EFL Learners’ Invitation Speech Act via Electronic Mail

Author(s): Masoumeh Rezaei / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

The aim of this paper is to investigate Iranian email invitations production considering the gender, the distance between the inviter and the invitee, and the representation as independent variables. To this end, 30 EFL learners including 15 males and 15 females at intermediate level were designated to write email invitations in two different situations. Totally, 60 invitation emails were collected and analyzed. The findings, regarding the length of speech prior to the invitation sentence (s), showed that Iranian EFL learners produced words before the main invitation sentence specifically when they know the invitee. For information sequencing, the frequency of [supportive+invitation] was high among males and females; that is Iranians put their invitation after the supportive sentences to enhance their positive face and the invitee’s. With regard to verb usage in email invitations, Iranian EFL learners used ‘want’, ‘invite’ and ‘would like to invite’, mostly the last two (invite/would like to invite).

Clausal Substitution In English And Bulgarian

Author(s): Snejana Obeyd / Language(s): English,Bulgarian Issue: 1/2020

The article focuses on the ways and mechanisms clausal substitution in English works, thoroughly analysing said cohesive relation along with some of its most typical instances. As the three environments in which clausal substitution exists are report, condition and modality, these are also explicitly defined. Bearing in mind that the English sentences containing clausal substitutes demonstrate the most typical instances of clausal substitution, the study is based on English literary texts which are translated into Bulgarian. Each sentence has several variants of translation: the original published version of the book in Bulgarian as well as the possible variants provided by the author, thus showing the various elements and devices corresponding to English clausal substitutes. The most representative ones are, in turn, analysed and categorized. As a result, the article also describes and discusses the different means through which cohesion is rendered in Bulgarian.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TRANSLATOR?

Author(s): Mihaela Cozma / Language(s): English Issue: 13/2020

In the context of today’s globalized market, the success of a translator depends, to a large extent, on a number of skills which make up what is generally described as (inter)cultural competence. The present paper focuses on the complex nature of the translator’s intercultural competence, examining it from various perspectives: theoretical, sociolinguistic, textual and interpersonal. The author relies on both theoretical and research evidence, with the ultimate goal of arriving at conclusions of relevance for the field of translator training.

Production of a bilingual speaker in Bosnian and German

Author(s): Ivana Vasić / Language(s): English Issue: 14/2018

The goal of this research is to examine beliefs about language and identity shared by a bilingual speaker. The research was conducted through an interview. The questions in the interview were focused on determining to which extent language influences the participant’s sense of belonging to a certain community and to shaping his identity. The respondent is a bilingual first-generation immigrant from Germany. He is a forty-year old man from Bosnia, who moved to Germany as a teenager in 1992. He moved to Germany as an asylum-seeker during the war in Bosnia and continued his education there, where he eventually graduated college, found an employment and got married. The fact that the respondent is a first-generation immigrant, who managed to master a native-like production in the second language, made him even more suitable for the research. Even more remarkable is the fact that the production of his mother tongue has been strongly influenced by his second language. Additionally, the circumstances under which the person was forced to move to another completely strange and unfamiliar social environment provided an interesting insight in the language acquisition and production by bilinguals.

Utjecaj udžbeničkih tekstova na rani leksički razvoj u hrvatskom jeziku

Author(s): Dunja Pavličević-Franić,Tamara Gazdić-Alerić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 3/2010

The language of textbooks should be a mediator and not an obstacle in acquiring knowledge and developing communicative skills in students. This role is achieved primarily by choosing and forming coherent and clear language means, appropriate for the age and cognitive abilities of the textbook recipients. The paper studies the vocabulary of textbooks for lower elementary education, as an important element of clarity and comprehensibility. The quantitative method is used to establish the number of auto-semantic words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and numbers) in the textbook for Croatian, which is then compared with textbooks for Maths and Science. The data are compared with the lexical corpus of early language discourse (age 7 to 10), obtained by previous research and by analysis of students’ works. The aim of this paper is to investigate and evaluate the level of adequacy of the lexical corpus of textbooks, to identify the factors influencing the acquisition, cognition and reception of the text (such as the number of words, complex words, foreign and unfamiliar words, denotations and connotations of words). Further, the importance of adapting textbooks to the cognitive abilities and communicative skills of students in the early period of language learning and teaching is pointed out. The right choice of lexical and semantic relations together with the appropriate syntactic structures will aid bridging the gap between the language of textbooks and the language skills of elementary school students.

