Functional and Facilitating: A Look into the Promotion and Standardization of Dutch as the Official Language in the Netherlands

Dutch society is open and international-oriented. A long standing tradition of world trade has contributed to the English proficiency of Dutch citizens. This, however, brings challenges to the status of Dutch as the national official language in the Netherlands. This paper takes the framework of national language capacity building proposed by Wen Qiufang and inspects the Dutch language policy in official language promotion and standardization. Results of the research show that coming from other languages that undermines the position of Dutch as national official language is gradually increasing. The Dutch solution is to put facilitating measures in place and to develop functional tools to support language users and learners. This solution can be valuable for the building of European multilingual landscape with its facilitating feature.

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

Cognitive linguistic aspects of the most important functions of language

A figurative fantasy function presented in the article is meant to provide a link between language and imagination by sparing consciousness copresence. The article reflects the scholars’ controversy concerning the determination of a key function of language. A communicative function of language is replaced by an adaptive one with ever increasing frequency, and language capacity is considered as a biological property of a living organism. The adaptive function of language implies the modification of the behavior of communicants such that the reality provides them with the best conditions for interaction. A communicant modifies their speech behavior, enhancing their general adaptational capacity in the surrounding. Thus, linguistic signs perform the function of orienting toward a more effective type of interpersonal interaction. The method of analytical reconstruction made it possible to obtain a systematic understanding of verbal and cogitative processes and conceptualization of semantic experience through the prism of understanding the functions of language.

Tool and Symbol

This chapter examines the emergence of tool use and human language in human brain evolution. Increasing use and design of tools made possible by the bipedalism of our proto-human ancestors was a key step in the development of language. Indeed, communal tool use ‘helped to bring the members of society together by increasing the cases of mutual support and joint activity’. During this process, ‘the reaction of labour and speech on the development of the brain and its attendant senses, of the increasing clarity of consciousness, power of abstraction and of conclusion, gave both labour and speech an ever renewed impulse to further development’. The chapter then considers the studies which assess the fundamental differences in terms of language capacity between humans and apes. While the behaviourist view that human language acquisition is simply an accumulation of conditioned reflexes now looks incorrect, recent studies have also challenged the view of a biological basis for a ‘universal grammar’ shared by all humans. Instead, increasing evidence points to both human biology and the process of growing up in a specific human society as being factors of equal importance in the formation of language.

Thought and Language

This chapter explores how language helps human beings to group, distinguish, and differentiate between things in the world around them. In other words, what is the basis of conceptual thought, and how does this relate to language capacity as a whole? On the one hand, behaviourists have argued that human beings start life as a ‘blank slate’, and our language capacity is something that we learn by exposure to the language of others. On the other, Noam Chomsky proposed that humans are born with an innate capacity for language, as shown by the ease with which children rapidly learn a wide vocabulary, but also by their remarkable capacity for linking words together in complex grammatical structures. The chapter then looks at developments in the search for a biological basis for human language. Studies suggest that language in humans involves a complex interplay between a number of different genes, FOXP2 being a key one, which affect the connections between neurons in specific parts of the brain. However, it still remains unclear whether FOXP2 gene affects neurons involved in language processing per se or those that control muscles involved in speech.

Alexander Shakhnarovich: A Genuine Scholar and a Wonderful Person

This article dwells on a number of episodes related to the last years of Alexander Shakhnarovich, an outstanding Russian psycholinguist and a talented academic advisor. Alexander Shakhnarovich is known primarily for his research in child speech. The periodisation of speech development in early childhood he worked out is of particular interest. The article pinpoints that Shakhnarovich’s research was not related solely to speech development in ontogenesis, but elucidated a broader range of issues from those of general theory, like the structure of language consciousness, to those of special purposes, like linguistic expertise in forensics, dialectology, intonation and modality, peculiarities of text analysis, etc. It was Shakhnarovich’s great experience in analysing child speech that helped him to explore other psycholinguistic trends. The scientist proved to be an expert both in psycholinguistic issues that were intertwined with pure linguistics and in the psychology of speech. Alexander Shakhnarovich was a remarkable proponent of Lev Vygotsky’s scientific school whose theoretical insights made in the first half of the 20th century underlay Shakhnarovich’s findings. It is noteworthy that both Shakhnarovich and Vygotsky probed into child speech attempting to make conclusions on language capacity development as a whole and to tap into the fundamental through the applied.

