Cultural threads in oral presentations

Author(s): Elena Savu / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2014

Foreign language education in the 21st century does no longer focus on the merely linguistic competence, but rather on instructing our learners how to use the language communicatively. Given the globalization we are experiencing, communicative competence equally involves cultural awareness as a means to effectively communicate with other people who do not share the some cultural background. Oral presentations are complex classroom activities that can train learners to become competent oral communicators who are culturally sensitive. This paper will discuss the impact that culture has on oral competence and signal some important cultural cues learners should be made aware of when delivering live presentations.

"Blended Learning": Concept and Implementation in Language Learning

Author(s): Stefan COLIBABA / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2007

The aim of this article is to offer the reader an overview of the concept of "blended learning" and of the advantages of using this approach in language learning/ teaching. After online learning exposure has fallen short of creating real group bonding, the rise of the blended learning approach has given a fresh impetus to the role new technologies have in education in general and in language education in particular. Its key features are illustrated with examples of how blended learning methodology functions in the context of a number of language learning courses elaborated in two European Lingua projects called TOOL 2 and ALL, respectively.

"FIRE" AS THE "LOGO" OF THE ARTISTIC WORLDS

Author(s): Natalja Dyorina,Yuliya Yuzhakova,Liliya Polyakova,Tatyana Zalavina / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2019

Fire as the ‘Logo’ of Artistic Worlds. The aim of the present paper is to analyse the image of fire created by two representatives, one of the Acmeist and the other of the Romantic school of poetry, N. Gumilev and S.T. Coleridge, revealing similarities and differences between their approaches. The obvious parallelism of the poets’ works is demonstrated, with particular attention paid to the fact that specific fire-related images were emphasised by Gumilev in his translation of Coleridge’s works. The attributes of the artistic universes of the Russian and of the English poet are shown: the continuity and constant interaction of their elements, the identity of the properties of the whole and of its various parts in each case.

"Fit für Europa". Spracherwerb und (Inter)Kulturelles im studienbegleitenden Deutschunterricht

Author(s): Lora Constantinescu / Language(s): German / Issue: 1/2009

Fit for Europe – it is the core idea of a unit in a new book for teaching German for Special Purposes ("Mit Deutsch in Europa"/A2-B1). FL-acquisition means linguistic communication patterns and sometimes different cultural perceptions as well as the attribution of (possibly) different meanings. Therefore, the learners should be offered means and opportunities to get insights into what the foreign cultural background holds. It is the aim of this paper to highlight some basic theoretical positions and practical aspects when teaching German to students of Economics on L2-level. The focus lies on the chances/challenges of integrating a "blended choice" of L2-competences, business and intercultural communication skills.

"I am years seven old." Acquisition of English word order by Bosnian and Turkish children

Author(s): Azamat Akbarov,Larisa Đapo / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2016

This paper aims to investigate differences in the acquisition of English word order between Bosnian and Turkish students resulting from word order in these two languages (Bosnian and Turkish). In second language acquisition, the knowledge of the native language (L1) in acquisition of a foreign language (L2) can indeed have a facilitating or inhibiting effect on the learner’s progress in mastering a new language. Thirty children from the first grade at the International School of Sarajevo were tested. Some of them attended the kindergarten where English was a language of communication and the rest of them had six months of exposure of English in school settings. We wanted to find possible differences in acquiring word order in English in these groups of children as well. This study offers new results for acquiring correct word order in English.

"Kłótnia" i "kłótliwość" na tle stereotypów zawodowych i zwierzęcych w języku polskim i rosyjskim

Author(s): Michał Sarnowski / Language(s): Polish / Issue: V/2000

"Евгений Онегин" Пушкина по-польски и по-украински

Author(s): Leontij Mironiuk / Language(s): Russian / Issue: III/1998

"Земя" и "пустиня" в българската фразеология

Author(s): Ekaterina Struganova / Language(s): Bulgarian / Issue: 1 (5)/2017

This article is dedicated to analyses of Bulgarian idioms stemming from semantic fields centred round "earth” and "desert” from the point of view of cultural linguistics. An attempt has been made to classify cultural markers which were found in our material published in the phraseological dictionaries.

[ˈhӕrəs] or [,həˈrӕs], [’hɒtəl] or [həʊˈtɛl]? – What/ Whose Language Do Our Students Learn (and Why)?

Author(s): Andreea Bratu / Language(s): English / Issue: XX/2019

Learners of a foreign language (L2) are to a greater or smaller extent influenced by their native tongue (L1), be it at the level of the structures used or at the lexical and morphological levels (tenses used according to the L1 verbal behavior, to give just one example). The purpose of this paper is twofold: to investigate the deviations from the standard pronunciation in English that are common among Romanian students, trying to explain them, and to analyse the choices they make between British and American pronunciation. Questionnaires have been used with Ist and IInd year students of the English Department of the Faculty of Letters in Craiova.

A Brief Outline of the History of English

Author(s): Jerzy Wełna / Language(s): English / Publication Year: 2003

The book contains a brief account of the history of the English language as well as its variants in the British Isles and overseas. In order to illustrate the problems under discussion the author adduces text samples from documents relating to English history and literature and also translations of some difficult words and phrases.

