Backward Pragmatic Transfer: An Empirical Study on Compliment Responses among Chinese EFL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 1846
Author(s):  
Min Cao
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Compliment Responses ◽  
Four Levels

This present study aims at investigating compliment response strategies used by different groups of Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in order to find out the evidence of the existence of backward transfer from foreign language (FL) or second language (L2) English to their first language (L1) Chinese at pragmatic level. The data is collected through a written Discourse Complete Task (DCT) among four levels of EFL learners in a university in China. The data suggests that backward transfer occurs in their L1 Chinese compliment response. Moreover, backward pragmatic transfer is enhanced by EFL learners’ L2 proficiency. The results of this study are compared with those of Qu & Wang (2005) to see the great changes in the past ten years. The results of this study point to the complexity of language transfer and its interaction with L2 proficiency.

scholarly journals Pragmatic Transfer in the Speech Act of Compliment among Chinese EFL Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 60-65
Author(s):  
Yue Lin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Negative Transfer ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
First Language ◽  
Positive Transfer ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Research Questions

This article reviews the notions of transfer and its subcategories of positive transfer as well as negative transfer. This article also considers the research on pragmatic transfer in the speech act of compliment in first language as well as second and foreign language contexts. In addition, it further explores three research questions concerning pragmatic transfer in compliment among Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners.

Task complexity, L2 proficiency and EFL learners’ L1 use in task-based peer interaction

2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882110046
Author(s):  
Jinfen Xu ◽  
Yumei Fan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Cognitive Complexity ◽  
Peer Interaction ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
First Language ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Complex Tasks ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
L1 Use ◽  
The Impact

This study is aimed to identify the effects of task complexity on first language (L1) use and the functions it may serve when two groups of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) work on collaborative tasks. Twenty-four pairs of Chinese EFL learners from two universities were assigned to a lower-proficiency and a higher-proficiency group, each with twelve pairs. Each group completed two collaborative tasks of different cognitive complexity. The results showed that task complexity had an appreciable impact on the use of L1 and its functions. It is also found that the impact of task complexity was dependent on learners’ English proficiency. Specifically, the higher-proficiency group employed more L1 to perform complex tasks than they did in the simple versions of the tasks. These learners also devoted significantly more L1 turns to fulfill the functions of metacognitive and grammar talk to complete the complex tasks. These trends did not hold for the lower-proficiency group.

scholarly journals The Effect of English Passive Voice Learning on the Use of “Bei” Structure: An Empirical Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 197
Author(s):  
Min Cao
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Empirical Investigation ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
First Language ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Passive Voice ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Sentence Level ◽  
L1 And L2

<p>This paper conducts an empirical investigation among English foreign language (EFL) learners at a university in China, mainly on their understanding of the passive voice in their native language to verify the existence of backward transfer in their first language (L1) environment and how backward transfer may relate to the learners’ proficiency of second language (L2) English and L1 Chinese in the sentence translation task (STT) and discourse task (DT) of Chinese paragraph writing. The study shows that backward transfer does exist at STT or sentence level in L1 environment. Additionally, the Chinese participants at intermediate English proficiency level are likely to experience backward transfer from L2 English to L1 Chinese. Moreover, for EFL learners at the lower and top English proficiency level no obvious signs of backward transfer shown at the sentence level. And all of the EFL participants have not been influenced by L2 English in the Chinese discourse task. The results of this study convey the complexity of backward transfer and its interactions with L1 and L2 proficiency and different tasks.</p>

An exploration of target L2 morphemes in the oral production of young EFL learners in Croatia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena O'Reilly ◽  
Eva Jakupčević
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Simple Construction ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Oral Production ◽  
The Past ◽  
Base Form ◽  
Production Study ◽  
Efl Students

Although the second language (L2) acquisition of morphology by late L2 learners has been a popular research area over the past decades, comparatively little is known about the acquisition and development of morphology in children who learn English as a foreign language (EFL). Therefore, the current study presents the findings from a longitudinal oral production study with 9/10-year-old L1 Croatian EFL students who were followed up at the age of 11/12. Our results are largely in line with the limited research so far in this area: young EFL learners have few issues using the be copula and, eventually, the irregular past simple forms, but had considerable problems with accurately supplying the 3rd person singular -s at both data collection points. We also observed a be + base form structure, especially at the earlier stage, which appears to be an emergent past simple construction.

