Measuring Phonological and Orthographic Similarity

2018 ◽  
pp. 49-67
Author(s):  
Muhlise Coşgun Ögeyik
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Second Languages ◽  
Orthographic Similarity ◽  
Level Of Difficulty ◽  
L1 And L2

Marked and unmarked language forms can be distinguished with the level of simplicity or complexity denotations of the forms. Unmarked target language forms may create little or no difficulty, even if they do not exist in the native language of the learner, while marked forms can be relatively difficult for language learners. In addition to the notions of markedness/unmarkedness, there has also been an emphasis on similarity and dissimilarity between the items of first (L1) and second languages (L2). Along with similarity or dissimilarity of L1 and L2 forms, the level of difficulty may vary enormously in different language-specific procedures. In this chapter, therefore, it is intended to build an understanding of the recognized pronunciation and orthographic problems of similar loanwords in both Turkish (L1 of the participants) and English (L2).

scholarly journals Blogging Identity: How L2 Learners Express Themselves

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-70
Author(s):  
Kiyomi FUJII
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Self Image ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Identity Expression

This study discusses language learning and identity, particularly pertaining to intermediate-advanced-level Japanese-language learners, focusing on their target language and identity expression through their interactions with peers and Japanese college students. When learners of Japanese express their identities while interacting with others in their target language, they feel a gap between the self-image they want to present, and the image they are capable of presenting in Japanese (Siegal, 1994, 1995, 1996). Along with adjusting their L1 and L2 usage depending on their interlocutor (Kurata 2007), learners also use different sentence-ending styles depending on the role they want to assume (Cook 2008). By conducting a case study, the present inquiry attempts to address how learners of Japanese express their identities through blog conversations, focusing on their language choice and expressions. Results suggest that participants use the formal endings for self-presentation and projection of their student and classmate identity. However, when expressing emotion some students preferred informal endings, or sentence-final particles.

What Teachers Need to Know About English Language Learners' Translanguaging in the Classroom

2019 ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
Laila Aghai
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Negotiation Of Meaning ◽  
Qualitative Research Study ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
The U.S

This qualitative research study focuses on English language learners who are continuing their education in the U.S. high schools and examines their translanguaging in the classroom. When students are learning a second language, they use their linguistic repertoire and their knowledge in English and their native language for negotiation of meaning. In order to gain a better understanding of the students' translanguaging, one ESL teacher and 10 ESL students were interviewed and observed in a classroom. The ESL students spoke Arabic as their native language and had beginning to intermediate proficiency levels. The findings of the study showed that English language learners use various strategies to make the content comprehensible by making connections between their knowledge in their L1 and L2.

scholarly journals Collocational Differences Between L1 and L2: Implications for EFL Learners and Teachers

2009 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karim Sadeghi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Private Language ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
L1 And L2

Collocations are one of the areas that produce problems for learners of English as a foreign language. Iranian learners of English are by no means an exception. Teaching experience at schools, private language centers, and universities in Iran suggests that a significant part of EFL learners’ problems with producing the language, especially at lower levels of proficiency, can be traced back to the areas where there is a difference between source- and target-language word partners. As an example, whereas people in English make mistakes, Iranians do mistakes when speaking Farsi (Iran’s official language, also called Persian) or Azari (a Turkic language spoken mainly in the north west of Iran). Accordingly, many beginning EFL learners in Iran are tempted to produce the latter incorrect form rather than its acceptable counterpart in English. This is a comparative study of Farsi (Persian) and English collocations with respect to lexis and grammar. The results of the study, with 76 participants who sat a 60-item Farsi (Persian)- English test of collocations, indicated that learners are most likely to face great obstacles in cases where they negatively transfer their linguistic knowledge of the L1 to an L2 context. The findings of this study have some immediate implications for both language learners and teachers of EFL/ESL, as well as for writers of materials.

World Englishes, Second Language Acquisition, and Language Contact

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajend Mesthrie
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Second Languages

Although areas of potential overlap between the fields of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and World Englishes (WE) may seem obvious, they developed historically in isolation from each other. SLA had a psycholinguistic emphasis, studying the ways in which individuals progressed towards acquisition of a target language. WE studies initially developed a sociolinguistic focus, describing varieties that arose as second languages in former British colonies. This chapter explores the way in which each field could benefit from the other. The SLA emphasis on routes of development, overgeneralization, universals of SLA, and transfer in the interlanguage has relevance to characterizing sub-varieties of WEs. Conversely, the socio-political dimension of early WE studies and the notion of macro- or group acquisition fills a gap in SLA studies which sometimes failed to acknowledge that the goal of second language learners was to become bilingual in ways that were socially meaningful within their societies.

CFL learners’ recognition and production of pragmatic routine formulae

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-61
Author(s):  
Jia Yang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Stable Form ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
Learning Challenges ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Familiar Form

A pragmatic routine formula is any expression with a stable form that is commonly repeated in the routinized social interactions of a given culture. Previous research has reported that such pragmatic routine formulae are often underused by foreign language learners, even when they have been studying the language for a long time. To explore the reasons for this underuse, this study investigated the development of 59 Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners’ recognition and production of pragmatic routine formulae in situations they might encounter in China. Results showed that length of stay in the target language country had a significant effect on recognition but not on production. CFL learners with longer periods of residence abroad were able to recognize more pragmatic routine formulae, but which specific formulae were recognized depended on the interactional settings in which learners had engaged. Further analysis revealed that learning challenges may arise in three kinds of situations: (1) those requiring a pragmatic formula in the target language but a different formula in the learner’s native language, (2) those requiring a routine formula in the target language but no remarks in the native language, and (3) those in which the learner overgeneralizes a more familiar form.

