Two-Year-Old Children Expect Native, but Not Foreign Speakers to Use the Same Tool for the Same Purpose

Previous research has already demonstrated that even very young children are sensitive to language cues and learn differently from native and foreign speaker models. A possible explanation for this phenomenon suggests that spoken language is a sign of someone's cultural background and in this sense demonstrates the person's culture specific knowledge. The aim of the present study was to investigate what children think about native and foreign speakers' behavior in a domain that is typically regulated by cultural norms (tool usage), specifically whether they expect group members to act alike or not. In a violation of expectation paradigm, two-year-old toddlers first watched a video on which a native and a foreign speaker person used different tools for achieving the same goal. In the test phase a new native speaker model appeared and selected one of the previously seen tools for the same goal as it was used before. Results indicated that toddlers were surprised if the native speaker model had chosen the tool that had previously been used by the foreign speaker. In Experiment 2, the familiarization phase was exactly the same as in Experiment 1, but during the test phase, the model spoke a foreign language. Results, in this case, showed no significant differences between looking times. These experiments suggest that two-year-olds expect native (but not foreign) speakers to use the same tool for the same goals. As tool usage is a fundamental element of cultural knowledge, we propose that this pattern of results suggest that children expect native speakers to possess shared cultural knowledge at least in the domain of artifacts.

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Infants’ preferences for native speakers are associated with an expectation of information

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1603261113 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 113 (44) ◽

pp. 12397-12402 ◽

Cited By ~ 45

Author(s):

Katarina Begus ◽

Teodora Gliga ◽

Victoria Southgate

Keyword(s):

Information Seeking ◽

Group Membership ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Native Language ◽

Theta Activity ◽

Opportunities For Learning ◽

Behavioral Preferences ◽

Group Members ◽

To Receive

Humans’ preference for others who share our group membership is well documented, and this heightened valuation of in-group members seems to be rooted in early development. Before 12 mo of age, infants already show behavioral preferences for others who evidence cues to same-group membership such as race or native language, yet the function of this selectivity remains unclear. We examine one of these social biases, the preference for native speakers, and propose that this preference may result from infants’ motivation to obtain information and the expectation that interactions with native speakers will provide better opportunities for learning. To investigate this hypothesis, we measured EEG theta activity, a neural rhythm shown to index active and selective preparation for encoding information in adults. In study 1, we established that 11-mo-old infants exhibit an increase in theta activation in situations when they can expect to receive information. We then used this neural measure of anticipatory theta activity to explore the expectations of 11-mo-olds when facing social partners who either speak the infants’ native language or a foreign tongue (study 2). A larger increase in theta oscillations was observed when infants could expect to receive information from the native speaker, indicating that infants were preparing to learn information from the native speaker to a greater extent than from the foreign speaker. While previous research has demonstrated that infants prefer to interact with knowledgeable others, the current experiments provide evidence that such an information-seeking motive may also underpin infants’ demonstrated preference for native speakers.

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GENDER-BASED WORD DERIVATION: FEMININE VARIATIONS OF OCCUPATION TITLES AS SEEN BY MGIMO STUDENTS (EXPERIMENTAL STUDY)

Title in english ◽

10.24833/2410-2423-2019-4-20-40-49 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

pp. 40-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

E. M. Ignatova

Keyword(s):

Experimental Study ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Russian Language ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

State Institute ◽

Feminine Gender ◽

Second Stage ◽

Gender Based

The article represents the results of an experimental study conducted in the autumn of 2018 in Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), which embraced 107 undergraduate and master degree students, studying German as the main foreign language. The study was aimed to bring out conservative and inventive trends in forming feminine gender markings (“feminatives”). An additional aim was to prove the anticipation that the morphological norms of the studied language (German) and foreign language cultural norms can transfer themselves onto the language of a student who is a Russian native speaker. For the study the method of a two-stage survey was chosen, the results of which were further processed utilizing IBM SPSS statistical software package. In the first stage the surveyed students were asked to build a feminine form for 60 denominations of professions or occupations given in a masculine form; in the second stage the surveyed were offered the list of variants to appraise through the prism of the language norm. The results obtained show that the forms belonging to the grammatical norm of the Russian language were statistically dominant. The anticipation that the norms of a studied language (German) can interfere with the speech culture of Russian native speakers was proven only partially. Occasional creative forms found in the survey replies reflect the balance existing between conservative and inventive linguistic trends.

