L1 English speakers in Prague: motivators in language use and language borrowing

AbstractWe present an Integrated Contrastive Model of non-numerical quantificational NPs (NNQs, i.e. ‘some people’) produced by L1 English speakers and Mandarin and Korean L2 English learners. Learner corpus data was sourced from the ICNALE (Ishikawa, 2011, 2013) across four L2 proficiency levels. An average 10% of L2 NNQs were specific to L2 varieties, including noun number mismatches (*‘many child’), omitting obligatory quantifiers after adverbs (*‘almost people’), adding unnecessary particles (*‘all of people’) and non-L1 English-like quantifier/noun agreement (*‘many water’). Significantly fewer ‘openclass’ NNQs (e.g a number of people) are produced by L2 learners, preferring ‘closed-class’ single lexical quantifiers (following L1-like use). While such production is predictable via L1 transfer, Korean L2 English learners produced significantly more L2-like NNQs at each proficiency level, which was not entirely predictable under a transfer account. We thus consider whether positive transfer of other linguistic forms (i.e. definiteness marking) aids the learnability of other L2 forms (i.e. expression of quantification).

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PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING OF STRESS BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS LEARNING SPANISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263121000309 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Ramsés Ortín ◽

Miquel Simonet

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Phonological Processing ◽

First Language ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

Recall Task ◽

English Speakers ◽

Auditory Stimuli ◽

L2 Learners ◽

L1 English ◽

Processing Stress

Abstract One feature of Spanish that presents some difficulties to second language (L2) learners whose first language (L1) is English concerns lexical stress. This study explores one aspect of the obstacle these learners face, weak phonological processing routines concerning stress inherited from their native language. Participants were L1 English L2 learners of Spanish. The experiment was a sequence-recall task with auditory stimuli minimally contrasting in stress (target) or segmental composition (baseline). The results suggest that learners are more likely to accurately recall sequences with stimuli contrasting in segmental composition than stress, suggesting reduced phonological processing of stress relative to a processing baseline. Furthermore, an increase in proficiency—assessed by means of grammatical and lexical tests—was found to be modestly associated with an increase in the accuracy of processing stress. We conclude that the processing routines of native English speakers lead to an acquisitional obstacle when learning Spanish as a L2.

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Evidence for a bimodal bilingual disadvantage in letter fluency

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728916000596 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 42-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

MARCEL R. GIEZEN ◽

KAREN EMMOREY

Keyword(s):

Verbal Fluency ◽

Language Use ◽

Spoken Language ◽

English Speakers ◽

Early Age ◽

Vocabulary Size ◽

Dominant Language ◽

Frequency Of Use ◽

Fluency Task

Many bimodal bilinguals are immersed in a spoken language-dominant environment from an early age and, unlike unimodal bilinguals, do not necessarily divide their language use between languages. Nonetheless, early ASL–English bilinguals retrieved fewer words in a letter fluency task in their dominant language compared to monolingual English speakers with equal vocabulary level. This finding demonstrates that reduced vocabulary size and/or frequency of use cannot completely account for bilingual disadvantages in verbal fluency. Instead, retrieval difficulties likely reflect between-language interference. Furthermore, it suggests that the two languages of bilinguals compete for selection even when they are expressed with distinct articulators.

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The relationship between phonotactic awareness and pronunciation in adult second language learners

Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada ◽

10.1590/1984-6398201610850 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 185-214

Author(s):

Hanna Kivistö-de Souza

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Second Language Learners ◽

English Speakers ◽

Decision Task ◽

Efl Learners ◽

Language Classrooms ◽

The Relationship ◽

L1 English ◽

L2 Pronunciation

Abstract: This study examined to what extent L1 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) EFL learners are aware of L2 phonotactics and whether there would be a relationship between L2 phonotactic awareness and L2 pronunciation accuracy. The language learners were tested regarding their awareness of L2 onset consonant clusters with a lexical decision task presenting nonword stimuli with legal and illegal onset clusters. L2 pronunciation was measured with a Foreign Accent Rating Task. The results showed that L1 BP participants showed a high awareness concerning L2 phonotactics, not differing from L1 English speakers, t(86)=.20, p =.83. Furthermore, high phonotactic awareness was found to be related to higher accuracy in L2 pronunciation (r= -.46, p <.001). The results suggest that phonotactics should be taught in foreign language classrooms since increasing learners’ awareness might be beneficial for the accuracy of their L2 pronunciation.

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English Speakers’ Implicit Gender Concepts Influence Their Processing of French Grammatical Gender: Evidence for Semantically Mediated Cross-Linguistic Influence

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.740920 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Elena Nicoladis ◽

Chris Westbury ◽

Cassandra Foursha-Stevenson

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Response Time ◽

Response Times ◽

First Language ◽

Grammatical Gender ◽

Word Embedding ◽

English Speakers ◽

French Words ◽

L1 English ◽

French Gender

Second language (L2) learners often show influence from their first language (L1) in all domains of language. This cross-linguistic influence could, in some cases, be mediated by semantics. The purpose of the present study was to test whether implicit English gender connotations affect L1 English speakers’ judgments of the L2 French gender of objects. We hypothesized that gender estimates derived from word embedding models that measure similarity of word contexts in English would affect accuracy and response time on grammatical gender (GG) decision in L2 French. L2 French learners were asked to identify the GG of French words estimated to be either congruent or incongruent with the implicit gender in English. The results showed that they were more accurate with words that were congruent with English gender connotations than words that were incongruent, suggesting that English gender connotations can influence grammatical judgments in French. Response times showed the same pattern. The results are consistent with semantics-mediated cross-linguistic influence.

