Acquisition Of Linguistic Knowledge Research Articles

The impact of high-immersion virtual reality on EFL learners’ foreign language speaking anxiety: A mixed-method approach

Abstract High-immersion virtual reality (HiVR) attracts increasing attention among language learning researchers because of its potential to enhance language learning. Prior studies focused mainly on HiVR and linguistic knowledge acquisition, and little is known about HiVR and emotions in language learning. Foreign language speaking anxiety (FLSA) is a common emotion that inhibits language learning and use, so it is important to explore approaches to alleviate it. This study investigated the potential use of HiVR for coping with FLSA in which 140 Chinese EFL learners were randomly assigned to four groups (35 students each) with a different combination of learning environments (HiVR or classroom) and learning principles (situated learning or teacher-centred learning). Students’ pre- and post-test of FLSA levels within and among four groups were compared via t-tests and ANOVA. Participants’ descriptions of FLSA change and perceptions of the effects of HiVR on FLSA were integrated with quantitative results for analysis. The integration of analysis showed that although most students perceived HiVR as a useful tool for alleviating FLSA, it is difficult for them to apply the reduced anxiety experienced in HiVR to real-life situations. The statistical results also showed that HiVR did not influence students’ real-life FLSA significantly. Most participants reported that HiVR offered them an authentic environment and enjoyable learning activities, which engaged them in learning, but the use of avatars in HiVR sometimes created an obstacle to communication. Implications for using HiVR technology to enhance foreign language learning are provided.

Formation des compétences langagières à travers le jeu de rôle Moot court: enseignement du français à des fins spécifiques dans des groupes multilingues

The effectiveness of professional role play in studying foreign languages for specific purposes is the research subject of this paper. For these purposes, the authors studied and analyzed the legal role play, or in other words, the legal competition Moot Court intended for students of legal faculties and institutions as an educational instrument or technology in teaching foreign languages. In the context of higher legal education, role-playing in a foreign language becomes a model close to the future profession since it serves to better understand its particularities and details and become aware of its importance, usefulness, and necessity. The authors showed to what extent and how professional role-playing games contribute to studying and mastering a foreign language, what functions they perform and how they can be used in foreign language classes to obtain greater success in class. The study's main conclusions are based on an analysis of the data obtained following the assessment of the student's knowledge after the experience. The authors are convinced that during the game and its preparation, the participating student carries out many different activities related to learning a foreign language as he acquires knowledge of new lexical and grammatical structures, the syntax of a legal text and its terminology, the skills of dialogic speech and monologue, the ability to express oneself on professional subjects. Due to the motivational nature of the game and its properties of involving a student in a real creative and educational process, the acquisition of new linguistic knowledge occurs very actively and effectively.

English Language Teachers’ Classroom Practices in Ibadan, Nigeria

The focus of the research is to find out about the practice of English teachers in the classroom because teachers are the best model for students' acquisition of linguistic knowledge and what they do in class during the teaching and learning process. Although all English teachers are responsible for transferring linguistic expertise to students in class, their classroom practices differ. Therefore, this study qualitatively examines the classroom practice of English teachers in the Akinyele Local Government, Ibadan, Nigeria. This study adopted a mixed methods research design. The findings reveal that English teachers in Akinyele Municipality, Ibadan, Nigeria, use a traditional approach to teach students, paper and pencil tests primarily to assess students, engage in learning assessment and enforce classroom rules to manage their classrooms. Based on the findings, it is recommended that English teachers improve their classroom practices and update their teaching methods with modern ones.

Cultural representation in German as a foreign language textbooks used in Indonesia: A critical social semiotic analysis

AbstractInformed by an integrated critical social semiotic approach, the present critical discourse study investigates the semiotic relations of image–text and the cultural meanings encapsulated in two German language textbooks: Studio d A1 and Netzwerk A1 widely used in Indonesia. Adopting Xiong and Peng's semiotic relation model, the findings demonstrate that Netzwerk A1 provides learners with opportunities to learn, think, and reflect critically on German culture through pedagogical questions regarding image–text‐pedagogy discussion. However, the image–text in Studio d A1 emphasizes the acquisition of linguistic knowledge and does not engage learners in exploring and negotiating their cultural repertoire. This empirical evidence suggests that language textbook writers should consider designing culturally responsive language learning tasks to engage learners in the active construction of cultural knowledge in practice.

