scholarly journals Hedging in spoken conversations by Norwegian learners of English

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-48
Author(s):  
Stine Hulleberg Johansen
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Hedging Strategies ◽  
High Level ◽  
Learner Language

Hedging is an important aspect of pragmatic competence, but it is also a complex phenomenon that is difficult to master. This has resulted in underuse of hedging strategies by language learners, and many learners limit their hedging repertoire to a few strategies. This study compares the use of 10 hedging expressions commonly used in informal spoken English, a bit, I mean, I think, just, kind of/kinda, like, might, probably, thing(s), and you know, in data from LINDSEI-no, a corpus of Norwegian advanced learners, and LOCNEC, a comparable corpus of native English speakers. Norwegian learners typically show a high level of grammatical competence, but research on their pragmatic competence is limited. This study adds to the empirical research on Norwegian advanced learners by comparing the use of these expressions in native and learner language. The results indicate that as a group, Norwegian learners underuse hedging strategies, but when each expression and individual variation are considered, the picture is more nuanced. In fact, several of the Norwegian learners’ hedging practices partially overlap with several of the native speakers’ practices concerning hedging frequency and types of hedging strategies used.

scholarly journals ANALYZING COMPLAINTS BY INDONESIAN EFL SPEAKERS

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Anna Marietta Da Silva
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Initial Period ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
Pragmatic Transfer ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

The English language competence of an EFL learner can be reflectedin his pragmatic competence. Yet, for language learners and teachers a mastery of the pragmatic competence may unconsciously be neglected. In other words, it may not be taught in line with the grammatical competence since the initial period of learning. The article centers on two problems: (1) the similarities and differences of speech act of complaints among Indonesian EFL learners, Indonesian EFL teachers and American native speakers, and (2) the evidence of any pragmatic transfer in the complaint performance. DCT was used to gather the data, which was then analyzed using Rinnert, Nogami and Iwai?s aspects of complaining (2006). It was found that there were both differences and similarities of complaints performed by both the native and non-native speakers of English when power and social status were involved. Some evidence on pragmatic transfer was also tangible; mainly it was due to cultural differences

scholarly journals Development of Language Proficiency and Pragmatic Competence in an Immersive Language Program

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 10
Author(s):  
Vahid Rafieyan ◽  
William Rozycki
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Significant Relationship ◽  
Language Contact ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
Contact Survey ◽  
High Level

Since pragmatic competence and grammatical competence are two distinct aspects of communicative competence (Bachman, 1990), a high level of grammatical competence may not lead to a high level of pragmatic competence, rather it can be best developed through immersion in the target language. In this respect, this paper addresses three research questions within the context of an immersive language program in an EFL setting: 1) Does instruction in an immersive language program have a significant effect on language learners’ general language proficiency? 2) Is there any significant relationship between language learners’ general language proficiency and their pragmatic competence? 3) Is there any significant relationship between language learners’ level of language contact and their pragmatic competence?In the experiment, Japanese first-year college students (n=18) were assessed through TOEFL PBT at the start of a one-year language immersion program. The subjects thereupon participated in an intensive language program. At the end of the academic year, all subjects took another TOEFL PBT along with a pragmatic competence test (Bardovi-Harlig, 2009) and a language contact survey. The statistical findings of this study demonstrated a significant positive effect for immersive language program on general language proficiency. However, the findings found no significant association between general language proficiency and pragmatic competence and only a weak correlation between language contact and pragmatic competency. This suggests that developing general linguistic proficiency and immersive language contact with a target language do not automatically ensure the acquisition of pragmatic competence.

scholarly journals A Corpus-Based Comparative Study of Malaysian ESL Learners and Native English Speakers in Compliment Patterns

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 232
Author(s):  
Paramasivam Muthusamy ◽  
Atieh Farashaiyan
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Authentic Language ◽  
Learner Language ◽  
Esl Learners

