scholarly journals Exploring the L2 learning benefits of digital game-based spoken interaction among Japanese learners of English

2020 ◽  
pp. 102-106
Author(s):  
Michael Hofmeyr
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
Discourse Strategies ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Spoken Interaction

This paper describes the initial findings of an exploratory research project investigating the use of the cooperative digital puzzle game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes as a means to facilitate Second Language Acquisition (SLA). A qualitative case study approach was taken to closely examine the linguistic interaction between three L2 learners of English at a Japanese university who played the game over four one-hour sessions. The findings include clear examples of learners negotiating for meaning and making use of a range of discourse strategies theorised to contribute to effective language learning within an interactionist SLA framework. By demonstrating that the learner-to-learner interaction evoked by this game can set in motion multiple processes linked to L2 development, the results suggest that the game, as well as others that make use of a similar information-gap mechanic, could be effectively put to use for language learning and teaching purposes in a variety of formal and informal educational contexts.

Interactions in L2: Some Features of Japanese Learner Talk

2019 ◽  
Vol 2018 (1) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
John Campbell-Larsen
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Video Data ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Interactional Competence ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Turn Taking ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Spoken Interaction

The central use of language in all human societies is spoken interaction, and interactional competence is a tacit goal of language learning. Interaction is not just the utterance of correctly constructed sentences. Rather, learners must be aware of ways in which the target language is used pragmatically by native and proficient speakers to allocate turns, achieve intersubjectivity, co-construct understanding, sustain progressivity, and signal their attitudes and understanding of both their own talk and that of their interlocutor. This paper outlines some common interactional practices of Japanese learners of English, derived from extensive video data of student peer talk, collected over several years in Japanese universities. I highlight such areas as turn-taking, use of discourse markers, backchanneling, and L1 usage. I suggest that awareness of these issues can help both students and their teachers orient to an interactional view of language with concomitant consequences for teaching and learning. 全ての人間社会において言語の主な使用方法は会話であり、その会話に必要な相互行為能力の習得は言語学習においても必要不可欠なものである。相互行為は正確な構文の産出のみで完遂できるものではなく、学習者は発話ターン構造や間主観性・相互認識の構築、会話の継続・維持、参与者の心的状態の表出など、L2母語話者や熟練話者による語用方略を正確に認識し適切に遂行しなければならない。本稿では、多様な会話データから、日本人英語学習者の典型的なL2相互行為の特性を概説する。日本の大学で数年をかけ長期的に収集された日本人英語学習者のピア会話のビデオデータを用いて、学習者による会話中のターン構築、談話標識の運用、相槌やL1使用の方略に焦点を当てた分析を行う。本研究は、英語教師だけではなく、ひいてはその学習者にも言語を相互行為として捉える観点を与え、英語学習活動に相互行為能力の習得を導入する契機になることを目指す。

scholarly journals Foreign Language Listening Anxiety: Its Dimensionality and Group Differences

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harumi Kimura
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Listening Anxiety ◽  
Learning Anxiety ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Spoken Interaction ◽  
Korean Learners

This paper investigates foreign language listening anxiety (FLLA) in line with social and interpersonal anxiety studies. Language-learning anxiety has been conceptualized as a unique, situation-specific entity, and recent research in second language acquisition (SLA) has examined anxiety with respect to such skill domains as reading and writing as well as in terms of spoken interaction. Too much emphasis on specificity, however, might have led researchers and practitioners to miss common features of anxiety as affective processes under tension. A Japanese translation of the Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS), which was created for Korean learners of English by Kim (2000), was administered to 452 Japanese learners. Data reduction through factor analysis indicated that this construct, as measured by the FLLAS, has three factors which were labeled Emotionality, Worry, andAnticipatory Fear. University major and gender were chosen as independent variables, and only the levels of the former were found to be significantly different in terms of one of the factors, Emotionality. Math students experienced more arousal of fear than social science students in this dimension of the FLLAS. 本論では、日本人大学生の英語のリスニングに関する不安感を因子分析と分散分析を用いて研究する。韓国語を母国語とする学習者向けに開発されたスケールを基にして作成した日本語版尺度を用い、この心理的概念の適切なモデルの構築を目指し、三つの因子を仮定する。また、専攻分野によって学生の不安感の構成にも統計的有意差が見られることも報告する。

The Generalization of Instruction on Genitive Relative Clause in the Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language

2006 ◽  
Vol 151 ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Akihiro Ito
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Relative Clause ◽  
Relative Clauses ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Special Instruction ◽  
Japanese Learners

This study examines the generalization of instruction in foreign language learning. A group of Japanese learners of English served as participants and received special instruction in the structure of genitive relative clauses. The participants were given a pre-test on combining two sentences into one containing a genitive relative clause wherein the relativized noun phrase following the genitive marker "whose" is either the subject, direct object, or object of preposition. Based on the TOEFL and the pre-test results, four equal groups were formed; three of these served as experimental groups, and one as the control group. Each experimental group was given instruction on the formation of only one type of genitive relative clause. The participants were then given two post-tests. The results indicated that the generalization of learning begins from structures that are typologically more marked genitive relative clauses to those structures that are typologically less marked, and not vice versa.

