scholarly journals Software Review: Meetup

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiromi Nishioka
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Online Platform ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Time Availability

Meetup (https://www.meetup.com/apps/) is an online platform designed to get people to share similar interests and to enjoy the social activities with other members offline. Users have access to a wide range of Meetup events that they may wish to participate in according to their interests, date and time availability, and location. Although Meetup is developed for general users, language learners can use the application to construct opportunities to communicate with the native speakers while enjoying their shared interests together. Access to such opportunities is not always easy for learners either studying the target language in their home country or studying the target language in a host country (e.g., Allen, 2010; Kim, 2011). As such, Meetup allows learners to identify events where they can meet native speakers who live near to their location and to interact with them using the target language in naturally-occurring settings.

Communication networks of Japanese language learners in their home country

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Kurata
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Language Play ◽  
The Relationship

This paper deals with communication networks of four upper-intermediate level Japanese language learners with in-country experience who are studying at an Australian university, and it also examines the relationship between the learners’ networks and language learning. Utilizing Boissevain’s criteria for network analysis, I compared the characteristics of the informants’ current networks with those that existed prior to their in-country experiences. In addition, this study applied the framework of communicative competence developed by Hymes and Neustupny to analyse the informants’ language learning that occurred within their networks. The study found that a number of characteristics of the informants’ networks, such as their multiplex social roles and the variety of backgrounds of their Japanese network interactants, were probably related to the raising of the learners’ non-linguistic as well as linguistic awareness. It therefore appears that learners’ out-of-class communication networks with native speakers of the target language play an important role in terms of language learning.

That’s hard

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Lester
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Grammatical Form ◽  
Learner Performance ◽  
Highly Sensitive ◽  
Additive Regression ◽  
Opposite Tendency

Abstract Language learners are highly sensitive to statistical patterns in the input. When a target language provides the option to include or omit a grammatical form, learners have been shown to make decisions quite similar to native speakers. For example, learners opt to include or omit the complementizer that (as in I know (that) Steffi likes hot tea). This phenomenon has been explained in terms of a universal suite of cognitive mechanisms which support native and learner performance alike. Both learners and native speakers choose to include the complementizer when they are producing more complex or unexpected structures. The present study attempts to generalize these findings to another domain of “optional” grammatical markers, namely, relativizers (as in the hot tea (that) Steffi likes). I analyze all instances of optional relativizer use in a corpus of spontaneous learner speech produced by Spanish and German learners of English. Both of these languages have obligatory relativizers. A two-step generalized additive regression modeling technique (MuPDAR) that predicts learner choices based on native-speaker choices demonstrates that native speakers use greater shares of the relativizer in complex and disfluent environments, while learners show the exact opposite tendency: they prefer to drop the relativizer in complex and disfluent environments. These findings are discussed based on differences between complementizers and relativizers, and in terms of the limited universality of optional grammatical marking in learner speech.

Kommunikationsprobleme Von "Near Native Speakern" Deutsch

1986 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 37-46
Author(s):  
Erika Niehaus
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Social Strategies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Indirect Speech Act

Communication has at least two different aspects: the propositi-onal aspect and the social aspect. Any utterance in a face-to-face-interaction therefore has the function to give information and to indicate how the ralation to the other participant is interpreted. In order to establish his communicative goal, the speaker has to analyse the social situation and the preceding context. Depending on this interpretation he selects between the different verbal patterns to perform a certain speech act. This involves for instance the choice of direct/indirect speech act realizations, the selection of certain linguistic elements (modality markers) for downtoning or upgrading the illocutionary force of speech acts. The contrastive analysis of the realizations of the speech act REQUEST in three different dialogue batteries elicited via role play from Dutch learners of German, native speakers of Dutch and native speakers of German has shown 1. that Dutch native speakers use modality markers in different communicative functions than German native speakers, 2. that Dutch learners of German mostly choose the same social strategies when speaking the target language as they do when speaking the mother tongue, 3. that the learners are not always able to establish their modal goal, that is, the are not able to communicate their intentions on an interpersonal level. The reason for this seems to be that in the Netherlands the teaching of German as a second language is mainly a matter of teaching grammatical rules and linguistic expressions without taking into consideration that the meaning of these expressions is pragmaticalley conditioned and that their usage is motivated by the relevant characteris-tics of such social situations.

scholarly journals Second language learners’ divergence from target language pragmatic norms

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Pia Gomez-Laich
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
L2 Pragmatics ◽  
Direct Explanation ◽  
The Individual

