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How Relevant is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis to Contemporary Psycholinguistic Research?

Author(s): Jolanta Latkowska / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

The paper raises the question of whether the linguistic relativity proposal, also known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, should be used as a frame of reference for modern research into the relationship of language to cognition. The question is discussed in the context of Whorf’s (1956) writings, with emphasis on factors that are crucial to the proposal, i.e. language, thought, and behavior. The second issue addressed by the paper is whether linguistic categories provide an accurate window on cognition, as was suggested by Whorf and in some of the more recent debates. The analysis takes the form of a correlational study which examines the categorization criteria applied in tests that require language-based and language-neutral judgments.

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From introduction to phonemic symbols to development of transcription skills: A case study in the English Department at University of Tuzla

Author(s): Sanel Hadžiahmetović Jurida / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2014

The present study portrays some of the key aspects of connected speech in English, as adopted by 42 native Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian-speaking undergraduate students of English in the English Department, University of Tuzla, in the academic year2013/2014. More specifically, the study shows how successfully these students developed their transcription skills in English, particularly when it comes to the use of diacritics for dental, velarised, and syllabic consonants of English,as well as for aspirated and unreleased (unexploded) English plosives. In addition, the study focuses on the coalescent type of assimilation. Connected speech (also known as rapid, relaxed, casual, or fluent speech) is characterised by a number of phonetic phenomena. The paper also analyses the level to which students enrolled in the English Department in Tuzla have developed a sense of elementary terms in this field, an understanding of the English sound system, and generally speaking, to what extent they developed their broad and narrow transcription skills.

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Multilingual Processing Phenomena in Learners of Portuguese as a Third or Additional Language

Author(s): Teresa Maria Włosowicz / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

The purpose of the study is an analysis of Polish students’ cued translation of Polish (L1) and English or French (L2) sentences into Portuguese (third or additional language in De Angelis’s (2007) terminology). In particular, the study investigates cross-linguistic interaction (Herdina & Jessner’s (2002) term) in multilingual processing involved in L3 production. In fact, translation constitutes a special case of production because, on the one hand, the content is already contained in the L1 or L2 source sentences, but, at the same time, this is not necessarily a facilitation, as the cues may require the use of words or structures the participants might not use in free production. The article is based on two studies carried out with thirty and forty-two students of Portuguese philology respectively. As the results show, cross-linguistic interaction in various directions was observed, not only from L2 (English or French), L3 (in those participants for whom Portuguese was an L4 and their L3 was Spanish or Italian), L4, etc. or, intralingually, from Portuguese, but also from L1, despite the distance between Polish and Portuguese and the special status of the native language. However, the amount of interference and/or negative transfer often depended on the sentence rather than on the language combination. The diversity of the observed interactions also supports Herdina and Jessner’s (2002) claim of the dynamic and unpredictable nature of cross-linguistic interaction.

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Tingiv kõneviis eesti B1- ja B2-taseme kirjalikus õppijakeeles kui keeleoskuse arengu näitaja

Author(s): Mare Kitsnik / Language(s): Estonian Issue: 25/2015

The article described the use of the conditional mood in written exam texts of adult second language learners of Estonian at B1 and B2 level. Be study on which the article is based is part of a larger study, the goal of which is to develop linguistic descriptions to accompany the functional descriptions of B1 and B2 level given in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR 2007). This is to be achieved by identifying the linguistic categories typically used at these levels, describing their frequency of use, analyzing their complexity and accuracy (Housen et al. 2012), determining the connections between the categories and various discourse functions, and specifying descriptors that serve to distinguish between the two levels.As the conditional mood is used far more at B2 level than at B1 level (Kitsnik 2014), it is one of the categories distinguishing B2 from B1 which requires more detailed study. Be results of the study discussed in the article show that at both B1 and B2 level, only the personal voice present tense forms of the conditional mood are used. At B1 level, the conditional is used with eight different verbs,most frequently tahtma ‘to want’ and saama ‘be able to’. At B2 level, the conditional is used with 23 different verbs, most often with tahtma ‘to want’, olema ‘tobe’, võima ‘to be able to’, pidama ‘must’, soovima ‘to wish, desire’, and soovitama‘to recommend’.At B2 level, the conditional is used in more morphological forms than those found at B1 level (the first and third person singular), and it also appears in a range of other constructions (with an object, with a predicate, and in both the main and subordinate clauses of complex sentences) in addition to the B1-level construction of “verb in conditional + infinitive”. As regards discourse functions, the conditional is used at both B1 and B2 level primarily to express politeness. Linguistic accuracy increases at B2 level in the constructions which are used also at B1 level.

