in language proficiency than in the specific instruction provided, that both choices do not pose the same difficulty and that advanced L2 learners of English can display a native-like acceptance of the null that option. The option that presents more challenges is the one where there is no L1 facilitation.

The same cloze for all occasions?

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Dean Brown ◽  
Theres Grüter
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Test Scores ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Scoring Methods ◽  
Scoring Method ◽  
Reliability Estimates ◽  
Proficiency Assessment ◽  
Cloze Test

AbstractTarget language proficiency assessment has become an integral part of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research design, with cloze tests frequently serving this purpose for reasons of practicality. Assumptions underlying the interpretation of such cloze test scores, however, are often not examined. With the goal of providing researchers with better means for drawing inferences from cloze test scores, we present an analysis of a combined dataset comprised of scores from 1,724 test takers on a frequently used English cloze test (Brown 1980). We examine variation in score distributions and reliability estimates among L2 groups, between L2 and native-speaker (NS) examinees, and for different scoring methods, and investigate the degree to which different sets of items were effective for classifying low- vs high-proficiency L2 examinees and L2 vs NS test takers. Standardized scores are provided for each scoring method so that future researchers can reference their scores to this larger set.

scholarly journals On the issue of using linguistic and regional realities when learning a foreign language

2021 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-48
Author(s):  
Zh. Rapisheva ◽  
◽  
A. Balgabay ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Synthesis Methods ◽  
Communicative Behavior ◽  
Analysis And Synthesis ◽  
Cognitive Information ◽  
Cultural Texts

The article considers the problem of updating the linguistic and regional realities in the process of studying a foreign language in an inseparable connection with the study of regional characteristics determined by the national worldview, social and cultural structure. Modern methodological research is based on the linguistic and cultural approach in teaching a foreign language. At the same time, vocabulary with a regional component, regional geographic information that affects the most diverse aspects of the life of the country of the target language, its history, literature, science, art, as well as traditions, customs and customs are distinguished. The linguistic and cultural aspect contributes to the enrichment of the subject-content plan, therefore the authors focus on achieving high-quality results in teaching a foreign language, using the methods of real access to a different culture and its carriers. Аnalysis of linguistic material with high regional and communicative value, significance for the process of teaching a foreign language. Since the main goal of teaching a foreign language is the development of the student's personality in inseparable connection with the teaching of the culture of the country of the target language, contributing to the desire to participate in intercultural communication and to improve independently in the activity being mastered, to use in the learning process the material on the basis of which knowledge about realities, morals, customs is formed, the traditions of the country of the studied language, knowledge and skills of communicative behavior in acts of verbal communication, skills and abilities of verbal and non-verbal behavior, which is included in the content of the national culture. The study used a descriptive method, analysis and synthesis methods. Linguistic and cultural competence of students, the effectiveness of its formation depends on the level of language proficiency. In the educational process, an important element is the activation of the introduction of linguistic and regional realities, since while studying a foreign language, the student gets acquainted with the worldview of a native speaker, which underlies the language code of this language. The authors emphasize that linguistic and regional materials help students to understand the values of the culture of the country of the target language, to develope intercultural competences in the study of a foreign language. The formation of a country- oriented methodology for teaching a foreign language, involving increased attention to the national-cultural semantics of the studied vocabulary and the study of linguistic and cultural texts, provides language acquisition in close connection with a foreign language culture, which includes a variety of cognitive information about history, literature, architecture, life, image life and traditions of the country of the target language.

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