Current Language Research Articles

State-supported language strategies in Azerbaijan: promotion of Azerbaijani and multilingual initiatives.

The wealth of every independent and sovereign country is the abundance of language on its territory, in which the nationalities living there can freely use their languages. In addition to the State language, there are more than 15 languages spoken by ethnic minorities in the Republic of Azerbaijan. In addition to the languages of ethnic minorities, the population of the country uses other foreign languages, which are included in the group of world languages. The objects of research in this article are foreign languages and their relationship to the state language. The legislative acts adopted to regulate the language vector in the country are the subject of research. The author describes in detail and highlights the legislative bodies and government structures that play a crucial role in the development of language policy in the country. In the course of studying language policy, one cannot do without considering the following two main sociolinguistic terms: language regulation and language planning, which are of the nature of state or social impact on the functioning or development of languages in the state. The author mainly used the theoretical method in the study of the article, and also conducted a general analysis of the data. The conclusions are based on legal methods, as well as sociolinguistic methods (statistical and expert assessments). The necessary information in the field of the current language policy in the country was obtained during the analysis of legal documents. Foreign languages of global importance are in great demand among young people, increasingly studying these languages, they delve into the origins of this language, study the history of this country and through this prism the phenomenon of acculturation through language is observed. The author considers in more detail the status of the state language both de jure and de facto, and also considers in detail the position of the most widespread foreign languages in the republic. The language reforms carried out in the Republic of Azerbaijan mainly serve to strengthen the role of the Azerbaijani language as the state language and have the character of linguistic purism. Despite the ongoing reforms in the field of strengthening the state language, we are also considering a balanced language policy with regard to other languages existing on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the purpose of which is to preserve linguistic pluralism.

국어과 학습부진에 대한 국어 교사 인식 연구

Purpose: This research aimed to investigate the perceptions of Korean language teachers, who are practitioners of Korean language education, regarding the learning difficulties in the Korean language subject. By doing so, it sought to identify the specific patterns of perception regarding learning difficulties in the field and explore possible improvement measures to address these difficulties.
 Methods: In this study, a total of twenty-eight survey questions (including three open-ended questions) were developed through a two-step review process. The survey was conducted over a period of approximately two weeks, targeting 105 current Korean language teachers. The collected data were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis, including response frequencies, means, and standard deviations. Additionally, a verification of perception differences across schools of employment was conducted.
 Results: According to the analysis results, the levels of policy awareness and perception of the suitability of selection methods were relatively low. In terms of factor-specific perception, the perception index for factors related to the definition domain was high. Among the language subjects, the writing area had the highest level of reported learning difficulties, particularly in terms of vocabulary proficiency among the learning factors within each subject area. Teachers considered the low motivation and lack of learning willingness in their students to be the biggest challenges in instruction. They also had a slightly lower perception of the adequacy of the current remedial education program. As improvement measures, teachers perceived the following factors positively: selective measures based on teacher interviews and observations, implementation of remedial education for lower-grade middle school students, vocabulary enhancement, and appropriate content for teacher training.
 Conclusion: In order to effectively implement policies related to academic underachievement, it is necessary to increase teachers' level of policy awareness and diversify methods for selecting underperforming students. It is necessary to carefully consider the level and pattern of underachievement, synchronize defining factors, strengthen writing and vocabulary learning, focus on corrective education in the lower grades to prevent underachievement, and specialize the contents of teacher training considering the school level.

METHODS OF OVERCOMING LANGUAGE BARRIERS IN BUSINESS WHEN LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

The following paper discusses the current language barriers associated with the learning of a foreign language. The term “language barrier” is deeply analyzed and discussed in detail. Also, this article considers the main reasons behind the origin of language barriers during learning of a foreign language and ways to overcome them for successful business. Psychological factors such as: fear, self-doubt, and lack of motivation are deeply considered. The modern teaching methods including communicative, active, and interactive were described in the article as ways to overcome language barriers. These methods were based on the creative approach, development of emotional and intellectual parts of individuals. Person-oriented approach contributes to the development of student’s personality, the disclosure of his potential and the manifestation of creative abilities.

