scholarly journals Is Library Database Searching a Language Learning Activity?

2010 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Bordonaro
Keyword(s):  
International Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
Database Searching ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

This study explores how non-native speakers of English think of words to enter into library databases when they begin the process of searching for information in English. At issue is whether or not language learning takes place when these students use library databases. Language learning in this study refers to the use of strategies employed by students to develop English vocabulary knowledge. This study found that international students do seem to engage in language learning when using library databases, and it identifies and describes their strategies.

The Author Recognition Test and Vocabulary Knowledge: A Replication

1997 ◽  
Vol 85 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1428-1430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sy-Ying Lee ◽  
Stephen Krashen ◽  
Lucy Tse
Keyword(s):  
Recognition Test ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Voluntary Reading ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Free Voluntary Reading

Scores on the Author Recognition Test and self-report of number of books read (free voluntary reading) made independent contributions to scores on a passive vocabulary measure for 30 adult native-speakers of English.

Investigating the apology strategies of Saudi learners of English

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 598-625 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Abdel Salam El-Dakhs
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Completion Test ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Saudi Arabic

Abstract The present study examines the apologetic behavior of Saudi learners of English in a foreign language learning context. The study also investigates the influence of language exposure, gender, distance and dominance on the learners’ apologies. To this end, a Discourse Completion Test was completed by (1) 411 Saudi learners of English, (2) 42 native speakers of Saudi Arabic and (3) 47 native speakers of English. The groups of native speakers provided the norms of apologetic behavior in the learners’ first (L1) and second (L2) languages. The results showed the Saudi participants’ preference for face-saving strategies to both the speaker and hearer, and a positive influence for increased L2 exposure on the learners’ pragmatic competence. The variables of gender, distance and dominance also proved influential but to varying degrees. The results are interpreted in light of the existing literature and theoretical models. Pedagogical implications and research directions are proposed.

scholarly journals THE DIALECTICS OF ENGLISH DOMINANCE

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-106
Author(s):  
LILIA D. MONZO
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Competitive Edge ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Colonial Order

The Hegemony of English across the world cannot be overstated (Macedo, Dendrinos & Gounari 2016). More and more nations are encouraging, if not mandating through compulsory education requirements, that their citizens learn English (Xue & Zuo 2013). This demand for English is rising even among countries who have few native speakers of English. Importantly, making any language learning a national project carries a critical message about that language and its power. Robert Philipson (2011) points out that this growing demand and compulsory establishment of English (through schooling) can be nothing less than linguistic imperialism, with the World Bank re-introducing the historical colonial order. Nations are clamoring to learn English as quickly as possible in the hopes that doing so will boost their competitive edge on the global market (McCormick 2013). Indeed, there is evidence that English proficiency elevates the status and power of specific nations and provides individuals greater access to jobs and resources, but as Anna Odrowaz-Coates shows, in the case of Portugal and Poland, this will not happen without a significant cost to the national identity and to the identities of the people and their families and communities.

CROSSLINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES IN IMPLICIT LANGUAGE LEARNING

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janny H. C. Leung ◽  
John N. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
First Language ◽  
English Word ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Language Knowledge ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
English Group ◽  
Chinese Group

We report three experiments that explore the effect of prior linguistic knowledge on implicit language learning. Native speakers of English from the United Kingdom and native speakers of Cantonese from Hong Kong participated in experiments that involved different learning materials. In Experiment 1, both participant groups showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and noun animacy. In Experiment 2, neither group showed learning of a mapping between articles and a linguistically anomalous concept (the number of capital letters in an English word or that of strokes in a Chinese character). In Experiment 3, the Chinese group, but not the English group, showed evidence of learning a mapping between articles and a concept derived from the Chinese classifier system. It was concluded that first language knowledge affected implicit language learning and that implicit learning, at least when natural language learning is concerned, is subject to constraints and biases.

scholarly journals Intelligibility: The Goal of Language Learning and Teaching

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Sayyed Rashid Shah ◽  
Abdullah Al-Bargi
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Post Intervention ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
The Impact

<p>This action research study investigates the intelligibility of Saudi EFL learners’ speeches in relation to the Lingua Franca Core (LFC). This study is carried out in an EFL class of 15 Saudi learners. One native and four non-native speakers of English performed the role of evaluators. A mixed-method approach was adopted to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data. The learners’ scores in their pre and post-intervention speeches led to the understanding of the impact of LFC on leaders’ speeches. The scores were awarded by five evaluators responding to a five-point Likert scale questionnaire while judging learners’ intelligibility. The results showed moderate improvement in the learners’ post-intervention speeches in terms of intelligibility. This procedure was followed by semi-structured interviews conducted with individual evaluators/listeners who rated post-intervention speeches as well-organized, lengthier and planned, delivered fluently and confidently in spite of insignificant improvement in the production of LFC features. Based on the findings, it can be recommended that LFC can have little or no impact on the learners’ pronunciation, thus intelligibility should be the goal of language teaching and learning in EFL settings.</p>

