scholarly journals Extramural English and academic vocabulary

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Olsson ◽  
Liss Sylvén
Keyword(s):  
Computer Games ◽  
Regular Education ◽  
Academic Vocabulary ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
School Subjects ◽  
Spare Time ◽  
Vocabulary Growth ◽  
English Students ◽  
Over Time

In content and language integrated learning (CLIL), where school subjects are taught trough an L2 – in this case English – students often reach higher L2 proficiency levels than students who follow regular education. There are also indications that English encountered and used outside of school, e.g. through books, computer games or films, may be as influential as CLIL instruction for vocabulary growth. However, there is little research on the development of academic vocabulary in this connection, and few studies have considered students’ use of English outside school, when evaluating the effect of CLIL instruction. In this study, male and female CLIL and non-CLIL students’ use of English in their spare time is investigated and compared (N=230). Further, the possible impact of extramural English on students’ progress in academic vocabulary use in writing is investigated. The results indicate that CLIL students use English in their spare time to a significantly greater extent than non-CLIL students. Male CLIL students, who used English outside school most frequently, also included the highest proportion of academic vocabulary in their essays. However, they did not progress more than other students; extramural English does not seem to have any significant impact on progress of academic vocabulary over time.

ELICITED IMITATION AS A MEASURE OF L2 PROFICIENCY

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Shu-Ling Wu ◽  
Yee Pin Tio ◽  
Lourdes Ortega
Keyword(s):  
High Reliability ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Oral Narrative ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Elicited Imitation ◽  
External Criterion ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
The Third ◽  
Communicative Abilities

Abstract Elicited imitation (EI), a short-cut measure of global proficiency in second language (L2) research, requires participants to listen to sentences and repeat them as closely as possible. To support instrument sharing and assessment of L2 proficiency for longitudinal and crosslinguistic research, we created a parallel form of an EI task (EIT) for L2 English originally developed by the third author and colleagues and investigated the reliability and validity of the original and new forms. Eighty-two participants completed the two EITs, an oral narrative task, and a self-diagnostic survey. Both forms exhibited high reliability and good alignment with external criterion measures. Both distinguished well among four proficiency levels in the sample. Further, participants’ perception of EI difficulty aligned well with their EI scores. We suggest some improvements to boost forms equivalence and discuss new insights about the nature of EI as reconstructive, integrative, modality independent, and with indirect links to communicative abilities. Our study seeks to make this English EIT instrument widely useful to the L2 research community.

scholarly journals Lexical correlates of comprehensibility versus accentedness in second language speech

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 597-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
KAZUYA SAITO ◽  
STUART WEBB ◽  
PAVEL TROFIMOVICH ◽  
TALIA ISAACS
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Surface Level ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Lexical Content ◽  
Lexical Factors

The current project investigated the extent to which several lexical aspects of second language (L2) speech – appropriateness, fluency, variation, sophistication, abstractness, sense relations – interact to influence native speakers’ judgements of comprehensibility (ease of understanding) and accentedness (linguistic nativelikeness). Extemporaneous speech elicited from 40 French speakers of English with varied L2 proficiency levels was first evaluated by 10 native-speaking raters for comprehensibility and accentedness. Subsequently, the dataset was transcribed and analyzed for 12 lexical factors. Various lexical properties of L2 speech were found to be associated with L2 comprehensibility, and especially lexical accuracy (lemma appropriateness) and complexity (polysemy), indicating that these lexical variables are associated with successful L2 communication. In contrast, native speakers’ accent judgements seemed to be linked to surface-level details of lexical content (abstractness) and form (variation, morphological accuracy) rather than to its conceptual and contextual details (e.g., lemma appropriateness, polysemy).

scholarly journals A Bilingual Vocabulary Size Test of English for Vietnamese Learners

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Nguyen ◽  
Paul Nation
Keyword(s):  
Word Frequency ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Vocabulary Growth ◽  
Development And Validation ◽  
Test Result

This article describes the development and validation of a Vietnamese bilingual version of the Vocabulary Size Test - a test which measures written receptive vocabulary size. The test can be used to measure the English vocabulary size of Vietnamese learners of English. A learner's total vocabulary size is calculated by multiplying their test result by 100. The research adds to our knowledge of vocabulary size testing in the following ways. First, it shows that a bilingual version of a monolingual test performs in much the same way as the monolingual test, distinguishing learners of different proficiency levels and returning lower scores at later levels of the test. Second, it shows that every level of the test should be sat, otherwise there will be a considerable underestimation of learners' vocabulary sizes. This suggests limitations to the previously accepted assumption that learners' vocabulary growth can be largely related to word frequency. Third, it shows that bilingual tests are feasible alternatives to more challenging and time-consuming monolingual tests. © The Author(s) 2011.

scholarly journals Perceção dos professores do 1o CEB, relativamente ao decreto-lei 54/2018 sobre a educação inclusiva

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 702-713
Author(s):  
Sónia Leite ◽  
Diana Brás
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Regular Education ◽  
Educational Needs ◽  
Target Audience ◽  
International Classification ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Special Educational Needs ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

