Are jokes funnier in one’s native language?

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayşe Ayçiçeği-Dinn ◽  
Simge Şişman-Bal ◽  
Catherine L Caldwell-Harris
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Language Play ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Investment Theory ◽  
Humor Appreciation ◽  
Turkish University Students ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level

Abstract Appreciating the humor in jokes involves incongruity-detection and resolution, which requires good language skills. Foreign language comprehension is challenging, including interpreting words within their sentence context. An implication is that jokes in a foreign language will be more difficult to understand and therefore probably less humorous, compared to native language jokes. To study this question while preserving humor across translations, jokes were selected from Turkish and English websites to minimize language play and cultural references. Turkish university students rated both Turkish and English jokes for humor. Humor for foreign language jokes was positively correlated with ease-of-understanding of specific jokes and also by the individual-differences characteristics of English proficiency and likely career investment (e.g., preparing for a future career as English teacher or translator). We propose the proficiency X investment theory: Foreign language jokes will be experienced as funnier than native language jokes when proficiency levels are high (ranging from good to excellent) and bilinguals have a high level of L2 investment. When proficiency levels are only adequate, and without special investment in L2, native language jokes will be evaluated as funnier than foreign language jokes. With intermediate proficiency and investment, jokes can be experienced as similarly humorous in the two language. Important in this pattern is the proposal that weaker L2-proficiency can trade-off with language investment to bolster L2 humor appreciation.

scholarly journals Development of research skills in the future foreign language teacher in the system of continuing education

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (32) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Irina Alexandrovna Presnukhina ◽  
Marina Georgiyevna Sergeeva ◽  
Lyudmila Zhalalovna Karavanova ◽  
Olga Vladimirovna Belokon ◽  
Elena Georgievna Khvorikova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Research Skills ◽  
The Individual ◽  
State Educational ◽  
High Level ◽  
Intellectual Level

Modern education, implemented in specially targeted institutions, in most cases cannot ensure high performance of graduates. A future teacher should possess not only a high level of qualifications but also creative thinking, the ability to use innovative methods and technologies. The improvement of the integrated abilities of future teachers is based on the appropriate competent combination of the Russian educational tradition with innovative types of education. University programs usually only follow the state educational standards, without contributing to the individual self-identification of young citizens. Today, education should be positioned as a daily intellectual work that reveals the potential of a schoolchild or student and contributes to building the required competencies. Consequently, non-formal education should become part of a teacher’s life, implying both personal cognitive activity and spontaneous education, carried out due to a personal activity in a rapidly developing educational space. The student should not only know a foreign language and master teaching methods, but also demonstrate an adequate intellectual level, the ability to reflect, to conduct scientific research, to predict learning outcomes. Unfortunately, at this stage, the potential of non-formal education in the field of foreign languages is not sufficiently used, which makes it difficult to improve the research skills of future school teachers.

scholarly journals TRADITIONAL AND INNOVATIVETECHNOLOGIES AND MEANS OF INTENSIFICATION OF THE LEARNING PROCESS OF RUSSIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (34) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.F PANTELEEV ◽  
◽  
I.V NEFEDOV ◽  
K.A POPOVA ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Educational Models ◽  
Virtual Tools ◽  
High Motivation ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Voice

One of the most challenging problems facing the teachers of Russian as a foreign languagenowadays is the problem of intensification of the educational process. Every person who studies a foreign language wants to master it at a high level and at the same time learn it as quickly as possible. Both traditional and innovative tools and technologies can be used to intensify the learning process. In the traditional model with the use of intensifying technologies, the main elements, in our opinion, are the strengthening of internal reserves of the individual, high motivation and gamification of the learning process. Unfortunately, when learning in a virtual educational environment, many traditional means of intensification become unavailable for various reasons, but they are replaced by new virtual tools and technologies. They can be effectively applied in both traditional and virtual educational models. One of the most interesting and promising virtual means of intensifying the learning process is the voice assistant, which is able to compensate for the lack of a language environment as much as possible and the ability to manage the formation of communication skills during contact work in the audience.

Variability of textbooks for studying the Ukrainian language in the diaspora

2018 ◽  
Vol XIV ◽  
pp. 279-291
Author(s):  
Svitlana Zakharivna Romaniuk
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Visual Methods ◽  
Actual Problem ◽  
Individual Approach ◽  
Content Diversity ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Creative Abilities ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
The Individual

The article deals with the actual problem of preserving the native language under the conditions of foreign language environment. It is substantiated that the qualitatively written teaching books play an important role in this process. Among the range of various textbooks for Ukrainian schoolchildren in the diaspora, the methodical apparatus of the textbooks of Yar Slavutych, Sofia Vasilišin, Genrika Mìz', which receive positive reviews in the USA and Canada and are actively used in the teaching of the native language of foreign Ukrainians, has been analysed. They contain interesting Ukrainian studies materials, exercises for listening, tasks, games, as well as texts of songs with notes and rhythmic exercises for them, which promote not only the learning of the language, but also the development of creative abilities of schoolchildren, their agility and savvy. It has been established that the textbooks with a clear visual methods, adherence to the principles of the individual approach, connection with life, originality in content diversity provide motivation of children to learn the language, develop their communicative competences.