Some Aspects Of Multimedia Technology As A Means Of Improving The Quality Of Foreign Language Teaching

Author(s): Olga Kryuchkova / Language(s): English Issue: 3/2020

The article is focused on some of the issues encountered in using multimedia technologies in foreign languages teaching. The process of the advent of ICTs is particularly relevant in the period of rapid informatisation of society. The article presents a review of the findings of some of the Russian scholars engaged in the research on the application of multimedia technologies in foreign language teaching in a non-linguistic environment and covers the way multimedia technologies can be applied in the teaching of phonetics, grammar, and vocabulary. The focus is on one particular program, i.e. iSping.

KVALITET ODGAJATELJEVIH AKTIVNOSTI USMJERENIH NA PODSTICANJE PRAVILNOG GOVORNO-JEZIČKOG RAZVOJA DJECE U VRTIĆU

Author(s): Aida Teljigović,Amina Pehlić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 18/2020

The paper is based on the idea that encouraging proper speech and language development is important for the overall children development. It has been determined that there are numerous methods and activities for encouraging speech and language development that educators can use in their work. The aim of this research was to investigate the educators’ attitudes towards the quality of their activities aimed at encouraging children’s proper speech and language development. We hypothesized that educators encourage children’s proper speech and language development, but that some aspects of their activities also discourage proper speech and language development. A descriptive-analytical survey method was used, while the data were collected by the means of a survey. The instrument used was a questionnaire for educators created for the purposes of this research. The sample comprised 27 educators employed in the Public Institution Preschool Education, Zenica. The findings showed that educators largely carry out activities aimed at encouraging proper speech and language development. However, the results related to their attitudes towards the activities aimed at encouraging and discouraging proper speech and language development indicated that, still, there are particular situations when some educators also carry out activities aimed at discouraging proper speech and language development.

Inovacijski semantemi u procesu usvajanja jezičnoga znaka

Author(s): Dunja Pavličević-Franić,Marija Sikirić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 3/2005

To learn and master any language means to acquire the language system and the language structure, in other words, what is usually referred to as the genius of the language, its formal substance as well as all the potentials and restrictions which appear within a language system, especially in early language acquisition of Croatian language. Through some examples of the formation of nominal gender semantic pairs we have attempted to determine their frequency in speech and to establish theoretical language combinations on the borderline between morphology, syntax and semantics.

KONTRASTIVNA ANALIZA AUTORSKIH DIDASKALIJA U NOVINSKIM IZVJEŠTAJIMA

Author(s): Mladen D. Papaz,Ružica Zeljko-Zubac / Language(s): Croatian,Serbian Issue: 71/2020

Die vorliegende Arbeit befasst sich mit der Art und Weise der Übermittlungen von fremden Aussagen und der Identifikation der Informations- quellen in Zeitungsberichten. Der Journalist benutzt während der Berichterstattung meistens syntaktische Konstruktionen, wie z.B. Obersatzreste, um die primäre Infor- mationsquelle hervorzuheben und auf seine Vermittlerrolle bei der Berichterstattung hinzuweisen. Die Grundfunktion der Obersatzreste, welche die Worte des Journalisten enthalten, ist auf die fremde Aussage hinzuweisen, die Quelle der Modalität zu nen- nen und zu identifizieren, mit dem Ziel, den Inhalt des propositionalen Gehaltes als glaubhaft darzustellen und den Bericht als autentisch zu zeigen. Dieses Modell der Identifikation der Modalquelle konnotiert eine professionelle, objektive und neutrale Berichterstattung. In dieser Arbeit haben wir mit Hilfe der kontrastiven Analyse die vorerwähnten syntaktischen Konstruktionen beschrieben und gleichzeitig auf die Unterschiede in der serbischen und deutsche Sprache hingewiesen.