Pragmatic competence is an indispensable aspect of language ability in order for second and foreign language (L2/FL) learners to understand and be understood in their interactions with both native and nonnative speakers of the target language. Without a proper understanding of the pragmatic rules in the target language, learners may run the risk of coming across as insensitive and rude. Several researchers (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001; Kasper & Rose, 2002) suggest that L2 pragmatics not only can be taught in the L2/FL classroom, but, more importantly, that explicit approaches that involve direct explanation of target pragmatic features are beneficial for learning pragmatics. Just as native speakers of a language acquire a “set of dispositions to act in certain ways, which generates cognitive and bodily practices in the individual” (Watts, 2003, p. 149), instructors can help learners to become aware of the pragmatic features that characterize the target language. Although the importance of explicit teaching of pragmatics is well recognized in the literature, learning norms and rules of pragmatics largely depends on learners’ subjectivity. Learners’ convergence or divergence from the L2 pragmatic norms, both consciously and out of awareness, sometimes depends on whether these norms fit their image of self and their L1 cultural identity. Since identity-related conflict can have significant consequences for the acquisition of second language pragmatics, failing to consider the centrality of learners’ identities will produce an inadequate understanding of SLA. This paper synthesizes studies that document the reasons why learners opt to remain foreign by resisting certain L2 practic-es. The following synthesis question was proposed: Why do language learners resist the pragmatic norms of the target language?

scholarly journals Proverbs in Language Teaching: Using the Example of Let’s Speak Tigrinya (2018)

Aethiopica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip Busau
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
European Research ◽  
Classroom Situation ◽  
Effective Manner ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Insight Into

Proverbs have been used in language teaching for centuries. Nowadays, language learners associate mastery of this traditionally oral genre to a certain level of fluency and regard it as an access key to a deeper understanding of the native speakers’ culture. The recently released Tǝgrǝñña coursebook Let’s Speak Tigrinya (2018) contains almost fifty proverbs, and provides students with an insight into this old and rich tradition. However, owing to the lack of commentary or translation, the paper here seeks to compensate for this deficiency. In comparison with several Tǝgrǝñña proverb collections, it becomes apparent that the expressions listed in the textbook are common in Eritrea as well as in the Tǝgray region, in several alternative variations, some of which have been attested to in earlier European research works. A few examples even have an Amharic equivalent. The proverbs focused on here cover a wide range of both grammatical and everyday life topics and should be implemented in a more effective manner than the textbook provides. However, due to the lack of translations and occasional misprints, their accessibility is radically reduced and of little use for the individual language learner unassisted by a classroom situation.

scholarly journals Difficulties in Teaching English Modal Auxiliaries to Turkish Students: A Cognitive Pragmatic Approach

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Erton
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Modal Auxiliaries ◽  
Teaching Learning

Recently, attention in modern linguistic theory has been shifted to facilitating a broader understanding of the world, in which language is a tool to establish a bridge between the interlocutor and the recipient. To do so, the development of linguistic, communicative and socio-pragmatic competences enriched with socio-cultural inputs in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) or Second Language (L2) teaching and learning contexts have a significant impact on language learners both to develop their perception as native speakers of English and to facilitate the progress of cognitive skills and capabilities. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate a case study to show some of the difficulties in teaching English modal auxiliaries to Turkish students in EFL/L2 contexts which arise not only from structural characteristics, but also from insufficiently developed linguistic, communicative and socio-pragmatic competencies. It is also asserted that only teaching the lexical properties of modal auxiliaries in isolation from their socio-pragmatic and semiotic contexts alone cannot help learners to become successful communicators in the target language as it ends in communication failures, hesitation, a slower L2 progress, fear and misunderstandings. Therefore, role-play activities, cloze tests, research assignments, writing tasks and songs can also be integrated into the teaching-learning process to assist learners to become more aware of their actual authentic usages in a wide range of contexts through different activities. On the whole, this would also free language learners to refer to their First Language (L1) input and shape a broader understanding of the Foreign Language (FL) framed with its actual authentic usage.

scholarly journals The development of students’ sociocultural competence in English at linguistic higher educational institutions

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Verbal Behavior ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Main Components

