scholarly journals The Speech Act of Complimenting as Part of the Ukrainian, Russian and English-Speaking Communities: Ukraine and the USA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anzhelika Solodka ◽  
Luis Perea
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Personal Appearance ◽  
The Usa ◽  
On Line ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Language Context

Compliments as speech acts have the reflection and expression of cultural values. Many of the values reflected through compliments are personal appearance, new acquisitions, possessions, talents and skills. It is especially important in linguistic interaction between people. This research aims to analyze the speech acts of complimenting in Ukrainian and American cultures in order to use them for teaching pragmatics second language (L2) students. Defining the ways of complimenting in Ukrainian, Russian and American English help to avoid misunderstandings and pragmatic failures. This study uses a method of ethnomethodology. Speach acts are studied in their natural contexts. To carry out this research native speakers of English in the United States and native speakers of Russian and Ukrainian from all over Ukraine were interviewed on-line. The analysis was made on the data that included: 445 Russian, 231 Ukrainian and 245 English compliments. Results of this study show how native speakers tend to compliment people: syntactical structure of expressions, cultural lexicon, attributes praised and language context. It has implications for teaching English to Ukrainians and for teaching Russian and Ukrainian to speakers of English. Knowing how to use speech acts allows the speaker to have pragmatic competence. Upon completion of the data analysis on the current study, further information on deeper analysis in terms of semantics and metaphorical language can be provided.

The limits of extended naturalistic exposure on the perceptual mastery of English /r/ and /l/ by adult Japanese learners of English

1995 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 380-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naoyuki Takagi ◽  
Virginia Mann
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Identification Accuracy ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Japanese Learners Of English ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Japanese Learners ◽  
One Year ◽  
Adult Exposure

AbstractTo evaluate the effect of extended adult exposure to authentic spoken English on the perceptual mastery of English /r/ and /l/, we tested 12 native speakers of English (A), 12 experienced Japanese (EJ) who had spent 12 or more years in the United States, and 12 less experienced Japanese (LJ) who had spent less than one year in the United States. The tests included the forced-choice identification of naturally produced /r/s and /1/s and the labeling of word-initial synthetic tokens that varied F2 and F3 to form an /r/-/l/-/w/ continuum. The F.Js’ mean performance in both tasks was closer to that of the As than the LJs, but nonetheless fell short. Extended exposure may improve /r/-/l/ identification accuracy; it does not ensure perfect perceptual mastery.

Politeness in power-asymmetrical e-mail requests of Korean and American corporate employees

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sun Hee Kim ◽  
Hikyoung Lee
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Values ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Intercultural Experience ◽  
Politeness Strategies ◽  
Employee Groups ◽  
Pragmatic Knowledge ◽  
American Employees ◽  
Pragmatic Strategies ◽  
E Mail

AbstractPrevious research on politeness tends to examine the inadequacy of non-native speakers’ pragmatic knowledge. In this study, we broaden our focus to the influence of different lingua-cultural values on politeness in simulated workplace e-mail requests of Korean and American corporate employees. By exploring differential perceptions towards power-asymmetry, this study investigates how and why politeness strategies are realized similarly and/or differently in and around the speech acts of requests in English. By quantitatively and qualitatively analyzing the elicited data, the study suggests that lingua-cultural values influenced perception and production in power-asymmetrical situations. Findings reveal that power is a more prominent factor than familiarity for Korean employees, but to a lesser extent for American employees when doing politeness in e-mail requests. Results showed that the underlying reasons for formulating requests differed not only between Korean and American employees but also between two Korean employee groups that differed according to depth of intercultural experience. This study contributes to recent research strands in intercultural pragmatics and communication by arguing that pragmatic strategies to express politeness in relation to power are culture specific with existing and newly reconstructed lingua-cultural values coming into play.

scholarly journals Syntactic Complexity in EFL and Native Learners' Undergraduate Thesis Abstracts

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Murniati Murniati
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Syntactic Complexity ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Complex Sentences ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Undergraduate Thesis

