scholarly journals THE PROSODIC EMPHASIS OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN LECTURES

Author(s):  
Nataliia Koval

The focus of the study is prosodic emphasis and its correlation with the sociocultural characteristics of native speakers who have shown them during lectures. Thus, the accentuation of the informational structure of lectures is regarded as an indicator of the speaker’s language culture. This research was conducted within the framework of academic style. The relevance of this article is because currently the issues of the culture of the studied foreign language, including the culture of the spoken language, are of particular importance in the context of globalization, when English became the language of international communication, which operates on the territories of countries with different cultural traditions. The identification of the British norm of linguistic culture is presented in this article on the example of the prosody of the information structure of lectures. So, the conducted audit analysis of quasi-spoken speech of texts of academic style in British and American lecturers’ implementation allowed the author to draw the following conclusions: 1) the sociocultural characteristics of the speaker largely determine the culture of his/her speech behavior; 2) accentuation, being a particular manifestation of the category of emphasis and performing the function of the logical organization of the utterance, can serve as an indicator of the complexity of thinking; 3) the rhythmic pattern of the experimental sounding material corresponds to generally accepted data – 1:2 for the British version and 1:1.3 for the American one; 4) the most frequent are emphatic patterns having the ratio of stressed syllables to unstressed equal to 1: 1; 1: 1.3; 1: 2.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 224-241
Author(s):  
Yevgen Matusevych ◽  
Ad Backus ◽  
Martin Reynaert

This article is about the type of language that is offered to learners in textbooks, using the example of Russian. Many modern textbooks of Russian as a foreign language aim at efficient development of oral communication skills. However, some expressions used in the textbooks are not typical for everyday language. We claim that textbooks’ content should be reassessed based on actual language use, following theoretical and methodological models of cognitive and corpus linguistics. We extracted language patterns from three textbooks, and compared them with alternative patterns that carry similar meaning by (1) calculating the frequency of occurrence of each pattern in a corpus of spoken language, and (2) using Russian native speakers’ intuitions about what is more common. The results demonstrated that for 39 to 53 percent of all the recurrent patterns in the textbooks better alternatives could be found. We further investigated the typical shortcomings of the extracted patterns.


2009 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 113-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Una Cunningham

This paper aims to account for the factors that lie behind the choice of models and targets for the pronunciation of English by learners of English in Vietnam and in Sweden. English is the first foreign language in both Vietnam and in Sweden. English is used as a language of international communication in both settings. Swedish learners have much more exposure to spoken English than do Vietnamese learners and the Swedish language is more similar to English than is Vietnamese. These reasons, among others, explain why Swedish accents of English are typically considerably more intelligible than Vietnamese accents of English. Given that the majority of English speakers in the world are not native speakers, it is argued that the traditional learner target of approaching native speaker pronunciations is not appropriate for either group, but especially not for the Vietnamese learners. Instead maximal international intelligibility is a more useful target. To this end, learners need to be exposed to a variety of native and non-native models.


2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Fiedler

English has spread so widely around the world that its native speakers are now outnumbered by its non-native speakers. Recent publications have shown that the dominance of English has led to severe disadvantages for non-Anglophones. Several options of language policy have been presented to find fair and democratic approaches to international communication. Their scope includes different variants of multilingualism, the limitation of the number of languages used in international communication, restriction to receptive skills, the introduction of a system of compensation, initiatives to revive an ancient language (e.g. Latin), and the use of an artificial language. The model English as a Lingua Franca, the idea that the English spoken by non-native speakers is a variety in its own right whose norms are established by its users instead of native speakers, is among these proposals. The paper discusses the extent to which this approach seems to be feasible. Despite its appeal among learners and speakers of English as a foreign language, a number of factors seem to hamper its chances of realization. These factors involve a complexity of issues, such as traditions in foreign language learning and teaching, the heterogeneity of lingua franca communication and psychological reservations.


2012 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine Fiedler

Native speakers traditionally occupy a special position in foreign language teaching and learning because their language use is norm-providing. In linguistic studies they are crucial as informants because they decide whether an utterance is correct or incorrect. Although Esperanto as a planned language aims at facilitating international communication by means of a common second language, there are also people who speak this language as a mother tongue, a fact that has recently received growing attention both within and beyond the Esperanto-speaking community. The phenomenon deserves attention because it throws light on the character of the speech community, and especially on questions of language loyalty and speaker identity. In addition, the use of Esperanto as a family language stimulates the development of the language. However, the status of Esperanto native speakers cannot be equated with the status of native speakers of an ethnic language both because of their limited number and also because Esperanto is only one of their mother tongues among several. Above all, native Esperanto speakers do not decide on the standard of the planned language.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 674
Author(s):  
Ahyati Kurniamala Niswariyana ◽  
Titin Untari ◽  
Supratman Supratman ◽  
Linda Ayu Darmurtika ◽  
Arpan Islami Bilal

