scholarly journals A Corpus-based Comparative Study of “get-passive” Semantic Prosody

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingxing Liu

Research on semantic prosody education is playing a vital role in the process of learning English.This research is based on the LOB corpus (Lancaster-Oslo/Bergen corpus) and the IWriteBaby corpus, the core library of the IWrite Chinese English Learner Corpus. Using AntConc 3.5.7, to compare the semantic preference of the collocation words of get in the two corpora that meet the get-passive structure. Aiming to compare the semantic prosody differences between Chinese English learners and native speakers when they use the structure “get-passive”. It mainly focuses on the analysis of neutral collocation terms that have a higher frequency of co-occurrence with get and a mutual information value (I value) which is greater than or equal to 3. The research results show that Chinese English learners tend to have neutral semantic prosody when using this structure, while native speakers tend to prefer negative semantic prosody.With the combination of semantic prosody and corpus method should be attached importance to improve the level of English education.

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Min Hu

This study investigated the relationship between English phonological awareness (PA) of Chinese English learners and their three English skills (reading, spelling, and listening). Four-hundred college students participated in the study. The results of correlation and regression analyses demonstrated that: 1) overall PA correlated significantly with the three skills and predicted spelling strongly, listening intermediately, and reading weakly; 2) the three levels of PA had differential effects on English skills: reading was only significantly predicted by syllable awareness, spelling by onset-rhyme and phoneme awareness, and listening by all levels of PA; and 3) the predictive effects of tasks corresponded to the difficulty of the processing skill required by a task. This study has borne out a vital role of English PA in improving adult Chinese English learners’ English skills.


2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazunari Shimada

In this study, the use of discourse markers (DMs) in the speech of Japanese learners of English was investigated. To explore the features of their DM use, corpora of nonnative and native English speakers’ speech were analysed using the methodology called Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis. A frequency analysis of DMs revealed significant differences between Japanese learners’ and native speakers’ speech, supporting earlier findings. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the learner corpus data suggest that Japanese learners may use the marker so more frequently than other nonnative English learners, while also using certain interpersonal or cognitive function markers such as you know, I mean, and just less frequently. The findings suggest the need for language instructors and materials writers to understand the characteristics of Japanese learners’ interlanguage and to provide them with appropriately designed DM input. 本研究は、日本人英語学習者の話し言葉における談話標識(discourse markers: DMs)の使用を調べたものである。日本人英語学習者のDMs使用の特徴を探るために、対照中間言語分析の手法に基づき、非英語母語話者と英語母語話者の話し言葉コーパスを分析した。まず、日本人英語学習者と英語母語話者の話し言葉におけるDMsの使用頻度を分析したところ、先行研究と同じく、大きな差が見られた。次に、非英語母語話者の話し言葉を量的・質的の両面で分析した結果、日本人英語学習者が、他の非英語母語話者に比べてsoを多く使用し、you know, I mean, justなどの対人関係的、認知的機能をもつDMsをあまり使用しないことが明らかになった。その結果は、教師や教材作成者が日本人英語学習者の中間言語の特徴を理解し、学習者に対して慎重にDMsをインプットしていく必要性があることを示唆している。


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-358
Author(s):  
Hao Chen

AbstractIt is noticeable that the academic papers written by Chinese English learners are lacking in academic features largely due to their poor ability to use nominalization. Therefore, the instruction of nominalization in an academic English writing course is badly needed. The author conducted one-semester-long instruction of nominalization to 90 non-English majors under the guidance of the production-oriented approach (POA). This research demonstrated how to apply POA, specifically, the enabling procedure to the teaching of nominalization. By triangulating the data of students’ interviews, learning journals and written output, and the data of 4 teachers’ class observations and interviews, this study found that the accurate application of the three criteria of effective enabling contributed to the improvement of the quantity and quality of nominalization in academic writing.