USING DRAMA IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO PRIMARY SCHOOL LEARNERS

The article deals with a thorough analysis of drama techniques in teaching English to primary school learners. The review of literature on the problem under discussion has enabled the authors to conclude that using drama in the process of teaching English is a powerful teaching tool that promotes the development of creativity in the learners and enhances cognitive interest in learning a foreign language. Theoretically, however, the problem is underinvestigated in the Ukrainian context; so, the topicality of the research is ensured by existing difficulties in using drama in teaching English to primary school learners. The challenges are mainly caused by the lack of specially designed tasks for this purpose. Hence, the goal of this article is to outline the theoretical prerequisites and develop a methodologically grounded system of exercises and tasks to use drama in teaching English to primary school learners. The methodology of the research relies on the analysis of the available literature on the issue under investigation, with age and psychological characteristics of primary school learners considered. The paper discusses the approaches to defining the concept of dramatization and reveals the essential characteristics of dramatization in the process of teaching English to primary school children. The authors provide a detailed analysis of the classroom benefits of using drama techniques in teaching English to primary school learners and illustrate them by offering a lesson designed for primary school learners. The material used for the lesson designing is based on the educational and language capacity of fairy tales. The paper concludes that a positive effect of using drama in the primary school classroom contributes to enhancing both language and cognitive skills of young learners.

A Case Study on the Conceptualization and Teaching Practice of L2 Argumentative Writing Instruction

Argumentative writing is one of the main writing types in Second Language Writing (SLW) instruction, as it links with the assessment of language capacity in tests. It is a common course for students of tertiary education, but few instructors have a clear comprehension of it. With the goal of giving circumspect teaching implications, this study serves as an illustration for argumentative writing lecturers in higher education. In this study, semi-structured interview, classroom observation and collected written drafts are used as research tools to discover the conceptualization and teaching practice of two lecturers who are instructing English-major sophomores. The findings show that different teaching beliefs (human-oriented and task-oriented) lead to different teaching process in argumentative writing class. Besides, the assessment criteria and students’ response are revealed to understand the effects of those instructions accordingly.

Perceptions of Education Quality and Influence of Language Barrier: Graduation Survey of International Medical Students at Four Universities in China

Background: As an increasing number of Asian and African students are studying medicine in China, it is imperative to assess the training quality of these international medical students (IMSs). The study was to gain insight into the attitudes from China-educated IMSs towards the medical curriculum and the influence of Chinese language abilities on their clinical studies. Methods: A modified Association of American Medical Colleges Graduation Questionnaire was applied among the final-year IMSs during the graduation season from May 2019 to July 2019 at four universities in China. The questionnaire asked IMSs to evaluate medical education quality and assess their Chinese language capacity. One-way ANOVA was used to determine whether participants' Chinese language capacity was associated with their clinical experience and clinical competence. Results: Overall, 209 valid responses were received and 76.1% were satisfied with the quality of the medical education. Genetics, physics, and mathematics were seen as the least helpful basic courses for practice, and 21.5% thought community-oriented medicine was a topic that lacked instruction. 58.9% were positive that discussions surrounding ethical topics were involved during their clerkships, and 71.3% believed they had acquired sufficient clinical skills to begin a residency program. Chinese speaking skill and communication manner were significant factors to influence students' clinical experience and competence. Conclusion: The study demonstrates China-educated IMSs' perceptions of the contemporary education policy from various aspects and language influence on their education experiences. The curriculum for IMSs in China should be more problem-based to enhance course interaction and more community-engaged to meet people's needs for health and medical care. Besides, the oral Chinese teaching and the initiative to speak need to be emphasized to facilitate the clinical training for IMSs. Our findings can be used as a source of evidence to benchmark medical curricular codifications catering for Asian and African students.