Comprehensie van Vreemdtalige Input

1988 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Diana C. Issidorides

Within a psycholinguistic approach to second language learning, an attempt is made to investigate the question of how morphology, syntax (word order phenomena), semantics and pragmatics affect the comprehension of Dutch sentences for normative learners of that language. When talking to nonnative language-learners, native spea-kers often tend to dehberately modify their speech -'simplify' it - in an attempt to make the target language more comprehensible. Omitting semantically redundant function words and copulas, or deliberate-ly modifying the word order in a sentence, are but a few characteris-tics of sucn 'simplifications'. In trying to determine whether, and what kinds of, linguistic simplifications promote comprehension, an important theoretical issue arises, namely, the relationship between linguistic (structural) and cognitive (ease of information processing) simplification. That one form of simplification is by no means a guarantee for the other form is an important assumption that forms the backbone to our approach. The results from research on morphological simplifications (omission of redundant function words in utterances) in two parallel experiments - an artificial and a natural language one (Dutch) - are discus-sed. They suggest that the presence of semantically redundant functi-on words is not experienced as bothersome "noise" in the successful inference of the meaning of unfamiliar utterances, as long as supra-segmental cues are present. The suprasegmental structure provides the listener/learner with cues for locating the potentially meaningful elements of such utterances. Research on syntactic simplifications is also discussed. Its aim was to examine the role and effect of syntactic and semantic cues on sen-tence interpretation. Two important questions were: (a) What are the processing strategies and cues responsible for the interpretation of Dutch sentences by native speakers, and how do they compare to those employed by nonnative speakers? (b) Are the processing stra-tegies and cues that are responsible and decisive for first language comprehension also those employed in second language comprehension? The performance of Dutch control subjects on a Dutch sentence interpretation task is presented, and hypotheses are put forward as to the locus and cause of eventual performance differences in a nonnative subject population (English learners of Dutch). Some relevant theoretical implications of our findings are also mentioned.

Author(s):  
Ismail Hasanein Ahmed Mohammad

ملخص البحث: يعتبر الاتصال الشفوي (الكلام) الوسيلة الفاعلة في بلورة الفكرة الكامنة لدى الفرد، وإخراجها بصورة صوتية تمثل تلك الفكرة تمثيلاً واضحاً، وإيصالها إلى الطرف الآخر –المستمع-دون لبس أو غموض، ويرى الباحث أن الطلبة غير العرب عند التّحدث باللغة العربية يتعثرون على الرغم من تخصصهم في تعلُّمِها بوصفها لغة ثانية. تهدف هذه الدراسة إلى معرفة أسباب إحجام الطلبة عن التحدث باللغة العربية، ومن ثَمَّ إبراز بعض الاستراتيجيات التي استخدمها الباحث في تعليم مهارة الاتصال الشفوي لطلبة بكالوريوس التربية، تخصص تعليم لغة عربية بوصفها لغة ثانية على مدى الخمس السنوات الماضية بالجامعة الإسلامية العالمية بماليزيا. توصلت الدراسة إلى أن تعليم وتعلم اللغة العربية خارج موطنها يعتريه كثير من العقبات تتمثل في البيئة المحيطة بالدارس، والمناهج والمقررات، والوسائل المعينة اللازمة، وينبغي أن يخصص وقت لممارسة الكلام باللغة العربية داخل الصفوف الدراسية، وإتاحة الفرصة لكل طالب أو طالبة في التعبير الشفوي، مع التشجيع الكامل من المعلم، ويتم تصحيح الخطأ بطريقة محفزة، وترصد لهم مكافآت ولو رمزية، تعزيزاً لدفعهم للكلام، وكسر حاجز الخوف والخجل، وإكسابهم الجسارة والجرأة والثقة. على أن يكون الوقت المخصص للكلام إلزاميا لجميع الطلبة دارسي اللغة العربية، ولكل المقررات المتعلقة باللغة. الكلمات المفتاحية: إحجام الطلبة - التخصص – اللغة الثانية- الاتصال الشفوي - الاستراتيجيات. Abstract: The oral communication (speech) is the effective method in developing the idea of the individual and to present it in clear representation and delivery to the other party — the listener-unambiguously. Since the oral communication is one of major concern of the target language, the teaching and learning requires using a variety of strategies to achieve the goal of language learning. The focus of this paper is the oral communication difficulties faced by non-Arab speaking students despite their specialization in learning Arabic as a second language. Therefore this paper aims to find out reasons why students con not communicate well in Arabic Language, and highlight some of the strategies used by the researcher in the teaching of oral communication skills for the Bachelor of education students, specializing in teaching Arabic as a second Language over the past five years in the International Islamic University-Malaysia, where the strategies used  had great impact in breaking the barrier of shyness of speaking in Arabic, and improved their performance in oral expression in multiple areas. From these strategies; the use of multimedia presentation, questions and answers, the excitement by viewing the strange or fantastic scenes that evoke the students to express them orally, and movements, representation, simulation and other strategies that draw the attention of students and encourages them to speak. As well as the cooperation and interaction between teacher and students and among the students themselves. The descriptive methodology will be applied in this paper to explore the teaching strategies implemented by the researcher in teaching oral communication skill, which shown great impact on students achievements.    Key Words: Motivating student – Major – Second language – Oral communication – strategies.   Abstrak: Pertuturan lisan ialah satu cara berkesan dalam mengembang idea seseorang itu untuk menjelaskan maksud kepada pihak kedua tanpa kesamaran. Memandangkan pertuturan lisan adalah satu aspek fokus bahasa yang dipelajari, pembeljaran dan pengajarannya memerlukan beberapa strategi untuk mencapai tujuan pembelajaran bahasa. Tumpuan kertas ini ialah terhadap permasalahan komunikasi yang dialami oleh pelajar bukan Arab walaupun mereka adalah pelajar pengkhususan Bahasa Arab sebagai bahasa kedua. Perbincangan tertumpuuntuk mencari sebab kelemahan pertuturan komunikasi lisan para pelajar dalam bahasa Arab dan beberapa strategi yang digunakan oleh penulis dalam mengajar kemahiran pertuturan lisan bahasa Arab untuk pelajar Sarjana Muda Bahasa Arab Pendidikan daripada lebih lima tahun pengalaman beliau di Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia. Startegi tersebut dilihat dapat memberi kesan dalam memecah kebuntuan sikap malu para pelajar bertutur dalam bahasa Arab dan meningkatkan penguasaan mereka dalam pelbagai bidang. Di antara strategi ini ialah: penggunaan multi-media, soal jawab, rasa kagum apabila diperlihatkan gambar yang pelik dan menarik menjadikanpelajar ingin menyatakan pendapat mereka secara lisan. Strategi lain juga termasuk: pergerakan, penampilan, simulasi dan pelbagai strategi yang menggalakkan pelajar bertutur serta sikap saling membantu dan interaksi di antara pensyarah dan pelajar. Kertas ini menggunakan metod deskriptif.   Kata kunci: Menggalakkan pelajar – pengkhususan – bahasa kedua – petuturan lisan – strategi.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (04) ◽  
pp. 802-825 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNIKA ANDERSSON ◽  
SUSAN SAYEHLI ◽  
MARIANNE GULLBERG