<p>This research aims to find syntactic complexity of the abstracts in the undergraduate thesis written down by university learners in Indonesia and the ones written down by native speakers of English. The characteristics of syntactic complexity produced by Indonesian learners and the learners who are the native speakers should also be analyzed. It is possible to extend the type of syntactic complexity found in academic texts. In the end, those extensions should be characterized the English language used by Indonesian learners. The data is gained through downloading the abstracts of the undergraduate thesis in the academic year of 2015-2016 from the UBM English Department alumni database. The data regarding the abstracts written down by the native speakers is downloaded from the reputable universities in The United States of America. After that, the data is analyzed by making used of the syntactic analyzer by Lu &amp; Ai (2015). The results shows that the Indonesian learners tend to write more complex sentences and use subordination in the abstracts. The native speakers, on the other hands, tend to write longer sentences with longer T-Unit and clauses. They also tend to write complex nominal in the abstracts. The number of coordination used is similar between the ones written down by Indonesian learners and native speakers of English. <strong></strong></p><strong>Keywords:</strong> syntactic complexity, syntactic structures, undergraduate thesis, Indonesian learners

Native Speakers Pronunciation of Foreign Names

Babel ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 245-259
Author(s):  
Judith Rosenhouse
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Field Study ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Wide Spread ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
Language Environment

Due to various reasons, proper names (personal names) are often considered a separate group within the noun category of a language. Nowadays, foreign names are much more wide-spread, perhaps, than ever before. This fact causes pronunciation difficulties to speakers in the native-language environment. Moreover, the foreign origin of a name remains long after an individual’s immigration, and many foreign names are integrated into the absorbing language. Two problem areas arise for speakers of a certain language who have to pronounce foreign names: on the written modality level, letter-to-sound correspondence, and on the aural modality, the pronunciation of the foreign name (according to the speaker’s L1). These issues require decisions about phonological and phonetic features of the foreign language which are to be adopted or discarded in pronouncing a name. Based on our field study, various solutions of these problems are here described and discussed. It appears that native speakers of English (not only American English, as our study reveals) do not base their decisions only on the graphic form of the names (letter sequences); their experience with other languages affects their productions. In addition, not all letter sequences yield identical pronunciation decisions. Thus, solutions are not uniform. Examples are given from French surnames and personal names that occur in English in the USA.

Universal Grammar and the acquisition of French verb movement by native speakers of English

1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Hawkins ◽  
Richard Towell ◽  
Nives Bazergui
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Verb Movement ◽  
French Speaking ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Syntactic Differences

White (1989) has shown that L1 English-speaking learners of L2 French appear to be more successful in acquiring the postverbal location of French manner and frequency adverbs than L1 French-speaking learners of L2 English are in acquiring the preverbal location of English manner and frequency adverbs. One implication of recent work by Pollock (1989) on the structure of English and French clauses is, however, that the task of acquiring the placement of manner and frequency adverbs should be the same for both sets of learners, because English provides learners with as much positive syntactic evidence for preverbal manner/frequency adverbs as French does for the postverbal location of such adverbs. The problem, then, is to explain why there should be this difference in success. On the basis of a detailed study of the developing intuitions of English-speaking adult learners of L2 French it is suggested in this article that the English-speakers' success is only apparent. Both groups of learners have great difficulty in resetting a parametrized property of the functional category Agr, but the English- speaking learners of French are able to make use of nonparametrized properties of Universal Grammar to handle surface syntactic differences between English and French, properties which are not so readily available to the French-speaking learners of English. It is suggested that this finding is in line with an emerging view about the role of parametrized functional categories in second language acquisition.

“I’ll do this no matter if I have to fight the world!”

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 140-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Bamford ◽  
Yaz Djebbour ◽  
Lucie Pollard
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Urban Higher Education ◽  
Method Approach

Purpose – The purpose of the paper was to explore students’ learning experiences in culturally diverse urban higher education environments. Design/methodology/approach – The project used an action research method approach with a mixed-method collection of data. The data consist of a survey of undergraduate students from the two different faculties, business and science, in two London institutions (n = 393) and ten focus groups (consisting of 92 students) as well as participant observations. The survey was based on an adapted version of the National Survey on Student Engagement (NSSE) developed in the USA. The authors also piloted the use of Facebook as a learning tool and monitored the effects on communication between students and between lecturers. Findings – The authors identified statistical significance in the items that addressed the development of students’ relationships with others and found that there was a link with specific students’ profiles, that is those students who were non-native speakers of English who were less likely to engage with “others” and the learning environment. Focus groups highlighted the importance of communities of practice and that these communities aided students in developing what can be seen as resilience outcomes. Originality/value – The findings from the research indicated that resilience can be seen as key to increasing engagement and communication for students. The piloting of social media across a module at each research site indicated that such a tool can be useful in addressing issues of communication, but the introduction of such tools needs to be generated through the students.

