SURZHIK AS A LANGUAGE BARRIER IN THE PROCESS OF MASTERING THE LITERARY NORM OF THE LANGUAGE

The topicality of the study lies in the fact that the level of language proficiency is considered a criterion in characterizing intellectual and cultural development of the society. Nowadays in Ukraine we have the problem of so called surzhik, which is the result of long-term coexistence of Ukrainian and Russian languages in Ukraine. Surzhik is a mixture of grammatical features of two languages − Ukrainian and Russian, thus it is a mixed language that grammatically is neither of the languages mentioned above. Surzhik negatively contributes to the foundations of the national language. Moreover, it is the result of illiterate language use. Therefore, it becomes a serious obstacle in communication between students and teachers during the classes. Furthermore, the results of a poll of 200 students of higher education institutions in Zhytomyr prove that students who speak surzhik speak neither Ukrainian nor Russian fluently. In addition, they have low speech self-esteem. Thus, at least 22% of respondents do not have a clear understanding of which language they speak. Consequently, it signifies about the immaturity of their linguistic personality. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine, based on the survey data, for which language group and to what extent surzhik is a speech barrier in the process of studying the literary norm of Ukrainian and whether there is any relationship between the ability to master its literary norm and readiness to learn a foreign language. The authors use the methods of sociology − questionnaires and statistical processing of data. The results of the research prove that surzhik is a speech barrier not only in mastering the literary norm of native language, but also in learning a foreign language.

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Factors predicting classroom WTC in English and French as foreign languages among adult learners in Spain

Language Teaching Research ◽

10.1177/13621688211054046 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 136216882110540

Author(s):

Elvira Barrios ◽

Irene Acosta-Manzano

Keyword(s):

Adult Learners ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Language Learners ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Language Use ◽

Willingness To Communicate ◽

French Language ◽

Study Results ◽

Language Classroom ◽

Relative Standing

This study aimed to identify associations and predictors of willingness to communicate (WTC) of adult foreign language (FL) learners and whether they are contingent upon the FL being learned. To this end, our research investigated learner variables associated with WTC in adult FL learners of English and of French in an under-researched field of WTC studies in Spain. More specifically, the following variables were studied: gender, age, level of multilingualism, perceived relative standing in the class, language proficiency, teacher’s use of the FL in class, out-of-class foreign language use (OCFLU) and the two emotions of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA). Of the 9 independent variables examined, FLCA and language proficiency were found to be predictors of the WTC of both English and French language learners; additionally, enjoyment was found to be a predictor of WTC of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and OCFLU, of learners of French as a foreign language (FFL). Our findings indicate that the construct of WTC needs to be further studied as research may produce dissimilar results depending on the instructional setting, population and foreign language. Pedagogical implications for language teaching practices seeking to enhance adult FL learners’ WTC were also drawn from the study results.

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Factors associated with foreign language anxiety

Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/dujal.4.1.07jin ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

pp. 67-85 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Yinxing Jin ◽

Kees de Bot ◽

Merel C.J. Keijzer

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Social Status ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Language Anxiety ◽

Foreign Language Anxiety ◽

The Social ◽

Foreign Language Proficiency ◽

Status Data

This paper reports a study that investigates and compares the effects of foreign language proficiency, social status of a learner’s family, self-esteem, and competitiveness on FL anxiety. Chinese university students (N = 146), who were learning Japanese and English, participated in this study. Social status data were collected once with the Social Status Scale. Other variables were measured twice over a two-month interval, using the Competitiveness Index, the Self-esteem Scale, the English/Japanese Classroom Anxiety Scale, and the English/Japanese Proficiency Scale. Results showed that foreign language proficiency, competitiveness, and self-esteem all significantly predicted foreign language anxiety levels. Foreign language proficiency was the best predictor, followed by self-esteem, then competitiveness. A negative relationship was revealed between these predictor variables and foreign language anxiety. Social status was not related to foreign language anxiety, either directly or indirectly.

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A contextualised examination of target language use in the primary school foreign language classroom

Australian Review of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/aral.27.1.08car ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 27 (1) ◽

pp. 104-119 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

David R. Carless

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Primary School ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Language Use ◽

Study Data ◽

Language Teachers ◽

Target Language ◽

Foreign Language Learners ◽

Language Classroom ◽

Classroom Language

Abstract This article discusses an issue which is of longstanding and central importance to foreign language teachers in a variety of contexts, namely teacher use of classroom language. It uses detailed qualitative case study data to explore how and why an expert practitioner uses English in her Hong Kong Primary school language classroom. Through the interplay between teacher beliefs, experiences and classroom transcript data, the paper develops a contextualised picture of classroom language use with young foreign language learners. The paper suggests that it is not necessarily the language proficiency of the learners which plays a major role in the quantity of target language use, but the teachers’ own proficiency, experience and beliefs.