Even though many language learners are concerned with to master target proficiency, owing to years of meticulous studies, immersion in TL environments, access to multimedia and educational amenities, in addition to availability of affluent sources or merely thanks to God-given language talents, many will seldom take off from conspicuous learner-language and might never produce authentic language either in speech or in writing. In recent years, however, with corpus linguistics gaining currency in academia, a new light has begun to glimmer at the end of the tunnel that corpus-based materials and data-driven language instructions can actively and consciously engage learners and acquaint them with what authentic language is rather than what the text books prescribe it to be. Already, a growing body of research has been dedicated to data-driven learning across the world to survey the effectiveness of incorporating corpora in ELT. As such, the purpose of this research is to investigate the patterns of compliments in writings of the Malay ESL students and compare the findings with native English speakers.  The results showed that the Malay ESL learners used a rather different number of syntactic patterns compared to the English native speakers and their frequency of patterns outgrew those of the natives.

scholarly journals A guide to use flipped classroom strategy to develop speaking skill for Arabic language learners for non-native speakers the high level : دليل إرشادي لاستخدام استراتيجية الفصل المقلوب لتنمية مهارة التحدث عند متعلمات اللغة العربية للناطقين بغيرها للمستوى المتقدم

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (40) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wafaa Hafez Alayaidi, Bayan Nair Alsubhi
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Flipped Classroom ◽  
Performance Indicator ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Speaking Skill ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Descriptive Method ◽  
Speaking Skills

The aim of the current research is to prepare a guide to develop speaking skills for Arabic language learners of non-native speakers with using a flipped classroom strategy, where it included an introduction and the goal of that guide, and profile of the strategy and implementation steps, and also included three of the speaking skills that necessary to teach Arabic language to non-native speakers it is a skill of fluency - and the skill of varying the tone of the voice – and the skill of body language, each skill has its own performance indicator, and the researcher has used the descriptive method, and to achieve this objective the researcher used questionnaire tool for the guide to make sure it is usable, and the sample amounted to (7) specialists in teaching Arabic language and teaching Arabic language to non-native speakers, then the opinions of the arbitrators were statistically treated using percentages and all of them agreed on the validity of that guide with proposed amendments .

L2-constructions that go together – more on valency constructions and learner language

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-30
Author(s):  
Armine Garibyan ◽  
Evelin Balog ◽  
Thomas Herbst
Keyword(s):  
Argument Structure ◽  
Stimulus Word ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Verbal Stimulus ◽  
Test Battery ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Learner Language ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract This paper sets out to illustrate differences between learner language and the language of native speakers by a number of tests carried out with students of English at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. The first part of the experiment aims at testing knowledge of collocations: In order to compare to what extent combinations of certain words are stored in the constructica of native speakers and advanced learners of English, we used the test battery developed by Dąbrowska (2014): although, as was to be expected, on the whole, native speakers displayed a much greater competence at judging which combinations of words can be regarded as established collocations, interestingly, some learners outperformed some native speakers. The second part of the project was designed to explore the number and types of different valency constructions informants produce on being provided with a verbal stimulus. It is very interesting to see that, given the stimulus word caught, for example, the non-native speakers would predominantly produce sentences with police, thief, murderer, suspect etc. which do not rank amongst the 50 top collexemes of caught in the British National Corpus. We would thus argue that an analysis of the words used in particular slots of argument structure constructions (i.e. the collexemes or itecxes) provides a useful means of characterizing the language of advanced learners and to underscore the importance of collo-phenomena in language teaching.