AN EXPLORATION OF THE RANGE AND FREQUENCY OF OCCURRENCE OF FORMS IN POTENTIALLY VARIABLE STRUCTURES IN SECOND-LANGUAGE SPANISH

2010 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly L. Geeslin ◽  
Aarnes Gudmestad
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
Future Time ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Grammatical Structures

This article adds to the growing body of research focused on second-language (L2) variation and constitutes the first large-scale study of the production of potentially variable grammatical structures in Spanish by English-speaking learners. The overarching goal of the project is to assess the range of forms used and the degree to which native and L2 speakers of Spanish differ in several independently defined syntactic or discourse-based contexts. The contexts examined in the current study have been the object of sociolinguistic research in monolingual environments and include the following: copula contrast, mood distinction, past-time reference, future-time reference, and subject expression. Interview data from 16 English-speaking learners and 16 native speakers of Spanish from a variety of countries, all of whom are part of a single speech community in the United States, are examined. The analysis focuses on the range of forms used in each of the contexts investigated and the frequency with which these forms appear. A possible relation of individual characteristics, such as country of origin, years of language study, and time spent abroad, to this frequency of use is also considered.

scholarly journals Cultural Diversity in Native and Non-Native Speakers of English Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (43) ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Iman Khalaf Jasim ◽  
◽  
Sabah S. Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Pragmatic Failure ◽  
On Line ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Communication Breakdowns

With the advancement of technology ,the study of cross-cultural communication via on line has become an important and researchable topic in linguistic theory and its applications.The aims of this study are two- fold (a) exploring the influence of cultural diversity on on-line interaction between American native speakers (NSs) and Iraqi non-native speakers (NNSs) of English which, together with other factors might potentially lead to what Thomas(1983) calls "pragmatic failure" (PF), a main cause of communication breakdowns and (b) specifying which type of PF occurs more frequently between the two groups along with the reasons behind such failures. To achieve these objectives , a number of online chats conducted between (10) American speakers of English and (8) Iraqi graduate students of English were collected and analyzed on the basis of Thomas' (1983) division of PF in an attempt to verify the assumption that pragmatic failure is a result of cultural diversity between the two groups of participants.Results revealed that the cultural differences between the two groups could be a major cause of misunderstanding ie. PF., a finding which can be of value to textbook designers and teachers of English as a foreign language (FL)who are required to improve students' pragmatic ability in classroom by focusing not only on their grammatical competence but also on their pragmatic competence.

scholarly journals Disagreement: a speech act analysis and classroom implications

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 24-35
Author(s):  
Panha Song
Keyword(s):  
Speech Acts ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Nonnative Speakers Of English ◽  
Authentic Data ◽  
Speech Act Analysis

Disagreement has been widely regarded as one of the most interesting speech acts in EFL context since the way the speaker expresses her or his opposing view can affect the addressee’s self-image and view of the addressor. This article attempted to identify various strategies native speakers of English realized this speech act through a qualitative method by analyzing two sets of authentic data from two half-hour interviews. Next, it investigated the lack of emphasis on disagreement in EFL materials before offering possible suggestions to equip non-native learners of English with pragmatic competence to disagree effectively. The findings and recommendations had implications for EFL teachers, course designers, and materials developers in how and why speech acts and pragmatic competence should be emphasized in order to ensure that nonnative speakers of English could communicate effectively without being perceived as pragmatically inferior.

scholarly journals Promoting English Speaking Confidence through Online Expanding Circle Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 01010
Author(s):  
Arifumi Saito ◽  
Younghyon Heo
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
International Language ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Expanding Circle ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Speaking Confidence ◽  
Reading Activities

This study explores how expanding circle communication (i.e., intercultural communication between “non-native” speakers of English) boosts the confidence of Japanese EFL learners by developing a positive attitude toward their own English. Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese university students participated in four sessions of online discussion. Since the idea of “English as an International Language” (EIL) is considered as a key to promote the learners’ positive mindset for what had been considered “non-native” English varieties and boost the confidence in their own English, it was introduced in the reading activities in each session. After the completion of four intercultural communication sessions, reflective writings on two questions asking 1) their self-confidence in speaking English and 2) their attitude about EIL were collected. The result shows that the expanding circle communication brought the Japanese participants to raise their confidence in speaking English in relatively high percentage (73%) of all cases. Regarding the attitude on EIL, on the other hand, students were divided into two groups with the negative (43%) and positive (57%) attitude. In this study, therefore, the gap in the percentage between the participants’ confidence in speaking English and attitude on EIL was examined and discussed.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document