This study examines possible crosslinguistic influence on basic word order processing in a second language (L2). Targeting Swedish V2 word order we investigate adult German learners (+V2 in the L1) and English learners (-V2 in the L1) of Swedish who are matched for proficiency. We report results from two offline behavioural tasks (written production, metalinguistic judgements), and online processing as measured by event-related potentials (ERPs). All groups showed sensitivity to word order violations behaviourally and neurocognitively. Behaviourally, the learners differed from the native speakers only on judgements. Crucially, they did not differ from each other. Neurocognitively, all groups showed a similar increased centro-parietal P600 ERP-effect, but German learners (+V2) displayed more nativelike anterior ERP-effects than English learners (-V2). The results suggest crosslinguistic influence in that the presence of a similar word order in the L1 can facilitate online processing in an L2 – even if no offline behavioural effects are discerned.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Graham G. Robson ◽  
Darrell J. Hardy

One way to promote autonomy in the second language can be through the use of Self-access Centres (SACs). These are spaces for students to engage in activities such as self-study or communication with other learners, or native-speakers of the target language. However, merely having these spaces available does not guarantee that students will use the facility effectively, or even attend at all, so a degree of learner motivation linked with visiting the SAC would be necessary. Deci and Ryan’s (1985) Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has been used as the base for numerous studies in second language learning, including those in Japan. Proponents claim SDT is both universal and can be measured on different levels, which are global, situational and state. The authors sought to validate a measure of four subscales of SDT (Intrinsic Motivation, Identified Regulation, Introjected Regulation and External Regulation) written for this study at the situational level among undergraduates using an SAC at a Japanese University (n = 83). The rationale for items at this level comes from the field of psychology (Vallerand & Ratelle, 2002) and a study of second language constructs (Robson, 2016). A factor analysis confirmed four reliable factors, as hypothesized. Further, simplex correlations between the subconstructs somewhat confirms the underlying continuum posited by SDT researchers. These results may lead to a body of work that validates SDT theory in second language learning.


2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 312-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Scrimgeour

