Usefulness of Digital Language Resources in Improving Native Language among Adults

Important keys to effective communication are language competences, which can be supported by using digital language resources. These usually assist the acquisition of a second language, despite their potential for improving one’s native language. Our study was, thus, aimed at raising awareness about the possibilities of improving the native language of an adult population by using digital language resources for the Slovenian language. We conducted workshops, a survey and, partly, semi-structured interviews with 124 participants. We examined whether the perceived usefulness and ease of using digital language resources depends on age, education, self-assessed language proficiency, and experience with language training. The analysis revealed that self-initiative use of analogue language resources is related positively to using digital ones for seeking information, improving language use, as well as for study or work. Moreover, self-assessed proficiency in language was found to affect the perceived ease of using digital language resources. These findings may help language professionals support developing language skills by using digital language resources and preserving language in an adult population.

The Importance of Getting Automated Grammar Feedback via Grammarly, for Increasing Students' English Language Proficiency

In the last decade, technology has played a significant part in human civilization. One example of technological advancement is the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a tool for learning. One digital application, namely Grammarly, is an AI tool used to edit sentences to eliminate grammar errors and deliver conciseness and engagement for the readers. We conducted research involving Indonesian university students, in which they do not possess English as a native language. Using this application to receive feedback and help with learning writing in English, we hope to find out how Grammarly as an AI tool for learning has a significant effect on English proficiency. The results showed that Grammarly had helped them form English sentences, learn grammar rules, and improve their writing performance overall.

Location-Based Internationalization and Localization With Mobile Computing

The Android system operates on many smartphones in many locales. Websites and web tools have their own requirements in day-to-day life. To reach the maximum users, the app and website should handle all the resources such as text strings, functions, layouts, graphics, and any other static data that the app/website needs. It requires internationalization and localization of the website and app to support multiple languages. The basic idea of this chapter is to present an approach for localizing the Android application according to the location data that the app received from the device, but many users do not allow the “access location” feature so this approach will be a dead end in this case. The authors have proposed some other techniques to achieve this feature of localization and internationalization by implementing the “choose language” service so that the app can itself optimize its content and translate it into the user's native language.

Classcraft as a Resource to Implement Gamification in English-Medium Instruction

The exponential growth of English-medium instruction (EMI) programs in higher education has driven to the search for new and innovative teaching resources and techniques to facilitate the teaching and learning of disciplinary content matter through a non-native language. During the last years, gamification has emerged as a great tool when it comes to foster students' motivation and, consequently, favour their learning. There are numerous ways of introducing gamification in the classroom and a high number of resources and tools available for teachers to design and implement gamification proposals. One of these tools is Classcraft, an online role-playing platform that allows the teacher to turn the classroom into a real role-playing scenario. This chapter will explore the benefits of including gamification—and more specifically Classcraft—for EMI in higher education. Exhaustive guidelines are described in order to serve as a base for EMI lecturers to implement gamification in their courses.

Teaching of Foreign Language in the Educational Process of Public Administration Personnel in Ukraine

The main aim of this chapter is to describe the organizational and methodological foundations of professional education for public servants using modern educational methods. Its scientific novelty is in the description of teaching a foreign language to students of specialities in public administration. It has a character of theoretical representation of the existing methods of teaching a foreign language to students specializing in public administration in Ukraine. It is concluded that foreign language teaching in the process of training public servants is not a key subject, but it does not solve the problem of the need to master it. In this connection, teachers have to highlight certain aspects in the methodology so that professional training coincides with the native language. It is necessary to pay attention to the general language training, and only then introduce professional vocabulary. The relevance of this research is to share an existing experience with colleagues from other countries.

