Challenge For Language Learners Research Articles

Methods of Analysizing New Words by Reading Texts

As a language learner, you work hard to expand your vocabulary. You plough through new words every day, make long lists of words and practise with flashcards. However, when it comes to speaking, the new words seem to fall out of your head, so you resort to your old friends – words you already know and have used many times – again and again. Remembering and using new words in speech is often a challenge for language learners. This article goes on to think about word memorization and its methods.

The Interactive Model of L2 Listening Processing in Chinese Bilinguals: A Multiple Mediation Analysis.

Second language (L2) listening is a common challenge for language learners. It remains largely unknown how bilinguals process L2 listening. The literature has suggested an interactive model of L2 listening processing. However, few studies have examined the model from an experimental approach. The current study tried to provide empirical evidence for the interactive model of L2 listening processing in bilinguals by exploring the relationships among English spoken word segmentation (SWS), cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and L2 listening proficiency. The results showed positive associations among SWS, cognitive inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and L2 listening proficiency. Mediation analysis suggested that SWS might have a positive influence on L2 listening proficiency both directly and indirectly through cognitive inhibition and cognitive flexibility, respectively. These results imply that both bottom-up (reflected at SWS) and top-down (reflected at cognitive inhibition and flexibility) processes are engaged in bilinguals’ L2 listening processing.

Switching to Emergency Remote Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Challenges for Language Learners

Switching to Emergency Remote Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Challenges for Language Learners

Switching to Emergency Remote Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Challenges for Language Learners

Switching to Emergency Remote Learning During the Coronavirus Pandemic: Challenges for Language Learners

Method Of Learning New Words

As a language learner, you work hard to expand your vocabulary. You plough through new words every day, make long lists of words and practise with flashcards. However, when it comes to speaking, the new words seem to fall out of your head, so you resort to your old friends – words you already know and have used many times – again and again. Remembering and using new words in speech is often a challenge for language learners. This article goes on to think about word memorization and its methods.

Social media literacy in L2 environments: navigating anonymous user-generated content

Online participatory cultures (e.g. social media) present a number of opportunities and challenges for language learners. Learners can collaborate with like-minded peers in online affinity spaces or get crowd-sourced information from the locals of a target culture, but they also run the risk of getting lost in the overwhelming amount of noise and disruption in these ‘wild’ environments. This proliferation of user-generated content requires new forms of information literacy, so that everyone has equal access and ability to participate in modern social environments. English language learners (ELLs) may require extra training in using English-based social media effectively, but to date little research has examined this area. This study investigated the characteristics and trends of ELLs' use of social media, how language abilities and previous social media experience affect ELLs' perceptions of anonymous user-generated content in an online discussion website (Reddit), and the strategies learners use to overcome the challenges they encounter in these online environments. The results indicate the importance of adding a sociocultural pragmatics component into the framework of social media literacy and were used to inform recommendations for future social media training programs.

A Longitudinal Study of the Acquisition of the Polysemous Verb 打 dǎ in Mandarin Chinese

Lexical ambiguity abounds in languages and multiple one-to-many form-function mappings create challenges for language learners. This study extends the theoretical approaches to the acquisition of polysemy to the Mandarin verb 打 dǎ, which is highly polysemous and among the earliest verbs in child speech. It analyzes longitudinal naturalistic data of nine children (1;05–3;10) from two Mandarin child speech corpora to explore the developmental trajectory of different senses of 打 dǎ and the role of input. The results support a continuous derivational and restricted monosemy approach: children initially extract a core feature of 打 dǎ, but only apply it in a restricted way, reflected in a small number of senses in a limited set of semantic domains and syntactic frames, revealing an early preference for initial unambiguous form-meaning mappings. Mandarin-speaking children’s production mirrors the semantic and syntactic distribution of the input, supporting the usage-based approach to the acquisition of polysemy that meaning is derived from the confluence of lexical and syntactic cues in the usage patterns in the input. Our research is the first longitudinal study of the emergence and development of polysemous verbs in Mandarin and has pedagogical implications for teaching Mandarin as a second language.