While Chinese language learning in Australian schools is characterised by predominantly second language programs for learners who have had no prior exposure to the target language, there is increasing participation by Australian-born children who speak Putonghua (Mandarin) or another dialect at home. Curriculum and assessment frameworks and syllabuses at senior secondary level have responded to the diversity in learner background through the provision of separate curricula and assessment schemes for different learner groups based on country of birth, prior educational experience and languages used at home. However the impact of learner background on learning and achievement as learners progress through Chinese language programs both in primary and secondary school remains under-researched. In particular, evidence of how the performance of second language learners differs from that of learners who a) speak the language at home and b) may have substantial community schooling experience beyond the school classroom, or c) were born and initially educated in Chinese, is very limited. This paper reports on the results of the Student Achievement in Asian Languages Education (SAALE) Project (Scarino et al., 2011; Scarino, this issue and Elder, Kim & Knoch, this issue) with regard to student achievement in Chinese. It focuses on the writing performance of Year 10 learners of Chinese and considers specifically the impact of language background by comparing performances between Australian-born students who do and do not speak Chinese at home. Scores assigned to students’ writing gathered on common test procedures confirms the expectation that background language learners perform at significantly higher levels and suggests that the two groups also differ in the nature of that performance. The implications of this data for the teaching, learning and assessment of Chinese in schools, and for the appropriate provision of programs for these different groups of learners is discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.36) ◽  
pp. 624
Author(s):  
A. Delbio ◽  
M. Ilankumaran

English is the only lingua-franca for the whole world in present age of globalization and liberalization. English language is considered as an important tool to acquire a new and technical information and knowledge. In this situation English learners and teachers face a lot of problems psychologically. Neuro linguistic studies the brain mechanism and the performance of the brain in linguistic competences. The brain plays a main role in controlling motor and sensory activities and in the process of thinking. Studies regarding development of brain bring some substantiation for psychological and anatomical way of language development. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) deals with psychological and neurological factors. It also deals with the mode of brain working and the way to train the brain to achieve the purpose. Many techniques are used in the NLP. It improves the fluency and accuracy in target language. It improves non-native speaker to improve the LSRW skills.  This paper brings out the importance of the NLP in language learning and teaching. It also discusses the merits and demerits of the NLP in learning. It also gives the solution to overcome the problems and self-correction is motivated through neuro-linguistic programming.   


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 121-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dolors Masats ◽  
Luci Nussbaum ◽  
Virginia Unamuno

Interactionists interested in second language acquisition postulate that learners’ competences are sensitive to the context in which they are put into play. Here we explore the language practices displayed, in a bilingual socio-educational milieu, by three dyads of English learners while carrying out oral communicative pair-work. In particular, we examine the role language choice plays in each task.  A first analysis of our data indicates that the learners’ language choices seem to reveal the linguistic norms operating in the community of practice they belong to. A second analysis reveals that they exploited their linguistic repertoires according to their interpretation of the task and to their willingness to complete it in English. Thus, in the first two tasks students relied on code-switching as a mechanism to solve communication failures, whereas the third task generated the use of a mixed repertoire as a means to complete the task in the target language.


1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynn Eubank

The processing strategies described in Clahsen (1984) to explain the develop ment of German word order make predictions that can be tested ex perimentally. Clahsen's Initialization/Finalization Strategy (IFS) in particular predicts that uninverted, ADV-SVO sentences will exact less cost in terms of processing than inverted, ADV-VSO sentences, even though inverted sent ences are grammatical in the target language and uninverted sentences are ungrammatical. The experimental means employed to test this prediction is the Sentence Matching (SM) procedure described originally in Freedman and Forster (1985). In the SM procedure, response times are elicited for particular types of sentences by measuring the time (in msec.) it takes for subjects to determine whether two sentences presented by computer are identical or different. The results of one of the experiments reported here show that inverted sentences result in significantly shorter response times than uninverted sentences for non-native speakers. This finding directly contradicts the IFS-derived prediction. However, further experimental work reported here indicates that native speakers do not respond at all to the inverted-uninverted contrast. The rest of the article thus seeks to explain this somewhat surprising finding. The proposed explanation also suggests that natives and non-natives may process sentences in the SM task in rather different ways.


2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Hopp

This study documents knowledge of UG-mediated aspects of optionality in word order in the second language (L2) German of advanced English and Japanese speakers ( n = 39). A bimodal grammaticality judgement task, which controlled for context and intonation, was administered to probe judgements on a set of scrambling, topicalization and remnant movement constructions. Given first language (L1) differences and Poverty of the Stimulus, English and Japanese learners face distinct learnability challenges. Assuming Minimalist grammatical architecture (Chomsky, 1995), convergence on the target language would entail the unimpaired availability of Universal Grammar (UG), i.e., computational principles and functional features beyond their L1 instantiation. Irrespective of L1, the L2 groups are found to establish systematic native-like relative distinctions. In addition, L1 transfer effects are attested for judgements on scrambling. It is argued that these findings imply that interlanguage grammars are fully UG constrained, whilst initially informed by L1 properties.


1985 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Chaudron

Two questions are fundamental to research on second language learning in instructional settings: (1) Does second language instruction have a positive influence on acquisition? and (2) If so, what factors in instruction make a difference, how, and for whom? This paper considers theory and research on second language classroom behavior that is aimed toward answering the second question, given evidence that the answer to the first one is affirmative.Theory suggests that the provision of comprehensible input, a focus on formal aspects of the target language, and the learner's opportunity to practice the target language, all may contribute to L2 development. Empirical research is reviewed to explore what modifications of teacher speech might influence comprehensibility, whether amount of exposure to target forms is related to learners' development, and which instructional behaviors might lead to productive practice with and knowledge about the target language.


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