A comparison of the impact of extensive and intensive reading approaches on the reading attitudes of secondary EFL learners

Author(s): A Young Park / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2020

Extensive reading (ER) which encourages second or foreign (L2) learners to engage in a great deal of reading, has long been recognized as an efficient approach in L2 reading pedagogy. While many attempts have been made to understand the effect of ER on the cognitive domains of L2 learners, there has been insufficient investigation into how ER influences their affective domains. Particularly, reading attitudes, one of the key elements of affective factors involved in L2 reading, have received little attention. This classroom-based intervention study investigated the impact of ER on English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ attitudes toward English reading compared to the influence of the traditional intensive reading (IR) approach. In addition, this study explored whether the impact of the ER approach on EFL learners’ reading attitudes is different depending on L2 proficiency. The study included two intact classes of EFL secondary learners (N = 72) who received either ER or IR instructional treatments for a 12-week period. For the results, ANCOVA showed that the ER approach fostered positive reading attitudes significantly more than the IR approach. In addition, the analysis indicated that the participants’ proficiency levels did not have a significant effect upon changes in their reading attitudes. That is, regardless of proficiency level, the ER approach demonstrated a significantly positive effect on participants’ reading attitudes in comparison with the IR approach.

A Corpus Linguistics Investigation into Phrasal Verbs in British Academic Spoken English

Author(s): Fatma Kübra Durna,Okan Güneş / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

This current study aims to shed a new light into the usage of phrasal verbs, which are one of the most avoided multi-word constructions for English learners but widely used by native speakers of English in BASE (British Academic Spoken English). The purpose of this study is to identify which phrasal verbs are used more frequently in BASE and how the findings might be utilized in educational settings. To do this, three lexical verbs (go, come and take) combining phrasal verbs with nine adverbial particles and forming 27 phrasal verbs were analysed using 1.742.886 running words in BASE. BNC (British National Corpus) was used as the core data for selecting lexical verbs and adverbial particles by benefiting from the research of Gardner and Davies (2007). The results reveal some similarities between BNC and BASE in terms of phrasal verb usage and the paper exemplifies some ways to teach phrasal verbs in the light of the analyses.

A Critical Review on the Equivocal Definition of Comprehensible Input and the Misleading Use of the Term “Acquisition”

Author(s): Hilal Peker,Onur Özkaynak / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

Stephen Krashen has been one of the prominent figures in the field of second language acquisition. His Input Hypothesis and Monitor Model can be considered as his most noteworthy work. Specifically, his principal proposition that emphasizes the importance of comprehensible input for language acquisition sheds light on linguistic competence. Krashen claimed that languages could be easily acquired as long as the acquirer is provided with natural bits of language. Despite the high acclaim they have received, Krashen’s ideas have also been harshly criticized by certain linguists as his claims failed to clarify certain issues related to the second language acquisition. In this respect, the authors of this paper critically review his Input Hypothesis and Monitor Model focusing on the insufficiency of the input for language acquisition, absence of an operational definition of comprehensible input, and misleading use of the term acquisition. In addition, the authors also adopt a satirical language to pinpoint the aforementioned insufficiencies and misleading components, while supporting their claims with recent empirical studies that were rarely conducted in the field.

A Lost Lady: A Narrative of Manifest Destiny and Neocolonialism

Author(s): Ammar Aqeeli / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

The greatly examined story of A Lost Lady usually depicts Mrs. Forrester’s success in meeting and adapting to the challenges of a changing world, a world characterized by materialism and self-fulfilment. However, the overlooked story, one far more disturbing than the privileged story in the text, is the narrative of oppressed groups of people of other races and the lower class. Drawing on some aspects of postcolonial theory, this paper explores Willa Cather’s own reactions to real changes in her society, to the waning power of imperialism, and of her nostalgic longing for the western prairies of her youth, without showing any sympathy for the dispossessed Native Americans and other oppressed races. It will also disclose the unmistakable colonial overtones, which remarkably resonate with the common discourse of “Manifest Destiny” during the time period of American expansion to the Wild West.

A ROOM WITH A VUI – VOICE USER INTERFACES IN THE TESOL CLASSROOM

Author(s): David Kent / Language(s): English / Issue: 3/2020

Disruptive technologies have seen how students interact with their teachers, how we as teachers now prepare and provide learning, and how we might best incorporate artificial intelligence into the classroom. To this end, the pedagogical affordances offered by the voice-user interface of digital assistants is explored. Instructional strategies supported by examples are then provided, along with means for actioning their use in the classroom and evaluating their appropriateness and viability for enhancing language learning.

