scholarly journals Between Sound and Voice: Teaching Chinese Tones To Non-Tonal Language Speakers

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (9) ◽  
pp. 141-158
Author(s):  
Ewa Zajdler
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Acoustic Analysis ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Voice Teaching ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Teaching Chinese ◽  
Successful Production

The production of highly intelligible syllables in Mandarin Chinese entails a successful production of tones, which poses a challenge for learners of Chinese as a foreign language. The aim of the current paper is to address this issue by identifying the key tonal features contributing to tone intelligibility in the lexemes produced by Polish learners of Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language. Samples of Polish female students’ tonal pronunciations at two stages of learning were selected and compared with productions made by a female native speaker of Mandarin Chinese from Taiwan. Four syllables produced by the students were selected from a corpus of read-out passages which had already been assessed for the intelligibility of monosyllabic lexemes by native judges. The students’ pronunciation samples (whose pronunciation improved from the A1 minus language level to A2) were analysed using pitch, fundamental frequency contour, and register span criteria, and then compared to the female native speaker’s pronunciations of the same syllables. Importantly, before the results of this analysis are presented, the simplified model of tones widely used in language instruction is compared and contrasted with the acoustic analysis of tonal productions made by the native speaker. This is done to show to what extent the simplified, widely used model reflects real-life tonal productions.

scholarly journals A learner’s grammar for Estonian: Insights from typological research

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-281
Author(s):  
Anne Tamm ◽  
Piibi-Kai Kivik
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
Reference Grammar ◽  
Language Technology ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
New Type ◽  
Structure Research

This paper discusses the need for a modern Estonian reference grammar for learners and lays the basic groundwork for creating one. The current abundance of materials for teaching Estonian as a foreign language and recent advancements in both areal-typological linguistics and in the study of acquisition of Estonian contribute to conceptualizing a new type of grammar, and further improving the teaching and learning of Estonian. Modern language instruction orients to proficiency as the ability to use language in real life. We contend that this goal, combined with the availability of language technology and increased mobility of people increases the demands on effective teaching of language structure. Research has shown that the main difficulties for learners of Estonian concern morphology and morphosyntax. We suggest that including an areal-typological perspective on categories and concepts in describing and explaining the structure of Estonian may help learners in these areas.Kokkuvõte. Anne Tamm, Piibi-Kai Kivik: Grammatika eesti keele õppijale: võõrkeeleõpe ja tüpoloogia. Artikkel osutab ühisosale areaal-tüpoloogilise keeleteaduse ja teise keele omandamise uurimise vahel. Eesti keele morfosüntaks ja süntaks, sh evidentsiaalsuse, aspekti ja eituse väljendamine pakub huvi mõlema ala uurijatele. Keeleõppija jaoks pole siin tegu mitte ainult uue vormi, vaid ka uue grammatilise kategooria või moodustussüsteemiga (nt eitus), kus erinevuste teadvustamine, sh metalingvistiline teadlikkus võib aidata vältida vigu ja kiirendada keeleomandamise protsessi. Artikkel väidab, et kaasaegne kommunikatiivne, suhtluspädevusele suunatud keeleõpe ei väldi grammatika õpetamist, vaid teeb seda läbimõeldult ja kontekstis. Et keeletundides kasutataks võimalikult palju aega suhtlemise harjutamiseks, on vaja käepäraseid ja ammendavaid materjale iseseisvaks tööks, sh grammatikaseletusi ja pedagoogilist grammatikat. Pedagoogiline grammatika, mis põhineb lingvistilisel uurimistööl, pakub uusi võimalusi nii õpetajale kui õppijale sihtja lähtekeele kõrvutamiseks ning veaohtlike või keerulisemate keelenähtuste paremaks omandamiseks.Märksõnad: areaal-tüpoloogiline keeleteadus; eesti keel võõrkeelena; morfosüntaks; kategooriad; õppijagrammatika

Tone and intonation in Mandarin babytalk to presyllabic infants: Comparison with registers of adult conversation and foreign language instruction

1991 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mechthild Papoušek ◽  
Shu-Fen C. Hwang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Fundamental Frequency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Role Play ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Foreign Language Instruction