English as the nativized foreign language and its impact on Serbian

English Today ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tvrtko Prćić
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
American Studies ◽  
First Language ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Official Language ◽  
International Conference ◽  
The Past ◽  
World Communication ◽  
Expanding Circle ◽  
The Status

The concept of English as the nativized foreign language – or ENFL, for short – was first proposed in 2003, at the 13th International Conference on British and American Studies, in Timişoara, Romania, in a presentation entitled ‘Rethinking the status of English today: is it still a purely foreign language?’, and subsequently published as Prćić, 2003 and 2004. Identified and described in these papers are new, additional properties of English, which have developed over the past few decades, concurrently with the establishment of English as the first language of world communication and as today's global lingua franca (for accounts of this phenomenon, see Jenkins, 2007; Mauranen & Ranta, 2010; Seidlhofer, 2011). Viewed from the perspective of the Expanding Circle (Kachru, 1985), English can no longer be considered a purely, or prototypically, foreign language, usually characterized by three defining properties: not the first language of a country, not the official language of a country and taught as a subject in schools (cf. Richards & Schmidt, 2002). Three newly emerged defining properties of English, over and above the three customary ones, set it uniquely apart from all other purely foreign languages and they will be briefly summarized below (for more extensive discussions, see Prćić, 2003, 2004, 2011a: Chapter 2, 2011b, 2014).

The Investigation of Compliment Response Patterns across Gender and Age among Advanced EFL Learners

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parisa Yazdani Khaneshan ◽  
Alireza Bonyadi
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Communication Breakdown ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
Compliment Responses ◽  
Cultural Standards ◽  
The Given

Compliment responses (CRs) as manifestations of social-cultural standards and politeness varieties of a certain speech community are prevalent types of speech acts which are vulnerable to be misunderstood and therefore cause communication breakdown. Having this in mind, the recent study aimed at investigating compliment response strategies of Iranian advanced EFL learners across gender and age. The data were collected through application of a Discourse Completion Task (DCT), borrowed from Chen and Yang (2010), with four situational settings (appearance, clothing, ability, and possession) to 50 male and 50 female advanced EFL learners of an English institute in Iran. Based on qualitative data analysis, no difference was shown between the CR strategies employed by male and female participants in terms of frequency. Likewise, it was revealed that the frequency of CR strategies used by teenage and adult groups was very close. However, scrutinizing the emerging themes, besides similarities between the given groups, some subtle differences in the terminology of the employed strategies were detected.

scholarly journals The Effects of a CLIL Programme on Linguistic Progress at Two Different Points in Time

2021 ◽  
pp. 173-191
Author(s):  
Marta Segura ◽  
Helena Roquet ◽  
Carmen Pérez-Vidal
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Reading Skills ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Integrated Learning ◽  
Older Students ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
The Past ◽  
Learning Contexts ◽  
Student Proficiency

In an attempt to explore the effects of different kinds of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning contexts, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) have been at the centre of FL acquisition research over the past decade. Studies have focused on the features and gains this setting brings, whether content is learnt at the same level of success as when taught in the learners’ L1, and whether that L1 is negatively affected by CLIL. However, to our knowledge, very little attention has been brought to how the seniority of the programme affects learner progress in the target language. This study aims to fill such a gap in the understanding that the programme will have developed and improved in terms of quality of exposure and interaction, and that learners’ EFL performance will be higher. To do that, we measured the efficacy of a long-standing CLIL programme in Barcelona twelve years after it was launched and examined the reading, writing, and lexico-grammatical abilities of CLIL EFL learners aged 8, 11, and 14 compared with results obtained by learners measured at the onset of the programme in 2005. The results showed that the quality of the programme has increased over the last decade, guaranteeing a higher level of EFL student proficiency when raw scores are considered, but not in terms of linguistic gains, in which only improvement in older students’ grammar and reading skills can be observed.

