scholarly journals Intuitions of adult L2-Leamer and translation students as a guide to analysis in teaching

Author(s):  
Connors K.

This paper deals with the pedagogical implications of a series of studies on linguistic awareness. Adult learners, native- and near-native speakers of English were studied for their knowledge of equivalence and contrast relations between reflexive and emphatic -self constructions, on the one hand, and the possible interpretations of French pronominal-verbal constructions, on the other. In the pilot study, adult Francophone learners of English and an Anglophone control group judged the grammaticality of sets of sentences, one of which presented -self constructions that were grammatical as reflexives, as emphatics, as both, or as neither. The original purpose of this combination was to study the relation between objective ambiguity and grammaticality judgments. The results suggested not that syntactic ambiguity led to incorrect grammaticality judgments, but that garden-path (or “hard-to-get”) readings of constructions which globally are asymmetrically ambiguous are associated with incorrect judgments of ungrammaticality. That is, the only reading on which a given sub-type of construction is grammatical can be unknown to learners and even undetected by native speakers.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Therese Frederiksen

Previous work on placement expressions (e.g., “she put the cup on the table”) has demonstrated cross-linguistic differences in the specificity of placement expressions in the native language (L1), with some languages preferring more general, widely applicable expressions and others preferring more specific expressions based on more fine-grained distinctions. Research on second language (L2) acquisition of an additional spoken language has shown that learning the appropriate L2 placement distinctions poses a challenge for adult learners whose L2 semantic representations can be non-target like and have fuzzy boundaries. Unknown is whether similar effects apply to learners acquiring a L2 in a different sensory-motor modality, e.g., hearing learners of a sign language. Placement verbs in signed languages tend to be highly iconic and to exhibit transparent semantic boundaries. This may facilitate acquisition of signed placement verbs. In addition, little is known about how exposure to different semantic boundaries in placement events in a typologically different language affects lexical semantic meaning in the L1. In this study, we examined placement event descriptions (in American Sign Language (ASL) and English) in hearing L2 learners of ASL who were native speakers of English. L2 signers' ASL placement descriptions looked similar to those of two Deaf, native ASL signer controls, suggesting that the iconicity and transparency of placement distinctions in the visual modality may facilitate L2 acquisition. Nevertheless, L2 signers used a wider range of handshapes in ASL and used them less appropriately, indicating that fuzzy semantic boundaries occur in cross-modal L2 acquisition as well. In addition, while the L2 signers' English verbal expressions were not different from those of a non-signing control group, placement distinctions expressed in co-speech gesture were marginally more ASL-like for L2 signers, suggesting that exposure to different semantic boundaries can cause changes to how placement is conceptualized in the L1 as well.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (7) ◽  
pp. 1357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed Md Golam Faruk ◽  
Pulak Barua

The paper investigates the answer scripts of an “English Writing” exam of 72 students in a Bangladeshi university in order to find out the nature and extent of the use of connectors in their second semester-final exam. It also tries to find out similarities and differences between the connector use of Bangladeshi non-native speakers (BNNS) and that of French, Japanese, Swedish, and Chinese non-native speakers on the one hand and between the connector use of BNNS and that of the native speakers of English (only British and American) on the other. To this end, the secondary data for other non-native and native speakers (NS) of almost the same age and level were collected from some published articles. The paper finds that in comparison to NS, BNNS, like most other non-native speakers, underuse most of the connectors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (Suppl. 1) ◽  
pp. 32-37
Author(s):  
Muhammet Fidan ◽  
Hakan Yasin Gönder