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Pragmatics in Teacher Talk: The Case of Pre-Primary Education

English Language Teaching ◽

10.5539/elt.v13n8p168 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

pp. 168

Author(s):

Júlia Barón ◽

Helena Roquet ◽

Natalia Evnitskaya ◽

Noelia Navarro

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Primary Education ◽

Primary Schools ◽

Language Use ◽

Speech Act ◽

Primary Teachers ◽

Teacher Talk ◽

Pragmatic Competence ◽

Efl Classrooms ◽

L1 English

This study aims to explore how the speech act of requesting is performed in Catalan (L1), English (L1) and EFL classrooms by pre-primary teachers. The study examines transcripts of 40-minute video-recorded lessons (six in Catalan/L1, six in English/FL, and three in English/L1) collected in several pre-primary schools in Catalonia, Spain. Recall interviews with the teachers were also conducted in order to examine their perceptions of their pragmatic performances in the classroom. Results show that teachers predominantly use imperatives in the three groups (Catalan L1, English L1 and EFL); however, a wider variety of requesting strategies is used in the L1 lessons. The study concludes with reflections on the pedagogical implications of the findings and calls for the need to raise teachers’ awareness about the effect their language use might have on the development of learners’ pragmatic competence both in the L1 and the foreign language.

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Epicene pronouns in intermediate to advanced EFL writing

International Journal of Learner Corpus Research ◽

10.1075/ijlcr.16016.sto ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 1-22 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Charlotte Stormbom

Keyword(s):

Language Use ◽

English Speakers ◽

Student Writing ◽

Traditional Practice ◽

Efl Writing ◽

Sexist Language ◽

L1 Influence ◽

Global Nature ◽

L1 And L2 ◽

Second Wave

Abstract Since the second wave of feminism, non-sexist language use has become an increasingly important topic. A key issue in English is the choice of epicene pronouns, i.e. pronouns that refer to both sexes. Despite the global nature of English, little research has addressed this topic in EFL contexts. This study examines the use of the epicene pronouns he, he or she, and they in two L1 and L2 corpora of student writing. The corpus analyses show that, overall, the L2 English speakers use he significantly more than the L1 speakers, whereas the L1 speakers use they more. Variation found in the L2 subcorpora seems to be partly related to L1 influence: The writers who use he the most are speakers of gendered L1s with a traditional practice of masculine generics. The study also shows that both L1 and L2 writers are affected by the antecedent type in their pronoun choice.

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THE PRODUCTION OF SUBJECT-VERB AGREEMENT AMONG SWEDISH AND CHINESE SECOND LANGUAGE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263118000025 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 40 (4) ◽

pp. 907-921 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Carrie N. Jackson ◽

Elizabeth Mormer ◽

Laurel Brehm

Keyword(s):

Sentence Completion ◽

English Speakers ◽

L2 Proficiency ◽

Chinese Speakers ◽

Verb Agreement ◽

Second Language Speakers ◽

L2 Production ◽

The Subject ◽

Verb Number ◽

L1 English

AbstractThis study uses a sentence completion task with Swedish and Chinese L2 English speakers to investigate how L1 morphosyntax and L2 proficiency influence L2 English subject-verb agreement production. Chinese has limited nominal and verbal number morphology, while Swedish has robust noun phrase (NP) morphology but does not number-mark verbs. Results showed that like L1 English speakers, both L2 groups used grammatical and conceptual number to produce subject-verb agreement. However, only L1 Chinese speakers—and less-proficient speakers in both L2 groups—were similarly influenced by grammatical and conceptual number when producing the subject NP. These findings demonstrate how L2 proficiency, perhaps combined with cross-linguistic differences, influence L2 production and underscore that encoding of noun and verb number are not independent.

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Conceptual meaning in Italian speaking learners’ expression of temporality in L2 English

Journal of Second Language Studies ◽

10.1075/jsls.19016.aus ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Samantha Austen

Keyword(s):

Second Language Acquisition ◽

Cognitive Linguistics ◽

English Speakers ◽

Think Aloud ◽

Language Groups ◽

Conceptual Transfer ◽

Data Collection Technique ◽

L1 English ◽

Conceptual Meaning ◽

Relevant Factors

Abstract This study explores conceptual meaning in the construal of distinct temporal concepts by L1 Italian speakers, and considers the possibility that L1 constrained perspectives may influence the L2 English production of these speakers in the form of Conceptual Transfer (CT). Adopting a Cognitive Linguistics framework, think aloud reports are used as a data collection technique capable of accessing the meanings that both L1 Italian and L1 English speakers seek to convey in relation to the target concepts in English. Analysis of the think aloud reports revealed distinctly different approaches by the two language groups in the construal of these concepts. Results of this initial exploratory study point to cross-linguistic difference in the temporal meanings expressed, a role for L1 constrained construal in second language acquisition, the potential for CT based on this and the potency of think aloud reports in revealing this and other relevant factors.

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Commodifying Language

10.7591/cornell/9781501754906.003.0005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 94-118

Author(s):

Eric S. Henry

Keyword(s):

Public Schools ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Human Resources ◽

Language Use ◽

Social Value ◽

English Speakers ◽

Corporate Management ◽

Vast Number ◽

Innovative Strategies ◽

Almost All

This chapter assesses the commerce of foreign languages in contemporary Shenyang. It focuses on the production of language as a commodity, the means by which certain forms of language are imbued with social value through the practices of marketing them to consumers. In the scramble to develop Shenyang's foreign language marketplace, school owners developed innovative strategies to build and maintain their businesses, strategies that themselves were crucial in reconfiguring the nature of language itself from something that is learned to something that is sold. The commodity logic of English extends far beyond their reach through uptake into almost all aspects of foreign language use in China, from public schools to testing to corporate management of linguistic (human) resources. It is no longer a stretch to say that English speakers in China are manufactured in much the same way as the vast number of goods bound from Chinese factories to Western marketplaces.

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