Dominant-language Use in Foreign-language Academic Writing Processes

Fachsprache ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 43 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 114-139
Author(s):  
Ina Alexandra Machura
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Degree Program ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
English Students

The present pilot study compares the use of the native language during foreign- language writing processes of two students enrolled in a Translation degree program to that of two students enrolled in an English Language and Literature degree program who had not received training in translation or interpreting. Across a range of sub-processes of source-based academic writing, native language use was found to be more frequent in the Translation students’ than in the English students’ think-aloud protocols. Possible relationships between the participants’ patterns of language use and their academic socialization are discussed, as well as the potential that native language use in foreign-language academic writing processes can have to help students improve their foreign-language texts.

scholarly journals The Impact of Native Language Use on Second Language Vocabulary Learning by Saudi EFL Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Saleem Khan
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Vocabulary Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
The Impact

<p>This paper strives to explore the impact of Native Language use on Foreign Language vocabulary learning on the basis of empirical and available data. The study is carried out with special reference to the English Language Programme students in Buraydah Community College, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia. The Native Language of these students is Arabic and their Second Language is English. The participants in this research study are the post-secondary students of Buraydah Community College in Intensive Course Programme. The instrument used in this study was in the form of two tests. It is well known that in language assessment tests play a pivotal role in evaluating the EFL learners’ language proficiency. The use of native language as a semantic tool for assessing second language learners’ understanding shouldn’t be rejected altogether especially for the undergrad Saudi EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students. The outcomes of the study show that in learning the vocabulary of target language is significantly helped by the use of translation method of native language (Arabic) in understanding the meaning of novel words and expressions of foreign language (English). This method is widely welcomed by majority of the students of Buraydah Community College. It’s recommended to use this method in order to take the students directly to the core meaning of the word or expression. It also, sometimes, gives a sense of accuracy of the meaning of native language equivalents.</p>

scholarly journals Problems with Pronunciation Among Students of English Language and Literature-Seeu

SEEU Review ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 113-125
Author(s):  
Arta Toçi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Primary Schools ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Experienced Teacher ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Complex Forms ◽  
English Students

Abstract Everybody who has learned English as a second or foreign language knows that for reaching intermediate levels, English is an easy language regarding grammar and vocabulary; however, when reaching advanced levels, the learners are faced with complex forms of morphology, syntax, and most obviously, they are faced with the difficulties that pronunciation presents. These are mainly the problems that occur with the English students whose native language is other than English. An experienced teacher of non-native speakers of English can easily recognize the causes of mispronunciation, which in most cases are lack of vocabulary, lack of practice, bad teaching experiences, lack of direct contact with the language, and lack of self-confidence. There are quite a lot of words in English, which are often mispronounced. Those who have just started to learn English as a foreign language, students at primary schools, adults using English as a means of communication and as a working tool, such as businessmen, politicians, administrators, doctors, accountants, and those studying English for teaching purposes, even the teachers of English are faced with the problems of proper pronunciation of words in English. The aim of this research is to identify the problems that the students in the Department of English Language and Literature in the Faculty of Languages, Cultures and Communication face with when they deal with pronunciation of lexical words.

Translanguaging for Cognitive Relief in FL Academic Writing

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ina Alexandra Machura
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Writing Processes ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Text Quality ◽  
Writing Beliefs ◽  
Education Academic ◽  
English Students

In the present study, two groups of German undergraduates taking a course in English Linguistics at a midwestern German university were compared in terms of their attitudes towards translanguaging, their translanguaging behaviour during foreign-language academic writing processes, and the quality of their foreign-language texts. One group was taught with a translanguaging teaching approach, the other group was taught monolingually in English. Students in the translanguaging group became aware of the benefits translanguaging can have during foreign-language academic writing processes. Students’ translanguaging behaviour during foreign-language academic writing is discussed in two case studies. Importantly, more students in the translanguaging than in the English group improved their ability to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information in academic texts, a finding that underscores the didactic importance of translanguaging in tertiary education. Keywords: translanguaging, tertiary education, academic writing, beliefs and attitudes, FL text quality

English language schooling, linguistic realities, and the native speaker of English in Hong Kong

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette G. Hansen Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Government School ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

AbstractThe study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities.TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.