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different application techniques on microhardness in one universal resin material and three different bulk-fill composite resin materials. Materials and Methods: In this study, one universal composite resin (Universal Restorative 200 [U], 3M-ESPE, USA) and three different bulk-fill composite resins (Filtek-One Bulk-Fill Restorative [F]; 3M-ESPE, USA: Tetric Evo-Ceram Bulk-Fill [E]; and Ivoclar-Vivadent, Liechtenstein; Tetric N-Ceram Bulk-Fill [N], Ivoclar-Vivadent, Liechtenstein) materials were used. A total of 60 disk-shaped samples, including 20 samples from each bulk-fill composite resin group, were prepared. The polymerization of the bulk-fill composite resins in one group was completed using a 2 mm (40 sec) + 2 mm (40 sec) incremental technique, and in the other group, it was completed using a 4 mm bulk technique (40 sec). The U composite resin (control group) polymerization was completed using a 2 mm + 2 mm (40 sec) incremental technique (n = 10). The Vickers microhardness (VHN) values ​​of the samples were calculated. The data were analyzed with Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney U tests (p < 0.05). Results: Higher VHN values ​​were found in the U composite resin compared to those in the bulk-fill composite resins (p < 0.05). In the bulk technique, a lower VHN value ​​was observed in the N bulk-fill composite resin than in the control group (p < 0.05), while there was no difference between the N and E composite resin groups (p > 0.05). A lower N bulk-fill composite resin was observed in the groups in which the incremental technique was applied than in the control group (p < 0.05). When the techniques applied to the bulk-fill composite resins were evaluated within themselves, higher VHN values ​​were observed in the E composite resin in the group in which the incremental technique was applied but not in the group in which the bulk was applied. Conclusion: It was observed that the content differences of composite resins were effective at different VHN values. The U composite resin (control) group showed higher VHN values than all the bulk-fill composite groups.   How to cite this article: Fidan M, Gönder HY. Investigation of the effect of different application techniques on microhardness in bulk-fill composite resins. Int Dent Res 2021;11(Suppl.1):32-7. https://doi.org/10.5577/intdentres.2021.vol11.suppl1.6   Linguistic Revision: The English in this manuscript has been checked by at least two professional editors, both native speakers of English.


2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58
Author(s):  
Ronaldo Mangueira Lima Junior ◽  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia

Languages are traditionally classified as mora-timed, syllable-timed or stress-timed in relation to their rhythmic patterns. The distinction between syllable-timed and stress-timed languages, however, lacks solid evidence in the literature. Syllable-timed languages typically have similar duration across unstressed and stressed syllables, whereas stress-timed languages tend to have similar inter-stress intervals, and unstressed syllables are shorter than stressed syllables. According to this categorical classification, English is a stress-timed language, thus having more reduction in unstressed vowels. Brazilian Portuguese, on the other hand, is typically classified as syllable-timed, and thus has little reduction of unstressed vowels. If these categorical rhythmic differences are correct, then acquiring the rhythmic patterns of English should be a challenging task to Brazilian learners, who are not expected to produce unstressed vowels with as much reduction as English native speakers. However, recent studies have found that the typology of rhythm is best understood as not categorical, but rather gradient, and that Brazilian Portuguese has a mixed classification, with more stress timing than would be expected from a traditional and categorical perspective. We therefore hypothesize that Brazilian learners of English should not have major difficulties reducing unstressed vowels, even when exposed to the second language later in life. To test this hypothesis, we analyze production data of native speakers of English (control group) and of Brazilian advanced learners of English. 


Author(s):  
Wenjun Gu

This paper presents a pilot-study of a research which aims to investigate the acquisition of the clitic pronouns in European Portuguese (EP) by Chinese learners. Based on an acceptability judgement task, conducted with 20 Chinese students and a control group of 26 native speakers of EP, we would like, on the one hand, to make a better characterization of the development of placement properties of clitic pronouns in Chinese learners’ interlanguage grammars; on the other hand, to contribute to a better understanding of the theoretical proposals on the learnability problems regarding uninterpretable features not available in the first language (L1). Our preliminary results suggest that, as shown in previous works on L1 EP and L2 EP, the conditions which determine proclisis seem to be more difficult to acquire than those for enclisis and the different contexts of proclisis seem to develop gradually, following a similar path to that previously described for L1 EP.


Cephalalgia ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Saunte

Autonomic functions have been studied in seven patients with chronic paroxysmal hemicrania (CPH). A test battery comprising tearing, salivation and nasal secretion was employed. Under basal conditions these parameters did not differ significantly from those in a control group. After stimulation with pilocarpine the patients responded rather inhomogeneously. This test battery may therefore help find and classify subgroups of these types of patients. During attacks, there is a clear discrepancy between minimal salivation on the one hand and the marked increase in tearing, nasal secretion and sweating on the other. CPH attacks may be associated with an increased firing of sympathetic impulses to the different organs. In the event of a uniform type of autonomic firing taking place during attack, these findings may suggest a different innervation pattern for the salivary glands compared to the other glands involved. The innervation pattern of these secretory organs may seem to be more intricate and sophisticated than hitherto assumed.


