Brazilian Learners Research Articles

Imagery of German as a foreign language learners and the disciplinary knowledge

The aim of this article is to analyse the construction of learners’ discoursive images by mapping the summaries presented in textbooks of German as a Foreign Language (ALE). Therefore, we aim to investigate how these constructions anticipate the kind of insertion that this learner would have / could occupy in this community of production / circulation of texts in the target language. Seen in these terms, the theoretical framework is constructed from the articulation between the polyphonic perspective of language (BAKHTIN, 2011), the notion of discursive practices (FOUCAULT, 2004, MAINGUENEAU, 2008), the disciplining of knowledge (FOUCAULT, 2002) and the relevance of such articulation for a critique of Applied Linguistics from Rocha and Daher (2015). Through the analysis of German as a foreign language textbooks, we observe the construction of a learner image that seems to draw him/her out of situations of interaction, considering him/her as a spectator, who will be responsible for repeating sentences and structures determined by an artificial simulation of communicative situations, rather than allowing him/her spaces of interaction and insertion in these situations. In addition, the materials communicate an image of a learner-consumer-tourist, interested in learning German to make trips, a reality that is distant from the majority of Brazilian learners.

The contribution of prosody to foreign accent: A study of Spanish as a foreign language

The aim of this study is to analyze the contribution of prosody on the perception of foreign accent by Brazilian learners of Spanish. The data were collected from 15 participants and a control group of 5 native Spanish speakers. A perceptual test was performed with two different speech styles (reading and storytelling) and with delexicalized and natural speech. The speech production was judged by 24 native Spanish subjects. First, they had to determine the nationality of the speaker by listening to the delexicalized excerpts in Spanish (storytelling). After that, the listeners used a continuous scale to rate the excerpts (reading and storytelling) for the degree of foreign accent in Spanish. The results suggest that it is possible to identify foreign accent only with the prosodic information provided in the delexicalized stimuli, i.e., f0, duration, and overall intensity. In addition, the perceptual test allowed us to assess the degree of foreign accent of each subject while revealing the great variability of their production. Finally, concerning the external data, the following factors predicted foreign accent among the learners: gender, length of residence in Spain, formal language instruction in Brazil, age of arrival in Spain, and reported use of Brazilian Portuguese in Spain. These results confirm the crucial role of naturalistic learning of a foreign language, as shown by previous studies.

A corpus-based study of pragmatic markers at CEFR level B1

***Um estudo de marcadores pragmáticos no nível CEFR B1 baseado em linguística de corpus***Este artigo detalha os resultados de um estudo de marcadores pragmáticos baseado em linguística de corpus. O estudo envolveu análises quantitativas e qualitativas de um pequeno corpus especializado, com a produção oral de aprendizes brasileiros de inglês no nível CEFR B1, e comparações com corpora de referência. Examinou-se os advérbios mais comuns utilizados para mediar segmentos de discurso, os “hedges” adverbiais explícitos e implícitos utilizados para mitigar atos de fala representativos e as partículas de resposta mínimas utilizadas pelo interlocutor para expressar boa receptividade. Os sujeitos produziram número limitado de marcadores de discurso e de partículas de resposta. As investigações analisaram funções de marcadores específicos e indicaram subutilização das funções pragmáticas e discursivas de “well” e “actually”, porém uso consistente de “really”, sobreutilização de “maybe” como forma de posicionamento epistêmico, subutilização de “just” como mitigador. Os aprendizes utilizaram “yeah” e “uhuh” como partículas de resposta mínimas, principalmente para convergir.

Probing rhythmic patterns in english-L2

Languages are traditionally classified as mora-timed, syllable-timed or stress-timed in relation to their rhythmic patterns. The distinction between syllable-timed and stress-timed languages, however, lacks solid evidence in the literature. Syllable-timed languages typically have similar duration across unstressed and stressed syllables, whereas stress-timed languages tend to have similar inter-stress intervals, and unstressed syllables are shorter than stressed syllables. According to this categorical classification, English is a stress-timed language, thus having more reduction in unstressed vowels. Brazilian Portuguese, on the other hand, is typically classified as syllable-timed, and thus has little reduction of unstressed vowels. If these categorical rhythmic differences are correct, then acquiring the rhythmic patterns of English should be a challenging task to Brazilian learners, who are not expected to produce unstressed vowels with as much reduction as English native speakers. However, recent studies have found that the typology of rhythm is best understood as not categorical, but rather gradient, and that Brazilian Portuguese has a mixed classification, with more stress timing than would be expected from a traditional and categorical perspective. We therefore hypothesize that Brazilian learners of English should not have major difficulties reducing unstressed vowels, even when exposed to the second language later in life. To test this hypothesis, we analyze production data of native speakers of English (control group) and of Brazilian advanced learners of English.

