Bangladeshi EFL Learners’ English Connectors: Overused or Underused?

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.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 116
Author(s):  
Boonjeera Chiravate

Although a number of interlanguage studies on apologies have been conducted, there has been no study of apologies among Thai EFL learners that differentiates between learners with high and low levels of exposure to the target language. This study, differentiating between learners with high and low levels of exposure to the target language, addresses two research questions: (i) What are the similarities and differences between perception of offense context of Thai EFL learners and native speakers of English? (ii) What are the similarities and differences between apology strategies used by Thai EFL learners and native speakers of English? Data for the analysis came from a questionnaire consisting of 12 scenarios eliciting different offense contexts. The participants were divided into four groups: native speakers of English (NEs), native speakers of Thai (NTs), Thai EFL learners with high exposure to the target language (TEHs) and Thai EFL learners with low exposure to the target language (TELs). The results revealed that due to the influence of cultural background, the learners’ perception of offense context was dissimilar to the NEs in certain respects. However, the investigation of apology strategies showed that compared to the TELs, the TEHs’ apology strategies tended to be less influenced by their cultural background and more similar to the NEs’. Providing support for levels of exposure to the target language, as individual differences vary in L2 pragmatic development, the study sheds light on pedagogical intervention that may enhance learners’ pragmatic competence.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arab World English Journal ◽  
Nasrin S. Altuwairesh

The last two decades have witnessed a growing interest in vocabulary items consisting of more than a single word in the field of English language teaching (ELT) (Nation & Meara, 2002, p. 36; Schmitt, 2000, p. 96). Researchers in the area came to notice that language is produced by native speakers as 'chunks' rather than single words (Schmitt, 2000, p. 42; Read, 2000, p.20). This entails that if language instructors wish English as a foreign language (EFL) learners to attain native-like proficiency, they should be trained on the use of chunks of language and equipped with a large number of them. Such multiple-word items, Schmitt (2000) explains, constitute a rather high percentage of the English language and are drawing more attention. Thus, these chunks of language are worth spending time on in any language course. The purpose of the following paper is two-fold: on the one hand, the researcher intends to get ELT instructors aware of the concept of collocations and its significance, for those who are not already aware of this aspect of language. On the other hand, the researcher aims at suggesting ways to help learners develop collocational knowledge.


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.


Author(s):  
Andrew Linn ◽  
Anastasiya Bezborodova ◽  
Saida Radjabzade

AbstractThis article presents a practical project to develop a language policy for an English-Medium-Instruction university in Uzbekistan. Although the university is de facto English-only, it presents a complex language ecology, which in turn has led to confusion and disagreement about language use on campus. The project team investigated the experience, views and attitudes of over a thousand people, including faculty, students, administrative and maintenance staff, in order to arrive at a proposed policy which would serve the whole community, based on the principle of tolerance and pragmatism. After outlining the relevant language and educational context and setting out the methods and approach of the underpinning research project, the article goes on to present the key findings. One of the striking findings was an appetite for control and regulation of language behaviours. Language policies in Higher Education invariably fall down at the implementation stage because of a lack of will to follow through on their principles and their specific guidelines. Language policy in international business on the other hand is characterised by a control stage invariably lacking in language planning in education. Uzbekistan is a polity used to control measures following from policy implementation. The article concludes by suggesting that Higher Education in Central Asia may stand a better chance of seeing through language policies around English-Medium Instruction than, for example, in northern Europe, based on the tension between tolerance on the one hand and control on the other.


Author(s):  
Brian E Cox

This article follows an earlier assessment of Bentham’s views on guardianship 1 that touched on but did not explore connections or departures between guardian-ward and parent-offspring relations, about which Bentham was not as precise as he might have been. Further, he added complexity to the issue by describing parents as occupying dual roles: guardians and ‘masters’ (employers) of their own offspring. These relations are now considered, on the one hand, in the wider context of ‘special relations’ and ‘duties’ and, on the other hand, alongside some appreciation of Bentham’s personal perspectives. However, the main object of the present article is to assess similarities and differences between parents and guardians in legal, status and functional terms. It uses the profile of guardian-ward relations provided by the previous article 2 as a benchmark. The article concludes by affirming that ‘being a parent’ and ‘being a guardian’ have quite different meanings.


Author(s):  
В.В. Крюков ◽  
О.В. Шлегель

В статье рассматриваются методики в расследовании уголовных дел, касающихся должностных преступлений коррупционной направленности и преступлений против личности, совершаемых по мотиву национальной ненависти или вражды. Выявлены и предлагаются к обсуждению как общие аспекты, способствующие раскрытию вышеуказанных категорий преступлений с одной стороны, так и особенности, связанные с их спецификой – с другой стороны. Также авторами предложены новые методологические особенности для раскрытия и расследования указанных категорий дел, помогающие предварительному следствию успешно справляться с поставленными задачами. The article discusses the methods of scientists in the investigation of criminal cases concerning official crimes of corruption and crimes against the person committed on the basis of national hatred or enmity. Scientists have identified common aspects that help in the disclosure of both categories of crimes on the one hand, and on the other hand, in accordance with their specifics, the features of the


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Layla Hajiesmaeli ◽  
Laya Heidari Darani

<p>This article was intended to explore the frequency and order of communication strategies used by Iranian male and female EFL earners as well as English native speakers while facing communication breakdowns. Furthermore, it was aimed to investigate the difference between native speakers and non-native speakers of English in their use of communication strategies. In addition, it was probed whether gender had any effects on the use of these strategies among native and non-native speakers. To this end, the data were collected through the communication strategy questionnaire distributed among 30 male and female Iranian intermediate EFL learners and 15 English native speakers. The design of this study was a quantitative one in which the questionnaire and thus numerical data were applied. To analyze the data, Cronbach alpha and independent-samples t-tests were used. The results indicated that non-verbal and social affective strategies were the most frequent strategies used by non-native speakers and native speakers of English, respectively. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between male and female Iranian EFL learners, but a significant difference between male and female English native speakers were seen. It can be concluded that language proficiency can contribute to the type and frequency of communications strategies which are used non-native speakers; likewise, it can play a significant role in gender differences in language use.<em></em></p>


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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
John W De Gruchy

Nelson Mandela and Dietrich Bonhoeffer have become twentieth century icons of resistance against illegitimate regimes and oppression. Both of them were committed makers of peace who were forced by circumstances to engage in violent resistance, the one in an armed struggle and the other in a plot to assassinate a dictator. This recourse to violent means in extraordinary circumstances was driven by moral and strategic considerations that followed a similar logic, even though their contexts were different in important respects. In this essay, we explore these similarities and differences, as well as their reasons for engaging in violent action, and offer certain propositions based on their narrative for responding to political oppression and the call for regime change today.


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.


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