ABSTRAKPara siswa yang belajar di Yayasan Tanah Bintang merupakan siswa yang ingin belajar ekstra. Siswa-siswa tersebut pagi hari belajar di sekolah formal, sore hari belajar bahasa asing dan kerajinan tangan di yayasan. Untuk pembelajaran bahasa, bahasa Indonesia digunakan sebagai bahasa pengantar sebab guru dan siswa adalah penutur bahasa Indonesia sekaligus pembelajar bahasa asing. Pada saat berinteraksi di kelas, para siswa menggunakan bahasa Indonesia nonformal, jauh dari kata benar. Pelaksanaan pengabdian ini memiliki tujuan agar para siswa dapat mengenal bahasanya sendiri  sebelum mempelajari bahasa asing, hal ini juga akan berdampak pada pengenalan bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar pada warga asing yang tengah belajar bahasa Indonesia. Sehingga bahasa Indonesia yang digunakan tidak merujuk pada bahasa kontemporer atau bahasa gaul, akan tetapi mengacu pada kaidah bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar, yakni bahasa lisan yang dapat dipahami lawan bicara serta tidak menyinggung yang sesuai dengan etika berbahasa, dan bahasa tulis yang memiliki acuan jelas yakni PUEBI dan KBBI. Kegiatan pengabdian yang berlangsung selama 4 kali pertemuan ini dinilai berhasil, peserta mengalami kemajuan dari pengetahuan tentang bahasa yang baik dan benar. Hasil akhir yang tampak adalah bahwa peserta mulai memahami perbedaan Bahasa yang baik dan Bahasa yang benar, serta penempatannya dalam berkomunikasi dan menulis. Kata kunci: pembelajaran; bahasa indonesia; baik dan benar ABSTRACTThe students of Tanah Bintang Fondation are those who want to have extra learning. Beside studying formally at school, they also learn about foreign language and handicrafts at the foundation. In language learning, Indonesian Language is used as an instruction since teachers and students are the native speakers while studying foreign language. During classroom activity, students usually use non-formal Indonesian which is unstandardized. That is the reason of this devotion, in order to help students to comprehend and understand their Indonesian firstly before learning other foreign languages. It is also aimed at impacting foreigners vice versa to learn Indonesian correctly as standardized. Therefore, the use of Indonesian will refer to Official Indonesian Spelling System rather than slang and contemporary language. The use in spoken language must be understood by interlocutors and should not offend the language etiquette . Other, in written language must be based on PUEBI and KBBI references. The four times meeting devotional has successful to take place due to the enhanced knowledge about the use of correct language itself. The result is participants now has been able to differentiate between standard and unstandard language use both in speaking and writing. Keywords: learning; Indonesian language; good and right


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loïc Rossi

<p>First published in 1887 by Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, Esperanto is the most successful constructed language, with speakers all around the globe and even native speakers.</p> <p>The relationship between Esperanto and science starts very early: the scientific journal <em>Internacia Scienca Revuo</em> was created in 1904 and the International Esperantist Science Association (ISAE) was founded in 1907 (Wera Blanke, <em>Scienca Revuo</em> 206, 2006). Many publications and books about scientific topics have since been written or translated in Esperanto. </p> <p>Esperanto has initially been envisioned as a lingua franca to be used in international communication, both in general and for scientific purposes. While English has since taken this role, there is still a desire to maintain and develop the scientific culture and the related terminology in Esperanto. Science outreach is one way to achieve this goal, and new projects have appeared in the last few years.</p> <p>Esperanto represents an interesting challenge for outreach : being a more neutral language, not related to a specific country or ethnic group, the community of speakers (albeit small) is by essence more international and more diverse than in national languages. This is an opportunity, but also comes with some difficulties.</p> <p>In this work, I’ll discuss the advantages and obstacles of communicating science in Esperanto. I’ll present various projects of science communication in Esperanto, with a focus on my personal experience with my YouTube channel <em>D-ro Loĉjo</em>, where I do videos about science and in particular about planetary science.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-170
Author(s):  
Ingo Fehrmann