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Local Norms in CALL Language Practice

International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching ◽

10.4018/ijcallt.2016010103 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 40-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Jonathan R. White

Keyword(s):

Language Use ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

Discourse Communities ◽

Language Practice ◽

Internet Users ◽

The Status ◽

Native Speakers Of English ◽

Local Norms

This article presents an investigation into what norms are negotiated in a CALL classrooms by non-native speakers of English who are Internet novices. There is an on-going debate regarding the status of non-native speaker norms. Although there is more and more recognition that they are valid learner targets, native speaker norms are still reported to have the highest status for learners. Internet language use, though, has led to a change in the perception of norms, as communities of non-native speakers can set their own norms over those of native speakers. Data are analysed from academic textchat seminars which show that a community of inexperienced Internet users set their own norms, which go directly against their L1 community cultural norms of respect towards teachers. This paper proposes that it is an affordance of CALL environments that they can do this. This work is further evidence that it is smaller discourse communities that set norms separate from those of larger geo-political national communities.

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Local Norms in CALL Language Practice

Computer-Assisted Language Learning ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-7663-1.ch011 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 229-245

Author(s):

Jonathan R. White

Keyword(s):

Language Use ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

Discourse Communities ◽

Language Practice ◽

Internet Users ◽

The Status ◽

Native Speakers Of English ◽

Local Norms

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The Involvement of Native Speakers in Teaching and Learning Japanese Language at UiTM

International Journal of Modern Languages And Applied Linguistics ◽

10.24191/ijmal.v4i3.8545 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 14

Author(s):

Choong Pow Yean ◽

Sarinah Bt Sharif ◽

Normah Bt Ahmad

Keyword(s):

Language Learning ◽

Language Learners ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Japanese Culture ◽

Japanese Language ◽

Foreign Language Learners ◽

Lexical Density

The Nihongo Partner Program or “Japanese Language Partner” is a program that sends native speakers to support the teaching and learning of Japanese overseas. The program is fully sponsored by The Japan Foundation. The aim of this program is to create an environment that motivates the students to learn Japanese. This study is based on a survey of the Nihongo Partner Program conducted on students and language lecturers at UiTM, Shah Alam. This study aims to investigate if there is a necessity for native speakers to be involved in the teaching and learning of Japanese among foreign language learners. Analysis of the results showed that both students and lecturers are in dire need of the Nihongo Partner Program to navigate the learning of the Japanese language through a variety of language learning activities. The involvement of native speaker increases students’ confidence and motivation to converse in Japanese. The program also provides opportunities for students to increase their Japanese language proficiency and lexical density. In addition, with the opportunity to interact with the native speakers, students and lecturers will have a better understanding of Japanese culture as they are able to observe and ask the native speakers. Involvement of native speakers is essential in teaching and learning of Japanese in UiTM.

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Euro-English: A Swedish perspective

English Today ◽

10.1017/s0266078403002074 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 35-41 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Marko Modiano

Keyword(s):

European Union ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

The Other ◽

The European Union ◽

Lingua Franca ◽

European Continent

This survey considers the emergence of English as a language shared across the European Union in particular and the European continent at large, and together with its distinctive ‘lingua franca’ dimension among the mainland European nations. It considers in particular the situation of ‘non-native speakers’ who regularly use the language as well as the concept of a ‘Euro-English’ in general and the Swedish, ‘Swenglish’ and English relationship on the other. It concludes by considering the liberation of non-native users from ‘the beginning of native-speaker norms’.

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English language schooling, linguistic realities, and the native speaker of English in Hong Kong

Multilingua ◽

10.1515/multi-2016-0012 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 37 (3) ◽

pp. 275-304 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Jette G. Hansen Edwards

Keyword(s):

Hong Kong ◽

English Language ◽

Language Use ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Native Language ◽

Educational Background ◽

Government School ◽

The Impact ◽

At Home

AbstractThe study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities.TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.

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The function of myths about great leaders in human culture: A cultural evolutionary perspective

Leadership ◽

10.1177/1742715017720309 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 14 (6) ◽

pp. 757-774 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Micha Popper ◽

Omri Castelnovo

Keyword(s):

Collective Identity ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Cultural Norms ◽

Evolutionary Perspective ◽

Cultural Perspective ◽

Research Directions ◽

Suggested Approach ◽

Human Culture ◽

Cultural Evolutionary ◽

Cultural Functions

The discussion takes an evolutionary–cultural perspective in which (a) humans are inherently attracted to large figures (i.e., leaders, heroes), perceived as competent and benevolent entities; (b) the large figure’s influence rests largely on evolutionary phylogenetic biases; (c) the large figure’s effects are expressed through a mechanism designed to transmit cultural knowledge vertically. The suggested view sheds a different light on the psychological and cultural functions of myths about great leaders, and allows us to examine issues such as charisma and culture, the place of the leader in creating collective identity and transmission of cultural norms and practices. Research directions derived from the suggested approach are discussed.