Analyzing Public Concern Responsesfor Formulating Ordinances and Lawsusing Sentiment Analysis through VADER Application

Purpose–Thispaperaimed to develop a system that applies VADER Sentiment Analysis to tweets collected using adevelopedtwitter scraper toolto identify the insights of public responsesbased on their tweetson certain government servicesrendered to them thus providing legislators of the province of Laguna an additional tool in writing future legislations.Method–This study may serve as an additional tool tothe Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Laguna in identifying sentiments of the public in terms of government services that are rendered and lack thereof based on the collected tweets written in Tagalog, English or Taglish(Tagalog and English).Data collected through the Twitter scraper tool are preprocessed taking into consideration the special characters that also have impact on scoring sentiments, emojis,and emoticons. The compound score is computed by normalizing the sum of the polarityscores foreach tweet.Results–Aside from a tabular visualization of VADER’s results, the system also provides graphical representation of the evaluation result with the percentage of positive neutral and negative tweets. Based on the result of the testing and evaluation, the VADER model is 80.71% accurate and had an F-score of 84.33%.Conclusion–The reports generated from the system be utilized to serve as potentially additional basis for legislators of the province of Laguna in writing legislations such as resolutions and ordinances based on the sentiment or voice of the community. Recommendations–It is recommended to collaborate with linguists to develop a native language of VADER’s lexicon to improve the accuracy of the sentiment scores.

Language situation and status of languages in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania

The article substantiates the socio-economic and cultural-historical introduction of the Ossetians to the Russian language, which is considered as the result of the natural development of the standard of living of the highlanders. The aim of the study is to consider the history and characteristics of national-Russian bilingualism, the role of language interaction in the formation of a bilingual personality, society, identification of deformed linguistic processes that led to both the loss of the function of language proficiency and its use in everyday life, as well as measures that contribute to the revival of native language. The article emphasizes that the Russian language has become a civilizing factor that has significantly accelerated the development of the spiritual culture of the mountaineers, that it, along with the Ossetian language, is recognized as the state language of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania as a language of interethnic communication, it is provided with free functioning throughout the republic. The work also focuses on the ethno-demographic composition of the population, emphasizes the polyethnicity of the region, which contributes to the strengthening of the role of the Russian language as a language of interethnic communication. During the 20th century, a sharp delimitation of the functions of the Russian and native languages leads to a weakening of the role of the national language, which exposes it to the threat of extinction. Loss of language entails a loss of self-awareness, culture, perception of the world, as well as the loss of self-identification. According to the authors, the republic itself needs to be concerned about the widespread use and all-round development of the native language in national government bodies, public organizations of science, culture, education, health care and the service sector. We need to work with those native speakers who do not consider it prestigious to communicate in their native language in the family, do not try to pass it on to the next generation: the lack of linguistic continuity is destructive. To preserve the language in the context of globalization, the authors propose to strengthen the role of the state and society, to consolidate the efforts of scientists, statesmen and public figures in order to influence the activities of the media to preserve the language and culture; direct their efforts towards harmonious bilingualism.

The Loss of the Native Language and Post-Imperial Narratives

This article addresses the issue of language in colonial and post-colonial contexts and its role in delineating authentic features of national identity. The first part tackles African and Irish theorists such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Douglas Hyde whose views of clinging to the native tongue promote the politics of an essentialist identity. According to them, the loss of the native language brings about feelings of inferiority and estrangement which serve only to empower the colonizer. The article, then, proceeds to more tolerant writers who believe in the colonizer’s share in the making of the present of the colonized and favor hybrid identities. For them, it is impossible to reduce the polyvocality of the moment into the too-familiar, too-reassuring fictions of the old days. Finally, this work focuses on the Irish context through Yeats and Joyce who radically transform the idea of the nation theorizing for style as an agent of redemption from colonial artistic and political confines. Their cosmopolitan techniques allow the breakthrough of a new context, a post-imperial writing. The loss of the native language, therefore, opens alternative artistic paths to experiment with the language of the colonizer fostering a modern, cosmopolitan and continuously changing “national” identity. Keywords: National identity, native language, essentialist, hybrid, experimentation, post-imperial