Cultural Expats and the Trojan Horse of Language

2019 ◽  
pp. 58-81
Author(s):  
Tsedal Neeley
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Language Barrier ◽  
Trojan Horse ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Native Japanese Speakers ◽  
Japanese Employees ◽  
American Employees

This chapter follows the native English speakers through their first phase, when euphoria reigned because they (incorrectly, as it turned out) assumed that Englishnization was solely about language. It also follows them through the second phase, about two years into Englishnization. By this time, they found it nearly as difficult to accept the changes wrought in their day-to-day workplace as did the native Japanese speakers. While the Japanese employees had to change to adopt a foreign language, the American employees had to change to adopt the Rakuten organizational culture that had been mostly suppressed by the language barrier. Employees in both groups had to adjust their perception of themselves and their place in the company—in this respect, the groups were mirror images of one another.

English and Japanese interlanguage comprehension strategies: An analysis based on the competition model

1991 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshinori Sasaki
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Word ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
Comprehension Strategies ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Native Japanese Speakers ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Japanese Word

ABSTRACTIn an experiment based on the competition model, 12 native Japanese speakers (J1 group) and 12 native English speakers studying Japanese (JFL group) were requested to report sentence subjects after listening to Japanese word strings which consisted of one verb and two nouns each. Similarly, 12 native English speakers (E1 group) and 12 native Japanese speakers studying English (EFL group) reported the sentence subjects of English word strings. In each word string, syntactic (word order) cues and lexical-semantic (animacy/inanimacy) cues converged or diverged as to the assignment of the sentence subjects. The results show that JFL-Ss (experimental subjects) closely approximated the response patterns of J1-Ss, while EFL-Ss showed evidence of transfer from their first language, Japanese. The results are consistent with the developmental precedence of a meaning-based comprehension strategy over a grammar-based one.

Linguistic Expats and Bounded Fluency

2019 ◽  
pp. 42-57
Author(s):  
Tsedal Neeley
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
English Language Proficiency ◽  
Conference Call ◽  
Remote Location ◽  
Japanese Employees

This chapter focuses on the Japanese linguistic expats and their linguistic shock, which initially presents a barrier to learning a foreign language. It provides the results of the seemingly insurmountable challenge at the mandate's announcement—base English language proficiency for the Japanese domestic workforce. Here, the term “linguistic expat” is used to describe employees like Kenji who live in their home country yet must give up their mother tongue when they enter their place of employment or sign into a conference call from a remote location. This chapter shows how this twist—a mismatch between language, nationality, and organizational culture—made the Japanese employees uncomfortable. Learning English, at least in the first phase, required that they form new perceptions of themselves, their company, and their jobs. The demands of the mandate made them feel anxious about their productivity and insecure about their future at Rakuten. Although the majority of the linguistic expats progressed in their acquisition of English, few were able to reach a level where fluency was automatic.

SOME FEATURES OF TEACHING SPANISH AS A SECOND AND SUBSEQUENT FOREIGN LANGUAGE TO THE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-98
Author(s):  
Y.V. Maslova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Further Training ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Initial Perception

The article considers teaching the Spanish language as a second foreign language to those students who already speak English as their first foreign language. The relevance of the work lies in the fact that at present new techniques of teaching students who speak two or more foreign languages should be reconsidered. It is also necessary to actively use the skills, knowledge and abilities that have already been developed while learning the first foreign language. The aim of the work is to identify the necessary techniques that can make teaching Spanish as a second foreign language to students studying English as their first foreign language more effective. The article compares English and Spanish in order to determine the factors contributing to a positive transference when learning Spanish as a second language, as well as those that complicate this process. Based on the analysis, a number of exercises are presented, which include those for initial perception, formation of speech skills and habits, development of the same and further training, which takes into account the factor of positive influence of the first foreign language and addresses the negative ones. The exercises presented include comparing and contrasting the two languages. The observation carried out while teaching two groups of students showed that taking into consideration the mutual influence of the two foreign languages, as well as including teaching materials for native English speakers in the learning process, increases students’ interest in the language and culture, and allows one to facilitate the process of learning Spanish.

Material and presentation condition effects on sentence interpretation task performance: methodological examinations of the competition experiment

1997 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshinori Sasaki
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Lexical Semantics ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Competition Experiment ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Native Japanese Speakers ◽  
Presentation Condition ◽  
Japanese Word ◽  
The Subject

Ten native English learners of Japanese, ten intermediate native English learners of Japanese and ten native Japanese speakers of English each were requested to report what they thought was the subject or actor of a series of English NVN word strings, in which case marking and lexical-semantics cues were systematically manipulated. These NVN strings were aurally presented first alone, and subsequently the same strings were presented for the second time together with noncanonical NNV and VNN strings. Similarly, their counterpart Japanese NNV strings were first presented alone, and secondly with noncanonical VNN and NVN strings. The results revealed that 1) a greater animacy effect (‘animacy noun as a subject’ bias) was detected when the sentence verb was see rather than eat(or each of their Japanese counterparts); 2) English accusative pronouns generally created greater case biases than nominative ones; and 3) native English speakers interpreting Japanese word strings responded differently under the two presentation conditions.

scholarly journals THE USE OF LEXICAL COLLOCATIONS IN SOME ARTICLES OF SEVENTEEN.COM WEBSITE

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marsya Aprila Tayibnapis ◽  
Lina Meilinda ◽  
Yessy Purnamasari
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Research Technique ◽  
Lexical Collocations

Collocations are one of the problems faced by EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners when learning English language. This study is intended to help the EFL Learners and non-native English speakers to add knowledge about collocations. Therefore, this study is aimed to find the use of lexical collocations and their meaning. This study used a descriptive qualitative research technique. The source of the data is eleven articles from eight sections in seventeen.com. om the research, there were 79 lexical collocations and they were classified as six out of seven types that Benson et al. (2010) proposed. The data showed that the most used type is L3 (adjective + noun) and the least used is L4 (noun + verb). The meaning of the lexical collocations was defined from the contexts. 