The article deals with the problem of teaching sociocultural competence in the target language to students learning English for professional purposes. The point of the issue is that the most effective way of teaching creative, culturally determined social communication in the target language a more fruitful approach to teaching a sociocultural competence is based on taking into account the linguistic, speech, psychological and psycholinguistic difficulties experienced by Azerbaijani students who learn English for developing communicative purposes. Language learners’ attention should be concentrated on similarities and differences between two cultures and dynamic nature of social interaction. Teaching should be done to master language university students’ sociocultural skills in productive communicative skills. The teacher’s role will be to encourage and facilitate the application of individual learning in social settings, bringing groups of learners together to put them through their paces. One of the main components of a communicative competence as well as linguistic, discursive and strategic competences is a sociocultural competence. It should be noted that the formation of the sociocultural competence implies with the formation of verbal behavior norms, non-verbal behavior norms are adopted among the native speakers. One of the significant factors contributing to the success of communication is the use of participants of the target language. It should be noted that today at all stages of teaching English as a specialty the main attention is traditionally focused on teaching the language system despite the urgency and importance of the problem of the sociocultural component formation of the communicative competence.

Variationist Sociolinguistics

Linguistics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bayley ◽  
Richard Cameron
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Multivariate Statistical ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Variationist Sociolinguistics

Researchers in language variation seek to understand how linguistic, social, and individual factors influence speakers’ choices within sets of related variable forms as in, for example, the alternation between working and workin’ in English. A central premise in this approach is that the variation observed at all linguistic levels is not random. Rather, provided that one has sufficient information about speakers’ backgrounds and the linguistic contexts in which a variable form occurs (e.g., whether a final /t/ or /d/ in English followed by a consonant or a vowel), one can predict, in a probabilistic sense, which speakers will be more likely to choose one variant or another. Further, variationists maintain that variation is an essential characteristic of language change. By applying rigorous multivariate statistical analysis to a wide range of variable forms at all linguistic levels, ranging from phonetic detail to language choice, variationists have demonstrated conclusively that most of the variation that is observed in language is highly systematic. The demonstration of systematic variability has been particularly important for minority languages and dialects, which, until the development of sociolinguistics, were often regarded as imperfect copies of the standard languages or dialects with which they co-existed. In recent decades, variationists have expanded the scope of their work and shown that systematic variation is characteristic of all human languages regardless of modality or stage of development. Research on variation in sign languages, for example, has shown that they are subject to many of the same linguistic and social influences as spoken languages. Moreover, language learners, whether first, second, or nth, have been shown to vary systematically in their use of forms that are usually considered obligatory in the target language as well as in their use of forms that vary in the target language. Finally, variationists have sought to use the findings from their research to improve conditions in the communities from which they draw their data, particularly in education for children who speak a minority language or dialect.

Direction-giving Interactions in Korean High School English Textbooks

2002 ◽  
Vol 137-138 ◽  
pp. 165-179
Author(s):  
Kyung Suk Kim
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Insertion Sequence ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
High School English ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
English Textbooks

Abstract This paper investigates the authenticity of conversational texts, particularly direction-giving interactions in Korean high school English textbooks. Previous studies (e.g., PEARSON & LEE 1992; SCOTTON & BERNSTEN 1986) of natural conversations of direction-giving have shown that the structure of native speakers' direction-giving turns is highly formulaic. They are composed of four main moves: 'insertion sequence' (SCHEGLOFF 1972), a set of directions, pre-closing, and closing. In addition, realizations of the moves were very much uniform across the studies. The study demonstrates that 7 7 direction-giving interactions of the textbooks fall short of the features of authentic direction-giving. Specifically, the moves before or after a set of directions are usually not included, especially insertion sequence and pre-closing. Also, the forms of directives in a sequence of directions are more in favor of bald imperative than in naturalistic data. It is argued that in order to help language learners be better equipped to function outside the classroom, textbook conversations should reflect not the authors’ introspection but naturally occurring conversations.

Twitter as a Language Learning Tool

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Fernando Rosell-Aguilar
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Learning Tool ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Learning Development

Studies into the use of Twitter for language learning have mostly been small-scale evaluations undertaken by teachers researching the effectiveness of their own initiatives to use it with their students. To date, there has not been a large quantitative study of how language learners use Twitter autonomously. This paper reports on a large-scale study (n=370) of language learners who use Twitter. It provides a participant profile, their practices, and beliefs about how helpful Twitter is as a tool for language learning. The results provide the first profile of the autonomous user of Twitter as a language learning tool, show very positive attitudes towards the use of Twitter, and provide evidence that learners learn new vocabulary and culturally-relevant information about the areas where the target language is spoken. Many learners engage in production of target language output and make the most of the opportunities Twitter presents to be exposed to target language input and interaction with native speakers, making Twitter a useful tool for their autonomous language learning development.

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