Abstract Empirical findings in Second Language Acquisition suggest that the basic structure of German declarative sentences, described in terms of topological fields, poses certain challenges to learners of German as a foreign language. The problem of multiple prefield elements, resulting in ungrammatical verb-third sentences, figures most prominently in the literature. While the so-called V2 constraint is usually treated as a purely formal feature of German syntax both in the empirical as well as in the pedagogical literature, the present paper adopts a usage-based perspective, viewing language as an inventory of form-function mappings. Basic functions of prefield elements have already been identified in research on textual grammar and information structure. This paper presents results from a pilot study with Japanese elementary learners of German as a foreign language, where the form-function mapping of German prefield elements was explicitly taught following the guidelines of an approach called Concept-Based Instruction. The findings indicate that, with a focus on the function-function mapping, it is in fact possible to explicitly teach these rather abstract regularities of German to beginning learners. The participants’ language production exhibits a prefield variation pattern similar to that of L1 German speakers; at the same time the learners produce very few ungrammatical verb-third sentences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 96-104
Author(s):  
Samar Alharbi

English language considers a global language spoken by a majority of people around the world. It is a language used mainly for communication, trades and study purposes. This widespread of English language being wildly spoken lead to different varieties of English as a lingua franca (ELF) means that non native speakers of English still be able to communicate with each other. Using ELF as a legitimate variety of English in language classrooms is questioned by some researchers. This paper will provide an overview of the concept of ELF. It will also present implications and limitations of using ELF in Saudi English as foreign language classrooms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-262
Author(s):  
Svetlana S. Vasilenko

The paper discusses possibilities and ways of studying concepts in teaching foreign languages to students-interpreters. The author notes that modern didactic research has interdisciplinary nature, analyzes the theory of the concept from the point of view of linguistics, cultural studies and psycholinguistics. The author also notes the fact of creation of linguo-conceptodidactics as a new scientific direction. The paper presents a linguodidactic understanding of the concept, analyzes its structure and semantic content. The author describes in detail the process of foreign language concepts acquisition and presents it as a sequence of several stages. The acquisition of foreign language concepts is associated with the development of concept competence. The paper notes that the acquisition of foreign language concepts should go in parallel with the acquisition of foreign language lexis. In addition, it is necessary to use authentic materials in teaching foreign languages that allows forming a conceptual picture of the world of native speakers. Acquisition of foreign language concepts is especially important for students-interpreters who study several foreign languages and are faced with the problem of translating foreign concepts and phenomena of foreign language reality. The paper presents how conceptuality can be realized in teaching foreign languages. The author gives a practical example of studying the English concept Travel, offers examples of exercises and tasks for mastering it, as well as mnemonic techniques for memorizing lexemes that represent the concept. In the paper is stressed, that the concepts should be included in the content of foreign language teaching to students-interpreters. This contributes to the development of correct ideas about foreign language reality, understanding the facts of the native and foreign language culture, i.e. cultural reflection development.


2022 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Nurul Ain Chua ◽  
Goh Ying Soon ◽  
Mohd Yusri Ibrahim ◽  
Che Hasniza Che Noh ◽  
Noor Rohana Mansor ◽  
...  

Background and Purpose: Pinyin is required in learning Mandarin. The challenge of Romanised Pinyin is that learners must decipher the meaning of words based on the change of tone. Communication research is often conducted without accounting for the effects of the change of tone in learning a language. With the aim of avoiding miscommunication while strengthening awareness, Campus Buddies Programme was employed to provide tone practice for learners and consequently explores the effectiveness of the intervention.   Methodology: This quantitative classroom-based research gathered information through the administration of a questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to 32 Mandarin Level 1 learners identified through purposive sampling. The students studied five topics from the syllabus. A total of 10 native speakers who scored A in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) mentored the learners during the programme. The participants were instructed to answer both pre- and post-tests. Part A consists of demographic details, whereas Part B focuses on the effectiveness of questions and Part C consists of 30 questions of content learned by the respondents. The data were then analysed using SPSS 26 software.   Findings: The respondents demonstrated a positive response towards the programme and suggested further improvement ideas such as prolonging the training session and adding more topics and oral activities. The results implicated the programme as a motivator for oral fluency. Many non-native speakers can benefit from conversation with Mandarin native speakers because it is a strong indicator and sound oral mastery strategy.   Contributions: This research provides insights into the effectiveness of the current programme in motivating students’ oral learning. The outcome is essential in determining the Mandarin conversation strategy. More studies adopting different variables are proposed to explore correlations from different perspectives in order to improve students’ oral learning.   Keywords: Tonal pronunciation, native speakers, non-native speakers, foreign language instruction, Mandarin conversation.   Cite as: Chua, N. A., Soon, G. Y., Ibrahim, M. Y., Che Noh, C. H., Mansor, N. R., Embong Eusoff, A. M., Abdul Rashid, R., & Shen, M. (2022). The Mandarin oral mastery programme as perceived by non-native learners.  Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 1-23. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp1-23


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