Resumo As sociedades têm, ao longo dos tempos, desenvolvido práticas e conceitos diversos face ao que consideram como “o diferente”. A forma como as pessoas “diferentes” têm sido encaradas em diversos momentos históricos traduz, de alguma forma, fatores de ordem social, cultural, religiosa e económica, próprios das diversas épocas (Pereira, 1999). Na última década, foram introduzidas mudanças significativas no apoio a prestar aos alunos com Necessidades Educativas Especiais (NEE) pelas escolas do ensino regular. O Decreto-Lei no 3/2008, de 7 de Janeiro veio revogar o Decreto-Lei no 319/91, de 23 de Agosto, o qual determina os apoios especializados a prestar aos alunos com NEE. Este diploma gerou muita controvérsia por parte dos investigadores nacionais, por limitar o público-alvo de apoios especializados e defender um modelo de avaliação das NEE por referência à Classificação Internacional de funcionalidade, incapacidade e saúde (CIF). Uma década depois, o diploma que regulamenta a Educação Especial foi novamente revisto, tendo surgido o Decreto-Lei 54/2018. Através de um questionário com questões abertas e fechadas foi nosso intuito obter informação relativamente à perspetiva dos professores de ensino regular acerca da inclusão de alunos com NEE nas salas de ensino regular e às alterações previstas no novo Decreto-Lei que regulamenta a Educação Especial e os apoios a prestar a estes alunos.Palavras-chave: Educação Especial, Necessidades Educativas Especiais, Decreto-Lei Abstract Societies have, over time, developed diverse practices and concepts in relation to what they consider as "the different". The way in which "different" people have been viewed at various historical moments translates in some way into social, cultural, religious and economic factors characteristic of the various eras (Pereira, 1999). In the last decade, significant changes have been introduced in support for pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in regular schools. Decree- Law no. 3/2008, of 7 January, revoked Decree-Law no. 319/91, of 23 August, which determines the specialized support to be provided to students with SEN. This diploma generated much controversy on the part of the national researchers, for limiting the target audience of specialized supports and to defend a model of evaluation of the SEN with reference to the International Classification of functionality, incapacity and health (CIF). A decade later, the diploma that regulates Special Education was again revised, and Decree-Law 54/2018 emerged. Through a questionnaire with open and closed questions, it was our intention to obtain information regarding the perspective of teachers of regular education about the inclusion of students with SEN in the regular teaching rooms and the changes provided for in the new Decree- Law that regulates Special Education and the support to these students.Keywords: Special Education, Special Educational Needs, Decree-Law

scholarly journals The Emergence of Second Language Categorisation of the English Article Construction

Languages ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Helen Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Functional Categories ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Form Function ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
Increased Sensitivity ◽  
English Articles

This study examines the emergent cognitive categorisation of the English article construction among second language (L2) learners. One hundred and fourteen Mandarin-L1 learners of English, divided into two L2 proficiency levels (low-to-intermediate and advanced), were measured by a computer-based cloze test for the accuracy and response time of appropriate use of English articles in sentential contexts. Results showed that when learners acquired the polysemous English article construction they demonstrated stronger competence in differentiating individual form-function mappings in the article construction. L2 learners’ patterns of article construction usage were shaped by semantic functions. Learners performed better on the definiteness category than on the non-definiteness categories, suggesting that learners were sensitive to the prototypicality of nominal grounding. Advanced learners demonstrated an increased sensitivity to semantic idiosyncrasy, but they lacked contextualised constructional knowledge. Competition among the functional categories and restructuring of functional categories are important ways of regularization that learners go through to acquire semantically complex systems such as articles.

Referring In a Second Language

1985 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
Andy Bentlage
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Secondary School Students ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Identification Task ◽  
School Students ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Data Analyses

Naming and describing are important aspects of referential communication (RC). In an investigation of RC in a second language (L2), 36 secondary school students, divided into three groups of 12 with different proficiency levels, had to work in pairs on a description/identification task involving twelve nonrepresentative shapes. One task session consisted of six trials which were performed in English. The results of three different data analyses (numbers of words, naming and describing, and referential strategies) showed that RC in L2 differs from RC in L1 in three aspects: nonnative speakers (NNS) need longer references for the shapes; NNS' final references are structurally more complex; NNS with a lower L2 proficiency use their L1 more often than NNS with a higher L2 proficiency.

Analysis of appropriateness in a speech act of request in L2 English

Pragmatics ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoko Taguchi
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Role Play ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Role Play Task

Fifty-nine Japanese college students of English at two different proficiency levels were evaluated for their ability to produce a speech act of request in a spoken role play task. Learners’ production was analyzed quantitatively by rating performance on a six-point scale for overall appropriateness, as well as qualitatively by identifying the directness levels of the linguistic expressions used to produce requests. Results revealed a significant L2 proficiency influence on overall appropriateness, but only a marginal difference in the types of linguistic expressions used between the two proficiency groups. Moreover, grammatical and discourse control encoded in the rating scale seemed to have affected the quality of speech acts.

Importance of computer games in children’s life in the 21st century

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Sochocka ◽  
Magdalena Bednarska ◽  
Iwona Grabska-Gradzińska
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Serious Games ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Spare Time ◽  
Game Activity ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Game Industry

AbstractThis paper discusses the level of acceptation of different kinds of computer games and the changes of the attitude depending on the respondents’ knowledge and context of playing activity. The forms of entertainment for the young generations are the extremely popular computer games. The main goal of this paper is to show the attitude of people toward the game industry and the correlation between the ways of spending spare time and the level of acceptation of computer games. The study is based on a questionnaire in which respondents could declare their opinions in open questions. The study included more than 60 parents, both men and women. It is not surprising that, despite the popularity of computer games, they still arouse much controversy, particularly as they relate to children. Collected parents’ opinions give the picture of the most important pros and cons of playing games and the goals and circumstances of the game activity. When respondents have been informed about term “serious games”, they have changed their previous perceptions of computer games, and the acceptance to the children’s activity grows.

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