6. Effect of Proficiency Level on Pragmatic Transfer

2020 ◽  
pp. 108-114
Keyword(s):  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Proficiency Level

scholarly journals Apology Strategies Used by EFL Undergraduate Students in Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 214
Author(s):  
Payung Cedar
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Target Language ◽  
First Year ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Significant Difference

Interlanguage speakers, regardless of proficiency level, often experience problems in communication due to their limited knowledge of how speech acts are commonly performed in the target language. The current study attempted to investigate the effects of English proficiency level on the apology strategy use by Indonesian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners from two English proficiency levels. The study employed a DCT (Discourse Completion Task) questionnaire and involved 21 A2 students and 21 B1 students majoring in English in their first-year period from an Indonesian university. Utilizing the apology strategy framework from Olshtain & Cohen (1983) and Blum-Kulka, House & Kasper (1989), the findings demonstrated no significant difference between the two subject groups in the overall use of apology strategies, whereas differences were noted at an individual strategy level. Nonetheless, the B1 group made more frequent use and a wider range of apology strategies than the A2 group. In addition, the study found two forms of pragmatic transfer made by the subjects and a new apology strategy. 

scholarly journals An Analysis of Compliment Responses by Kuwaiti EFL Learners: A Pragmatic Approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah M. Alotaibi
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Group ◽  
English Proficiency ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Control Group ◽  
British English ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Compliment Responses

This study investigates the extent to which 80 female Kuwaiti EFL learners produce target-like compliment responses when they are communicating in English, through comparing their responses to those of British English speakers. It also examines whether the English proficiency level of Kuwaiti EFL learners plays a role in their responses to compliments in English. Essentially, this study explores whether pragmatic transfer has an impact on the Kuwaiti participants' responses. A Discourse Completion Task (DCT) was given to 50 female native speakers of British English (the control group) and to 80 female Kuwaiti EFL learners (the treatment group), in order to determine whether the responses of the latter group are similar or different to those of the former group. The results reveal that the English proficiency level of the treatment group had no effect on their answers on the DCT. In comparison with the control group, the results also demonstrate that the treatment group transferred both L1 expressions and strategies to respond to compliments in English. This has been attributed to the fact that they may not be aware of any culture-specific nature of verbal communications crosslinguistically, among other reasons. Finally, the study concludes with recommendations for further research.

Terminology in Interlanguage Pragmatics

2004 ◽  
Vol 143-144 ◽  
pp. 109-119
Author(s):  
Giao Quynh Tran
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Large Corpus

Abstract Inter language pragmatics research has spanned a number of different areas in second language acquisition and pragmatics. In the large corpus of interlanguage pragmatics studies, basic terms such as “interlanguage pragmatics”, “speech acts” and “pragmatic transfer” have been referred to more often than not. But rarely have we stopped to re-evaluate the applicability and appropriateness of these terms. This paper aims to properly interpret or redefine their meanings and to propose more appropriate terms where possible.

scholarly journals Results of the Behavioral Health Readiness Evaluation and Decision-Making Instrument Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 186 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 142-152
Author(s):  
Justin M Curley ◽  
Katie L Nugent ◽  
Kristina M Clarke-Walper ◽  
Elizabeth A Penix ◽  
James B Macdonald ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Safety Issue ◽  
Walter Reed Army Institute ◽  
End User ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Decision Making Support

ABSTRACT Introduction Recent reports have demonstrated behavioral health (BH) system and individual provider challenges to BH readiness success. These pose a risk to winning on the battlefield and present a significant safety issue for the Army. One of the most promising areas for achieving better BH readiness results lies in improving readiness decision-making support for BH providers. The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) has taken the lead in addressing this challenge by developing and empirically testing such tools. The results of the Behavioral Health Readiness Evaluation and Decision-Making Instrument (B-REDI) field study are herein described. Methods The B-REDI study received WRAIR Institutional Review Board approval, and BH providers across five U.S. Army Forces Command installations completed surveys from September 2018 to March 2019. The B-REDI tools/training were disseminated to 307 providers through random clinic assignments. Of these, 250 (81%) providers consented to participate and 149 (60%) completed both initial and 3-month follow-up surveys. Survey items included a wide range of satisfaction, utilization, and proficiency-level outcome measures. Analyses included examinations of descriptive statistics, McNemar’s tests pre-/post-B-REDI exposure, Z-tests with subgroup populations, and chi-square tests with demographic comparisons. Results The B-REDI resulted in broad, statistically significant improvements across the measured range of provider proficiency-level outcomes. Net gains in each domain ranged from 16.5% to 22.9% for knowledge/awareness (P = .000), from 11.1% to 15.8% for personal confidence (P = .001-.000), and from 6.2% to 15.1% for decision-making/documentation (P = .035-.002) 3 months following B-REDI initiation, and only one (knowledge) failed to maintain a statistically significant improvement in all of its subcategories. The B-REDI also received high favorability ratings (79%-97% positive) across a wide array of end-user satisfaction measures. Conclusions The B-REDI directly addresses several critical Army BH readiness challenges by providing tangible decision-making support solutions for BH providers. Providers reported high degrees of end-user B-REDI satisfaction and significant improvements in all measured provider proficiency-level domains. By effectively addressing the readiness decision-making challenges Army BH providers encounter, B-REDI provides the Army BH health care system with a successful blueprint to set the conditions necessary for providers to make more accurate and timely readiness determinations. This may ultimately reduce safety and mission failure risks enterprise-wide, and policymakers should consider formalizing and integrating the B-REDI model into current Army BH practice.

scholarly journals Schools With Test-Based Promotion: Effects on Instructional Time Allocation and Student Learning in Grade 3

