scholarly journals Cut-offs and Gestures: Analytical Tools to Understand a Second Language Speaker

10.29007/tb8k ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renia Lopez-Ozieblo
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Communicative Process ◽  
Hong Kong Students ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
The Relationship

This paper will focus on one specific type of disfluency (speech less than fluent), that is, interruptions or cut-offs. The research on cut-offs has led to various hypotheses explaining how cut-offs are processed: Seyfeddinipur, Kita & Indefrey (2008) suggested that the cut-off is a controlled action and so on detecting the trouble the stop might be postponed, if necessary, to allow time for the resumption process; Tydgat, Stevens, Hartsuiker and Pickering (2011) added that the stopping and resumption processes are likely to occur concurrently and share the same resources. Therefore, the speaker has to decide whether it is more effective to stop and, if so, where.In Second Language Acquisition (SLA) error has been the topic of much discussion. However, disfluencies have surprisingly aroused less interest. SLA usually takes the view that any repair following a disfluency is the consequence of linguistic difficulties (usually grammar or vocabulary). However, like among native speakers, there are more reasons for disfluency and repair than just linguistic difficulties.A tool to aid disfluency analysis is that of the gesture performed together with speech. McNeill’s gesture theory holds that gesture and speech are two modalities of the same communicative process and that as such should be analysed together (2012). Therefore, the gesture might provide additional analytical information to the observer.The objective of this study was to investigate the nature of cut-offs in speakers using their mother tongue and also a second language. As our specific interest is the acquisition of Spanish by English speakers, our results are based on data from 8 participants, 4 Spanish native speakers and 4 Hong Kong students of Spanish as a foreign language (L2). Our results, based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, indicate that cut-offs, and the gestures associated with them, are used similarly by native speakers of both English and Spanish, including the relationship between the cut-off and the repair or its absence and the gesture. However, the L2 results are very different, showing a significant increase of within-word cut-offs in Hong Kong participants and a decrease among Spanish native speakers. We observed differences in the length and number of pauses after the cut-offs, as well as differences as to the point at which the cut-off occurred in the word. This paper will provide explanations as to the differences observed as well as providing evidence to support some of the existing hypotheses on cut-off production and gesture-speech relationships.

A CASE STUDY OF NL INFLUENCE IN UNIS FKIP ENGLISH DEPARTMENT STUDENTS' INTERLANGUAGE

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-54
Author(s):  
Irmala Sukendra ◽  
Agus Mulyana ◽  
Imam Sudarmaji
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Similar System ◽  
The One ◽  
L1 Acquisition

Regardless to the facts that English is being taught to Indonesian students starting from early age, many Indonesian thrive in learning English. They find it quite troublesome for some to acquire the language especially to the level of communicative competence. Although Krashen (1982:10) states that “language acquirers are not usually aware of the fact that they are acquiring language, but are only aware of the fact that they are using the language for communication”, second language acquisition has several obstacles for learners to face and yet the successfulness of mastering the language never surmounts to the one of the native speakers. Learners have never been able to acquire the language as any native speakers do. Mistakes are made and inter-language is unavoidable. McNeili in Ellis (1985, p. 44) mentions that “the mentalist views of L1 acquisition hypothesizes the process of acquisition consists of hypothesis-testing, by which means the grammar of the learner’s mother tongue is related to the principles of the ‘universal grammar’.” Thus this study intends to find out whether the students go through the phase of interlanguage in their attempt to acquire second language and whether their interlanguage forms similar system as postulated by linguists (Krashen).

Zero Anaphora in Second Language Acquisition:A Comparison among Three Varieties of English

1988 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 339-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Williams
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Discourse Function ◽  
Spontaneous Production ◽  
Structural Differences ◽  
Zero Anaphora ◽  
The Relationship

This study examines the use of zero anaphora in the English production of three speaker groups: native speakers, second language learners, and speakers of a non-native institutionalized variety. General discourse function for zero anaphora is found to be similar across speaker groups, although in many cases, ungrammatical by prescriptive standards. In addition, there are important quantitative and structural differences between the native speakers and non-native speakers in how this device is used. The results suggest that the relationship between performance data and second language acquisition needs to be reexamined. In particular, it cannot be assumed that spontaneous production of a given form isa direct indicator of acquisition and conversely, that non-production is necessarily proof of non-acquisition.

Late Immersion and Language of Instruction in Hong Kong High Schools: Achievement Growth in Language and Nonlanguage Subjects

2000 ◽  
Vol 70 (3) ◽  
pp. 302-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert Marsh ◽  
Kit-Tai Hau ◽  
Chit-Kwong Kong
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Growth Models ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Language Of Instruction ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Hong Kong Students

In this article, Herbert Marsh, Kit-Tai Hau, and Chit-Kwong Kong evaluate the effects of instruction in the first language (Chinese) and the second language (English) on achievement using multilevel growth models for a large representative sample of Hong Kong students during their first three years of high school. For nonlanguage subjects, late immersion in English as the language of instruction had large negative effects. Immersion in English did have positive effects on English and, to a smaller extent, Chinese language achievement, but these effects were small relative to the large negative effects in nonlanguage subjects. Whereas previous research has shown positive effects for early-immersion programs that start in kindergarten where language demands are not so great, negative effects for this late-immersion program challenge the generality of these findings to high schools and, perhaps, theoretical models of second-language acquisition.