Words That Go Together: Teaching Collocations in the EFL Classroom

Abstract Using the right collocations in a foreign language is often a challenge for language learners who may not be familiar with their use and characteristics. After presenting the types of collocations and the importance they have in the acquisition of a foreign language, the paper draws attention to the necessity of raising students’ awareness of collocations, and at the same time it reflects on possible ways of teaching them. Focusing especially on verb-noun collocations, the paper examines the learning materials used in the EFL classes at Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Miercurea Ciuc, with special regard to the exercises on these constructions. In line with construction grammar theories (Goldberg 1995, 1997, 2006), it is assumed that collocations are to be treated as constructions, pairings of form and meaning, including patterns with different degrees of predictability. Collocations, consisting of both predictable (e. g. read a book, blue sky) and non-predictable forms (e. g. run a program, safe and sound) can be more easily remembered if regarded as constructions where all the constituent elements contribute to the meaning of the construction as a whole (but whose meaning is more than the sum of the constituent elements). In order to gain a better understanding of collocations, the use of electronic corpora and electronic databases as well as additional materials on collocations that would complement the language materials used in class is highly encouraged. By making use of these resources, students can see examples of everyday language use and become more aware of the use of collocations as well as the similarities and differences between them in different languages.

“Never too late to spot a difference”: the development of L2 speech perception in adults

Abstract Learning correct pronunciation of a second/foreign language always represents a considerable challenge for language learners (e.g. Rojczyk, 2010a), especially for adults (e.g. Flege, 2007). There is an abundance of studies (e.g. Nowacka, 2010; Flege, 1991) showing that second language learners whose first language (L1) phonetic system has only one sound where L2 is characterized by noticeable richness of separate sound categories, encounter serious problems when they try to distinguish those new sounds and, moreover, they tend to apply their native vowels or consonants in L2 speech. It may be easily audible in the case of vowels and actually a lot of studies on L2 learners’ production and perception of L1 and L2 vowels have been carried (e.g. Flege, 1992; Nowacka, 2010; Rojczyk, 2010a; Rojczyk, 2010b). The aim of this study was to examine elementary learners’ perception of 4 German vowels, namely: /ɪ/, /iː/, /ʏ/ and /yː/. They were organized as two sets of minimal pairs, namely /ɪ/ vs. /ʏ/ and /iː/ vs. /yː/. The aforementioned sounds were chosen for the study since /ʏ/ and /yː/ are considered to be very difficult vowels for Polish learners (e.g. Bęza, 2001). Twelve elementary, adult (29-52 years old) Polish learners of German agreed to participate in the study. The subjects had just began their A2-level language course, however they had been taught the basics of German pronunciation for a year, during their A1-level course. They were presented a printed list of word pairs and listened to the recorded words. Then they were asked to circle the right option in each pair. The results revealed that although all study participants were adults when they started learning German and they were still just elementary users of the language, they were already able to distinguish correctly a considerable number of words. It may suggest that proper pronunciation training during a FL/L2 course can provide language learners with measurable benefits.

Acoustic characteristics of Danish infant directed speech

Danish presents several challenges for language learners, such as a very densely packed upper portion of the acoustic vowel space, and a sibilant contrast that is acoustically less distinct than in, e.g., English. The present study examined whether Danish caregivers enhance Danish contrasts when speaking to their 18 month old children (infant directed speech—IDS) as opposed to an adult (adult directed speech—ADS). Caregivers were recorded talking about toy animals in conversations with their child and with an adult interlocutor. The toy names were designed to elicit Danish contrasts differing in voice onset time and in place of articulation for sibilants, and vowels which are close neighbors in the crowded Danish vowel space. The dependent variables for the comparison of IDS to ADS were as follows: VOT differences for homorganic stop consonants, the frequency at the amplitude peak for the sibilants, the Euclidean F1/F2 differences between vowels, F0 of the stressed (first) syllable in the toy name, as well as the duration of the stressed syllable, the vowels, and the fricatives. Results of the acoustic differences between ADS and IDS were compared to the results of parents’ reports on the children’s productive and receptive vocabulary knowledge. [Work supported by the Danish National Research Foundation –Danmarks Grundforskningsfond.]

Colliding cues in word segmentation: The role of cue strength and general cognitive processes

The process of word segmentation is flexible, with many strategies potentially available to learners. This experiment explores how segmentation cues interact, and whether successful resolution of cue competition is related to general executive functioning. Participants listened to artificial speech streams that contained both statistical and pause-defined cues to word boundaries. When these cues ‘collide’ (indicating different locations for word boundaries), cue strength appears to dictate the predominant parsing strategy. When cues are relatively equal in strength, the ability to successfully deploy a segmentation strategy significantly correlates with stronger performance on the Simon task, a non-linguistic cognitive task typically thought to involve executive processes such as inhibitory control and selective attention. These results suggest that general information processing strategies may play a role in solving one of the early challenges for language learners.