scholarly journals A study of anxiety experienced by EFL students in speaking performance

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-346
Author(s):  
Nira Erdiana ◽  
Bukhari Daud ◽  
Diana Fauzia Sari ◽  
Shindy Khusuma Dwitami
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Moderate Level ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Speaking Anxiety ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
High Level

Many EFL students show anxiety when speaking English in Indonesia. Therefore, the researchers were interested to conduct this study to find out the level of English-speaking anxiety experienced by those students. In this quantitative study, data were collected from 29 students through a questionnaire that was adopted from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) consisted of 10 items developed by Horwitz, et al. (1986). The data from the questionnaire were analyzed by using the FLCAS questionnaire scale. The results were described in percentages and are further elaborated in narration. The data revealed that 11 out of 29 students (38%) experienced low-level anxiety, 17 out of 29 students (59%) had anxiety at a moderate level, and one out of 29 students (3,4%) got high-level anxiety. It means that most students experienced a moderate level of speaking anxiety. In this case, those findings can be the inputs for every English teacher, especially for the English teachers in which this study was conducted, to be aware of the level of their students’ English-speaking anxiety. It is hoped that the findings of this research can give information and add knowledge to English teachers about EFL students’ level of anxiety so that they could find an appropriate strategy to reduce their students’ speaking anxiety.

Eye Movements of Children and Adults While Reading Television Subtitles

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 196-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Géry d'Ydewalle ◽  
Wim De Bruycker
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Verbal Information ◽  
Single Text ◽  
Grade 5 ◽  
Reading Patterns ◽  
Attentional System

Abstract. Eye movements of children (Grade 5-6) and adults were monitored while they were watching a foreign language movie with either standard (foreign language soundtrack and native language subtitling) or reversed (foreign language subtitles and native language soundtrack) subtitling. With standard subtitling, reading behavior in the subtitle was observed, but there was a difference between one- and two-line subtitles. As two lines of text contain verbal information that cannot easily be inferred from the pictures on the screen, more regular reading occurred; a single text line is often redundant to the information in the picture, and accordingly less reading of one-line text was apparent. Reversed subtitling showed even more irregular reading patterns (e.g., more subtitles skipped, fewer fixations, longer latencies). No substantial age differences emerged, except that children took longer to shift attention to the subtitle at its onset, and showed longer fixations and shorter saccades in the text. On the whole, the results demonstrated the flexibility of the attentional system and its tuning to the several information sources available (image, soundtrack, and subtitles).

The Inscriptions on the Gravestones in the Croatian Villages of Slovakia, Chunovo and Jarovce: The Specificity of Mixing Graphics Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 159-173
Author(s):  
Darya Yu. Vashchenko
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Funerary Monuments ◽  
Traditional Spelling ◽  
The Family ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Village

The article discusses the inscriptions on funerary monuments from the Croatian villages of Cunovo and Jarovce, located in the South of Slovakia, near Bratislava. These inscriptions reflect the complicated sociocultural situation in the region, which is particularly specific due to the fact that this territory was included to Slovakia’s territory only after 1946, while earlier the village was part of Hungary. In addition, the local Croatian ethnic group was actively in close contact with the German and Hungarian communities. At the same time, the orthographic norms of the literary Croatian, German, Hungarian, and Slovak languages, which could potentially be owned by the authors of the inscriptions, differ in many ways, despite the Latin alphabet used on all the gravestones. All this is reflected in the tombstones, representing a high degree of mixing codes. The article identifies the main types of fusion on the monuments: separate orthograms, writing the maiden name of the deceased in the spelling of her native language, the traditional spelling of the family name. In addition, the mixing of codes can be associated with writing feminitives, also order of name and surname within the anthroponym. Moreover, the settlements themselves represent different ethnic groups coexistence within the village. Gravestones from the respective cemeteries also differ from each other in the nature of the prevailing trend of the mixing codes. In Jarovce, where the ethnic groups live compactly, fusion is often presented as a separate foreign language orthograms. In Cunovo, where the ethnic groups constitute a global conglomerate, more traditional presents for a specific family spelling of the names on the monument.