Music, Films and Celebrity Environmental Activism to Educate Students to take Actions

The main purpose of this article is to contribute to improving environmental education in school in order to encourage the achievement of 2030 sustainable development goals Agenda. This study has an exploratory nature since it involves bibliographical research aimed at highlighting how music, films, and celebrity activism can be used as educational resources to unlocks the potential for interdisciplinary and multisensory learning in order to evoke emotions, raise awareness about environmental issues and inspire students to take action. In particular, it will be highlighted how teachers can use CLIL approach and thoughtfully selected music videos, films, and documentaries to facilitates not only the acquisition of linguistic and specific knowledge but also broader skills that are essential in today's interconnected world.

Enhancing EFL Learners’ Native Cultural Awareness via Project-based Learning

English language education nowadays is not merely about the instruction and acquisition of linguistic knowledge and skills. Instead, it has progressed to the real-life applications of the target language, which further requires a mastery of cultural knowledge and skills. In terms of culture, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, compared to native speakers of English, own their unique native culture. Yet, since language teachers tend to focus on the delivery of English cultural knowledge, EFL learners’ native culture is sometimes shadowed in the mainstream English classrooms worldwide. To this end, this exploratory paper aims to advocate attention to the importance of EFL learners’ native culture awareness and share some practical teaching and learning experiences in an English course called Multimedia and Foreign Language Learning. The paper outlines the pedagogical design of the course in China, providing classroom examples and practical suggestions to course designers, educators and instructors. We expect to give insights into integrating native culture into foreign language education in university settings.

Cognitive Development as a Piece of the Language Learning Puzzle

Why do children learn language more easily than adults do? This puzzle has fascinated cognitive and language scientists for decades. In the present letter, we approach the language learning puzzle from a cognitive perspective that is inspired by evidence from the perceptual and motor learning literature. Neuroscientific studies show that two memory systems in the brain are involved in human learning: an early implicit procedural memory system and a late-developing cognitive or declarative memory system. We argue that higher cognitive development constrains implicit statistical learning processes that are essential for learning patterns and regularities in languages, that is, the adult cognitive architecture has a cost. This is supported by experimental evidence showing that acquisition of implicit linguistic knowledge is enhanced under cognitive depletion in adults. More research is needed to test the cognitive cost hypothesis as it could partly solve the language learning puzzle.

Effects of Written Corrective Feedback on College EFL Students’ Writing Accuracy and Linguistic Knowledge Acquisition

Abstract Set at the interface between second language acquisition and second language writing, this study examines how different types of written corrective feedback (WCF) influence the writing accuracy of Chinese college students learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and whether WCF facilitates the students’ grasp of the focused linguistic knowledge. The participants (n = 60) were divided into direct correction group (n = 20), indirect error-coding group (n = 20) and metalinguistic explanation group (n = 20). The three groups wrote four essays in two months and received WCF for the first three essays on the five targeted error types, namely tense errors, confusion of different forms of a word, word (articles, prepositions, etc.) missing, errors in subject-verb agreement and inappropriate verb-noun collocations. The results show that all three types of WCF improved students’ writing accuracy but none of them had any statistical advantage, and the metalinguistic WCF was more effective than the other two forms in facilitating the acquisition of the targeted linguistic features. These results shed some light on teaching and consolidation of language points through writing in EFL contexts.

The Role of Personality Type and Self-Determination of Students Majoring in Non-Philological Specialities While Building English for Professional Purposes Competence

The purpose of the present research was to prove the assumption that considering students’ personality type and self-determination, including motivation about their profession choice, has a direct positive effect on building their English for professional purposes competence. Considering obtained theoretical and empirical data, we can state that personality type and self-determination are interrelated with developing English for professional purposes competence of students majoring in non-philological specialities, namely in Sciences. To collect the data, we employed theoretical analysis and conducted two questionnaire polls to define the significant personality types of students and their motivation for their occupational choice. English for professional purposes competence is an integral characteristic of occupational and personal qualities of future specialists majoring in non-philological specialities. Acquisition of linguistic, specialised and cultural knowledge and building abilities and skills in speaking, writing, listening, and reading involve many psychophysiological mechanisms. Some conscious acts alter into a series of automatic, unconscious operations in language learning. Thus, building English for professional purposes competence involves focusing on activities consistent in the gradual accomplishment of different tasks, concentrating on structured performance according to the instructions, performing a series of automatic, unconscious operations and building associative links. In this way, constructing cognitive maps will bring fruitful results.

