scholarly journals The Low Co-occurrence of Nominalization and Hedging in Scientific Papers Written by Chinese EFL Learners

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Scientific Journals ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

This article hypothesizes that one of the reasons for Chinese EFL learners’ rigid use of nominalization and insufficient use of hedging in academic writing can be attributed to the unclear understanding of the relationship between these two expressions. The aim of the research is to first prove and then explain the possible co-occurrence of nominalization and hedging in scientific papers, with the intention of deepening Chinese EFL learners’ understanding of the reasons for their possible co-occurrence. After a corpus-assisted statistical analysis of sixty abstracts selected from leading scientific journals written by native English speakers, it’s been found that there is indeed a tendency for nominalization and hedge to co-occur both at the textual-level and clause-level. Besides, a tentative analysis is conducted to explain the pattern of their co-occurrence. It has been observed that the number of nominalized expressions in clauses is inversely correlated with the probability degree of hedging, and the position of nominalization in the clause (theme or rheme) influences the generalization level of hedging. The research results could shed light on the pedagogic approach in improving Chinese EFL learners’ academic writing by making evident that the elusive Grammatical Metaphor competence could be enhanced by deepening the understanding of the inter-relationship between seemingly different in-congruent expressions like nominalization and hedges.

scholarly journals The Low Co-occurrence of Nominalization and Hedging in Scientific Papers Written by Chinese EFL Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 401-420
Author(s):  
Xiao Liu
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Scientific Journals ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Shed Light

This article hypothesizes that one of the reasons for Chinese EFL learners’ rigid use of nominalization and insufficient use of hedging in academic writing can be attributed to the unclear understanding of the relationship between these two expressions. The aim of the research is to first prove and then explain the possible co-occurrence of nominalization and hedging in scientific papers, with the intention of deepening Chinese EFL learners’ understanding of the reasons for their possible co-occurrence. After a corpus-assisted statistical analysis of sixty abstracts selected from leading scientific journals written by native English speakers, it’s been found that there is indeed a tendency for nominalization and hedge to co-occur both at the textual-level and clause-level. Besides, a tentative analysis is conducted to explain the pattern of their co-occurrence. It has been observed that the number of nominalized expressions in clauses is inversely correlated with the probability degree of hedging, and the position of nominalization in the clause (theme or rheme) influences the generalization level of hedging. The research results could shed light on the pedagogic approach in improving Chinese EFL learners’ academic writing by making evident that the elusive Grammatical Metaphor competence could be enhanced by deepening the understanding of the inter-relationship between seemingly different in-congruent expressions like nominalization and hedges.

Situation-Bound Utterances and Formulaic Competence: The Case of Chinese Learners of English as a Foreign Language

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gong Zhiqi ◽  
Jiang Hui
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Low Degree ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Chinese Learners Of English

AbstractThis study investigated the relationship between situation-bound utterances (SBUs thereafter) and formulaic competence, focusing on the acquisition of three subcategories of SBUs among early intermediate and early advanced Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). A group of native English speakers also participated in this study to provide baseline data. One-way ANOVA analysis and post hoc tests confirmed that linguistic competence usually preceded formulaic competence for EFL learners. The findings also showed no statistically significant difference existing between the three groups of participants in the use of plain SBUs, and this could be attributed to the low degree of cultural-embeddedness and high semantic transparency of plain SBUs. It was further argued that a threshold has to be reached for EFL learners to go through a movement from rules to wholes.

scholarly journals The Use of Twitter Amongst Female Saudi EFL Learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 198
Author(s):  
Norah K. M. Alsharidi
Keyword(s):  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
L2 Development ◽  
Survey Questionnaires ◽  
Shed Light

Twitter is a popular microblogging site amongst the Saudi population, which means that Saudi EFL learners are now increasingly connected with millions of native English speakers and other EFL/ESL students. This paper shed light on the use of Twitter by female Saudi EFL learners to determine their English learning practices and their perceptions beyond formal learning contexts. Specifically, the research determined the manner by which the participants’ social interactions over Twitter can help with second language (L2) development and the factors that drove them to choose this site to support their L2 learning. To this end, 25 Saudi adult females who were at different levels of study at a local health sciences university in Saudi Arabia were recruited. Underlain by a mixed methods approach, data collection was implemented through survey questionnaires administered to the EFL learners, amongst whom three participated in additional semi-structured interviews. The researcher has provided few recommendations for the future research where use of Twitter in education and its implications for the purpose of teaching.

scholarly journals The relationship between phonotactic awareness and pronunciation in adult second language learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-214
Author(s):  
Hanna Kivistö-de Souza
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
L1 English ◽  
L2 Pronunciation

Abstract: This study examined to what extent L1 Brazilian Portuguese (BP) EFL learners are aware of L2 phonotactics and whether there would be a relationship between L2 phonotactic awareness and L2 pronunciation accuracy. The language learners were tested regarding their awareness of L2 onset consonant clusters with a lexical decision task presenting nonword stimuli with legal and illegal onset clusters. L2 pronunciation was measured with a Foreign Accent Rating Task. The results showed that L1 BP participants showed a high awareness concerning L2 phonotactics, not differing from L1 English speakers, t(86)=.20, p =.83. Furthermore, high phonotactic awareness was found to be related to higher accuracy in L2 pronunciation (r= -.46, p <.001). The results suggest that phonotactics should be taught in foreign language classrooms since increasing learners’ awareness might be beneficial for the accuracy of their L2 pronunciation.