Japanese EFL learners’ sentence processing of conceptual plurality: An analysis focusing on reciprocal verbs

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
YU TAMURA ◽  
JUNYA FUKUTA ◽  
YOSHITO NISHIMURA ◽  
YUI HARADA ◽  
KAZUHISA HARA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Sentence Comprehension ◽  
First Language ◽  
Sentence Completion ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Transitive Verbs ◽  
Reading Experiment ◽  
Japanese Learners

ABSTRACTThis study aimed to investigate how Japanese learners of English as a foreign language, whose first language does not have obligatory morphological number marking, process conceptual plurality. The targeted structure was reciprocal verbs, which require conceptual plurality to interpret their meanings correctly. The results of a sentence completion task confirmed that participants could use reciprocal verbs reciprocally in English. In a self-paced reading experiment, participants read sentences with reciprocal verbs and those with optionally transitive verbs (e.g., while the king and the queen kissed/left the baby read the book in the bed). There was no reading time delay for reciprocal verbs but a delay for optionally transitive verbs. Therefore, the participants succeeded in processing second language conceptual plurality in the online sentence comprehension task.

scholarly journals Major phonemic problems of Bangladeshi learners of English: Reasons behind and solutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-39
Author(s):  
A K M Mazharul Islam
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Sound Production ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Basic Ideas ◽  
Teaching Learning

The issue of Bangladeshi EFL learners’ phonemic challenges, though not very battered, has been addressed by some researchers at different times. Even after having a prolonged history of learning and teaching and some research in the field, awkward pronunciations and misunderstandings are still prevailing everywhere, from the primary level to tertiary level and beyond. This study is undertaken to heighten the importance of delving deeper into the root causes of phonemic difficulties of the learners and to pinpoint the major problems. To add flesh to the theoretical skeleton of the topic a group of university students was interviewed along with a questionnaire to check their understanding of English phonology along with some other basic questions related to pronunciation. It can firmly be stated that teaching/learning pronunciation and hence starting from the segmental level has never been followed. Like any other country where English is in the status of a second language or foreign language, it is very natural to face difficulties to master the intricate phonemic features of the target language for the learners. Supposedly, it mostly results from the lack of knowledge of phonology and phonetics of the target language and due to the phonemic differences between the first language and the target language. In this study, the focus is kept mainly on the salient phonemic challenges faced by Bangladeshi learners of English. Bringing in the basic ideas of consonant and vowel sounds, the sound production mechanism is shown, and then the differences between the vowels and consonants of two languages are held out. Tracing out the key difficulties, some suggestions are provided. This writing is expected to be of considerable and comprehensive help for the instructors as well as for the interested learners and crucial addition to the literature of the topic.

scholarly journals The Investigation of Request Strategies By EFL Learners of The International Institute of Tourism and Business Denpasar

HUMANIS ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 145
Author(s):  
Gede Eka Wahyu ◽  
Ni Putu Evi Wahyu Citrawati
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Intermediate Level ◽  
International Institute ◽  
Written Discourse ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Request Strategies

Communicative competence has been the goal teaching of a second or foreign language. In acquiring the language, speakers of language also acquire the rules of knowledge and choose the speech acts when communicating with others. This study aimed to investigate the act of request strategies and request perspectives produced by the student of The International Institute of Tourism and Business Denpasar. There are fifty students’ involved in the study with intermediate level in their English proficiency. The data is collected with a written Discourse Completion Test (DCT) which has ten request situations. Soshana Blum Kulka and Olshtain’s (1984) theory is used to categorize the speech acts produce in analyzing data. The result of the project showed that most of the students use internal modification and the number of students external modification in their speech acts.

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