Gij zult andermans taalfouten koesteren! Tolerantie voor taalveranderingen en spellingfouten

Author(s): Agata Kowalska-Szubert / Language(s): Dutch Issue: 5S/2020

This essay is a plea for more careful use of Dutch language, in particular by translators and teachers of Dutch. In particular, the spelling always proves to be a difficult stumbling block, and not just for second-language or foreign-language learners. The essay examines the problem of compound words and mistakes made by professional language practitioners of Dutch when writing these words or not.

Основи на идеогенезиса (Откъси)

Author(s): Krassimir Mantchev / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 52/2020

Kompetenca gramatikore e nxënësve të klasave XII në Prishtinë

Author(s): Agnesa Hasimja / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 38.1/2019

The term “grammatical competence”, first used by Chomsky (1965:3), refers to the born ability of people to generate an infinity of phrases; linguistic knowledges (systems of rules) of these individuals to understand grammatical errors and different ambiguities. Whereas, Hymes (1972:269) speaks about the communication ability or competence, as knowledge or cognition a speaker or listener needs, but which has a broader basis than the competence of Chomsky linguistics. Communicative competence includes in itself: grammatical competence, socio-linguistic competence, lecturing competence and strategic competence. Grammatical competence remains linked to the mastery of the language code itself, which includes the characteristics and rules of the language, such as: vocabulary, morphology (word formulation/building), syntax, pronunciation, spelling and language semantics. Consequently, since the linguistic components, along with other components play a role in the development of communication abilities of students (pupils), as one of main objectives of Albanian language curricula, they will be part of our research. In this research will be depicted the current state of grammatical knowledge of twelfth grades students (pupils) in Prishtina, obtaining the data from the field research, through the method of polling. In order to have a critical view against the given result, the research will be focused on Albanian languge curricula for the twlefth grades.

Strategji dhe metoda inovative për të mësuar më shpejt një gjuhë të huaj në kontekstin e studimeve akademike të gjuhës shqipe si gjuhë e dytë

Author(s): Vladimir Georgiev Vladimirov / Language(s): Albanian Issue: 38.2/2019

In this paper I’m going to present modern, alternative approaches to language learning and discuss the opportunities for their incorporation into the academic Albanian language courses outside of the Albanian speaking areas. Based on evidence and from my personal experience as a philology student, universities often fail to provide a suitable, interesting and dynamic immersion environment and to boost the learning motivation of the student. The focus is put almost only on translation and passive understanding and not on the equally distributed development of all the components of the language knowledge. As a consequence, students are progressing very slowly and it’s not uncommon among them to fail to achieve professional realization with Albanian language due to not reaching the expected language proficiency from the course. Scientists have proven that one can learn at easiest a foreign language, when one feels pleasure and is actively involved in the material of instruction. Spaced repetition is a technique, which implies review of learned words or idioms at increasing intervals. Being a language student and teacher myself and having researched the modern language learning strategies like “speaking from day”, “bidirectional translation”, “learning from an interesting content”, “learning with building blocks”, suggestopedia and the classical ones, I have developed my own set of strategies, which increases the speed and the quality of the learning process. With this paper I would like to offer solutions which could improve the quality of the lectures and the performance of the students in the university classes of Albanian.

Literature in English Language Education

Author(s): Tea Gavrilović Smolić / Language(s): English Issue: 01/2020

The review of: Bland, Janice, ed. 2018. Using Literature in English Language Education: Challenging Reading for 8 – 18 Year Olds. London and New York: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 328 pp. ISBN: HB 978-1-3500-3425-9.