AERA Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 233285842097916
Author(s):  
Yihua Hong ◽  
Guanglei Hong
Keyword(s):  
Time Allocation ◽  
Third Graders ◽  
Instructional Time ◽  
Math Learning ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Ability Levels ◽  
Reading And Math ◽  
Current Design ◽  
Notable Increase ◽  
Grade 3

This study is focused on the threat of retention associated with test-based promotion in Grade 3. Through analyzing the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998–1999 data, we found that schools having such a policy apparently increased math instructional time but not reading instructional time in Grade 3. On average, the policy did not produce significant differences in third graders’ reading and math learning. However, there seemed to be a notable increase in the proportion of students who achieved an at or above-average proficiency level in Grade 3 math. In both reading and math, the test-based promotion seemingly benefited students at the average or lower than average ability levels. In contrast, there was no evidence that the policy had an impact on students at the two ends of the ability distribution. We discussed the implication of the findings for the current design and implementation of test-based promotion in early grades.

scholarly journals Recasts versus clarification requests: The relevance of linguistic target, proficiency, and communicative ability

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Mifka-Profozic
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Corrective Feedback ◽  
Communicative Ability ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Linguistic Structures ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Communicative Skill ◽  
Passe Compose

AbstractThis paper compares the effects of recasts and clarification requests as two implicit types of corrective feedback (CF) on learning two linguistic structures denoting past aspectual distinction in French, the passé composé and the imparfait. The participants in this classroom-based study are 52 high-school learners of French FL at a pre-intermediate level of proficiency (level B1 of CEFR). A distinctive feature of this study is the use of focused, context constrained communicative tasks in both treatment and tests. The paper specifically highlights the advantages of feedback using recasts for the acquisition of morpho-syntactically complex grammatical structures such as is the French passé composé. The study points to the participants’ communicative ability as an essential aspect of language proficiency, which seems to be crucial to bringing about the benefits of recasts. Oral communicative skill in a foreign language classroom is seen as a prerequisite for an appropriate interpretation and recognition of the corrective nature of recasts.

scholarly journals ‘Almost people’: A Learner Corpus Account of L2 Use and Misuse of Non-numerical Quantification

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Crosthwaite ◽  
Lavigne L.Y. Choy ◽  
Yeonsuk Bae
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Noun Number ◽  
L1 English

AbstractWe present an Integrated Contrastive Model of non-numerical quantificational NPs (NNQs, i.e. ‘some people’) produced by L1 English speakers and Mandarin and Korean L2 English learners. Learner corpus data was sourced from the ICNALE (Ishikawa, 2011, 2013) across four L2 proficiency levels. An average 10% of L2 NNQs were specific to L2 varieties, including noun number mismatches (*‘many child’), omitting obligatory quantifiers after adverbs (*‘almost people’), adding unnecessary particles (*‘all of people’) and non-L1 English-like quantifier/noun agreement (*‘many water’). Significantly fewer ‘openclass’ NNQs (e.g a number of people) are produced by L2 learners, preferring ‘closed-class’ single lexical quantifiers (following L1-like use). While such production is predictable via L1 transfer, Korean L2 English learners produced significantly more L2-like NNQs at each proficiency level, which was not entirely predictable under a transfer account. We thus consider whether positive transfer of other linguistic forms (i.e. definiteness marking) aids the learnability of other L2 forms (i.e. expression of quantification).

Adult Chinese as a Second Language Learners' Willingness to Communicate in Chinese: Effects of Cultural, Affective, and Linguistic Variables

2017 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 423-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meihua Liu
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Length Of Stay ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Willingness To Communicate ◽  
Anxiety Scale ◽  
Linguistic Variables ◽  
Speaking Anxiety ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Chinese Learning

The present research explored the effects of cultural, affective, and linguistic variables on adult Chinese as a second language learners' willingness to communicate in Chinese. One hundred and sixty-two Chinese as a second language learners from a Chinese university answered the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scale, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, Use of Chinese Profile, as well as the Background Questionnaire. The major findings were as follows: (1) the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales were significantly negatively correlated with Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale but positively correlated with length of stay in China and (2) Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale was a powerful negative predictor for the overall willingness to communicate in Chinese and the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales, followed by length of stay in China, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, interaction attentiveness, and Chinese proficiency level. Apparently, students' willingness to communicate in Chinese is largely determined by their Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale level and length of stay in China, mediated by other variables such as Chinese proficiency level and intercultural communication sensitivity level.

Pragmatic transfer

1992 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 203-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriele Kasper
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Interlanguage Pragmatics ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Language Research ◽  
Linguistic Action ◽  
Core Areas ◽  
Basic Distinction ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge

Throughout the short life of interlanguage pragmatics as a subdiscipline of second language research, it has been a virtually uncontested assumption that non-native speakers' comprehension and production of linguistic action is considerably influenced by their L1 pragmatic knowledge. The literature strongly supports this hypothesis. However, whereas there has been a lively controversy about the role of transfer in the traditional core areas of second language research (syntax, morphology, semantics), there has been little theoretical and methodological debate about transfer in interlanguage pragmatics. As a contribution to such a debate, this article seeks to clarify the concept of pragmatic transfer, proposing as a basic distinction Leech/Thomas' dichotomy of sociopragmatics versus pragmalinguistics and presenting evidence for transfer at both levels. Evidence for purported pragmatic universals in speech act realization and for positive and negative pragmatic transfer is discussed. Further issues to be addressed include the conditions for pragmatic transfer (transferability), the interaction of transfer with non-structural factors (proficiency, length of residence, context of acquisition), and the effect of transfer on communicative outcomes. The article concludes by briefly considering some problems of research method in studies of pragmatic transfer.

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