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Izražavanje posvojnih odnosa u pripovjednom diskursu jednojezične djece govornika hrvatskoga i engleskoga jezika

Author(s): Lidija Šaravanja,Ivana Trtanj / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1-2/2016

As a part of a child’s everyday communication, narrative provides a wide linguistic con-text, evaluating isolated words and clauses. This type of discourse requires children to combine words and sentences for a specific purpose. Narrative gives insight into how successful children are in using their communicative linguistic skills. Unlike conversing, storytelling strives to decontextualization which changes the inner organization of narrative. Children’s ability to narrate and create the structures of stories has been thoroughly explored in contemporary literature, whereas the less explored aspect is the aspect of narrative which describes referential cohesion and the usage of referential expressions telling about animate characters (a boy, a dog), objects (a tree, a jar) and about other entities (family, home). The paper investigates the way children, speakers of typologically different languages, process the notion of possession cognitively and linguistically. Both internal (attributive and predicative) and external possession is observed. The aim of the paper is to identify possessive relations that are expressed in children's language as well as the means of expressing them. It is assumed that four-year- olds percieve prototypical possessive relations and utter them using relatively simple, grammatically and semantically prototypical expressions. On the other hand, ten-year-olds are expected to use more complex constructions and perceive more diverse relations between a possessors and a posessee. Comparing the utterances crosslinguistically, children speaking Croatian, a morphologically more complex language, are expected to aquire linguistic means for expressing possession at a later age.

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Loan translations as a language contact phenomenon

Author(s): Lea Meriläinen,Helka Riionheimo,Päivi Kuusi,Hanna Lantto / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

This article provides a review of loan translations as a language contact phenomenon from the perspectives of contact linguistics, second language acquisition (SLA) research and translation studies (TS). We discuss both similarities and differences in the ways in which loan translations are conceptualized across these three disciplines. The discussion highlights a common cognitive basis underlying bilingual language use, SLA and translation, while at the same time the prevailing attitudes to loan translations in these disciplines reveal differing underlying ideologies. This study is a contribution towards broadening the scope of language contact studies to cover related disciplines that examine similar phenomena.

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Code-switching in emergent grammars

Author(s): Virve-Anneli Vihman / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

This paper examines the code-switching of verbs in the speech of two children bilingual in Estonian and English (aged 3 to 7). Verbs typically have lower rates of code-switching than nouns, due to their central role in argument structure, lower semantic specificity, and greater morphological complexity. The data examined here show various types of morphological mixing, and include examples which violate the prediction from the literature that only finite verbs bear inflectional morphology from the other language, suggesting that children do not adhere to the same constraints as adults when code-switching.

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Buckingham, Louisa. 2016. Doing a research project in English studies: A guide for students

Author(s): Višnja Pavičić Takač / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2016

Review of: Buckingham, Louisa. 2016. Doing a research project in English studies: A guide for students

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АКУСТИЧЕСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ РУССКОЙ РЕЧИ КИТАЙЦЕВ С ПОМОЩЬЮ ПРОГРАММЫ “SPEECH ANALYZER”

Author(s): Ravza Ekzamovna Kulsharipova,Zhuang Weiwei / Language(s): Russian Issue: 5/2014

The article studies the prosodic peculiarities of the Russian speech of Chinese students with an elementary knowledge of the Russian language. The analysis uses the computer program Speech Analyzer. Pauses, duration of syntagmas and word intensity in the speech flow are investigated. The prosodic features of Chinese students’ Russian speech are revealed.

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ОПТИМАЛЬНАЯ ПОСЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬНОСТЬ ПРЕПОДАВАНИЯ ГРАММАТИКИ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА

Author(s): Rauza Ismailovna Kuryayeva / Language(s): Russian Issue: 5/2015

The analysis of the English language structure revealed the principle of inherent development (complication) of the English predicate. On the basis of this principle, an optimal method of teaching the English language was worked out. It was shown as a stepwise scheme in this paper. The basis of teaching the English language is to make learners understand its grammar rules, as well as to consolidate all the grammar nuances in their speech. In the first place, the basic English grammar with the help of such verbs as to be and to have is studied. Secondly, modal verbs are examined. Finally, the tense-aspectual forms of the English verb are learned. The practical application of this method demonstrated significant reduction in the period of study.

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Değinim Durumundaki Azınlık Dillerinin Sürdürümü

Author(s): Sonel Bosnalı / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 2/2016