2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen ◽  
Karin Aijmer

The study of of course presented in this article has an applied, a descriptive and a theoretical aim. Since of course proves to be very frequent in English, learners will need to know what meanings the item has and in what pragmatic contexts it is used. It has indeed been shown that some learners tend to use of course in contexts where it is felt by native speakers to be inappropriate. In order to explain such inappropriate uses we need detailed descriptions of the semantics and pragmatics of of course. From a theoretical point of view such multifunctional items raise the question of whether semantic polysemy or pragmatic polysemy is the best explanatory account. It is argued in this paper that empirical cross-linguistic work can contribute to providing answers to all three research questions. First, the study of correspondences and differences between languages with regard to the meanings and uses of pragmatic markers is a necessary step in the explanation of learner problems. Second, the bidirectional approach to equivalents, which involves going back and forth from sources to translations, enables us to show to what extent the equivalents have partially overlapping pragmatic functions. An in-depth comparison of the semantic fields in which the translation equivalents operate is the ultimate goal. Third, the translation method helps to see to what extent a core meaning account is justified. In this paper three languages are brought into the picture, viz. English, Swedish and Dutch. The cross-linguistic data have been gathered from three translation corpora, i.e. the English-Swedish Parallel Corpus, the Oslo Multilingual Corpus and the Namur Triptic Corpus.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Crosthwaite ◽  
Lavigne L.Y. Choy ◽  
Yeonsuk Bae

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).


2014 ◽  
Vol 644-650 ◽  
pp. 4848-4851
Author(s):  
Cun Ping Liu ◽  
Yong Fu Yuan ◽  
Yan Xiong Yang ◽  
Sheng Guo

As the core of modern economy, finance plays a vital role in the development of strategic emerging industries. A rapid progress of these industries demands a well formed financial support system and a full play given to the role financial support. According to emerging industries life cycle theory, the characteristics of new industry and its law of development determine its funding requirement in various stages of development. This paper analyzes the characteristics of strategic emerging material industries and proposes financing policy in its different stage.


2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roumyana Slabakova ◽  
Jennifer Cabrelli Amaro ◽  
Sang Kyun Kang

Abstract This article presents results of two off-line comprehension tasks investigating the acceptability of unconventional and conventional metonymy by native speakers of Korean and Spanish who speak English as a second language. We are interested in discovering whether learners differentiate between conventional and unconventional metonymy, and whether the acceptability of metonymic expressions in the native language has an effect on learners’ judgments in the second language. The findings of this study constitute further experimental support for the psychological reality of the distinction between conventional and unconventional metonymy, but only in English. Learners of English at intermediate levels of proficiency exhibit transfer from the native language in comprehending metonymic shifts of meanings. Restructuring of the grammar is evident in later stages of development. Finally, complete success in acquiring L2 metonymic patterns is attested in our experimental study. Implications for L2A theories and teaching practices are discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dafney Blanca Dabach ◽  
Aliza Fones

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="section"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>Transnationalism is a phenomenon that has consequences for education, broadly defined. Even as youth engage in transnational practices that expand their knowledge across borders, immigrant students in U.S. schools are often framed narrowly as “English learners” and their forms of knowledge may be erased. Synthesizing literature at the intersection of transnationalism and education, citizenship education, and funds of knowledge, we argue for the necessity of recognizing immigrant youth’s transnational funds of knowledge. We draw from a qualitative study to illustrate how a high school social studies teacher created space for students’ transnational funds of knowledge in the classroom, focusing on a Pakistani student’s return visit to his country of origin. The teacher’s orientation toward students’ transnational funds of knowledge served to counter assimilationist discourses while teaching U.S. civics. This article contributes to understanding how immigrants’ transnational experiences can widen narrow visions of citizen-building in formal schooling and build upon their assets for a more inclusive society. </span></p></div></div></div></div>


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanghui Wang

With the ubiquitous usage of wireless, portable, and handheld devices gaining popularity in 21st century, the revolutionary mobile technology introduces digital new media to educational settings, which has changed the way of traditional teaching and learning. WeChat is one of the most popular social networking applications in China featured by its interactivity and real-time communication that has attracted attention of educators to its pedagogical value. This study evaluates the utilization of WeChat in mobile learning and, in particular, its potential for improving English pronunciation among English learners in China. It probes into the perennial problems of Chinese students in English pronunciation acquisition and oral practice, discusses WeChat’s support functions in mobile learning, demonstrates the relevant empirical studies of WeChat in teaching and learning, and analyses the potential value of using WeChat in improving English pronunciation. Examinations in this paper enable one to reflect on the strengths of mobile learning by WeChat and to explore how this social media tool is likely to solve the pronunciation difficulties of Chinese English learners. It is found that applying WeChat to English pronunciation teaching and practicing helps create better self-directed learning environment, enhance learning flexibility and improve oral learning effectiveness. It is hopefully that insights gained from examining how WeChat helps improve English pronunciation learning will shed light on further innovations of teaching designs in this area.


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