scholarly journals Problems of Speech Perception Experienced by the EFL Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 143
Author(s):  
Adi Sutrisno
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Research Result ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Secondary Research ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

Most native speakers of English modify complicated sequences in connected speech in order to simplify the articulation process. This habit has created problems in the part of EFL learners as they are not trained enough to extract word sequences from the running speech. As a consequence, misperception occurs, which often leads to the failure in the listening comprehension. This article is intended to prove that such a problem is not solely triggered by the native speaker factor. Other factors might play pivotal roles, too and need to be carefully examined. In light of this interest, a secondary research aimed at revealing factors causing speech perception problems was carried out. The research result shows that problems of speech perceptions experienced by the EFL learners were mostly caused by their phonetic knowledge and phonological competence, besides lexical and syntax knowledge.

Requests by Chinese EFL learners and native speakers of English

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Meng ◽  
Beatrice Szczepek Reed
Keyword(s):  
Study Abroad ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Interactional Competence ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Study Abroad Students ◽  
At Home

Language learners' requesting behaviour has been the focus of pragmatic research for some time, including that of Chinese EFL learners, who constitute a large proportion of English speakers globally. The present study replicates elements of Wang (2011), focusing on the use of formulaic expressions and exploring the differences between advanced Chinese EFL learners and native speakers of English with regard to the use of request formulae. The study also investigates whether significant exposure to the target language in country is connected to a more native-like use of request formulae. Wang's Discourse Completion Task was adopted to elicit request utterances from three groups of participants: advanced Chinese EFL learners studying in China (at home students) and in the UK (study abroad students), respectively, and native speakers of British English. The findings show that, although in some respects study abroad students in the UK employed request formulae in a more native-like manner compared to at home students in China, neither group showed close approximation to the request behaviour of the native speaker group. The findings are discussed in the context of current debates, including interlanguage variations, interactional competence, and native speaker norms and intelligibility.

scholarly journals Native Speaker Perceptions of Accented Speech: The English Pronunciation of Macedonian EFL Learners

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 41-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anastazija Kirkova-Naskova
Keyword(s):  
Web Application ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
English Pronunciation ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Result Analysis

The paper reports on the results of a study that aimed to describe the vocalic and consonantal features of the English pronunciation of Macedonian EFL learners as perceived by native speakers of English and to find out whether native speakers who speak different standard variants of English perceive the same segments as non-native. A specially designed computer web application was employed to gather two types of data: a) quantitative (frequency of segment variables and global foreign accent ratings on a 5-point scale), and b) qualitative (open-ended questions). The result analysis points out to three most frequent markers of foreign accent in the English speech of Macedonian EFL learners: final obstruent devoicing, vowel shortening and substitution of English dental fricatives with Macedonian dental plosives. It also reflects additional phonetic aspects poorly explained in the available reference literature such as allophonic distributional differences between the two languages and intonational mismatch.

scholarly journals REASONS FOR MISTAKES IN FOREIGN SPEECH PERCEPTION: BASED ON RUSSIAN AND CHINESE

2019 ◽  
pp. 26-32
Author(s):  
Bai Xuhaoran ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Lexical Stress ◽  
Connected Speech ◽  
Negative Interference ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Sentence Patterns

Fluencyin a foreignlanguagepresupposesadvancementinvariousskills. When learning a foreign language, listening is one of the most difficult types of language practices for non-native speakers. The results of the present research based on the survey of 52 Chinese and 50 Russian L2 learners, aged 18-28 (Bachelor, Master and PhD levels) in Chelyabinsk support this viewpoint. The current paper analyzes the causes of mistakes in listening comprehension made by Chinese learners of Russian and Russian learners of Chinese. The causes can be of psychological nature (anxiety and the lack of motivation), of linguistic nature reflected on the phonetic (number of sounds, syllable tone vs lexical stress, connected speech processes), lexicographic, lexical-grammatical (the lack of vocabulary, differences of grammatical categories and syntactic sentence patterns) levels, as well as the lack of knowledge regarding cultural realities. These mistakes are a naturally expected as a result of the negative interference of the mother tongue.

scholarly journals The Lecture Buddy Project: An Experiment in EAP Listening Comprehension

2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 64 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mendelsohn
Keyword(s):  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
First Year ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Note Taking ◽  
American University ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Economics Majors ◽  
The University

This article describes a study of the listening comprehension of first-year, non-native speakers of English (NNSs) in a large North American university. The goal was to find out how the students, all economics majors, were coping with listening to economics lectures and to try an experiment in mentoring by linking them with a "lecture buddy": a native speaker in their course who would meet with them weekly and help them with note taking. The lecture buddies kept journals of their meetings, made copies of their lecture notes, and wrote a final report on their experience. In addition, the author interviewed the informants at the end of each semester, and these interviews were transcribed. The study confirms that these students were having substantial difficulty with their lectures, were taking poor notes, and were doing poorly in the courses as a result. The mentoring project was judged to be helpful to the informants, and the help that the lecture buddies gave went far beyond working on note taking. The article ends with a list of recommendations about what the university and the professors could do to make it easier of the NNS students and what the students themselves could do.