(Mis) perception of consonant clusters and short vowels in English as a foreign language

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Ho-Cheong Leung ◽  
Martha Young-Scholten ◽  
Wael Almurashi ◽  
Saleh Ghadanfari ◽  
Chloe Nash ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Consonant Clusters ◽  
Vowel Perception ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Short Vowels ◽  
Production Problems

Abstract Research addressing second language (L2) speech is expanding. Studies increasingly demonstrate that a learner’s first language (L1) filters the L2 input, resulting in learners misperceiving what they have heard. This L1 filter can result in learners perceiving sounds not actually present in the input. We report on a study which explored English consonant clusters and short, unstressed vowel perception of 70 Arabic-, Mandarin-, Spanish-speaking foreign language learners and 19 native English speakers. These are the vowels which speakers from two of the L1s typically insert in their production of English to break up L1-disallowed consonant clusters and the schwa which is documented to cause both perception and production problems. Results show that participants misperceive stimuli containing consonant clusters and counterparts where clusters are broken up by epenthetic/prothetic elements. In line with Sakai, Mari & Colleen Moorman 2018. We call for the inclusion of such findings on perception in pedagogical advice on pronunciation.

Text-based negotiated interaction of NNS-NNS and NNS-NS dyads on Facebook

ReCALL ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hsueh-Jui Liu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Negotiated Interaction ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Given

AbstractThis study sought to determine the difference in text-based negotiated interaction between non-native speakers of English (NNS-NNS) and between non-native and natives (NNS-NS) in terms of the frequency of negotiated instances, successfully resolved instances, and interactional strategy use when the dyads collaborated on Facebook. It involved 10 native English speakers and 30 learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). NNS-NNS dyads consisted of five H-H pairs and five L-L pairs (H and L representing high- and low-proficiency learners). Similarly, NNS-NS dyads comprised five H-N pairs and five L-N pairs (N being native speakers). All dyads were required to use text chats to complete the given reading tasks synchronously in chatrooms on Facebook. The results suggested that negotiated instances, successfully resolved instances, and interactional strategy use occurred more frequently in H-H pairs than in L-N, L-L, or H-N pairs. In terms of strategy use, H-H, H-N, and L-N dyads were likely to engage in negotiated interaction by employing strategies such as clarifying unclear expressions or checking their comprehension, while L-L used interactional mechanisms infrequently and tended to use strategies such as continuers and asking for assistance. The research concludes with the pedagogical implications of the results.

scholarly journals Phrasal Verbs in English as a Second/Foreign Language

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.

scholarly journals Antecedent Retrieval with Repeated Name Anaphors in Japanese: Topic and Subject

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 663
Author(s):  
Shinichi Shoji
Keyword(s):  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
The Other ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Native Japanese Speakers ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Japanese Speakers ◽  
Reading Experiment

The present study tested whether repeated-name anaphors in Japanese elicit different effects in retrieving antecedents, depending on the anaphors being either a topic anaphor appended with the topic marker wa or a non-topic anaphor with the nominative marker ga. Early studies have shown that pronoun anaphors facilitate faster retrieval of their antecedents relative to repeated name anaphors, when the anaphors are grammatical subjects that refer to salient antecedents. In Japanese, however, grammatical subjects can be further classified into topic-subjects marked by wa and non-topic subjects marked by ga. Therefore, different antecedent-retrieval patterns may be possible between topic-wa and topic-ga even when they both were repeated-name anaphors. In addition, the present study investigated this issue with native English speakers who were learners of Japanese. Because their first language, English, does not overtly mark an entity as topic or non-topic, it was predicted that they might be relatively insensitive to anaphors’ topic-hood and may not show different effects between topic-wa and non-topic-ga. A self-paced reading experiment showed that native Japanese speakers retrieved antecedents faster for repeated-name topic-wa anaphors than for non-topic-ga. On the other hand, native English speakers showed only marginally faster retrieval of antecedents for topic anaphors compared with to non-topic anaphors.

scholarly journals Road Safety Literacy for Speakers of English as a Foreign Language: Educating novice drivers for the public’s health

1970 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
Jinghe Han ◽  
Michael Singh ◽  
Dacheng Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Road Safety ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Research Literature ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Novice Drivers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Transnational Mobility ◽  
Chinese Learner ◽  
Multiple Languages

The public health dimensions of road safety literacy for novice drivers who speak English as a foreign language, are a concern due to increasing transnational mobility. The research literature indicates interest in this language issue in terms of comparisons with native English speakers, gender, and international evaluations.  However, studies of road safety as a literacy issue are limited. Using an autobiographical approach this paper explores the textual, inter-textural and performative literacy of a Chinese learner-driver in Australia. Evidence of the learner-driver’s life history, use of multiple languages, and cultural differences are shown to impact on her development of road safety literacy.

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