ABSTRACTSix native speakers of Mandarin Chinese recorded 140 preselected utterances in three role-play contexts that differentially elicited registers of babytalk to presyllabic infants (BTP), foreign language instruction (FLI), and adult conversation (AC). Sound spectrograms were used to obtain 10 measures of fundamental frequency (Fo) patterns for comparisons among the three registers. In FLI, the speakers expanded Fo patterns in time and Fo range in comparison with AC. They clarified lexical tonal information and seemed to reduce suprasegmental information. In BTP, the speakers raised peak and minimum Fo, reduced the rate of Fo fluctuations, and increased the proportion of terminal rising contours. The speakers reduced, neglected, or modified lexical tonal information in favor of simplified and clarified intonation contours. The significance of the results is discussed in relation to tone acquisition in children and to a universal intuitive didactic competence in caretakers.

scholarly journals Teaching russian phraseology with the component of color term “black” to philology foreign students

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (SPE2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia Chernova ◽  
Elena Lelis ◽  
Svetlana Baranova
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Regional Geography ◽  
Color Term ◽  
The Russian Language

The study of phraseology is an advanced direction of teaching methods of Russian as a foreign language. Any non-native speaker embarking on a study of Russian is faced with the problems of understanding the phraseological units that the Russian language is replete with. Language learners experience particular difficulties when using phraseological units with the color designation component “black” in a real-life communicative situation. The problem of understanding the phraseology of the Russian language is associated with the fact that representatives of different countries have knowledge of the phraseology of their native language that encompasses regional geography, linguoculturological, national concepts, which often do not coincide with similar phenomena in the Russian environment. This paper scientifically substantiates the methodological system for working with phraseological units in the study of Russian as a foreign language. It presents a system of scientifically grounded assignments for foreigners to learn Russian as a foreign language.

scholarly journals PROJECT-BASED LEARNING IN AN EFL SETTING – A CASE STUDY AT A UNIVERSITY IN VIETNAM

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (38) ◽  
pp. 223-236
Author(s):  
Le Thi Chi Giao ◽  
Bich Dieu Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Creative Thinking ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Local Context ◽  
The University ◽  
Enhanced Learning

Teaching for enhanced learning experience has well-received great interest from many teachers and educators around the world. In the EFL setting, tremendous efforts have been recognized in taking students out of a conventional classroom to experience a new way of learning which stimulates interest and creative thinking, which improves communication and collaborative skills, and which exposes students to more meaningful real-life situations. Project-based learning (PBL) is an answer to this, and it has developed as an alternative to teaching a foreign language with a focus on enhanced learning experience and increased creative teambuilding and group skills through meaningful projects. This paper presents how PBL has been adopted at the University of Foreign Language Studies – the University of Danang (UFLS-UD). It revisits the significance of PBL, the structure of a PBL activity, and reports how PBL has been situated in the local context of teaching English to students majoring in English in Vietnam. The reflections reported here showcase the gains through the path of action research enacted by individual teachers who act as change agents or enablers of this innovative teaching and learning approach and whose efforts have been recognized by means of several adaptations made to bring real life and a sense of community into language instruction.

The application and teaching evaluation of Japanese films and TV series corpus in JFL classroom

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqin Liu ◽  
Lanling Han ◽  
Bo Jiang ◽  
Xiaoyan Su
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Online Video ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Patent License ◽  
National Patent ◽  
License Patent ◽  
Language Context ◽  
Teaching Experiments

Purpose The aim of this paper is to solve the problem of lack of real context in JFL (Japanese as Foreign Language) classroom with video corpus-based teaching. It also offers reference for the development of video corpus. Design/methodology/approach The authors designed an intelligent Japanese online video corpus, namely the JV Finder, which is a corpus of Japanese films and TV series. The authors applied the JV Finder to JFL teaching to solve the problem of lack of real context and designed several teaching experiments to validate its benefits. Findings The results of teaching experiments show that the video corpus-based teaching significantly improves the learning effect. The JV Finder can help students memorize vocabularies and understand the meaning of new vocabularies in a better way. Research limitations/implications There are still some differences in language context between real life and films, which cannot fully reflect the state of native speaker in real life. Meanwhile, the number of students participating in this experiment is relatively small, so the universality of the result need further study. Practical implications This study combined linguistics with software engineering to solve the problem of lack of real context. Video corpus-based teaching not only can be used in Japanese teaching field but also provide value for other foreign language teaching. Social implications The JV Finder has obtained Chinese national patent license (patent no. 20131118). The video corpus (the JV Finder) has a far-reaching impact on JFL teaching. Originality/value This paper provides an intelligent Japanese online video corpus. It is applied to JFL teaching to solve the problem of lack of real context. The findings show that the video corpus can significantly improve the effectiveness of Japanese learning.