Language death occurs in three cases: change, transformation and extinction. The reasons of language death can be collected under two headings, as physical or sudden and cultural or slow death. Slow death which may be referred as “cultural assimilation” occurs though cultural change. It doesn’t depend upon mass extinction. When a community turns into a minority due to immigration or a culture dominates another culture, the language of the minority which is under pressure is exposed to a long process which will lead to extinction. This process is generally referred to as “language contact” which is maintained to be an important agent in language death. Sociologists who especially study Europe argue that language contact results in language conflict, which lead to the death one of those languages in contact. Opposite to this “conflictual” approach, sociologists who study America adopt “diglossia” model. They maintain that language contact may occur in a “peaceful” environment and it does not always lead to a conflict and may not result in language death. Linguistic behaviours of multi-lingual communities and factors affecting these behaviours are to be determined to be prescient about death of languages or maintenance problematic. Defining language switch as “any circumstances in which coexistence of two languages at the same period effect individual behaviours” refers to its individual trait. However, a definition as “use of two or more language systems by the community” emphasizes its social aspect. Multilingualism may affect not only individual language behaviours but also language behaviours of all or a part of the community. The fact that lies beneath the factor that determines language behaviours of a community concerning language shift or language maintenance is the quality of the relations between languages. One prominent effect is language planning which occurs by “in vitro” intervention. Languages on part with each other in terms of location, status and function can be used in every field without borders. These language situations where legislative regulations and practices are the case as a result of recognition of multilingualism on individual, regional and national basis are the most appropriate planning for maintaining of languages. Unbalanced planning which refers to one language in a community where multilingualism is not recognized imposes one language on the community. Other languages do not have any formal status and function versus official or national language. This situation which is referred to casual multilingualism does not allow a transition between languages. An unbalanced relation occurs between a “metalanguage” which is supported by the political power and a “sublanguage” which lacks any kind of support, which shows language switch. In this case minority language exposes to a long extinction process until the death of its own. On the other hand, linguists who study Greece, Haiti, Switzerland, Tunisia and Zaire are of the opinion that diglossic language circumstances differ from conflictual multilingualism and maintaining of language is possible in unbalanced planning. Language situation which is referred as a functional distribution of two or more different languages in hierarchical relations in a community may show stability for a long period. In the context, studies on Azeri Turkish and Khalaj in Iran indicate that there is a diglossic language planning based on function division and behaviours of language maintenance differ by population and other social factors in this country. As a result, examples in some countries where multilingualism is distinctly planned show that balanced relation does not always bring deconflict and unbalanced one does not bring conflict herewith. Besides, they corroborate the hypothesis that “diglossia” model may be a solution to maintain minority languages.

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MANAGING RISKS IN THE INTERPRETATION AND TRANSLATION OF TECHNICAL IDIOMS

Author(s): Nadia-Nicoleta Morăraşu,Gabriela Andrioai / Language(s): English Issue: 35/2016

In its narrower sense, the class of linguistic expressions called “idioms” involves fixed and semantically opaque units. Considering that most combinations of words with figurative meaning related to technology can be more or less transparent, while some are completely opaque, there is a high risk of interpreting their meaning without thinking about the metaphors they contain. The mitigation in this case lies in making sense of their idiomatic meanings by projecting mental images based on their metaphors.Starting from findings reported by semantic and cognitive linguistic research, our paper validates the assumption that native speakers use idioms coming from technology instinctively, without thinking about their figurative nature, while language learners tend to use them denotatively and run the risk of misinterpretation.In combining the semantic analysis of a lexicographic corpus of technical idioms with an applied linguistic approach to contextualized idiomatic expressions, we intend to perform an assessment of risk factors involved in translating English and Romanian technology-based expressions and to indicate some efficient strategies for their mitigation.

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Aspektualność i consecutio temporum w języku niderlandzkim i polskim

Author(s): Agnieszka Flor-Górecka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 6/2016

In Poland, Dutch is becoming gradually a popular foreign language. It belongs to the Germanic languages, which have a verbal system with tenses. Polish is a Slavonic language with an aspectual verb system. In Polish there are 3 grammatical tenses: present tense, future tense and past tense. Polish verbs can be used in a perfective and an imperfective aspect. In Dutch we have 8 tenses. Four of them are voltooid (perfect) describing the situation or action as completed and the other four are onvoltooid (imperfect), they describe the situation or action as continuous or progressive. As all Germanic languages, Dutch lost aspect as an obligatory grammatical category. The perfective and imperfective aspect of the verb depends on other parts of the sentence.

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Multilingual Upbringing as Portrayed in the Blogosphere: On Parent-Bloggers’ Profile

Author(s): Ingrid Bello-Rodzeń / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

This article presents the results of an online survey completed by an international group of parents who write about their multilingual upbringing experience on personal blogs. As the first stage in a multi-case study that aims at characterizing multilingual parenting styles and strategies, the web questionnaire was designed to build the profile of the participants based on their demographic and linguistic background, their blogging practices, and their family’s linguistic situation. The literature review discusses the prevalence of multilingual child rearing and endorses parent-blogging both as a genre and as a potential research data source. The methodology, on the other hand, introduces the participants, as well as the survey design procedure. Results derive from the identification of salient themes, summarized in two preliminary categories: parents’ views on being bi-/multilingual and parental insights on multilingual upbringing strategies. The descriptive-interpretive analysis of the responses indicates that parents’ understanding of multilingualism influences their self-concept as language users and their being bloggers. Moreover, parents’ capacity to adopt and adapt communication strategies is deemed an important factor for successful early multilingualism. In general, the findings are treated as the starting point to examine the role of parent-blogging in promoting multilingualism and delve into multilingual parenting styles.