Формирование социокультурной компетенции студентов языковых вузов при работе с поэтическим текстом на французском языке в рамках обучения аналитическому чтению (на примере произведения Эмиля Неллигана «Зимний вечер»)

The study aims to present a scientifically grounded set of techniques and exercises for sociocultural competence formation in philology students when teaching analytical reading of a foreign-language poetic text from the perspective of a competence approach, which contributes to the expansion of students’ vocabulary, mastery of the basics of foreign-language poetic text analysis, involves dictionary work, including independent work. The set of techniques and exercises presented in the paper was developed by its author on the basis of “Winter Evening” (“Soir d’hiver”), an authentic text by the Canadian poet of the XX century Émile Nelligan, and can be successfully used to teach analytical reading to university students as a part of familiarisation with the culture of a target-language country and the mentality of native speakers of the target language. It is important to note that sociocultural competence is an obligatory component of communicative competence and is directed at avoiding misunderstandings in interpersonal communication. Currently, the term “sociocultural competence” still requires clarification of the essence of the concept. Scientific novelty of the study lies in identifying a list of skills, techniques, exercises aimed at sociocultural competence formation in philology students. As a result, it has been proved that the use of the set of techniques and exercises contributes to acquisition of linguistic and sociocultural knowledge about target-language countries by students of a linguistic university, as well as practical mastery of the French language in the process of teaching analytical reading to students.

Linguistic and Cultural Knowledge Acquisition in Terms of the Multimodal Approach To EIL Studies

The problem of linguistic and cultural knowledge correlation in terms of English as an International Language learning deserves special attention as one of the topical issues in reference to the new methods of knowledge and skills acquisition, required in the present-day global society. Language learning determined by particular cultural and conceptual bases faces new challenges in the case of EIL, as culture should be discussed within different terms in this connection and serve to achieve different educational goals. Within this context, culture is referred to as both the subject of studies and the means of learning. It is used as the source of information for EIL learners and helps to create a multicultural environment to facilitate the process of intercultural professional communication. Culture can be learned both from the point of view of similarity and its difference, which correlates with the basic tendencies in semiosic systems development. The use of modern information technologies as well as the lifetime learning mode in which modern citizens live and work seeks new approaches and methods of knowledge acquisition. The multimodal approach to language and culture deserves special attention from the viewpoint of EIL learning as it implicates elaboration of certain methodology that covers the whole complex of modes based on the use of the human senses abilities as well as different semiotic systems including language. The approach in question seems to be used for the purpose of educational process optimization, especially with reference to the purposes of EIL studies and the role of culture in this concern. To analyze the problem in detail and to demonstrate the validity of cultural knowledge application within EIL learning and teaching, the survey that included 3 questionnaires has been carried out on the basis of the materials presented by 62 linguistic (English philology) and 60 non-linguistic (Social sciences) students. The answers contained in the questionnaire enabled the authors to come to the conclusions as referred to the validity of multimodal approach application with respect to cultural and linguistic skills and knowledge acquisition within the scope of EIL learning and teaching.

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning in L2 Korean Using WeChat: A Case Study

Abstract—Learners studying Korean as a foreign language have a long-standing problem in language learning: less exposure to the target language and a lack of communicative learning opportunities. This study attempts to explore how these challenges can be solved by incorporating mobile technologies—especially WeChat—into Korean language learning. By examining the implementation of the WeChat Project’s five components, this study reports on the advantages and disadvantages of using mobile technologies for students who learn an intermediate Korean language course at a liberal arts college in China. A total of 16 students participated in a one-semester study, and they were asked to complete an end-of-semester questionnaire and attend a follow-up interview. The questionnaire’s results revealed that students generally welcomed the WeChat Project and that they positively perceived the usefulness of the five components of the WeChat Project. In the interviews, the students reported four major benefits of using WeChat in their Korean learning: increased learning time, an acquisition of linguistic knowledge, the Korean language community, and the convenience of using WeChat. The disadvantages and suggestions for improvements are discussed.