2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irit Meir

AbstractThe morphological system of cardinal numerals in Modern Hebrew is currently undergoing rapid changes, enabling linguists to unravel the forces shaping the change as it takes place. In the free forms, gender marking on numerals is neutralized by collapsing both masculine and feminine forms into one paradigm, the feminine paradigm. In the bound (definite) forms, an opposite direction is attested, in that at least for some numerals, the masculine forms become more prevalent. The study reported here aims to determine whether the factor determining the change is prosodic or functional in nature, by eliciting production and grammaticality judgments of noun phrases containing bound numerals from five different age groups of native speakers. The results suggest that prosody plays a role in shaping the change, as forms with penultimate stress are favored over those with ultimate stress. In addition, processes of production and processes of grammaticality judgments seem to be subject to different kinds of constraints. This state of affairs indicates that the tension between the tendencies toward simplification on the one hand and maximal distinctness on the other occurs at the morphological level as well.


Author(s):  
Paolo Calvetti

If, on the one hand, Japanese language, with its richness of marked allomorphs used for honorifics, has been considered one of the most attractive languages to investigate the phenomenon of politeness, on the other hand, a very small number of studies have been devoted to Japanese impoliteness, most of them limited to BBSs’ (Bulletin Board System) chats on Internet. Interestingly, Japanese native speakers declare, in general, that their language has a very limited number of offensive expressions and that ‘impoliteness’ is not a characteristic of their mother tongue. I tried to analyse some samples of spontaneous conversations taken from YouTube and other multimedia repertoires, in order to detect the main strategies used in Japanese real conversations to cause offence or to show a threatening attitude toward the partner’s face. It seems possible to state that, notwithstanding the different ‘cultural’ peculiarities, impoliteness shows, also in Japanese, a set of strategies common to other languages and that impoliteness, in terms of morphology, is not a mirror counterpart of keigo.


Author(s):  
Victoria Yermilova ◽  
◽  
Natalia Stroiteleva ◽  
Zhanna Egorova ◽  
Ekaterina Vanina

Smoking and alcohol consumption is a growing trend among young people worldwide. The purpose of this study was to provide students with a comparative analysis of adherence to harmful habits (smoking and alcohol) on the one hand and the frequency of sports and academic performance on the other, taking into account gender differences. The research was conducted in 2019-2020 in 5 cities of Russia; the sample included 1500 people aged 18.4 ± 1.1 years, divided into three equal groups. The control (first) group had students who are not engaged in sports, and the second group comprised students practicing sports but not professionally. The third group was made up of student-athletes. All participants were surveyed to determine the frequency of adherence to harmful habits. In the control group, boys smoked 50% more often than girls (p ≤ 0.05), while in the third group, smoking among boys was registered 70 times less often (p ≤ 0.001). Alcohol consumption in controls was 0.5 times more likely among boys (p ≤ 0.05). Harmful habits affect young people's free time and reduce their academic performance and ability to practice sports.


2021 ◽  
pp. 126-148
Author(s):  
Joseph Sung-Yul Park

This chapter discusses how the notion of linguistic insecurity can illuminate the processes by which essentialist conceptions of language and identity—in particular, the persistent colonial ideology of nativeness—contribute to the hegemonic status of English in neoliberalism. This chapter conceptualizes linguistic insecurity in terms of tensions that speakers experience between conflicting language ideologies. Focusing on the case of Korean mid-level managers working in non-Korean multinational corporations abroad, the chapter argues that the notion of linguistic insecurity allows us to explore how conflicting ideologies about English in neoliberalism—one in which English is valorized as a commodifiable resource available to anyone through projects of self-development, and one in which who counts as a legitimate speaker of English is defined in ethnonational terms—can jointly create a sense of insecurity in those who are traditionally considered non-native speakers of English, and rationalize the inequalities they are subjected to in neoliberalism.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document