A Semantic Description of the Combinability between Verbs and Nouns (on Material from Bulgarian and English)

Author(s): Svetlozara Leseva,Ivelina Stoyanova,Maria Todorova,Hristina Kukova / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2020

This paper represents a methodology for defining restrictions on the semantic combinability between different semantic classes of verbs and the sets of nouns corresponding to the elements of their conceptual frame (i.e. the major participants in the situation described). Our observations focus on verb synsets from WordNet and their assigned FrameNet frames which mutually inform each other. We analyse the semantic information typical for each of the studied verb classes and define semantic restrictions on the nouns they combine with. The theoretical and empirical value of the provided semantic representations and restrictions lies in the enhanced modelling of verb-noun combinability which is universal enough to be applicable not only to the languages exemplified (English and Bulgarian), but (with possible modifications) to various other languages for which wordnets are available.

A STUDY INTO THE IMPACT OF THE CHOICE OF COGNITIVE AND META-COGNITIVE STRATEGIES AND PODCASTS ON VOCABULARY GAIN AND RETENTION LEVELS IN THE TELEGRAM-BASED E-LEARNING CONTEXT

Author(s): Atefeh Elekaei,Hossein Heidari Tabrizi,Azizeh Chalak / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2020

Forming synchronous and asynchronous learning networks utilizing internet has been simplified by new technologies. The present study investigated the effects of learners’ choice of cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies on vocabulary gain and retention levels in the e-learning context. 180 participants took part in this study and 120 audio podcasts plus still and animated pictures were presented to the participants in the Telegram channel. 23 strategy items on a 5-point Likert scale were presented to the participants by means of a voting robot system on the main page of the channel after the treatment. Additionally, an immediate as well as a delayed vocabulary posttest in the form of multiple-choice were administered, separately. Four one-way ANOVAs were run in order to answer the questions. The results revealed that the choice of cognitive strategy significantly affected the level of vocabulary gain and retention. In other words, learners who applied more cognitive strategies had higher levels in vocabulary gain and retention. However, the choice of meta-cognitive strategy had no considerable influence on vocabulary gain and retention.

A Study of the Misuse of Grade a Chinese Characters from the Hsk Vocabulary by Foreign Language Students

Author(s): Yonghan Li / Language(s): English / Issue: 1/2020

From the perspective of second language acquisition, based on the HSK dynamic composition corpus, this paper studies the misuse of Grade A Chinese characters in the Chinese Proficiency Vocabulary and Chinese Character Grade Outline. First, it collects the statistical data on the Chinese character Bias and analyze their types. Second, it studies the difficulty of acquisition and the order of acquisition of foreign students’ grades A Chinese characters. Finally, from the perspective of the characteristics of Chinese characters and the law of language acquisition, the paper proposes countermeasures related to teaching Chinese characters in the second language acquisition courses.

A Study on the Views of English Literature Teachers about How to Teach English Literature: Libyan Higher Education Context

Author(s): Almakki Rumadhan Al Sabiri,Sibel Ersel Kaymakamoğlu / Language(s): English / Issue: 97-1/2019

This study examined the views of the English Literature teachers about how to teach English Literature in Libyan higher education context. Sixteen English Literature teachers teaching in higher education were the participants of this study. In order to collect data about the phenomena under investigation, semistructured interviews were employed. Then, the collected data were analyzed qualitatively. The findings indicated that the teaching of English Literature still needs improvements. It was also found that basically three different approaches were followed by the partcipant teachers: Paraphrastic Approach, Informationbased Approach and Language-based Approach. Among the preferred approaches to teach English literature, the most commonly followed approach of teaching literature was the Paraphrastic Approach. The findings also revealed that the participant English Literature teachers face some difficulties related to their teaching context and themselves. Context- specific difficuties were lack of facilities, visual aids, technology and lack of appropriate classroom environment while teacher related difficulties were lack of self-confidence in teachers and lack of establishing rapport in teachers with their students in class.

Accommodation of L2 Speech in a Repetition Task: Exploring Paralinguistic Imitation

Author(s): Léa Burin / Language(s): English / Issue: 4/2018

Phonetic convergence is the process by which a speaker adapts his/her speech to sound more similar to his/her interlocutor. While most studies analysing this process have been conducted amongst speakers sharing the same language or variety, this experiment focuses on imitation between non-native and native speakers in a repetition task. The data is a fragment from the ANGLISH corpus designed by Anne Tortel (Tortel, 2008). 40 French speakers (10 male intermediate, 10 male advanced, 10 female intermediate and 10 female advanced learners) were asked to repeat a set of 20 sentences produced by British native speakers. Segmental (vowel quality), suprasegmental (vowel duration) and voice quality were analysed. Level of proficiency, gender and model talker were taken as independent variables. Level appeared not to be a relevant parameter due to a high amount of inter-individual variability amongst groups. Somewhat contradictory results were observed for vowel duration and F1-F2 distance for male learners converged more than female learners. Our hypothesis that low vowels display a higher degree of imitation, and especially within the F1 dimension (Babel, 2012), was partially validated. Convergence in vowel duration in order to sound more native-like was also observed (Zając, 2013). Regarding the analysis of voice quality, and more particularly of creaky voice, observations suggest that some advanced female learners creaked more than the native speakers and more in the reading task, which indicate, both linguistic idiosyncrasy and accommodation towards the native speakers. Low vowels seem also to be more likely to be produced with a creaky voice, especially at the end of prosodic constituents.