The influence of metalinguistic knowledge of segmental phonology on the production of English vowels by Brazilian undergraduate students

This paper presents data on the production of English vowels [i ɪ ɛ æ u ʊ] by Brazilian English Language Teaching (ELT) undergraduate students before and after taking a course on English Segmental Phonology. Brazilian learners tend to assimilate the contrasts present in [i ɪ], [ɛ æ] and [u ʊ] into the prototypical categories of Brazilian Portuguese [i], [ɛ] and [u], respectively. Thus, this paper investigates the influence of receiving explicit metalinguistic instruction of English segmental phonology on the production of the target pairs of vowels. The data analysis is of acoustic nature (spectral quality), and the results show that some learners created new phonetic categories for the English vowels after receiving the metalinguistic instruction.

Perceptual Training Effects on the Acquisition of English Stress by Brazilian Learners

This study investigates the effects of perceptual training on Brazilian English language learners’ ability to acquire preantepenultimate stress, or stress on the fourth to last syllable. Since preantepenultimate stress assignment is infrequent in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), it was initially hypothesized that BP speakers would store few examples of this pattern. The training was performed in five sessions and included stress identification tasks followed by immediate feedback. Results confirm the training significantly improved study participants’ perception and production of preantepenultimate syllable stress assignment. Furthermore, participants generalized acquired production patterns to unfamiliar words and retained these patterns for two months after training concluded. With frequent perceptual training, it is believed BP speakers could create a new category of English words with preantepenultimate syllable stress. This study demonstrates that perception training, typically used for the perception or the production of sounds, can also be used to improve the production of L2 stress assignment with very positive results.

Foco na forma e o ensino de Inglês como L2/L3

Grammatical and lexical similarities between languages can help promote adult language learning. However, even when learners are provided with a lot of input in the L2, they may not notice certain similarities and differences between their L1 and the L2 in the classroom if the linguistic structure is not salient. The purpose of this article is to discuss the benefits of making grammatical and lexical comparisons among languages, such as proposed in the EuroCom Project, and the importance of using a Meaning and a Form Focused Instruction with corrective feedback when teaching L3 learners, based on different studies carried out with multilinguals. The more the Brazilian learners of English as a second or third language notice the similarities among English, Spanish and Portuguese, the more advantage they will take of their prior linguistic knowledge, facilitating the L3 learning process.

Pronunciation intelligibility in Brazilian learners’ English and listeners’ threshold

This article focuses on issues related to the role played by the listeners as evaluators of L2 learners’ pronunciation intelligibility. First, I discuss listeners’ threshold of intelligibility and listener variables. Linguistic and non-linguistic variables are identified. Then, I report on the qualitative results of an experimental study, whose listeners’ thresholds influenced their evaluations about the intelligibility of Brazilian learners’ pronunciation. Finally, I conclude with implications of the present discussion for future pronunciation intelligibility studies involving Brazilians learners’ English.
 Keywords: pronunciation intelligibility. listeners’ threshold. Brazilian learners.
 Resumo
 Este artigo focaliza aspectos relacionados aos ouvintes que atuam como avaliadores da inteligibilidade da pronúncia de aprendizes de uma língua estrangeira. Primeiro, o limiar de inteligibilidade de ouvintes e suas variáveis são discutidas. Variáveis linguísticas e não linguísticas são identificadas. Em seguida, resultados qualitativos de um estudo experimental, cujo limiar de inteligibilidade dos ouvintes influenciou suas avaliações da inteligibilidade da pronúncia de aprendizes brasileiros de inglês, são relatados. Finalmente, as implicações da presente discussão para estudos em inteligibilidade de pronúncia envolvendo aprendizes brasileiros de inglês são apresentadas.
 Palavras-chave: inteligibilidade de pronúncia. limiar do ouvinte. aprendizes brasileiros.