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Omani Students’ Perceptive of Communicative Language Teaching Approach in Higher Education in Oman: Its Practice

Proceedings ◽

10.3390/proceedings2211333 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 (21) ◽

pp. 1333

Author(s):

Mouza Said Al Kalbani ◽

Josu Solabarrieta ◽

Ahmad Bin Touq

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Classroom Practice ◽

English Language ◽

Language Teaching ◽

Communicative Language Teaching ◽

Teaching Approach ◽

Clear Understanding ◽

The Impact

This study aimed to analyze and understand learners’ attitudes towards Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach in a foreign language context in higher education in Oman. In the literature review, learners’ attitudes play a strong role in determining the success of innovations in instructional practices (Savignon and Wang 2003). In addition to that, this study is considered as an evaluative study to explore teachers’ implication of CLT and the impact of this implication on students “communicative competence”, which is considered as an ultimate goal of communicative language teaching in a foreign langue context (FL). The importance of this study is due to its significance to come up with a clear understanding of Omani learners’ beliefs considering teaching and learning process. It also aims to specify the impact of CLT as an effective teaching approach in English as a foreign language (EFL) among higher education students and to specify any difficulties or challenges that might hinder CLT implementation in the Omani context. To achieve this, a quantitative study had been used to collect data from both teachers and learners. The participants of this study were 631 students (189 male and 391 female) who were enrolled in Intensive English language programs (IELP) in Foundation Institute (FI) in two Universities (210 students from public university and 421 students from private university) and those participants were from three different English proficiency levels (247 level 1, 155 level 2 and 229 level 3). The analysis revealed that students perceived classroom’s practice to be more oriented towards using strategic and grammatical competence and less towards sociolinguistic and intercultural competences. Additionally, Omani learners reported statistically significant correlation between CLT practice. The students’ gender, language proficiency and education context affected how students perceived classroom practice.

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Professional Foreign Language Training in the Context of the Digital University

International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy (iJEP) ◽

10.3991/ijep.v11i6.23421 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 50-69

Author(s):

Gulnara Rizakhojayeva ◽

Guzal Yussupova ◽

Bagila Mamyrbayeva ◽

Akylbek Meirbekov

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Social Order ◽

Statistical Processing ◽

Language Training ◽

Mental Work ◽

Proposed Model ◽

The Social ◽

Foreign Language Proficiency ◽

Practical Level

Currently, the practical level of foreign language proficiency of philology graduates does not always correspond to the social order of society. In this paper, a model for professional foreign language training of philology stu-dents was developed, theoretically justified and experimentally tested. For this purpose, the Moodle tool was widely deployed and we identified and ex-perimentally tested pedagogical conditions that ensure the effectiveness of professional foreign language training for philology students. The experi-mental work involved a random sample of 305 students of the "bachelor" level of the training direction 5B021000 (6B023)–foreign philology. The re-sult of the qualitative and quantitative analysis allows to conclude the effec-tiveness of the proposed model of professional foreign language training of philology students based on Moodle, which is confirmed by the calculations during the statistical processing of the research results. The scientific novel-ty of the study is that the pedagogical conditions that ensure the effective-ness of the Moodle-based professional foreign language training of philology students were identified and experimentally tested. The results of the study showed the effectiveness of using distance learning in the current health context due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE USE AMONG MULTILINGUAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS MAJORING IN ENGLISH

LITERA ◽

10.21831/ltr.v19i2.27135 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Emi Nursanti ◽