Deployment of the formulaic utterance “how about∼” in task-based second language classroom discussions

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 425-446
Author(s):  
David Aline ◽  
Yuri Hosoda
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Interaction Analysis ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Alternative Procedures ◽  
Japanese Learners

Abstract Formulaic speech has long been of interest in studies of second language learning and pragmatic use as production and comprehension of formulaic utterances requires less processing and production effort and, therefore, allows for greater fluency. This study scrutinizes the sequential positions and actions of one formulaic utterance “how about∼” from the participants’ perspective. This conversation analytic study offers a fine-grained microanalysis of student interaction during classroom peer discussion activities. The data consist of over 54 h of video-recorded classroom interaction. Analysis revealed several positions and actions of “how about∼” as it occurs during peer discussions by Japanese learners of English. Emerging from analysis was a focus on how learners deploy this formulaic utterance to achieve various actions within sequences of interaction. Analysis revealed that participants used “how about∼” for (a) explicitly selecting next speaker, (b) shifting topics, (c) proposing a solution, and (d) suggesting alternative procedures. Although the formula was deployed to perform these four different actions, consistent throughout all instances was the disclosure of learner orientation to the progressivity of the task interaction. The findings show how language learners deploy this formulaic utterance in discussion tasks designed for language learning and highlights the pragmatic functions of this phrase.

scholarly journals Christopher Brumfit Award 2014

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-433
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Quality Of Presentation

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2014 Christopher Brumfit thesis award is Dr Hilde van Zeeland. The thesis was selected by an external panel of judges based on its significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, originality and creativity and quality of presentation.

scholarly journals Plural Marking in Spoken and Written Narratives: A Corpus-based Study of Japanese Learners of English

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 224
Author(s):  
Yumiko Yamaguchi ◽  
Hiroko Usami
Keyword(s):  
Picture Book ◽  
Developmental Sequence ◽  
Corpus Study ◽  
Written Narratives ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
Plural Marking ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
Linguistic Structures

This paper aims to present the results of a learner corpus study on spoken and written narratives by Japanese learners of English using Processability Theory (PT) (Pienemann, 1998). PT assumes that there is a universal hierarchy of second language (L2) development and many studies (e.g., Di Biase, Kawaguchi, & Yamaguchi, 2015; Pienemann, 1998) have shown support for PT stages for English L2. However, few PT studies have addressed the issues of whether learners use linguistic structures in the same way in spoken and written tasks. The current study focuses on learners’ use of plural marking on nouns, since contradictory results have been reported for the developmental sequence of lexical plural -s and phrasal plural -s (Charters, Dao, & Jansen, 2011). The participants in this study comprised 291 university students learning in English programs in Japanese universities. Each of them performed spoken and written narratives using a picture book titled Frog, where are you? (Mayer, 1969) containing 24 wordless pictures. The learner corpus including both 291 audio-recorded and transcribed spoken narratives and 291 written narratives was compiled. The results of the analyses showed a connection between learners’ use of plural marker -s in speaking and that in writing, while a small number of students were found to perform differently in two different tasks. Moreover, this study demonstrated support for the developmental sequence of lexical and phrasal plural marking predicted in PT. 

Language learning in mindbodyworld: A sociocognitive approach to second language acquisition

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 467-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwight Atkinson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Major Part ◽  
Video Clip ◽  
Continuous Learning ◽  
Computational Process ◽  
Knowledge Representations ◽  
L2 Development

Based on recent research in cognitive science, interaction, and second language acquisition (SLA), I describe a sociocognitive approach to SLA. This approach adopts anon-cognitivistview of cognition: Instead of an isolated computational process in which input is extracted from the environment and used to build elaborate internal knowledge representations, cognition is seen asadaptive intelligence,enabling our close and sensitivealignmentto our ecosocial environment in order to survive in it. Mind, body, and world are thus functionally integrated from a sociocognitive perspective instead of radically separated.Learning plays a major part in this scenario: If environments are ever-changing, then adaptation to them is continuous. Learning is part of our natural ability to so adapt, while retaining traces of that adaptation in the integrated mind-body-world system. Viewed in this way, SLA is adaptation to/engagement with L2 environments.Interactionalso plays a central role in sociocognitive SLA: We learn L2s through interacting with/in L2 environments. Founded on innate, universal skills which evolutionarilyprecededlanguage and make it possible, interaction supports SLA at every turn. Having presented this argument, I illustrate it by analyzing a video clip of an EFL tutoring session, indicating various ‘sociocognitive tools’ for interactive alignment which undergird L2 development.

English-Language Learning at Their Fingertips

2015 ◽  
pp. 1950-1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Alhinty
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Digital Tool ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Tablet Apps ◽  
Educational Applications ◽  
And Storage

The emergence of multi-touch screen tablets has increased the opportunities for mobile learning, as the unique capabilities and affordances of these devices give them an educational advantage over other mobile technologies. Tablets are progressively finding their way into classrooms and transforming modes of learning and teaching. However, research on educational applications of this digital tool, particularly with reference to foreign-/second-language acquisition by young beginner learners, is still limited. In this paper, the use of various tablet applications (apps) to support mobile English-language learning by children as beginners is discussed. The apps are classified into five main categories: communication, content-access, productivity, interactive and storage. The educational affordances of each category are presented and explained, with examples. This typology provides insight into the educational uses of tablet apps for English language learning, and has implications for research in the field of classroom practices and beyond.

scholarly journals Christopher Brumfit Ph.D./Ed.D. Thesis Award 2011

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-408
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Quality Of Presentation

The Editor and Board of Language Teaching are pleased to announce that there were two tied winners of the 2011 Christopher Brumfit thesis award: Dr Cecilia Guanfang Zhao and Dr Catherine van Beuningen. Both theses were selected by an external panel of judges on the basis of their significance to the field of second language acquisition, second or foreign language learning and teaching, as well as their originality, creativity and quality of presentation.

scholarly journals Second Language Acquisition Through Neurolinguistic Programming: A Psychoanalytic Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.36) ◽  
pp. 624
Author(s):  
A. Delbio ◽  
M. Ilankumaran
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Technical Information ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
The Brain

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.   

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