Unlocking adults’ implicit statistical learning by cognitive depletion

Human learning is supported by multiple neural mechanisms that maturate at different rates and interact in mostly cooperative but also sometimes competitive ways. We tested the hypothesis that mature cognitive mechanisms constrain implicit statistical learning mechanisms that contribute to early language acquisition. Specifically, we tested the prediction that depleting cognitive control mechanisms in adults enhances their implicit, auditory word-segmentation abilities. Young adults were exposed to continuous streams of syllables that repeated into hidden novel words while watching a silent film. Afterward, learning was measured in a forced-choice test that contrasted hidden words with nonwords. The participants also had to indicate whether they explicitly recalled the word or not in order to dissociate explicit versus implicit knowledge. We additionally measured electroencephalography during exposure to measure neural entrainment to the repeating words. Engagement of the cognitive mechanisms was manipulated by using two methods. In experiment 1 (n = 36), inhibitory theta-burst stimulation (TBS) was applied to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex or to a control region. In experiment 2 (n = 60), participants performed a dual working-memory task that induced high or low levels of cognitive fatigue. In both experiments, cognitive depletion enhanced word recognition, especially when participants reported low confidence in remembering the words (i.e., when their knowledge was implicit). TBS additionally modulated neural entrainment to the words and syllables. These findings suggest that cognitive depletion improves the acquisition of linguistic knowledge in adults by unlocking implicit statistical learning mechanisms and support the hypothesis that adult language learning is antagonized by higher cognitive mechanisms.

Representation and Acquisition of Linguistic Knowledge: Perspectives of the Rationalist and the Empiricist

In second language teaching and learning, acquisition of knowledge is a multidimensional concept. Several concepts have been advocated by different theorists. All the theories are grounded in peculiar philosophical underpinnings that seem to have sound bases. This current paper critically examines the theories of representation and acquisition of linguistic knowledge from the standpoints of the rationalists and the empiricists. The method used in this paper is qualitative content analysis. With this analysis, the paper is segmented into five themes. These are the introduction, the method, review of literature, pedagogical perspective, and the conclusion. The literature review critically examines the viewpoints of the rationalists and the empiricists on the ultimate source of knowledge, mechanisms of acquisition, and characteristics of the initial state. These parts constitute the pivotal thematic areas of the main argument of the two schools of thoughts.

Speakers extrapolate community-level knowledge from individual linguistic encounters

Speakers' lexical choices are affected by interpersonal-level influences, like a tendency to reuse an interlocutor's words. Here, we examined how those choices are additionally affected by community-level factors, like whether the interlocutor is from their own or another speech community (in-community vs. out-community partner), and how such interpersonal experiences contribute to the acquisition of community-level linguistic knowledge. Our three experiments tested (i) how speakers' lexical choices varied depending on their partner's choices and speech community, and (ii) how speakers' extrapolation of these choices to a subsequent partner was influenced by their partners' speech communities. In Experiment 1, Spanish participants played two sessions of an online picture-matching-and-naming task, encountering the same pictures but different confederates in each session. The first confederate was either an in-community partner (Spanish) or an out-community partner (Latin American); the second confederate was either from the same community as the first confederate or not. Participants' referential choices in Session 1 were influenced by their partner's choices, but not by their community. However, participants' likelihood to subsequently maintain these choices was affected by their partners' communities. Experiment 2 replicated this pattern in Mexicans, and Experiment 3 confirmed that these results were driven by confederates' communities, rather than perceived linguistic status. Our results suggest that speakers encode speech community information during dialogue and store it to inform future contexts of language use, even when it has not affected their choices during that particular encounter. Thus, speakers learn community-level knowledge by extrapolating linguistic information from interpersonal-level experiences.

