Gairaigo in Japanese Foreign Language Learning: A Tool for Native English Speakers?

Abstract According to the US Department of State, a native English speaker can learn Spanish in about 600 h, but would take four times as long to learn Japanese. While it may be intuitive that similarity between a foreign language and a native tongue can influence the ease of acquisition, what is less obvious are the specific cognitive and emotional processes that can lead to different outcomes. Here, we explored the influence of cognitive strategies and affective states on native English speakers’ ability to learn artificial foreign words that vary in their similarity to the native language. Explicit word learning strategies were reported more often, and were more effective for learners of a more similar language, and cognitive strategies were especially helpful for learners with lower moods. We conclude that language similarity, strategy, and affect dynamically interact to ultimately determine success at learning novel languages.

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Phrasal Verbs in English as a Second/Foreign Language

10.31235/osf.io/hafuj ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Rana Abid Thyab

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

English Language ◽

Language Teaching ◽

Foreign Language Learning ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Language Proficiency ◽

English Language Teaching ◽

English Speakers ◽

Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are used very regularly in the English language, and native English speakers are found to use phrasal verbs on a daily basis and cannot do without the use of phrasal verbs in everyday communicative situations. However, phrasal verbs in English language teaching as a second/foreign language is almost non-existent. That is, English as a second language (ESL)/English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching environments, in the Arab world, and specifically in Iraq, hardly teach the meaning of phrasal verbs to students, and neglect teaching the correct ways of using them, despite the fact that they are an essential part of daily native English communication. Therefore, and due to the vitality of phrasal verbs to native speakers of English, ESL/EFL students should be taught and educated to be capable of understanding and using phrasal verbs when interacting in English because knowledge of phrasal verbs would normally lead to better English language proficiency and more native-like communication. Nonetheless, phrasal verbs are not easy, and students often find them difficult, because phrasal verbs carry a specific meaning which is not inferable from the meaning of its composing words inseparable form as well as other reasons which have been explained within this paper. Hence, this paper points to the necessity of including phrasal verbs in English language teaching. Through implementing a qualitative approach, the aim, within this paper, is to identify and list causes of difficulty that learners of the English language may face when it comes to knowledge of English phrasal verbs, with regard to the spontaneous and fluent use of phrasal verbs by native English speakers. The significance, here, is to point out the need of taking this matter into serious concern and to offer suggestions and recommendations for better English as a second/foreign language learning and teaching, all in hope of better English language proficiency and ability.

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Training the Brain to Weight Speech Cues Differently: A Study of Finnish Second-language Users of English

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2009.21272 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 22 (6) ◽

pp. 1319-1332 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Sari Ylinen ◽

Maria Uther ◽

Antti Latvala ◽

Sara Vepsäläinen ◽

Paul Iverson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Speech Sound ◽

Foreign Language Learning ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Long Term Memory ◽

Speech Sounds ◽

Brain Response ◽

Spectral Cues ◽

Phonetic Cues

Foreign-language learning is a prime example of a task that entails perceptual learning. The correct comprehension of foreign-language speech requires the correct recognition of speech sounds. The most difficult speech–sound contrasts for foreign-language learners often are the ones that have multiple phonetic cues, especially if the cues are weighted differently in the foreign and native languages. The present study aimed to determine whether non-native-like cue weighting could be changed by using phonetic training. Before the training, we compared the use of spectral and duration cues of English /i/ and /I/ vowels (e.g., beat vs. bit) between native Finnish and English speakers. In Finnish, duration is used phonologically to separate short and long phonemes, and therefore Finns were expected to weight duration cues more than native English speakers. The cross-linguistic differences and training effects were investigated with behavioral and electrophysiological methods, in particular by measuring the MMN brain response that has been used to probe long-term memory representations for speech sounds. The behavioral results suggested that before the training, the Finns indeed relied more on duration in vowel recognition than the native English speakers did. After the training, however, the Finns were able to use the spectral cues of the vowels more reliably than before. Accordingly, the MMN brain responses revealed that the training had enhanced the Finns' ability to preattentively process the spectral cues of the English vowels. This suggests that as a result of training, plastic changes had occurred in the weighting of phonetic cues at early processing stages in the cortex.

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