German-English Interference in the Field of Vocalism (Based on the Speech of Germans who Study English as a Foreign Language)

2021 ◽  
pp. 128-143
Author(s):  
Anna Abryutina ◽  
Anna Ponomareva
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Instrumental Method ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Theoretical Significance

The growing popularity of contrastive phonology as a branch of linguis-tics is seen now, in particular, due to the spread of bilingualism and multilin-gualism. Globalization involves the ability to speak several languages, in the study of which the phonetic level is primarily considered. The purpose of this work is to examine and describe the most likely consequences arising from in-terference in the articulation of vowel sounds in the English-language speech of Germans who study English as a foreign language. The article deals with monophthongs, diphthongs, and triphthongs, dis-cusses possible variations in the articulation of sounds, as well as the processes of reduction, elision, and substitution. Descriptive and comparative methods are the leading ones in the work, however, the instrumental method is also used to determine deviations from the norm and the nature of changes in articulation. The paper identifies a number of trends in the articulation of English sounds by Germans and reveals the reasons of the main difficulties which stu-dents face while studying phonetic norms of RP and speaking German as their native language, i.e. the qualitative and quantitative mismatch of allophones. The achievement of this goal testifies to the theoretical significance of this work, namely, the possibility of further detailed research in the field of sociophonetics and phonostylistics.

scholarly journals An Action Research on EFL Writing Dilemmas: A Case of Saudi Students and Instructors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam Alkubaidi
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Sole Source ◽  
Saudi Students ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Perceptions And Expectations ◽  
Writing Competence ◽  
Writing Curricula

Learning to write in a second language is a great challenge for students; however, certain factors might minimize these challenges. In general, the Saudi students face difficulty to develop the writing competence in a foreign language because they rely on instructors as a sole source of knowledge. Therefore, the study investigated the English language writing in a university in Saudi Arabia. It implemented an action research design based on three main phases; namely, exploration, intervention, and reflection stage. The main questions asked include how the instructors view the writing style of students within the setting and how they perceived the English language writing curricula among the students. The data drew several conclusions that provided insight into the Saudi Higher Education concerning English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. The first is the spoon-feeding of Saudi learners throughout their educational years; therefore, they find it challenging to gain hold of their learning. Second, writing in English is a challenging task for Saudi students. Third, some of the students memorize writing passages to pass their English course. Fourthly, teaching to write was done by focusing on form, writing mechanics, rather than communicative aspects of writing and genre. This study has contributed towards the understanding of Saudi learners in university language classrooms analyzing their perceptions and expectations.

scholarly journals Labels and Realities: The Relevance of Terms like ESL and EFL in a Linguistically Complex World

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Complex World ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Expanding Circle ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Efl Students

For a long time, ELT (‘English language teaching’) scholars and practitioners have used terms like ‘ESL’ (‘English as a second language’) and ‘EFL’ (‘English as a foreign language’) unquestioningly to describe the English used by people outside the so-called ENL (‘English as a native language’) circle. For example, ELT practitioners may conveniently refer to students from places like China, Vietnam and Thailand as EFL students. Interestingly, we find counterparts of such terms in ‘World Englishes’ studies; Braj Kachru’s ‘Inner Circle English’, ‘Outer Circle English’ and ‘Expanding Circle English’ essentially refer to ENL ESL and EFL respectively. Despite the popularity of such terms in scholarly circles, the problems associated with their use have not often been explored in depth. Nevertheless, some authors have described such problems. For example, commenting on the distinction between ESL and EFL, Nayar (1997, p. 10) states, “a great deal of referential fuzziness within the two and denotative overlap between the two are making the terminological distinctions unclear, impractical, and ineffective or, worse still, in some cases inauspicious and irrelevant.” This special issue aims to further examine the use and relevance of these terms.