Erna Andriyanti ◽

Paulus Kurnianta ◽

Titik Sudartinah

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Language Use ◽

English Literature ◽

National Language ◽

Literature Study ◽

Study Program ◽

Local Language ◽

The Law ◽

The Government ◽

Bahasa Indonesia

As a multilingual country, the Indonesian government has set the positions of local language, national language, and foreign language in education through Law of National Education System No.20 of 2003, Chapter VII, Article 33. Fifteen years passed and this paper seeks to find the results of the law in higher education students by investigating the patterns of language use of multilingual students in English Literature Study Program of FBS UNY. This is a descriptive study with parallel mixed method design. The data in this study were responses upon questions in the questionnaires distributed to respondents where the results were then analyzed quantitatively by using SPSS (17) and the results of interviews were analyzed qualitatively. The source of data in this study were 162 respondents who were students of English Literature study program, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta year 2015-2017. The results show that at home, more than 60% of students use Javanese with intimacy and habit as motivating factors. As English Literature students, they are more exposed to media in Bahasa Indonesia. On the campus, English is only used for academic purposes, Bahasa Indonesia for communicating with lecturers while Javanese is for a casual talk with classmates. Javanese is close to traditional commerce while for the modern one, they prefer to use Bahasa Indonesia. For cognitive and mental activities, Bahasa Indonesia is the most dominant, and Javanese is used more than English. These results imply that rather than conforming to the law made by the government, contexts play a more important role in forming people’s language choices.Keywords: multilingualism, local language, national language, foreign language, English Literature UNY POLA PENGGUNAAN BAHASA MAHASISWA MULTILINGUAL JURUSAN BAHASA INGGRISSebagai negara multibahasa, pemerintah Indonesia telah menetapkan posisi bahasa daerah, bahasa nasional, dan bahasa asing dalam pendidikan melalui Undang-Undang Sistem Pendidikan Nasional No.20 tahun 2003, Bab VII, Pasal 33. Lima belas tahun telah berlalu dan tulisan ini berupaya untuk menemukan penerapan hasil hukum tersebut pada mahasiswa dengan menyelidiki pola penggunaan bahasa mahasiswa multibahasa di Program Studi Sastra Inggris FBS UNY. Ini adalah penelitian deskriptif dengan metode campuran paralel. Data dalam penelitian ini adalah tanggapan mahasiswa terhadap pertanyaan dalam kuesioner yang hasilnya kemudian dianalisis secara kuantitatif dengan menggunakan SPSS (17) serta hasil wawancara yang dianalisis secara kualitatif. Sumber data dalam penelitian ini adalah 162 responden yang merupakan mahasiswa program studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Bahasa dan Seni, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta angkatan tahun 2015-2017. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa di rumah, lebih dari 60% mahasiswa menggunakan bahasa Jawa dengan keakraban dan kebiasaan sebagai faktor pendorongnya. Sebagai mahasiswa Sastra Inggris, mereka lebih terpapar media dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Di kampus, bahasa Inggris hanya digunakan untuk tujuan akademik, Bahasa Indonesia untuk berkomunikasi dengan dosen, dan bahasa Jawa untuk percakapan santai dengan teman. Bahasa Jawa sangat dekat dengan perdagangan tradisional, sedangkan untuk perdagangan modern, mereka lebih memilih untuk menggunakan Bahasa Indonesia. Untuk kegiatan kognitif dan mental, Bahasa Indonesia adalah yang paling dominan, dan bahasa Jawa digunakan lebih dari bahasa Inggris. Hasil ini menyiratkan bahwa alih-alih menyesuaikan ketentuan yang telah dibuat oleh pemerintah, konteks memainkan peranan yang lebih penting dalam membentuk pilihan bahasa penggunanya.Kata kunci: multilingualisme, bahasa daerah, bahasa nasional, bahasa asing, Sastra Inggris UNY

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Professional language use by alumni of the Harvard Medical School Medical Language Program

BMC Medical Education ◽

10.1186/s12909-020-02323-x ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Joseph A. Pereira ◽

Kari Hannibal ◽

Jasmine Stecker ◽

Jennifer Kasper ◽

Jeffrey N. Katz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Medical School ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Harvard Medical School ◽

Language Use ◽

The United States ◽

Paired Data ◽

Language Program ◽

Medical Language ◽

Language Courses

Abstract Background Despite the growing number of patients with limited English proficiency in the United States, not all medical schools offer medical language courses to train future physicians in practicing language-concordant care. Little is known about the long-term use of non-English languages among physicians who took language courses in medical school. We conducted a cross-sectional study to characterize the professional language use of Harvard Medical School (HMS) alumni who took a medical language course at HMS and identify opportunities to improve the HMS Medical Language Program. Methods Between October and November 2019, we sent an electronic survey to 803 HMS alumni who took a medical language course at HMS between 1991 and 2019 and collected responses. The survey had questions about the language courses and language use in the professional setting. We analyzed the data using descriptive statistics and McNemar’s test for comparing proportions with paired data. The study was determined not to constitute human subjects research. Results The response rate was 26% (206/803). More than half of respondents (n = 118, 57%) cited their desire to use the language in their future careers as the motivation for taking the language courses. Twenty-eight (14%) respondents indicated a change from not proficient before taking the course to proficient at the time of survey whereas only one (0.5%) respondent changed from proficient to not proficient (McNemar’s p-value < 0.0001). Respondents (n = 113, 56%) reported that clinical electives abroad influenced their cultural understanding of the local in-country population and their language proficiency. Only 13% (n = 27) of respondents have worked in a setting that required formal assessments of non-English language proficiency. Conclusions HMS alumni of the Medical Language Program reported improved language proficiency after the medical language courses’ conclusion, suggesting that the courses may catalyze long-term language learning. We found that a majority of respondents reported that the medical language courses influenced their desire to work with individuals who spoke the language of the courses they took. Medical language courses may equip physicians to practice language-concordant care in their careers.