Representation and Acquisition of Linguistic Knowledge: Perspectives of the Rationalist and the Empiricist

In second language teaching and learning, acquisition of knowledge is a multidimensional concept. Several concepts have been advocated by different theorists. All the theories are grounded in peculiar philosophical underpinnings that seem to have sound bases. This current paper critically examines the theories of representation and acquisition of linguistic knowledge from the standpoints of the rationalists and the empiricists. The method used in this paper is qualitative content analysis. With this analysis, the paper is segmented into five themes. These are the introduction, the method, review of literature, pedagogical perspective, and the conclusion. The literature review critically examines the viewpoints of the rationalists and the empiricists on the ultimate source of knowledge, mechanisms of acquisition, and characteristics of the initial state. These parts constitute the pivotal thematic areas of the main argument of the two schools of thoughts.

Learners’ Dialogical Interaction in the Service of Linguistic Knowledge Acquisition in Group Settings: Based on Contextual Factors

This paper highlights some connections between dialogical interaction and knowledge acquisition in group settings. In learners’ quest to develop communicative competence and self-identity or social identity and acquire knowledge, dialogical interaction is applied to three contexts of knowledge-acquiring process where learners’ identity, learners’ mindset, learners’ rapport, learners’ communicative competence and learners’ knowledge are involved. Simply speaking, learners in collaborative contexts tend to share existing knowledge to generate potential knowledge; learners in competitive contexts are inclined to build knowledge, learners in cohesive contexts just use knowledge as a tool to organize knowledge. However, it is contended that dialogues are supposed to be explicitly regarded as part of the knowledge-acquiring process. There is a tendency to enable more effective knowledge acquisition through communicative talk, especially dialogues, in the interactive contexts with scaffoldings, tutoring or even intervention.

As visitas de estudo – um elemento chave na aprendizagem das línguas estrangeiras

A study visit should be attractive to students so that everyone feels motivated to participate, regardless of the various courses they attend or their eventual specificity. And because culture always has educational purposes, the purpose of this activity is to sensitize students to the importance of their training as social and cultural beings, and what is proposed with these study visits is a link to the cultural heritage of the various cities that are visited, the knowledge they acquire from places of interest such as muse ums, theatres, historical monuments - some, UNESCO world heritage - contact with theoretical and physical contents and communication in a foreign language. Once the students’ interest and curiosity are aroused, they should prepare themselves to explore the themes proposed during the various visits. The experience of several years has shown very positive results, since the study visits are not mere trips, but they are part of a strategy that allows to complement, consolidate and extend contents approached in class context. They are, in short, tools that, in parallel with the lessons, facilitate and improve the acquisition of scientific, linguistic and cultural knowledge.

Coevolution of Lexical Meaning and Pragmatic Use.

According to standard linguistic theory, the meaning of an utterance is the product of conventional semantic meaning and general pragmatic rules on language use. We investigate how such a division of labor between semantics and pragmatics could evolve under general processes of selection and learning. We present a game‐theoretic model of the competition between types of language users, each endowed with certain lexical representations and a particular pragmatic disposition to act on them. Our model traces two evolutionary forces and their interaction: (i) pressure toward communicative efficiency and (ii) transmission perturbations during the acquisition of linguistic knowledge. We illustrate the model based on a case study on scalar implicatures, which suggests that the relationship between underspecified semantics and pragmatic inference is one of coevolution.

The representation of Indonesian cultural diversity in middle school English textbooks

In Indonesia, exposure to the English language is primarily mediated through the use of English textbooks. What cultural knowledge and whose culture are represented in these textbooks become a critical issue because culture interweaves both language and thought. With this in mind, this study aims to examine how Indonesian cultural diversity and whose cultures are represented in middle school English textbooks. We argue that diversity and multicultural perspectives represented in these textbooks are the core of English language learning and teaching. We also contend that language textbooks play a pivotal role in the acquisition of both linguistic and cultural knowledge of English. Drawing on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (2006) semiotic approach to analyzing textual and non-textual representations of cultures, we found that the 2013 English textbooks for Grades 7 and 8 permeate Indonesian cultural values and practices that do not provide a balanced and equal depiction of Indonesian cultural diversity. The findings suggest the importance of inclusive representation of the richness of Indonesian local culture in a more salient manner, especially those of minority groups. Pedagogically, teachers are expected to design language materials with cultural sensitivity and appropriation for the inclusiveness of other cultural values that might not be covered in the textbooks.