Authentic instruction in literary worlds: Learning the stylistics of concept-based grammar

2010 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria del Carmen Yáñez Prieto
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Ordinary Language ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
American University ◽  
Learning Attitudes ◽  
Foreign Language Curriculum ◽  
Oral Interaction

Over the last few years, researchers have criticized the typical divides between the lower and the higher stages of the mainstream American undergraduate foreign-language curriculum. Roughly speaking, the lower levels are commonly characterized by meaning-focused, sentence-based language instruction with emphasis on oral interaction, whereas the higher levels tend to focus on formal, text-oriented instruction with an emphasis on reading, writing, literature and content-oriented study. This division has clear repercussions for the conceptualization of communication, language, and language learning in the mainstream foreign-language curriculum. One of the most notable consequences is the idea that literature is essentially different from ordinary language, and, therefore, a less ‘authentic,’ ‘real-life’ form of discourse. The present article presents an alternative, integrative, literature-through-language pedagogy founded on a stylistics-based approach to language. The study was implemented with a group of sixth-semester students of Spanish at an American university. This study examines how the learners’ acculturation into the conventional two-tiered curricular configuration shaped their language constructs and the ways they composed meaning in texts. This article also discusses how the alternative course impacted on the learners’ linguistic development, views of language, and learning attitudes.

scholarly journals Social networks as a means of speech culture development of students in foreign language teaching

2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-85
Author(s):  
A.K. Kitibayeva ◽  
◽  
S.M. Zhankuatova ◽  
D.S. Assakayeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Correct Choice ◽  
Virtual Communication ◽  
Internet Resources ◽  
Correct Usage ◽  
Culture Development ◽  
Almost All

We live in a progressive and creative fast-changing world where almost all processes are associated with the use of advanced technologies. Nowadays it is hard to imagine traditional forms of education without integration with modern technologies. Every day the number of Internet resources and applications that are successfully used in the process of teaching a foreign language is growing. This diversity, in turn, creates the problem of the correct choice of Internet tools for teachers. The article proposes ways of working in social networks and applications, which make it possible to rationally use the possibilities of virtual communication for educational purposes. The research shows that by the correct usage of modern tools and Internet resources in the process of teaching a foreign language, it gives tremendous results in the development of skills such as expansion of vocabulary, correct speech structure, pronunciation, development of speaking skills, creativity in expressing thoughts and broadening person's horizons in general. The use of Internet technologies for educational purposes is also highly appreciated by the fact that it is not always possible to find a native speaker in real life, while on the Internet this can be easily done at any convenient time.

scholarly journals Analysis of the Principles of Practicability in Chinese Grammar Teaching to Foreigners

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xian Lin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Language Ability ◽  
Grammar Teaching ◽  
Practical Principle ◽  
Language Communication ◽  
Teaching Chinese

The teaching of Chinese grammar as a foreign language is aimed at enabling foreigners to master the basic Chinese vocabulary, sentences and sentence organization rules so as to improve the language ability of foreigners to communicate in Chinese. It can be seen that the ultimate goal of teaching Chinese as a foreign language is to realize language communication in real life, so the practical principle in teaching is of great criticality. This article briefly introduces the relevant overview of the practical principles of Chinese grammar teaching at first, then implements analysis of practical principles in several aspects, hoping to provide reference for relevant teachers.

Invited colloquium: Foreign languages in an age of globalization

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Kramsch
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Language Instruction ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Foreign Language Instruction ◽  
Common Prior

With the advent of globalization and the increasingly multilingual and multicultural nature of nations, institutions and classrooms, the fundamental nature of foreign language instruction is changing. Such traditional notions as: ‘native speaker’, ‘target culture’, ‘standard L2’ are becoming problematic with the influx of immigrants to industrialized nation-states, the diversification of accents, and the stratification of language varieties. Foreign language classrooms, too, are becoming less and less homogenous: lacking common points of reference in a common L1, students have to learn the L2 without any common prior cultural or historical context. Caught between the need to impart a skill that will be ‘usable’ in a variety of global settings and the desire to develop an L2 academic literacy that is specific to a given national culture, foreign language study is challenged to reconcile the local and the global, its national premise and its transnational entailments. This colloquium explored the changing nature of the challenges facing the teaching and learning of foreign languages in an age of global information technologies, global job market, and global migrations. In particular it focused on the notion of the ‘foreign’ in foreign language education and how globalization has affected this foreignness.

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