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Between New Technologies and New Paradigms in Academic Education. A Non-Reductionist Approach

Author(s): Anna Turula / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The article presents an insight into an exploratory study carried out between February and May 2014. The study looked into the process of teacher training enhanced by new technology: an MA CALL seminar facilitated in the blended format as a series of online and offline tutorials. The participants of the class were 9 first-year students of the TEFL MA programme at the Pedagogical University in Cracow, Poland. The study and its results were described in detail in previous publications (Turula, 2015, Turula, in press). The present article investigates an aspect of the process researched: negotiating between the digital realm, with its different tools and their affordances and a social context of the digital—or blended, as is the case here—education.

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When Language Anxiety and Selective Mutism Meet in the Bilingual Child: Interventions from Positive Psychology

Author(s): Lindsey R. Leacox,Margarita Meza,Tammy Gregersen / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

Selective mutism is more common than initially thought and afflicts immigrant language minority children at approximately three times the rate of monolinguals (Toppelberg, Tabors, Coggins, Lum, & Burgers, 2005). Children who have developmental language and/or articulation problems and children who are quiet due to anxiety or concerns about accents and limited fluency can suffer from selective mutism. This case study examines the efficacy of interdisciplinary treatment with three positive psychology interventions to treat an eight-year-old Spanish-English bilingual child with selective mutism. Pet-assistance therapy, music therapy, and laughter therapy were incorporated into the child’s speech-language therapy sessions to increase verbal productions across 14 weeks. Results indicated that pet-assisted therapy revealed positive outcomes, with modest gains for music and laughter. Implications of outcomes, collaboration, and conclusions are discussed.

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Teaching Materials and the ELF Methodology – Attitudes of Pre-Service Teachers

Author(s): Aleksandra Szymańska-Tworek / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

The central argument voiced in the present paper is that the English language classroom should be influenced by the English as a lingua franca (ELF) methodology. What we mean under the notion of ELF methodology is a set of assumptions and tenets advanced by a number of scholars (e.g., Jenkins, 2002; Seidlhofer, 2011), who advocate rejecting the hegemony of a native-speaker language model and embracing a more egalitarian perspective that promotes the linguistic and cultural diversity of the English-using world. The ELF methodology is one of the recent developments in ELT. An abundant literature (e.g., Spichtinger, 2001; McKenzie, 2008) recommends that learners of English are exposed to as many different varieties of English as possible. A further recommendation (e.g., Matsuda, 2012) is that the cultural content presented to pupils in the ELT classroom should be drawn from multiple sources. The present paper aims to contribute to the debate concerning the implications that the ELF methodology carries for coursebooks and teaching materials. The study explores pre-service teachers’ views on the following questions: (1) How many and which varieties of English should appear in the CD recordings that accompany coursebooks? (2) Cultures of which countries should constitute the content of teaching materials? The data obtained from 170 pre-service teachers majoring in English indicate that most of them are far more willing to embrace the cultural rather than linguistic diversity in their own teaching practice.

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Lautes lesen – Intonationsübungen für polnische Germanistikstudenten

Author(s): Beata Głowińska / Language(s): German Issue: 9/2015

The process of teaching oral skills in German should include the practice of reading aloud. One of the important aspects of this process, requiring special attention, is the use of correct intonation. Practising reading aloud aims at developing listening skills, imitation and individual vocal interpretation of written texts.

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Sfera emocjonalno-uczuciowa osobowości studenta neofilologa a wyniki osiągane w studiowaniu języka obcego

Author(s): Krystyna Janaszek / Language(s): Russian Issue: 9/2015

This paper is dedicated to the emotional-affective (affective) area of personality of a student of modern languages and literature. The affective variables consist of emotions which determine the relation of an individual to the self and the surroundings. In a questionnaire survey conducted by the author of this paper, personality types and models. motivation factors, emotional states accompanying the studies, and the selfconcept were empirically analysed. The study showed that students with very good academic performance differ from those with satisfactory one within the analysed factors. It was demonstrated that success in studying is favoured by: instrumental and integrative (internal) motivation, extroverted features of personality, conscientiousness, need of self-verification, and motive of self-correction.

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Testing speaking skills to A2 students

Author(s): Anna Bała / Language(s): English Issue: 6/2016

Testing speaking skills to A2 students is a step-by-step description of a speaking test format that a representative group of students took at the end of their A2 course. A few examples of the testing tasks are presented in the test layout. The author offers a comment on the assessment criteria and emphasizes the importance of immediate teacher feedback on students’ performance after concluding the testing procedure.

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