scholarly journals Intonational effects on English scopally-ambiguous sentences

2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-36
Author(s):  
Mien-Jen Wu ◽  
Tania Ionin
Keyword(s):  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Universal Quantifier ◽  
Sentential Negation ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Acceptability Judgment

This paper examines the effect of intonation contour on two types of scopally ambiguous constructions in English: configurations with a universal quantifier in subject position and sentential negation (e.g., Every horse didn’t jump) and configurations with quantifiers in both subject and object positions (e.g., A girl saw every boy). There is much prior literature on the relationship between the fall-rise intonation and availability of inverse scope with quantifier-negation configurations. The present study has two objectives: (1) to examine whether the role of intonation in facilitating inverse scope is restricted to this configuration, or whether it extends to double-quantifier configurations as well; and (2) to examine whether fall-rise intonation fully disambiguates the sentence, or only facilitates inverse scope. These questions were investigated experimentally, via an auditory acceptability judgment task, in which native English speakers rated the acceptability of auditorily presented sentences in contexts matching surface-scope vs. inverse-scope readings. The results provide evidence that fall-rise intonation facilitates the inverse-scope readings of English quantifier-negation configurations (supporting findings from prior literature), but not those of double-quantifier configurations.

scholarly journals Where the action could be: Speakers look at graspable objects and meaningful scene regions when describing potential actions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendolyn L Rehrig ◽  
Candace Elise Peacock ◽  
Taylor Hayes ◽  
Fernanda Ferreira ◽  
John M. Henderson
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Real World ◽  
Language Production ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Processing ◽  
General Meaning ◽  
New Evidence ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Better Than

The world is visually complex, yet we can efficiently describe it by extracting the information that is most relevant to convey. How do the properties of real-world scenes help us decide where to look and what to say? Image salience has been the dominant explanation for what drives visual attention and production as we describe displays, but new evidence shows scene meaning predicts attention better than image salience. Here we investigated the relevance of one aspect of meaning, graspability (the grasping interactions objects in the scene afford), given that affordances have been implicated in both visual and linguistic processing. We quantified image salience, meaning, and graspability for real-world scenes. In three eyetracking experiments, native English speakers described possible actions that could be carried out in a scene. We hypothesized that graspability would preferentially guide attention due to its task-relevance. In two experiments using stimuli from a previous study, meaning explained visual attention better than graspability or salience did, and graspability explained attention better than salience. In a third experiment we quantified image salience, meaning, graspability, and reach-weighted graspability for scenes that depicted reachable spaces containing graspable objects. Graspability and meaning explained attention equally well in the third experiment, and both explained attention better than salience. We conclude that speakers use object graspability to allocate attention to plan descriptions when scenes depict graspable objects within reach, and otherwise rely more on general meaning. The results shed light on what aspects of meaning guide attention during scene viewing in language production tasks.

scholarly journals Analysing the behaviour of academic collocations in a corpus of research-papers: a data-driven study / Analisando o comportamento de colocações acadêmicas em um corpus de artigos científicos: um estudo dirigido por dados

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 1229
Author(s):  
Paula Tavares Pinto ◽  
Diva Cardoso de Camargo ◽  
Talita Serpa ◽  
Luciano Franco da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Scientific Journals ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Electronic Library ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Respective Field ◽  
English Speaking

Abstract: Authors from different countries have published their papers in English, aiming to promote their research results widely and to become internationally known by their peers. It is also true that, although they are aware of the English terminology used in their respective field, some authors still struggle with some features of academic writing such as collocations. Thus, this paper presents a discussion on the underuse and overuse traces of academic collocations by Brazilian authors who had their articles published in English on an open electronic library of scientific journals. In order to analyse the collocations used by these researchers, we compiled a 906,035-word corpus from eight different academic areas. The collocations observed were statistically compared to those from an academic corpus of English writings which contains texts produced by English-speaking authors. Results showed that there are more collocations underused than overused by the authors. The analysis proved that the collocation repertoire of researchers could be broadened by being pointed out during academic writing workshops.Keywords: academic collocations; research paper writing; corpus linguistics.Resumo: Autores de vários países têm publicado seus artigos científicos em inglês com o intuito de promover amplamente os resultados de suas pesquisas dentre a comunidade científica internacional. É verdade que, embora estejam cientes da terminologia utilizada no respectivo campo de pesquisa, alguns autores ainda apresentam dificuldade em lidar com certas características da escrita acadêmica, como o uso das colocações. Este artigo apresenta uma discussão sobre traços de sobreuso e subuso de colocações acadêmicas utilizadas por autores brasileiros que têm seus artigos publicados em inglês numa plataforma eletrônica aberta de artigos científicos. Para analisar as colocações utilizadas por estes pesquisadores, compilamos um corpus de 906.000 palavras a partir de oito áreas científicas. As colocações analisadas foram comparadas estatisticamente com as colocações de um corpus acadêmico de inglês que contém textos escritos por autores anglófonos. Os resultados mostraram que há mais traços de subuso que sobreuso de colocações acadêmicas utilizadas pelos pesquisadores e este repertório poderia ser ampliado se fossem destacadas durante cursos de escrita acadêmica em língua inglesa.Palavras-chave: colocações acadêmicas; escrita de artigos científicos; linguística de corpus.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document