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nr="309"Innere Sicherheit, Sprache und Biographie. : Eine biographietheoretische Perspektive auf einen komplexen Zusammenhang

Jahrbuch f??r P??dagogik ◽

10.3726/jp012019k_309 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2019 (1) ◽

pp. 309-325

Author(s):

Nadja Thoma

Keyword(s):

Identity Politics ◽

Language Ideologies ◽

Native Speakers ◽

Native Speaker ◽

Language Education ◽

Security Threat ◽

Internal Security ◽

Analytical Perspective ◽

The Subject ◽

Innere Sicherheit

Zusammenfassung Im Kontext der zunehmenden Versicherheitlichung von Migration, deren Bedeutung auch für sprachliche Bildung im Kontext nationaler und globaler Sicherheitsagenden diskutiert wird, werden bestimmte Gruppen von Migrant*innen als Sicherheitsbedrohung konstruiert. Die Instrumentalisierung von Sprache für Identitätspolitik, die im Konzept von Sprache als ,Schlüssel zur Integration‘ besonders deutlich wird und unter Rückgriff auf Sprachideologien erklärt werden kann, bleibt nicht ohne Folgen für Angehörige minorisierter Gruppen. Der vorliegende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, was ,innere Sicherheit‘ für Student*innen bedeutet, denen zugeschrieben wird, keine ,native speaker‘ zu sein. Den Bezugspunkt der ,inneren Sicherheit‘ bildet dabei nicht der Nationalstaat, sondern das Subjekt. Aus einer biographieanalytischen Perspektive wird rekonstruiert, mit welchen (Un-)Sicherheitsdimensionen die Subjekte an der Universität und in Hinblick auf ihre beruflichen Pläne konfrontiert sind, wie Sicherheit und Sprache biographisch eingebettet sind und welche Strategien und Wege die Student*innen (nicht) nutzen (können), um ihre Sicherheitsspielräume zu erweitern.Abstract: In light of the increasing securitization of migration, language education is discussed as part of national and global security agendas, and certain groups of migrants have been constructed as a security threat. The instrumentalization of language for identity politics is particularly evident in the concept of language as a ‘key to integration’ and can be explained with language ideologies. These ideologies are not without consequences for members of minoritized groups. The article at hand explores the meaning of ‘internal security’ for university students who are not considered ‘native speakers’. The reference point of ‘internal security’ is not the nation state, but the subject. From a biographical-analytical perspective, the article reconstructs dimensions of security and insecurity which the subjects confront at university with regard to their professional aims. It will explore how the connection between security and language is embedded in their biographies, as well as the strategies and pathways students can and cannot use to expand their security scope.

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Construction of online practice tests to check the acquisition of idiomatic expressions with colours

Pedagogical Almanac ◽

10.54664/thry3614 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 28 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Vanya Ivanova ◽

◽

Gergana Petkova

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Test Construction ◽

Cultural Knowledge ◽

Test Items ◽

Practice Tests ◽

Idiomatic Expressions ◽

Long Term Retention ◽

Knowledge Of Learners ◽

Selection Of

Idioms are metaphorical expressions that cannot be translated literally. They are widely used in English because they make everyday speech more interesting and entertaining for native speakers. It is assumed that there are about twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in English and one of the most common thematic areas for idioms is colour. Idiomatic expressions are a fun way to enhance the vocabulary and cultural knowledge of learners of English. However, mastering these expressions cause difficulties for students not only because their meaning is not deductible from the meanings of the words comprising it, but also due to the different meaning of colours in the cultures around the world. For instance, purple is usually connected with aristocracy, affluence, and piousness across the globe but in Thailand and Brazil it is the colour of bereavement. In this article we have described an approach to check the acquisition of idiomatic expressions and facilitate their long-term retention by using online practice tests. These tests are designed by the teacher and taken by students on their personal computers or mobile phones at their own convenience. Furthermore, specifically developed criteria for test construction are listed together with typical test questions based on them. Examples of test items are presented to illustrate the process of test creation. Finally, an appendix of a selection of the most widely used idiomatic expressions with colours is compiled.

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