Cleft constructions in Hong Kong English

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinyue Yao
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Regional Variation ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Information Packaging ◽  
Advanced Stages ◽  
Hong Kong English

Existing second language acquisition research converges on a picture where learners of English exhibit marked divergence from native speakers in their use of information-packaging constructions, even at advanced stages of acquisition. This study extends the investigation of these constructions to an emerging institutionalised second language variety, Hong Kong English. Based on the Hong Kong and British components of the International Corpus of English, the study examines the formal and functional properties of it-clefts and wh-clefts, revealing regional variation in a number of areas, particularly in the use of that’s why constructions. Importantly, the grammar of the contact variety is found to be shaped by the transfer of gradient grammatical rules from the substrate language, and by stratification along stylistic parameters.

scholarly journals Extrametricality and second language acquisition

2016 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Duarte Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Phonetic Cues ◽  
The Right

This paper examines how native English speakers acquire stress in Portuguese. Native speakers and second language learners (L2ers) of any given language have to formulate word-level prosodic generalizations based on a subset of lexical items to which they have been exposed. This subset contains robust as well as subtle cues as to which stress patterns are more or less productive, so that when speakers encounter novel forms they know which stress position is more likely. L2ers, however, face a much more challenging task, mainly if they are adults and have long passed the critical period. These difficulties are particularly notable in word-level prominence, where several interacting phonetic cues are involved. The trends observed across three proficiency levels in the judgement task described in this paper are consistent with a foot-based analysis, and show that L2ers successfully reset extrametricality (Yes in the L1; No in the L2) and shift the default stress position from antepenult (L1) to penult (L2). The latter is expected to follow from the former in a foot-based approach where feet become aligned to the right edge of the word as extrametricality is reset to No.

THE ROBUSTNESS OF APTITUDE EFFECTS IN NEAR-NATIVE SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

2008 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niclas Abrahamsson ◽  
Kenneth Hyltenstam
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Language Aptitude ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
High Degree

Results from a number of recent studies suggest that nativelike adult second language (L2) learners possess a high degree of language learning aptitude, the positive effects of which may have compensated for the negative effects of a critical period in these learners. According to the same studies, child learners seem to attain a nativelike command of the L2 regardless of high or low aptitude, which has led researchers to conclude that this factor plays no role in early acquisition. The present study investigates the L2 proficiency and language aptitude of 42 near-native L2 speakers of Swedish (i.e., individuals whom actual mother-tongue speakers of Swedish believe are native speakers). The results confirm previous research suggesting that a high degree of language aptitude is required if adult learners are to reach a L2 proficiency that is indistinguishable from that of native speakers. However, in contrast to previous studies, the present results also identify small yet significant aptitude effects in child SLA. Our findings lead us to the conclusions that the rare nativelike adult learners sometimes observed would all turn out to be exceptionally talented language learners with an unusual ability to compensate for maturational effects and, consequently, that their nativelikeness per se does not constitute a reason to reject the critical period hypothesis.

scholarly journals Input, Interaction, and Second Language Production

1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M. Gass ◽  
Evangeline Marlos Varonis
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speaker ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Subsequent Task

The role of conversational interactions in the development of a second language has been central in the recent second language acquisition literature. While a great deal is now known about the way in which nonnative speakers interact with native speakers and other nonnative speakers, little is known about the lasting effects of these interactions on a nonnative's linguistic development. This paper specifically investigates the relationship among input, interaction, and second language production. Through data from native–nonnative speaker interactions in a direction-giving task, we show that both modified input and interaction affect task performance. However, only interaction has an effect on subsequent task performance.

The role of cross-linguistic stress pattern frequency and word similarity on the acquisition of English stress pattern by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda Post Silveira
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
American English ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Stress Pattern ◽  
Target Language ◽  
English As Second Language ◽  
Word Similarity ◽  
L1 Transfer

This is a preliminary study in which we investigate the acquisition of English as second language (L2[1]) word stress by native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP, L1[2]). In this paper, we show results of a multiple choice forced choice perception test in which native speakers of American English and native speakers of Dutch judged the production of English words bearing pre-final stress that were both cognates and non-cognates with BP words. The tokens were produced by native speakers of American English and by Brazilians that speak English as a second language. The results have shown that American and Dutch listeners were consistent in their judgments on native and non-native stress productions and both speakers' groups produced variation in stress in relation to the canonical pattern. However, the variability found in American English points to the prosodic patterns of English and the variability found in Brazilian English points to the stress patterns of Portuguese. It occurs especially in words whose forms activate neighboring similar words in the L1. Transfer from the L1 appears both at segmental and prosodic levels in BP English. [1] L2 stands for second language, foreign language, target language. [2] L1 stands for first language, mother tongue, source language.

scholarly journals Studying individual differences in the social environment to better understand language learning and processing

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (s1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiri Lev-Ari
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Performance ◽  
The Social

AbstractPeople learn language from their social environment. Therefore, individual differences in the input that their social environment provides could influence their linguistic performance. Nevertheless, investigation of the role of individual differences in input on performance has been mostly restricted to first and second language acquisition. In this paper I argue that individual differences in input can influence linguistic performance even in adult native speakers. Specifically, differences in input can affect performance by influencing people’s knowledgebase, by modulating their processing manner, and by shaping expectations. Therefore, studying the role that individual differences in input play can improve our understanding of how language is learned, processed and represented.

Research meets practice

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 236-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZhaoHong Han
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
The Other ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Instruction And Learning ◽  
The Relationship

At the recent CLTA-S2 conference, a spirited debate occurred between critics of second language acquisition (SLA) research and researchers who embraced it. Fascinating as it was, neither camp appeared to have convinced the other, but, more important, the debate left much of the audience flummoxed. In this paper, I intend to provide a follow-up, attempting to clarify a) the relationship between research and teaching in the context of Chinese as a second language (CSL), b) misunderstandings on the part of critics over research findings, and c) potential pitfalls in interpreting the SLA literature. My goal is to encourage, as well as contribute to, further communication between the two camps, for the ultimate good of CSL instruction and learning.

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