Strategies used by Cantonese speakers in pronouncing English initial consonant clusters: Insights into the interlanguage phonology of Cantonese ESL learners in Hong Kong

2006 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alice Y.W Chan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Esl Learners

scholarly journals Politeness in Business Communication: Investigating English Modal Sequences in Chinese Learners’ Letter Writing

RELC Journal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
David D. Qian ◽  
Mingwei Pan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Letter Writing ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Tertiary Level ◽  
Esl Learners

Politeness has been a source of inspiration for research in pragmatics and inter- and intra-cultural communication. However, the existing literature focusses more on how politeness is realized in the context of first language use. Few studies have investigated the issue related to the use of English by second language learners from varying subcultures within the same cultural tradition. The present study examines how Hong Kong and Shanghai tertiary-level learners of English convey politeness in their business letter writing, as reflected in the use of modal sequences. Three hundred business letters were collected from students in Hong Kong and another 300 from students in Shanghai. Majoring in various disciplines, these students were all in their final year of study, and their English proficiency level was generally scored at B2, as compared with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Following a mixed-methods approach, the study tracked a rather complex distribution of politeness realizations by different modal sequences. The findings were that Hong Kong ESL learners appeared to be more strategic users of modal sequences as evidenced by a variety of usage examples from the two purpose-built learner corpora, which were developed to monitor and compare English learners’ business writing at the tertiary level. Another finding was that epistemic modality tended to better preserve politeness in the writing.

How to create a crisis

2000 ◽  
Vol 129-130 ◽  
pp. 169-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asha Tickoo
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Random Samples ◽  
Narrative Prose ◽  
Effective Development ◽  
Esl Learners

In this paper, I will examine esl learner attempts at a key component of narrative prose, its complication. The complication is the defining component of the four-part schematic structure of narrative (Labov 1981, labov & Waletzky 1967), because it introduces the crisis of the story. This is the most impassioned phase of the narrative and therefore one expects (following Labov) that the narrator is the least disposed to strive to uphold prestige norms, and adopted rules. It is ironical, then, that what is acknowledged to be effective development of the narrative crisis is highly convention-bound prose. I will describe the basic textual - semantic, informational, organisational and representational - conventions that govern the development of the narrative crisis. I will then take random samples from a body of 35 student narratives, written by Cantonese-speaking esl learners at a Hong Kong university, to illustrate the difficulties these learners face in conforming to these conventions. In a final section, I will discuss the pedagogical implications of this study.

Analysing the Needs of EFL/ESL Learners in Developing Academic Presentation Competence

RELC Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 003368821987951
Author(s):  
Sabina Ho-yan Mak
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Course Design ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
Learning Needs ◽  
Major Subject ◽  
Efl Students ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Basic Communication Skills

The literature on how to develop competence in giving academic presentations (AP) (e.g. Zappa-Hollman, 2007) shows that apart from basic communication skills (i.e. the ability to speak accurately, fluently and appropriately), university students are expected to perform specific roles and develop advanced skills for intellectual exchange and the construction of new knowledge (e.g. skill in expressing their personal voice through evaluation). However, these advanced speaking skills are often neglected by English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in Asian contexts, such as Hong Kong, as generally observed by English for Academic Purposes’ (EAP) instructors (e.g. Bankowski, 2010). Although there has been some discussion on factors that potentially inhibit the development of ESL/EFL learners (e.g. Confucian education values and an exam-dominated culture), more research is needed on the design of EAP courses to cater for learners’ needs. To fill this gap, this article reports the results of a needs analysis of a group of undergraduates (N=81) in Hong Kong. The study was based on a triangulation of data which included sources, and included questionnaires administered to both students and the course instructors of their major subject disciplines to identify the perceived importance of specific AP skills/features and learning needs, semi-structured follow-up interviews, and a diagnosis of students’ AP competence using a research-based assessment rubric. The findings reveal gaps in students’ understanding of their required roles and performance in both EAP and content courses, gaps in expectations between the students and their content course instructors, and gaps in their AP competence (e.g. ability to use linguistic and discourse features to structure interpretations and facilitate the audience’s understanding of the information they present). An EAP instruction course design framework is then proposed to develop ESL/EFL learner competence in AP, based on the teaching and speaking cycle of Goh and Burns (2012).

The Structural Conformity Hypothesis and the Acquisition of Consonant Clusters in the Interlanguage of ESL Learners

1991 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred R. Eckman
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Primary Language ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Language Universals ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Structural Conformity

The validity of two implicational universals regarding consonant clusters was tested in an analysis of the interlanguage of 11 subjects who were native speakers of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. The results were strongly supportive of the two universals, suggesting the possibility that primary language universals hold also for nonprimary languages.

Sonority and markedness among onset clusters in the interlanguage of ESL learners

1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred R. Eckman ◽  
Gregory K. Iverson
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Comprehensive Investigation ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Per Se ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
Second Language Acquisition Theory

This paper is intended as a contribution to an evergrowing body of literature on the role played by principles and parameters of Universal Grammar in second-language acquisition theory. A recent paper by Broselow and Finer (1991) proposes that markedness as defined in terms of the multivalued Minimal Sonority Distance (MSD) parameter is definitive in their subjects' knowledge of certain consonant clusters in syllable onsets. This parameter provides for the characterization of the various types of consonant clusters allowed in the onsets of syllables in different languages. The object of Broselow and Finer's study was to determine whether L2 learners find clusters which are relatively more marked according to the MSD parameter to be more difficult to learn than cluster types which are relatively less marked. The present paper, however, argues that it is typological markedness (Hawkins, 1987) rather than sonority distance per se which better explains L2 learners' knowledge of English clusters in syllable onsets. In line with Clements' (1990) comprehensive investigation of sonority relations within the syllable, this paper argues that markedness alone suffices to account for the observed interlanguage patterns. Using Clements' principles, which themselves actually follow from the overall theory of markedness, the interlanguage obstruent results reported by Broselow and Finer fall out automatically.

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