Target language use by teachers co-teaching tomorrow's teachers of Chinese

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-85
Author(s):  
Jane Medwell ◽  
Katherine Richardson ◽  
Li Li
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Teaching Situation ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Native Speaker Teacher ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Teaching Chinese

AbstractThis paper reports an exploratory study of a Native Speaker Teacher (NST) of Mandarin Chinese and a Primary Languages Teacher (PLT) teaching Chinese to English pre-service primary school teachers, and is particularly focused on the use of target language (TL) by these two co-teachers.Although some studies of TL use have compared the use of target language by native and non-native speakers teaching individually, there are no studies which examine target language use in a native and non-native co-teaching situation, or relate this to the background experience of the teachers. The data collected in this study included observations of planning meetings between both teachers, observations of the teaching of the program, and interviews with both teachers.This paper focuses upon the use of target language by the Chinese Native speaker teacher (NST) and the English Primary Languages Teacher (PLT) and the ways in which this changed and developed across the teaching sessions, as well as the relationship between their TL use, background and beliefs about language teaching in the program. Findings of this study show that, even in a co-teaching situation, target language use by the native speaker teacher and the primary languages teacher differed substantially in terms of their practices of and their beliefs about use of target language, and both were influenced by their own cultures of learning. The results also suggest that working together changed the teaching behavior of both teachers and enabled them to reflect critically on their prior assumptions.

The authenticity continuum: Towards a definition incorporating international voices

English Today ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 22-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Pinner
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Authentic Materials ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Authentic Language

The choice of what materials to use in the language classroom is perhaps one of the most fundamentally important and difficult decisions teachers and those responsible for choosing textbooks are faced with. Authenticity is often seen as a desirable component in the content we select and adapt for our language learners, and it has been shown that authentic materials are more motivating, even for low-level learners (Peacock, 1997). The term authentic is often used to describe materials which were not originally designed for the purpose of language learning, but that were designed to have some purpose within the target language culture, such as a newspaper or novel. An unfortunate consequence of this is that authenticity is still often defined in reference to the target language's ‘native speakers’ or L1 community, particularly in EFL contexts, or what Kachru (1985) would label the Outer Circle communities. In other words, where English is taught as a foreign language, both teachers and students often regard ‘native-speakers’ as being the ideal model and therefore an example of authenticity. For example, Tan (2005) criticises corpora investigations of learner English for holding the view that authentic language use is equivalent to ‘native-speaker’ usages. She goes on to criticise not only corpus research but also textbook publishers for still not taking into account ‘the inextricable link between language and culture’ (2005: 127). In the academic world, culturally embedded notions of authenticity relating to ‘native-speakers’ have been challenged for decades (Smith, 1976). And yet I would argue that in mainstream textbooks and in most EFL language classrooms the native speaker still retains a ‘privileged position’ (Clark & Paran, 2007: 407). As Widdowson (1996: 68) puts it:Authenticity concerns the reality of native-speaker language use: in our case, the communication in English which is realized by an English-speaking community. But the language which is real for native speakers is not likely to be real for learners […] They belong to another community and do not have the necessary knowledge of the contextual conditions which would enable them to authenticate English in native-speaker terms. Their reality is quite different.

English language schooling, linguistic realities, and the native speaker of English in Hong Kong

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette G. Hansen Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Government School ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

AbstractThe study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities.TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.

The Use of Videoconferencing and Unprescribed Conversation for Listening Comprehension in L2 Spanish

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Laurie Massery ◽  
Claudio Fuentes
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
System Data ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Guided Instruction

The following research investigates the effect that unprescribed1 conversation with native speakers of the target language had on learners' L2 listening comprehension skills at the beginning (n=21) and advanced intermediate levels of Spanish (n=27). Treatment groups completed two-thirty-minute conversations with native speakers via videoconferencing throughout the semester, while the control groups carried out unilateral oral exams using the Canvas course management system. Data was collected using the Avant Stamp Test, an online testing program that is based on the national standards outlined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (i.e., ACTFL). The results of the study revealed that learners at the Intermediate I (InterI) level significantly improved as a result of the oral interactions, while the Intermediate II learners (InterII)—who possessed more developed grammatical and lexical skills, as well as overall experience in L2 than their Intermediate I level counterparts—did not significantly improve as a result of the treatment. Although many of the studies in this area of inquiry emphasize the need for guided instruction, explicit strategy and lexical recognition in aural development, it is argued here that unprescribed conversation with native speakers—a much less contrived and more authentic approach to aural acquisition—can also significantly improve listening ability in L2. Therefore, with the present study, the authors contribute to current literature in Second Language Acquisition that centers on aural development and the role of native speaker interaction in learners' auditory growth.

That’s hard

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Lester
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Grammatical Form ◽  
Learner Performance ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Additive Regression ◽  
Opposite Tendency

Abstract Language learners are highly sensitive to statistical patterns in the input. When a target language provides the option to include or omit a grammatical form, learners have been shown to make decisions quite similar to native speakers. For example, learners opt to include or omit the complementizer that (as in I know (that) Steffi likes hot tea). This phenomenon has been explained in terms of a universal suite of cognitive mechanisms which support native and learner performance alike. Both learners and native speakers choose to include the complementizer when they are producing more complex or unexpected structures. The present study attempts to generalize these findings to another domain of “optional” grammatical markers, namely, relativizers (as in the hot tea (that) Steffi likes). I analyze all instances of optional relativizer use in a corpus of spontaneous learner speech produced by Spanish and German learners of English. Both of these languages have obligatory relativizers. A two-step generalized additive regression modeling technique (MuPDAR) that predicts learner choices based on native-speaker choices demonstrates that native speakers use greater shares of the relativizer in complex and disfluent environments, while learners show the exact opposite tendency: they prefer to drop the relativizer in complex and disfluent environments. These findings are discussed based on differences between complementizers and relativizers, and in terms of the limited universality of optional grammatical marking in learner speech.