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POSITIVE DISCIPLINE: SOLUTION TO BOOST STUDENTS’ SELF ESTEEM IN LEARNING ENGLISH AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE

ENGLISH JOURNAL ◽

10.32832/english.v15i2.5548 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 114

Author(s):

Nur Muthmainnah

Keyword(s):

Problem Solving ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Classroom Management ◽

Language Learning ◽

Self Esteem ◽

Theoretical Concept ◽

English As Foreign Language ◽

Positive Discipline ◽

Language Classroom

<p>This theoretical concept is aimed to investigate how positive discipline is implemented in foreign language classroom and improve students’ self-esteem. As one of forms of classroom management, positive discipline expects long-term discipline planted in the learners’ behavior. There are five principles of positive discipline which can be implemented in language learning; Identifying long-term goals; Providing warmth and structure; Understanding child development; Identifying individual differences; Problem-solving and responding with positive discipline. The implementation of positive discipline which support classroom encouragement and confidence could improve learner’s self-esteem. By implementing the positive discipline, teacher also takes advantages on understanding more about his students’ character. In addition, learner would realize their long-term goal of learning foreign language which motivates them to be more active in the class.</p>

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Characteristics of Foreign Language Education in Italy and Implications: From the Perspective of National Foreign Language Capacity

Politeja ◽

10.12797/politeja.18.2021.73.09 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (4(73)) ◽

pp. 171-188

Author(s):

Dong Dan ◽

Tan Yuwei

Keyword(s):

Foreign Language ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Language Planning ◽

Language Education ◽

Policy Formulation ◽

Foreign Language Education ◽

National Language ◽

Planning Theory ◽

Language Competence ◽

Language Capacity

This article reviews foreign language education in Italy using a national language competence-oriented evaluation approach. Foreign language education is at the heart of the acquisition component of language planning, and assessing foreign language education from the perspective of the purpose of language policy, i.e. the promotion of national language competence, which refers to the sum total of the government’s ability to deal with all language-related issues of strategic interests and allows for a more direct application of language planning theory. Based on the theoretical framework of National Foreign Language Capacity and acquisition planning, this study presents a detailed analysis of the characteristics and problems of Italian foreign language education policy, taking into account its ‘rationality,’ ‘coverage,’ and ‘influence,’ which are three interrelated indicators that allow for a comprehensive and specific assessment of national foreign language competence. By revealing the inadequacies of Italy’s national language proficiency system, the author intends to provide an insight into the gap between the effectiveness of policy formulation and implementation in foreign language education in Italy and to suggest some widespread problems in foreign language education that are similar to those in China.

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The effect of collaborative writing in an EFL secondary setting

Language Teaching Research ◽

10.1177/1362168819829017 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (6) ◽

pp. 874-897 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Izaskun Villarreal ◽

Nora Gil-Sarratea

Keyword(s):

Secondary School ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Language Proficiency ◽

Language Use ◽

Language Skills ◽

Collaborative Writing ◽

School Context ◽

Writing Skills ◽

Control Group ◽

Experimental Group

Collaborative writing (CW) has been proven advantageous to enhance the second and foreign language skills of university students. However, little research to date has explored whether CW practices are fruitful for secondary school learners in foreign language (FL) contexts, a population characterized by low language proficiency levels, and few opportunities to engage with the FL. The present classroom-based study examines CW in this setting and aims to determine whether CW fosters language opportunities, operationalized as language-related episodes (LREs), which will allow learners in low-input scenarios to compose better texts. Two parallel intact classes were studied: a control group ( n = 16) which produced an argumentative essay individually, and an experimental group ( n = 16) which did so in pairs while recording their interactions. The findings revealed that the pairs produced shorter but more accurate and slightly more lexically and grammatically complex texts and obtained higher scores in content, structure and organization. Collaboration afforded students the opportunity to pool ideas, deliberate over language use, and provide each other with feedback (collective scaffolding). Most importantly, collaborating seemed to be beneficial for all intermediate secondary learners and, thus, a useful strategy for improving FL writing skills in the secondary school context.

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