scholarly journals ENGLISH IN THE GLOBAL WORKPLACE: A NARRATIVE APPROACH

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Emilia Wąsikiewicz-Firlej
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Diffi Cult ◽  
International Environment ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on the new directions in ESP education and revisit the concepts of the native speaker and lingua franca as seen from the lay perspective. It reports the results of a research study – an analysis of narratives of ten Polish professionals working for international organizations who share their experiences and tell stories on communicating and using English in the workplace. The narrative approach adopted in the study gives an insight into individual perspectives, facilitating an in-depth, holistic understanding of the studied matters. The fi ndings have shown that native English is still deemed to be the main point of reference by the participants of the study and the notion of lingua franca appears unfamiliar and diffi cult to accept, especially in the educational context. Variations in individual preferences concerning communication with native or non-native users of English and declared comfort related to such interactions have been observed and correlated with the level of profi ciency in English. In most cases, more profi cient users have reported to feel more comfortable in interactions with native speakers of English. They have also demonstrated certain language awareness, which stands in a sharp contrast to the participants less profi cient in English, whose perception of language is very simplifi ed. As regards pedagogical implications, the study has signalled a need for sound cultural preparation of professionals working in international environment and a greater emphasis on developing communication skills for socialising – an essential aspect of business communication.

scholarly journals Communication Strategies Used by Iranian EFL Learners and English Native Speakers: Gender in Focus

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Layla Hajiesmaeli ◽  
Laya Heidari Darani
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Numerical Data ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
The Difference

<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>

A Recurrent Word Combination Approachto the Study of Formulae in the Speech of Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvie De Cock
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Quantitative Comparison ◽  
Automatic Extraction ◽  
Word Combination ◽  
Full Discussion ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Recurrent Word

This article reports on a pilot study into how corpus methods can be applied to the study of one type of phraseological unit, formulae, in native speaker and learner speech. Formulae, or formulaic expressions, are multi-word units performing a pragmatic and/or discourse-structuring function and have been characterised as being typically native-like. The methodology presented here is contrastive and involves the use of computerised corpora of both native and non-native speaker speech. It consists of two steps: (1) the automatic extraction of all recurrent word combinations to produce lists of potential formulae, and (2) a carefully specified manual filtering process designed to reduce these lists to lists of actual formulaic usage. The results of this process allow for the first genuine quantitative comparison of formulae in the speech of native and non-native speakers, which in turn has significant implications for SLA research. This paper focuses on methodology and does not present a full discussion of the results. However, selected example findings are presented to support the approach adopted.

The Use of Videoconferencing and Unprescribed Conversation for Listening Comprehension in L2 Spanish

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Laurie Massery ◽  
Claudio Fuentes
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Listening Comprehension ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
System Data ◽  
L2 Listening ◽  
Guided Instruction

The following research investigates the effect that unprescribed1 conversation with native speakers of the target language had on learners' L2 listening comprehension skills at the beginning (n=21) and advanced intermediate levels of Spanish (n=27). Treatment groups completed two-thirty-minute conversations with native speakers via videoconferencing throughout the semester, while the control groups carried out unilateral oral exams using the Canvas course management system. Data was collected using the Avant Stamp Test, an online testing program that is based on the national standards outlined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (i.e., ACTFL). The results of the study revealed that learners at the Intermediate I (InterI) level significantly improved as a result of the oral interactions, while the Intermediate II learners (InterII)—who possessed more developed grammatical and lexical skills, as well as overall experience in L2 than their Intermediate I level counterparts—did not significantly improve as a result of the treatment. Although many of the studies in this area of inquiry emphasize the need for guided instruction, explicit strategy and lexical recognition in aural development, it is argued here that unprescribed conversation with native speakers—a much less contrived and more authentic approach to aural acquisition—can also significantly improve listening ability in L2. Therefore, with the present study, the authors contribute to current literature in Second Language Acquisition that centers on aural development and the role of native speaker interaction in learners' auditory growth.

Linking or delinking of ideas?

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noelia Navarro Gil ◽  
Helena Roquet Pugès
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Initial Position ◽  
American University ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Argumentative Texts ◽  
Linguistic Backgrounds

Abstract This paper explores the use of adversative Linking Adverbials (LAs) in the academic writing of advanced English Foreign Language (EFL) learners with different linguistic backgrounds. The learner corpus used in this study consists of 50 argumentative texts, which are contrasted with a native corpus: the American university students’ corpus (LOCNESS). Liu’s (2008) comprehensive list of adversative LAs has been used for the analysis. Findings reveal that both non-native (NNS) and native speakers of English (NS) use similar types of adversative LAs, but NNS place them regularly in sentence- and sometimes in paragraph- initial position, which often results in punctuation issues and misuse. A total of 9 LAs were found to be overused (e.g., nevertheless) and underused (e.g., actually) by NNS. The analysis performed according to L1 has yielded unexpected results in terms of preference, frequency, and placement of adversative LAs. The so-called ‘teaching effect’ is considered one of the main factors influencing the learners’ choices.

Lexical and discourse factors in the second language acquisition of Spanish word order

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tammy Jandrey Hertel
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Word Order ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Order Effects ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Spanish Word ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Beginning Learners

This study investigates the acquisition of Spanish word order by native speakers of English. Specifically, it considers the development of sensitivity to the distinct interpretations of subject-verb (SV) vs. verb-subject (VS) order, as determined by lexical verb class (unaccusative and unergative verbs) and discourse structure.Participants included a native speaker control group and learners at four proficiency levels. Results from a contextualized production task indicate that beginning learners transferred the SV order of English for all structures. Intermediate learners showed a gradual increase in the production of lexically and discourse-determined inversion, although their data was also characterized by indeterminacy and variability. The advanced learners demonstrated a sensitivity to the word order effects of unaccusativity and discourse factors, but also tended to overgeneralize inversion to unergative verbs in a neutral discourse context.

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