Communication networks of Japanese language learners in their home country

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Kurata
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Language Play ◽  
The Relationship

This paper deals with communication networks of four upper-intermediate level Japanese language learners with in-country experience who are studying at an Australian university, and it also examines the relationship between the learners’ networks and language learning. Utilizing Boissevain’s criteria for network analysis, I compared the characteristics of the informants’ current networks with those that existed prior to their in-country experiences. In addition, this study applied the framework of communicative competence developed by Hymes and Neustupny to analyse the informants’ language learning that occurred within their networks. The study found that a number of characteristics of the informants’ networks, such as their multiplex social roles and the variety of backgrounds of their Japanese network interactants, were probably related to the raising of the learners’ non-linguistic as well as linguistic awareness. It therefore appears that learners’ out-of-class communication networks with native speakers of the target language play an important role in terms of language learning.

Deficient non-native speakers or translanguagers?

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
I-Chung Ke
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Nonnative Speaker ◽  
Japanese Students ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Intercultural Exchange ◽  
Japanese Speaker

This study investigated how the experience of a multilingual and multimodal English as a lingua franca (ELF) online intercultural exchange (OIE) influenced Taiwanese university students’ linguistic identities. Data was drawn from 26 Taiwanese students who had 10 weekly one-hour video live-chats with 18 Japanese students in 2 semesters. Taiwanese participants were interviewed on their language use and issues related to identities before, during, and after the exchange. Students’ language use patterns in the OIE and reflections on the OIE were also analyzed. Interviews revealed that the multilingual ELF experience had a liberating and empowering effect for students’ English use. In multimodal communication, they felt more comfortable using English together with other languages, evidenced by increasing productions of code-mixing utterances in later weeks. However, the anxiety of using Japanese with a native Japanese speaker still persisted. In particular, the native-speaker (NS)–nonnative-speaker (NNS) interactions constrained them to pay more attention to form and accuracy, which positioned both Taiwanese and Japanese students as either native speakers or deficient nonnative language learners.

Listening with an attitude: A model of native-speaker comprehension of non-native speakers in the United States

2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHANIE LINDEMANN
Keyword(s):  
Direct Relationship ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
The United States ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
English Speaker ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Poor Comprehension ◽  
The Relationship

This study investigates whether there is a relationship between negative attitudes toward non-native speakers and poor comprehension of those speakers. Twelve native English speakers whose attitudes toward Koreans had been assessed were asked to complete an interactional map task paired with native Korean speakers. In the task, some but not all of those who had been assessed as having negative attitudes toward Koreans were found to use either strategies that were described as problematizing their partners' utterances, or strategies that were described as avoidance. All participants completed the map task reasonably successfully except where the native English speaker used avoidance strategies, suggesting that the relationship between attitude and comprehension is mediated by the native speaker's choice of strategies. However, there appeared to be a direct relationship between attitude and perceived success of interactions, which may ultimately have the same consequences for interactants as if the relationship were between attitude and actual success.

The use of discourse markers in L2 Italian

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna De Marco
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Discourse Markers ◽  
Functional Approach ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Structural Context ◽  
Acoustic Profile ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Different Levels

This exploratory study intends to investigate the use of discourse markers (DM) in Italian L2 by learners with different L1s and different levels of competence (three at A2/B1 level and two at B2/C1 level). The analysis aims to describe the functions, the distribution, and some acoustic features of three DMs (però ‘but’, allora ‘then’, quindi ‘therefore’) in semi-spontaneous conversations between the learners and two native speakers. The purpose is to determine the possible uses and the relationship between the forms and functions of the DMs in native and non-native speakers distinguishing three main macro-functions (interactional, cognitive and metadiscursive) activated by speakers on the basis of the characteristics of the cotext (acoustic profiles), the context and the communicative situation. Such an analysis suggests a possible sequence in the emergence of DMs in the speech of L2 learners with different levels of competence in the target language. This exploratory study adopts a functional approach (Bazzanella 1995a, b; 2006; Fisher 2006). The outcomes of the analysis show that learners use a variety of DM forms and functions, and that some functions only emerge in more proficient speakers. The structural context and, to a lesser degree, the acoustic profile prove to be reliable indicators of the spectrum of functions performed by DMs in verbal interaction.

Plagiarism by Non-Native Speaker Student Writers

2008 ◽  
Vol 156 ◽  
pp. 91-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Lankamp
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Inappropriate Use ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
Student Plagiarism ◽  
Native Student ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Academic Plagiarism

Abstract Many studies have attributed plagiarism to the temptations of the Internet, teachers’ reluctance to enforce the rules, belonging to a culture where academic plagiarism is condoned, or non-native speakership. In this paper, it is first argued that none of these can be considered direct causes of plagiarism, and other studies are cited that support this position. It is further argued that non-native student plagiarism is caused by ignorance of the rules and/or authorial problems. Further support for this claim is provided by an empirical study involving inappropriate use of source texts by eight non-native speaker graduate students. This study confirms the findings in Pecorari (2003, 2006) where it is claimed that plagiarizing non-native speakers have personal, idiosyncratic views of plagiarism that demonstrate their ignorance of the generally accepted rules. This study also confirms the findings in Abasi et al. (2006) where it is claimed that authorial problems are a root cause of plagiarism by ESL students. Finally, it is investigated what the relationship is between ignorance of the rules of plagiarism and authorial problems.

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