scholarly journals Usporedba brzine govora u materinskome hrvatskome (L1) i stranome engleskome (L2) jeziku

Fluminensia ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-96
Author(s):  
Mirjana Matea Kovač
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Chronological Sequence ◽  
Language Condition ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Production Mechanisms

This paper aims at investigating the differences regarding speech rate between the Croatian (L1) and the English language (L2). The selected tasks include descriptions of dynamic entities which require careful planning and a chronological sequence of speech acts in real time, as well as the description of static spatial arrangements and their relations. The speech tasks were first performed in the native language, followed by the performance of the same tasks in the foreign language. A significantly faster speech rate was hypothesized in the foreign language condition for each investigated speech task due to the unautomated nature of L2 speech production mechanisms. The obtained results point to the conclusion that the speech rate is significantly slower in L2 in narrative tasks due to the conceptual complexity of the task. However, no significant differences in the speech rate were found between the two languages in the case of highly structured tasks with shorter duration, or in the case of repeated tasks. Due to the fact that the tasks have already been performed in the native language, the processing demands on the level of conceptualization decrease, freeing up the attentional resources, which, in turn, assist the formulation and articulation stage by reducing the processing pressure. Also, the fact that no significant differences were found might be explained by the existence of strong associative links between L1 and L2, as well as by the occurrence of highly frequent words which can be easily retrieved from the mental lexicon, especially if they have previously been activated in the native language. Introduction of new topics, on the other hand, implies higher cognitive demands in the conceptualization stage, resulting in a slower speech rate in both languages.

scholarly journals When and Why of Mother Tongue Use in English Classrooms

1970 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 42-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashok Raj Khati
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Secondary Level ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Classroom Observations ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
English Classrooms ◽  
Teachers And Students

It is often felt that teachers and students overuse their mother tongue, in this case, most probably the Nepali in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom particularly in government-aided (Nepali medium) schools of Nepal. This, in result, minimizes the students' exposure to English. This article starts with defining mother tongue. Then, it presents the use of mother tongue in EFL classroom in the global and Nepalese contexts followed by summary of three classroom observations and two focused group discussions among teachers and students studying at the secondary level. The final part of the paper presents some simple and applicable strategies and ways of enhancing English language use in the classroom on the part of students provided by three teachers' trainers based on their experience. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v16i1-2.6128 NELTA 2011; 16(1-2): 42-51

scholarly journals Linguistic Markers and Stylistic Attributes of Hedging in English Academic Papers Written by Native and Non-Native Speakers of English

MANUSYA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Amara Prasithrathsint
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Linguistic Markers ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Academic Writing ◽  
The Impact

Hedging means mitigating words so as to lessen the impact of an utterance. It may cause uncertainty in language but is regarded as an important feature in English academic writing. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the style of academic writing in English with particular reference to the significant role of hedging and the linguistic features that mark it. The data was taken from academic articles in the humanities written by native speakers of English, Filipino speakers of English, and Thai speakers of English. It is hypothesized that speakers of English as a foreign language use fewer and different hedging devices than native speakers of English. The result of the analysis shows that the prominent linguistic markers of hedging are the auxiliaries may, might, could, the verbs suggest, appear, seem, and the adverbs perhaps and often. They are divided into three groups according to their stylistic attributes of hedging; namely, probability, indetermination, and approximation. The use of hedging found in the data confirms what Hyman (1994) says; i.e., that hedging allows writers to express their uncertainty about the truth of their statements. It is also found that English native speakers use hedges most frequently. The Filipino speakers of English are the second, and the Thai speakers of English use hedges the least frequency. This implies that hedging is likely to be related to the level of competence in English including knowledge of stylistic variation, and that it needs to be formally taught to those who speak English as a second or foreign language.

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