Territorial Distribution of Alcohol and Drug Addictions Mortality Concerning Regional Disparities in the Slovak Republic from Year 1996 to Year 2015

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rate ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
Regional Disparities ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Extreme Position ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Female Sex ◽  
Male Sex ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level

BACKGROUND: This paper deals with territorial distribution of the alcohol and drug addictions mortality at a level of the districts of the Slovak Republic. AIM: The aim of the paper is to explore the relations within the administrative territorial division of the Slovak Republic, that is, between the individual districts and hence, to reveal possibly hidden relation in alcohol and drug mortality. METHODS: The analysis is divided and executed into the two fragments – one belongs to the female sex, the other one belongs to the male sex. The standardised mortality rate is computed according to a sequence of the mathematical relations. The Euclidean distance is employed to compute the similarity within each pair of a whole data set. The cluster analysis examines is performed. The clusters are created by means of the mutual distances of the districts. The data is collected from the database of the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic for all the districts of the Slovak Republic. The covered time span begins in the year 1996 and ends in the year 2015. RESULTS: The most substantial point is that the Slovak Republic possesses the regional disparities in a field of mortality expressed by the standardised mortality rate computed particularly for the diagnoses assigned to the alcohol and drug addictions at a considerably high level. However, the female sex and the male sex have the different outcome. The Bratislava III District keeps absolutely the most extreme position. It forms an own cluster for the both sexes too. The Topoľčany District bears a similar extreme position from a point of view of the male sex. All the Bratislava districts keep their mutual notable dissimilarity. Contrariwise, evaluation of a development of the regional disparities among the districts looks like notably heterogeneously. CONCLUSIONS: There are considerable regional discrepancies throughout the districts of the Slovak Republic. Hence, it is necessary to create a common platform how to proceed with the solution of this issue.

Quantitative indicators of air traffic controllers’ attitude to the danger of errors

2020 ◽  
pp. 68-78
Author(s):  
O. M. Reva ◽  
V. V. Kamyshin ◽  
S. P. Borsuk ◽  
V. A. Shulhin ◽  
A. V. Nevynitsyn
Keyword(s):  
Human Factor ◽  
Differential Method ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Aviation Accidents ◽  
Air Traffic Controllers ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Level Of Significance ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Level

The negative and persistent impact of the human factor on the statistics of aviation accidents and serious incidents makes proactive studies of the attitude of “front line” aviation operators (air traffic controllers, flight crewmembers) to dangerous actions or professional conditions as a key component of the current paradigm of ICAO safety concept. This “attitude” is determined through the indicators of the influence of the human factor on decision-making, which also include the systems of preferences of air traffic controllers on the indicators and characteristics of professional activity, illustrating both the individual perception of potential risks and dangers, and the peculiarities of generalized group thinking that have developed in a particular society. Preference systems are an ordered (ranked) series of n = 21 errors: from the most dangerous to the least dangerous and characterize only the danger preference of one error over another. The degree of this preference is determined only by the difference in the ranks of the errors and does not answer the question of how much time one error is more dangerous in relation to another. The differential method for identifying the comparative danger of errors, as well as the multistep technology for identifying and filtering out marginal opinions were applied. From the initial sample of m = 37 professional air traffic controllers, two subgroups mB=20 and mG=7 people were identified with statisti-cally significant at a high level of significance within the group consistency of opinions a = 1%. Nonpara-metric optimization of the corresponding group preference systems resulted in Kemeny’s medians, in which the related (middle) ranks were missing. Based on these medians, weighted coefficients of error hazards were determined by the mathematical prioritization method. It is substantiated that with the ac-cepted accuracy of calculations, the results obtained at the second iteration of this method are more ac-ceptable. The values of the error hazard coefficients, together with their ranks established in the preference systems, allow a more complete quantitative and qualitative analysis of the attitude of both individual air traffic controllers and their professional groups to hazardous actions or conditions.

Translating ambiguous and nonambiguous Words in a foreign Language

2003 ◽  
Vol 139-140 ◽  
pp. 129-152
Author(s):  
Paul Bogaards ◽  
Elisabeth Van Der Linden ◽  
Lydius Nienhuis
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
University Students ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Lexical Ambiguity ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Bilingual Lexicon ◽  
The Individual

The research to be reported on in this paper was originally motivated by the finding that about 70% of the mistakes made by university students when translating from their mother tongue (Dutch) into their foreign language (French) were lexical in nature (NIENHUIS et al. 1989). This was partially confinned in the investigation described in NIENHUIS et al. (1993). A closer look at the individual errors suggested that many problems were caused by words with more than one meaning which each require different translations in the target language. In the research reported on in this paper, we checked our fmdings in the light of what is known about the structure of the bilingual lexicon and about the ways bilinguals have access to the elements of their two languages. On the basis of the model of the bilingual lexicon presented by KROLL & Sholl (1992) an adapted model is proposed for the processing of lexical ambiguity. This leads to a tentative schema of the mental activities that language learners have to perfonn when they are translating from their mother tongue into a foreign language, The second part of the paper describes two experiments we have carried out in order to find empirical support for such a schema. The last section of the paper contains a discussion of the results obtained as well as the conclusions that can be drawn.

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