Priming and adaptation in native speakers and second-language learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
EDITH KAAN ◽  
EUNJIN CHUN
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Double Object ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
L2 Learners

Native speakers show rapid adjustment of their processing strategies and preferences on the basis of the structures they have recently encountered. The present study investigated the nature of priming and adaptation in second-language (L2) speakers and, more specifically, whether similar mechanisms underlie L2 and native language adaptation. Native English speakers and Korean L2 learners of English completed a written priming study probing the use of double object and prepositional phrase datives. Both groups showed cumulative adaptation effects for both types of dative, which was stronger for the structure that was initially less frequent to them (prepositional phrase datives for the native English speakers, and double object datives for the L2 learners). This supports models of priming that incorporate frequency-based modulation of long-lasting activation of structures. L2 learners and native speakers use similar processing mechanisms; differences in adaptation can be accounted for by differences in the relative frequency of structures.

scholarly journals Second language learners’ divergence from target language pragmatic norms

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Pia Gomez-Laich
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
L2 Pragmatics ◽  
Direct Explanation ◽  
The Individual

Pragmatic competence is an indispensable aspect of language ability in order for second and foreign language (L2/FL) learners to understand and be understood in their interactions with both native and nonnative speakers of the target language. Without a proper understanding of the pragmatic rules in the target language, learners may run the risk of coming across as insensitive and rude. Several researchers (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001; Kasper & Rose, 2002) suggest that L2 pragmatics not only can be taught in the L2/FL classroom, but, more importantly, that explicit approaches that involve direct explanation of target pragmatic features are beneficial for learning pragmatics. Just as native speakers of a language acquire a “set of dispositions to act in certain ways, which generates cognitive and bodily practices in the individual” (Watts, 2003, p. 149), instructors can help learners to become aware of the pragmatic features that characterize the target language. Although the importance of explicit teaching of pragmatics is well recognized in the literature, learning norms and rules of pragmatics largely depends on learners’ subjectivity. Learners’ convergence or divergence from the L2 pragmatic norms, both consciously and out of awareness, sometimes depends on whether these norms fit their image of self and their L1 cultural identity. Since identity-related conflict can have significant consequences for the acquisition of second language pragmatics, failing to consider the centrality of learners’ identities will produce an inadequate understanding of SLA. This paper synthesizes studies that document the reasons why learners opt to remain foreign by resisting certain L2 practic-es. The following synthesis question was proposed: Why do language learners resist the pragmatic norms of the target language?

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 Reference to kinds in L2 English

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Yılmaz Köylü
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Mass Nouns ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Acceptability Judgments

This study investigated the acquisition of kind referring noun phrase interpretation in L2 English by learners with Turkish, Arabic and Chinese L1 backgrounds. 37 advanced learners of English with Turkish (10), Arabic (10) and Chinese (10) L1 backgrounds, and 7 native English speakers were recruited. The tasks were a 48-item Fill in the gaps task and a 64-item Acceptability judgment task. The results indicated that: (a) native speakers, and L2 learners mostly produced bare plurals for count nouns and bare singulars for mass nouns for kind reference; (b) L2 learners of English transferred the morphosyntactic manifestation of kind reference from their L1s, substantiating the Full Transfer Full Access Hypothesis (Schwartz & Sprouse, 1996); and (c) the similarity between the participants’ L1s and L2 did not always lead them to produce correct noun forms and articles for kind reference, neither did such a similarity consistently help the learners in their acceptability judgments for kind reference.

The Treatment of Foreground-Background Information in the On-Line Descriptive Discourse of Second Language Learners

1984 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell S. Tomlin
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
Discourse Production ◽  
On Line ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

This paper compares the foregrounding strategies of native speakers of English and advanced learners of ESL. Fifteen native speakers and thirty-five advanced learners produced on-line (play-by-play) descriptions of the unfolding action in an animated videotape. A methodology for the quantitative analysis of discourse production is described which permits the explicit identification of foreground-background information and its interaction with both native speaker and interlanguage syntaxes. Results show that: (1) Native speakers and learners exhibit one universal discourse strategy in retreating to a more pragmatic mode of communication under the severe communicative stress of on-line description, as revealed through the systematic loss of the coding relations ordinarily holding between foreground-background information and clause independence/tense-aspect; (2) Learners also exhibit a learner-specific general communication strategy in which significant events are described but nonsignificant events avoided.

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