A PRODUÇÃO DA VOGAL ÁTONA FINAL /e/ EM PORTUGUÊS BRASILEIRO (L1) E ESPANHOL (L2) – UM ESTUDO EXPLORATÓRIO

This article presents the results of an experiment on the production of Spanish (L2) word-final /e/ by Southern Brazilian learners. We aimed to the test the effects of two variables, i.e., cognate status and L2 experience in a formal teaching context (Group A: three years of study; Group B: between four and six years of study). The production of the final vowels of the target words, inserted in carrier sentences, were analyzed acoustically. The results showed an effect of language, which indicates that Spanish learners distinguish between the unstressed vowel /e/ in Portuguese and Spanish in terms of height and frontness/backness. However, no effect was found for cognate status and L2 experience. These results raise a discussion on the role of the cognate status variable in the oral productions of more experienced learners. --- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12957/matraga.2017.28550

<b>Planning oral narrative tasks: optimizing strategic planning condition through strategy instruction

This article presents the results of a master thesis, which aimed at investigating the impact of strategic planning instruction on the speech performance of 6 L2 Brazilian learners. The participants, Letras-Ingles students, performed three now-and-there picture-cued narrative tasks under three different conditions: (1) no planning, (2) planning before instruction, and (3) planning after instruction. In addition, the participants filled in post-task questionnaires after the performance of each task, aiming at understanding their opinion on the conditions and tasks. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted in order to examine participants’ oral production and perception, respectively. In general, there was no statistical evidence supporting the impact of instruction on participants’ oral planned performance; however, some statistical results approached significance, which may suggest some positive effects. Qualitative analyses provided positive evidence of the impact of strategic planning instruction on participant perception and their use of strategies during planning time. Moreover, the results of this study can contribute to the fields of Second Language Acquisition and Language Pegadogy.

Sociopragmatic failure revisited: the case of intercultural communication between Brazilians and Americans

ABSTRACT This article aims to discuss the concept of sociopragmatic failure (THOMAS, 1983) by focusing on American interviewees’ perceptions of the phenomenon as arising from utterances spoken by Brazilian learners of English. To achieve this aim, interviews were conducted with three American teachers working in Brazil. After watching video excerpts from previously recorded English classes, interviewees pointed out which utterances sounded inappropriate to them and commented on their perceptions of learners featured in the video, as well as on their experiences with Brazilian learners in general. Their responses were used as evidence for the hypothesis that different types of linguistic asymmetry - namely, structural, pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and discourse-related - can lead to sociopragmatic failure.

Investigating bilinguals’ sensitivity to English regular past morphology: A self-paced reading experiment with Brazilian learners

ABSTRACT It is known that adult learners of English as an additional language (EAL) have difficulty in producing inflectional morphemes such as the third person present singular -s and regular past -ed. One possible explanation is that bilinguals are not sensitive to inflectional morphemes, in comprehension tasks as evidenced by longer latencies at critical positions in reaction time experiments, when compared to native controls. Having the above in mind, the objective of this paper is to investigate if in fact Brazilian EAL bilinguals are sensitive to regular past morphology in a self-paced reading task. Sentences varied on the use or absence of inflectional morphemes. The statistical analysis showed that EAL speakers are not sensitive to past morphology. The results are discussed in light of Distributed Morphology and of previous studies on production and processing of inflectional morphemes in EAL.

The relevance of phonetics teaching for english sounds perception

As many researches have shown the contributions of phonetics instruction in L2/FL learners’ speech perception and production, this study seeks to investigate the role of phonetics teaching to the perception of the English front high vowels /i/ and /?/ by Brazilian learners from an international language school. Identification pre/posttests were designed through the TP software (RAUBER; RATO; KLUGE; SANTOS, 2012) in order to measure the participants’ perception on the vowels mentioned above. Comparing the results obtained from tests, it is possible to assume that the learners, who received phonetics instruction on the English front high vowels /i/ and /?/, demonstrated a better performance in distinguishing and interpreting those sounds accurately than the learners, who did not receive any instruction. It means that phonetics teaching improves English learners’ sounds perception.

Institutional integrated teletandem: students' perceptions about collaborative writing

Institutional integrated teletandem (iiTTD) is characterized “as a series of teletandem sessions that are embedded in regular FL lessons (thus mandatory) so that such lessons both feed and are fed by teletandem practice” (CAVALARI; ARANHA, [2016]). Collaborative writing is conceived as an activity in which learners work together throughout the process of planning, generating ideas, structuring, editing and revising a text in the foreign language (STORCH, 2013). This paper aims at (i) describing a collaborative writing task that was implemented within iiTTD at UNESP – São José do Rio Preto, and (ii) discussing Brazilian learners’ perceptions as they carried out such task in 2015. Data were collected by means of learning diaries written by thirteen students of English as a foreign language who were taking a Translation Studies major.