scholarly journals INTERLANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT OF TURKISH SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH: EXPLORING ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

2022 ◽  
pp. 611
Author(s):  
Ilyas Yakut ◽  
Erdogan Bada
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Developmental Study ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Communication Breakdowns ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Over Time

Language learners employ communication strategies (CSs) to avoid communication breakdowns in times of difficulty, and such strategies develop within strategic competence thanks to exposure to a target language. This research is designed as a developmental study aiming to investigate the possible effects of exposure to English as a foreign language on the use of CSs in the interlanguage of Turkish speakers of English. To attain this aim, we chose 20 Turkish learners of English from the beginner level, and they designated the topics they would speak and write about. Their oral and written performances on the topics were tested at the beginning prior to instruction, in the middle, and at the end of the academic year to observe whether CS usage altered over time. The findings revealed that participants resorted to different types of CSs in their speaking and writing tasks. The comparison of CS employment in each test showed that learners’ CS preferences, as well as L1 and L2-based CSs, changed over time in both speaking and writing. Therefore, it is concluded that exposure to the target language may have a significant effect on the preference of CSs. The results of this study are significant as they suggested that CSs in interlanguage evolves from L1-based to L2-based strategies. The findings of this study have important implications for teaching English as a foreign language in reference to the effects of language exposure on the use of CSs in both oral and written performances of L2 learners.

Papier Is Geduldig

1993 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 45-52
Author(s):  
J.P.M. Jansen
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Classroom Situation ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Correspondence Course

Translation usually is a solitary activity, but it is often taught in the classroom and not as a skill (or art) leading to a goal, a text in a target language, but as a means of helping language learners to increase their awareness of the subtleties and intricacies of a foreign language. Unfortunately, teachers are rarely sufficiently equipped to anticipate all the variants which students may come up with in a classroom situation. It may difficult to convince students that certain options are wrong, and others acceptable only in a certain context. When the translation training does not take place in the classroom, but rather in a written form, on the basis of a large number of translations sent in by students, the teacher/author can select all variants in the quiet of his study, and argue his choice carefully and with an eye for details. An added advantage is that the teacher/author will be able to distinguish between very common mistakes, between variants which occur very often, and those that are very rare. For more than a century, the Dutch magazine De Talen [the languages] has offered students (in the broadest sense of the word) the opportunity to increase their language proficiency through carefully discussed translations. Five times a year, students are offered texts in French, German, Spanish and English for translation into Dutch, and five times Dutch texts must be translated into these foreign languages. Subscribers to the magazine can send in their attempts at a translation, using a pseudonym. These translations are corrected and used as the basis for a thorough discussion of all possible variants. It does not concern a correspondence course, although the submitted translations are graded, and these grades are published under the pseudonym. It is assumed that the mother tongue of the subscribers is Dutch, although quite a number of people whose native language is not Dutch use the magazine to improve their command of Dutch. This article, by the editor of the English part of the magazine, describes in some detail the history and setup of De Talen.

Second language learners develop non-native lexical processing biases

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth Wiener
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Mandarin Chinese ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Lexical Processing ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
Language Recognition ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
L1 And L2

AbstractInfants develop language-specific biases favoring either consonantal or vocalic information. These phonological biases affect various levels of spoken-language recognition in children and adults. This study explored whether adults who speak a second language (L2) apply phonological biases during L2 lexical processing, and whether the biases applied are those of the native language (L1), or those appropriate for the L2. Two word reconstruction experiments were carried out in English and Mandarin Chinese. L1 and L2 speakers of English demonstrated a consonantal bias by changing English vowels faster than consonants. L1 and L2 speakers of Mandarin demonstrated a vocalic bias by changing Mandarin consonants faster than vowels. Even relatively late L2 classroom learners whose L1 triggers a consonantal bias (English) exhibited a vocalic bias in their L2 (Mandarin). Lexically related processing biases are thus determined by the phonological and lexical characteristics of the stimuli being processed and not solely by listeners’ L1.

scholarly journals Universal Grammar and Interlanguage Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daji He
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Source Language ◽  
Interlanguage Development

Interlanguage Theory was first proposed by Selinker. It refers to the bridging language between the source language and target language constructed by the second language learners, which is a constantly dynamic moving toward the target language. Chomsky’s Universal Grammar (UG) has played an important role in expaining the native language acquisition. This paper, on the basis of UG’s impact on the native language, focuses on UG’s influence on the interlanguage development.

scholarly journals Reading a book in one or two languages? An eye movement study of cognate facilitation in L1 and L2 reading

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 747-769 ◽  
Author(s):  
USCHI COP ◽  
NICOLAS DIRIX ◽  
EVA VAN ASSCHE ◽  
DENIS DRIEGHE ◽  
WOUTER DUYCK
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Facilitatory Effect ◽  
L2 Reading ◽  
Orthographic Similarity ◽  
Fixation Durations ◽  
Movement Study ◽  
Cross Lingual ◽  
L1 And L2

This study examined how noun reading by bilinguals is influenced by orthographic similarity with their translation equivalents in another language. Eye movements of Dutch–English bilinguals reading an entire novel in L1 and L2 were analyzed.In L2, we found a facilitatory effect of orthographic overlap. Additional facilitation for identical cognates was found for later eye movement measures. This shows that the complex, semantic context of a novel does not eliminate cross-lingual activation in natural reading.In L1 we detected non-identical cognate facilitation for first fixation durations of longer nouns. Identical cognate facilitation was found on total reading times for high frequent nouns. This study is the first to show cognate facilitation in L1 reading of narrative text. This shows that even when reading a novel in the mother tongue, lexical access is not restricted to the target language.

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