Przyimek i jego użycie w pracach pisemnych osób dyslektycznych

Author(s): Ewa Boksa / Language(s): Polish Issue: 01/2021

The research presented in this paper is aimed to answer the question whether dyslexic people who had been diagnosed with delayed speech development before they started school use prepositions correctly in statements and how their ability to use prepositional phrases affects their formation of sentence structures. The material underlying the research on the syntactic functions of prepositions and prepositional phrases has been extracted from reports on speech development for six-year-old children and stories created by the same people many years later, when they were eighth-year students. Analyses of dyslexic students’ essays have confirmed that one of the key indicators of developmental dyslexia, which is helpful in diagnosis, could be the preposition acquisition time as well as understanding and using this part of speech in utterances and statements.

L2 Knowledge Facilitating L3 Learning: The Role of Russian Linguistic Factors in Understanding of Ukrainian by Estonians

Author(s): Anna Branets,Ad Backus / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2020

This paper reports on an empirical investigation of how knowledge of L2 Russian can facilitate the acquisition of passive knowledge of L3 Ukrainian by speakers of L1 Estonian. The experiment was conducted with 30 speakers of Estonian as L1, who first filled in a sociolinguistic questionnaire, then completed a C-test in their L2 Russian, before carrying out a task testing their understanding of L3 Ukrainian words and texts, and providing some feedback in a debriefing session. We pay specific attention to the performance on the Russian C-test and how participants’ scores correlate with their results on the Ukrainian tasks. We also made an inventory of the grammatical and lexical elements that proved easy or difficult. The results show a positive correlation between the scores on the C-test and performance on the Ukrainian tasks. However, this correlation was lower for text understanding in Ukrainian than for understanding separate Ukrainian words. This suggests that a C-test score does not predict participants’ ability to understand the Ukrainian texts to a full extent, while it has better predictive value for the understanding of individual Ukrainian words. These findings suggest that learners use resources beyond just L2 lexical-grammatical knowledge in forming an understanding of texts in an L3 that is closely related to the L2.

Victor A. Friedman, Macedonian Studies 2

Author(s): Max Wahlström / Language(s): English Issue: 40/2020

Review of: Max Wahlström - Victor A. Friedman, Macedonian Studies 2 (Skopje: Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 2015), 360 pp. (Available online at: http://ical.manu.edu. mk/books/FriedmanMacStudies2.pdf)

BRUJAS, PRINCESAS, OGROS Y DRAGONES: LA ENSEÑANZA DE LA LENGUA A TRAVÉS DEL CUENTO POPULAR

Author(s): Olvido Andújar-Molina / Language(s): Spanish Issue: 1/2020

Folktales and Fairy Tales have been useful for centuries to give voice to the dreams, aspirations and concerns of all peoples. These cultural samples are an extraordinary ally for the study of Spanish as a Foreign Language, acting as a link between the culture of origin and the target language. This article presents a project in which students from a Master’s Degree in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) and students from Spanish courses from different institutions worked collaboratively in recovering oral tradition stories. Its objective was to develop intercultural competence in the SFL classroom and, later, to create teaching materials.

Using Movies in Language Classrooms as Means of Understanding Cultural Diversity

Author(s): Nafi Yalcin / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2013

In a globalised world with different languages and cultures, learning foreign languages is a necessity for ensuring international communication and understanding. Considering the fact that language and culture are inseparable, learning a language also involves learning the associated culture. The close interdependency between culture and language can be used to contribute to social cohesion and stability, in areas where cultural bias, political and religious hostility is prevalent. Therefore, language teaching practices can be used to eradicate stereotypes and to promote intercultural understanding, universally shared values, which will serve to the peaceful coexistence of different people in the world. Movies chosen appropriately for this purpose, with a rich source of cultural events and varying patterns of human behaviors, seem to be an appropriate tool to enhance the understanding of cultural diversity. This study describes the rationale, ways and activities of using movies in language classrooms as a means of developing the understanding for cultural diversity.

Krakowska dyskusja o kształceniu językowym na studiach filologicznych

Author(s): Władysław T. Miodunka / Language(s): Polish Issue: 1&2/2016