Identidade e pluralidade cultural em livros didáticos de espanhol produzidos no Brasil e selecionados pelo PNDL – Programa Nacional do Livro Didático

O presente artigo pretende promover, diante da atual realidade, na qual se configura um cenário marcado pelo rompimento de fronteiras culturais e por se entender o mundo como um universo mais unificado, refletir sobre as concepções de cultura existentes nesse contexto. O mundo cada vez mais marcado pela multiculturalidade das sociedades, pelo enfraquecimento de antigos referenciais culturais e pela multiplicação de afirmações identitárias. O ensino de línguas estrangeiras é uma oportunidade para inserir o aluno nesse universo planetário de uma aparente cultura on-line, mas que, cada vez mais, vem reforçar identidades diversas. Nesse sentido, o artigo aqui apresentado, além de promover espaço para uma discussão acerca dessas questões próprias da contemporaneidade, apresenta as análises de uma pesquisa feita com dois, dos quatro livros didáticos de espanhol, selecionados para integrarem o Programa Nacional do Livro para o Ensino Médio, delimitando a escolha às características de tempo e espaço para análise e construção desse escrito: El arte de leer Español e Síntesis: curso de língua española. Não serão apresentadas as análises totais dos livros, optando por fazer um recorte, tomando como critério algumas Unidades didáticas e atividades propostas mais direcionadas ao tema, além de poder atender as regras e brevidade desse artigo. A referida pesquisa versou sobre as seguintes questões: De que forma os manuais didáticos para o ensino- aprendizagem de espanhol produzido no Brasil contempla: a) a pluralidade cultural do mundo hispânico? ; b) a afirmação – com respeito a sua formação em comunidade e do convívio da (s) identidade (s) latina- americana(s)? ; e c) a interação – proposta a partir das estratégias de aprendizagem, com a formação identitária do aluno brasileiro? Para tanto, adotamos a metodologia da análise qualitativa e a técnica de análise de conteúdo, tomando como indicadores de análise as seguintes categorias: espaços geográficos e territórios culturais explorados nos textos; as identidades dos personagens anônimos e famosos que circulam nos livros; e as atividades didáticas relacionadas às questões culturais propostas aos alunos. A partir das análises pode- se concluir que os livros selecionados dão diferentes respostas às questões propostas para esta pesquisa. O livro Síntesis: curso de lengua española, não explora, de fato, a pluralidade cultural do mundo hispânico; tem seus personagens marcados por identidades não latino-americanas e não promovem através das atividades relacionadas a questões culturais, nenhuma interação com a formação identitária do aluno brasileiro. Ao passo que, o livro El arte de leer Español explora a multiplicidade de espaços geográficos e territórios culturais do mundo hispânico, além de trazer referenciais do Brasil e de outros lugares. Além disso, o livro prioriza identidades latino-americanas e promove, em muitas atividades, a interação com as culturas e identidades dos aprendizes brasileiros de espanhol.

The aspiration of voiceless stops by Brazilian learners in contexts of authentic communication

This paper aims at studying the production of aspiration by Brazilian learners of English. Aspiration is a quick projection of air released after voiceless stops when they are found in stressed syllables before vowel sounds. It is measured in milliseconds and is usually longer in native speakers than learners (Alves & Magro 2011). Most importantly, aspiration contributes decisively to intelligibility (Jenkins 2000). So, an understanding of the way aspiration operates in the speech of learners is important to help them improve their oral communication abilities. We analysed the recordings of ten students of Letters who were at intermediate or advanced levels of command of the language, totalizing 1590 occurrences. Those recordings compose the oral corpus LINDSEI-BR, which is the Brazilian branch of the LINDSEI project. Instead of controlled activities of reading texts in laboratories, the participants could talk freely about a variety of topics, in a context which was very similar to spontaneous speech in authentic communication. The length of aspiration was analysed using the software PRAAT. Our results revealed aspects regarding the students’ production of aspiration which had not been detected in similar studies and, thus, can provide future ones with other ways of looking into the phenomenon.