Development of interactional competence

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Machiko Achiba
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Zone Of Proximal Development ◽  
Proximal Development ◽  
Interactional Competence ◽  
Old Japanese ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Over Time

This study explores the development of the interactional competence of an 8-year-old, Japanese learner of English over three cooking sessions with native speakers of English at her home during her period of residence in Australia. The study draws upon Vygotsky’s (1978) zone of proximal development in order to elucidate the L2 child’s process of acquiring interactional competence in this unfamiliar social practice (i.e., cooking-relevant talk). The analysis reveals marked changes in the child’s participation pattern over time, moving from making relevant minimal responses to more initiated, and autonomous participation. The child recycled some of the interlocutors’ utterances from the previous sessions, showing that the earlier cooking sessions provided her with a linguistic challenge and became a resource of language learning for her. She also made use of a textual resource (i.e., the recipe) as a scaffold to move toward more autonomous participation. In addition, the role of the recipe became less central as her participation became increasingly more independent.

A Computer Corpus-Based Study of Chinese EFL Learners’ Use of Adverbial Connectors and Its Implications for Building a Language-Based Learning Environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Fei Deng ◽  
Timothy V. Rasinski
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Foreign Language Learners ◽  
English Major ◽  
Native Speakers Of English

This research adopts the methodology of corpus-based analysis and contrastive interlanguage analysis (CIA), using three corpora as the data source to analyze the adverbial connectors used by Chinese EFL (English as a foreign language) learners (i.e., university students in Guangzhou, China) in their written English. Major findings show that Chinese EFL learners have displayed a general tendency to overuse English adverbial connectors in terms of total tokens when compared with native speakers of English, and Chinese EFL learners deviate notably from the native speakers of English in the use of some individual English adverbial connectors. The research explores that Chinese EFL learners’ use of English adverbial connectors might be influenced by L1 transfer, writing handbooks’ and teachers’ instruction, learners’ lack of audience awareness, and lack of stylistic awareness. The research has some implications for language learning: a large collection of learner corpora, a target language's native speakers corpus, a learner's mother language corpus, and corpus software AntConc can complement textbooks in language learners’ deep learning process, constituting a language-based learning environment for human languages with reduced perplexity and increased accuracy.

scholarly journals Project-based Language Learning: Email Exchanges between Non-native English Speakers

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 941
Author(s):  
Sue Wang
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Chinese Students ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Efl College Students ◽  
Efl Learning

his study presents the findings of an email exchange project between Chinese and Korean EFL college students. With the non-native speakers of English far outnumbered the native speakers, it is necessary to investigate the interactions between these non-native speakers whose communication is made possible only through English. 36 Chinese EFL college students participated in this e-pal project with a group of 28 Korean EFL college students. This paper reported the Chinese students’ perceptions and their attitudes towards interactions through email exchange with their non-native counterparts. Implications of using project as an approach in EFL learning and teaching is also discussed.

scholarly journals Representation of the Characters in the Claimed English as an International Language-Targeted Coursebooks

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehdi Solhi Andarab
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Materials Development ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
International Language ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
The Subject

<p><em>The cultural and linguistic hegemony of the native speakers of English over the non-native speakers in the process of language learning and teaching has paved the way for the stereotypical and biased representations of the non-native speakers of English in majority of the English Language Teaching (ELT) coursebooks. Actually, this essentialist approach in the process of materials development is likely to result in reductionist overgeneralization and otherization of foreign societies (Holliday, 1994). However, in recent years, with the advent of English as a International Language (EIL), the issue of native speakerism, the ownership of English, and consequently the cultural content of ELT coursebooks have been the subject of debates. Despite the dominance of native speaker varieties of English in ELT coursebooks, there has been a growing awareness among publishers over the past years and accordingly some EIL-based coursebooks targeted specifically at EIL learners have been published. In this study, a sample group of such coursebooks was subject to close scrutiny. In so doing, an attempt was made to examine the representation of the characters in the claimed EIL-targeted coursebooks. According to the results of the study, despite the claim to be based on EIL, the biased representation of the non-native speakers of English is observed throughout the entire series of the analyzed coursebooks and they superficially surface a stereotypical association of culture and location/country.</em><em></em></p>

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