A Aquisição Fonológica Variável da Nasal Velar por Aprendizes de Inglês-L2: Análise pela Teoria da Otimidade Estocástica

This article presents a formal analysis of the Interlanguage of Brazilian learners (gaúchos) of English regarding the acquisition of the velar nasal in syllabic coda. The analysis is associated with the learning algorithm of the Stochastic Optimality Theory, the GLA (Gradual Learning Algorithm) (BOERSMA and HAYES, 2001), which views acquisition as a hierarchical ranking of linguistic constraints, in which variation is represented by the overlapping of the selection points of the constraints in a continuous scale. The status of the variation in the L1 (first language, Portuguese) and in the L2 (second language, English) is distinct, it is due to phonetic conditioning in the first language and phonological conditioning in the second language. The starting point of the L2 acquisition is the L1 ranking, whose configuration is M(arkedness)>>F(aithfulness). In the modelling proposed, a constraint AGREE (M), which demands sharing of manner of articulation in the sequence vN_#, has a similar ranking value to a constraint IDENT (F), which requires identity concerning nasal manner of articulation in the input and in the output. The modelling confirms the potential of the algorithm concerning the formalization of variable L2 systems. Acquiring the velar nasal is to promote Faithfulness towards the input, through the gradual adjustement of contraints.

How Brazilian learners express modality through verbs and adverbs in their writing: a corpus-based study on n-grams

Based on the view of modality in the theoretical framework of descriptive syntax, this study examined a corpus of learners compared with a corpus of native speakers of English, aiming to identify different patterns of expression of modal meanings, particularly, adverbs and modal verbs. Therefore, the study focused its analysis on n-grams containing modal verbs and adverbs that express modality. This analysis revealed the prevalence of epistemic values in both corpora, and the existence of distinct patterns in the expression of this type of modality. In the non-native corpus, the expression of modality is restricted when compared to the native speakers'. In the corpus of native speakers, there was a prevalence of adverbs with modalizing meanings. In addition, learners tend to use some modal verbs differently. This study may contribute to the emerging field of corpora linguistic studies as well as to the area of syntax, with possible implications for the teaching of academic writing in English.

The role of L1 knowledge on L2 speech perception: investigating how native speakers and Brazilian learners categorize different VOT patterns in English

Abstract: The present study aimed to investigate how different Voice Onset Time (VOT) patterns are categorized by native speakers of American English and Brazilian Learners of English. American English and Brazilian Portuguese diverge as to the voicing pattern of plosive consonants, for the VOT cue plays different roles in the distinction between voiced and voiceless consonant categories in each system. This study contrasted four VOT patterns (Negative VOT, Zero VOT, Positive VOT and a manipulated pattern, named Artificial Zero VOT) in two perceptual tasks (AxB discrimination and identification tests), and verified how the two groups of participants categorized these patterns. Results reinforce the idea that speech perception is multimodal and, therefore, the action of multiple cues must be taken into account when we consider phonetic-phonological processes.Keywords: Voice Onset Time; Speech Perception; Discrimination; Identification.Resumo: O presente estudo buscou investigar como diferentes padrões de Voice Onset Time (VOT) são categorizados por falantes nativos de Inglês Americano e aprendizes brasileiros de Inglês. O Inglês Americano e o Português Brasileiro divergem quanto ao padrão de vozeamento das consoantes plosivas, uma vez que a pista VOT desempenha diferentes papéis na formação de categorias de consoantes vozeadas e desvozeadas em cada sistema. Este estudo contrastou quatro padrões de VOT (VOT Negativo, VOT Zero, VOT Positivo e um padrão manipulado, nomeado VOT Zero Artificial) em duas tarefas perceptuais (testes de discriminação AxB e identificação), e verificou como os dois grupos de participantes categorizaram esses padrões. Os resultados corroboram a ideia de que a percepção da fala é multimodal e, portanto, a ação de múltiplas pistas acústicas deve ser levada em consideração quando abordamos processos fonético-fonológicos.Palavras-chave: Voice Onset Time; Percepção da Fala; Discriminação; Identificação.

The L2 perception of initial English /h/ and /ɹ/ by Brazilian Portuguese learners of English

This study investigates how speakers who speak Brazilian Portuguese as their first language and English as their second language perceive the English phonemes /h/ and /ɹ/, and how they and monolingual Brazilian Portuguese speakers map these phonemes onto Portuguese sound categories. Participants took part in three experiments: an AXB discrimination test, an identification test, and a cross-language assimilation test, which was also taken by monolinguals. Lower and higher proficiency groups were able to hear the distinction acoustically, but only the higher proficiency group used the distinction to identify English words. Monolingual Brazilian Portuguese speakers and the higher proficiency group assimilated English /h/ primarily to Portuguese /h/. However, the phonological environment had an effect for monolinguals, but not for the higher proficiency group. The lower proficiency group, which one might expect to fall in between these two groups, showed a failure to assimilate English sounds to the Portuguese categories.