The bilingual styles of young Puerto Rican adolescents online

Abstract This article examines the language mixing practices of Puerto Rican adolescents in various social media platforms through a framework of code-mixing and socioindexicality. Over a twelve-week period, I collected samples of online text messages from six island bilinguals of an elite community of practice (CofP) and studied the way their unique socializations in private schools and bilingual universities contributed to the ways they made sense of languages, their social meaning potentials, and uses across online interactions. Against the meaningful backdrop of colonial-dynamics of Spanish and English in Puerto Rico, the paper examines how ideologies of “nationalism” and “race” get reproduced or challenged through bilingual practice, and English takes up an equally important role for the construction of social identities in the interactions of youth. Additionally, the study discusses bilingual styles that have been enregistered as social styles specific to technological mediums of communication and youth registers, Puerto Rican netspeak, as well as emerging social styles that indicate queer gender identity, or non-binary practices. In this sense, I offer a description of the island bilingual that is dynamic, strategic, and metapragmatically conscious of the purist ideologies of Spanish in Puerto Rico, as well as the indexical potentials of appropriating variable gender forms in Spanish, bilingual language practices, and netspeak registers towards the negotiation of identities in technological interaction. The way bilinguals relate to the languages at their disposal can provide a window to impending questions on the perceived coloniality of English, potential changes in language ideologies and uses, and whether and how language policies may shift to meet current demographic attitudes and language uses of contemporary Puerto Ricans.

Evaluation of changes in the lingual situation in the Kazakhstan lingual policy

Relevance. Language policy and societal language processes are crucial in forming nation-states with distinct linguistic and cultural identities, particularly in post-Soviet countries like Kazakhstan. Purpose. This purpose of the study is to analyze language changes in Kazakhstan since independence and evaluate current language policies and their future prospects. Methodology. The research employs comparative, statistical, analytical-synthetic, and graphic methods to examine language modernization parameters and policy perspectives in Kazakhstan. Results. The study analyzed population census data from 1999, 2009, and 2021, presenting statistical information through diagrams and tables. It compared different stages of Kazakh language identity formation from the early 20th century to the present. The research focused on the educational system parameters and the implementation of the trinity of languages concept in secondary and higher education. Conclusions. The study highlights that Kazakhstan�s language policy emphasizes the trilingual concept, promoting Kazakh, Russian, and English to foster national identity and international competitiveness. The research underscores the significant progress in increasing Kazakh language usage and proficiency, alongside the need to further integrate the language into various societal sectors such as science, business, and technology to enhance its functionality and influence. Keywords: language modernization; trinity concept; national linguistic identity; multilingual education; sociolinguistics

Context Matters: How Experimental Language and Language Environment Affect Mental Representations in Multilingualism

The Revised Hierarchical Model (RHM) proposed by Kroll and Stewart has been one of the most influential models of late multilingual language processing. While the model has provided valuable insights into language processing mechanisms, the role of contextual factors for the RHM has not been investigated to date. Such contextual effects could be manifold, including individual speakers’ language profiles (such as age of acquisition, proficiency, and immersion experiences), experimental factors (such as different instruction languages), and environmental factors (such as societal language(s)). Additionally, it also appears promising to investigate the applicability of the RHM to non-native multilingual speakers from diverse backgrounds. To investigate whether some of the mentioned contextual factors affect non-native language processing, we designed three online experiments requiring answers in German and English, but tested speakers whose first language was neither German nor English. They performed a series of translation, picture-naming, and recall tasks based on Kroll and Stewart, as well as providing detailed information on their proficiencies, profiles of language use, and exposure. Experiment 1, conducted with speakers living in Germany, established the paradigm and investigated the role of individual differences in linguistic background. While Experiment 2 focused on the short-term effects of the experimental context by varying whether instructions were provided in German or in English, Experiment 3 examined the longer-term role of the current language environment by comparing individuals living in German-speaking countries with speakers living in societies where neither experimental language is spoken regularly. As in Kroll and Stewart, both the response language and the list type constituted key variables affecting response times and accuracy, known as language asymmetry and category interference. Importantly, the strength of this asymmetry was affected by participants’ immersion experiences, suggesting a certain dynamic development in multilingual language processing. In addition, context also seemed to play a role for experimental performance, especially the language environment examined in Experiment 3. Hence, speakers’ individual linguistic backgrounds and experience with the experimental languages, as well as additional contextual factors, need to be considered when conducting multilingual experiments and drawing conclusions about multilinguistic processing.

Prospective English language teachers' understandings of global English language teaching

AbstractDespite various calls for a thorough re‐conceptualization of current English language teaching (ELT) practices, incorporating courses for critical perspectives on linguistic and cultural diversity is still a major challenge in most teacher education programmes in many English as a foreign language (EFL) countries. Therefore, we explored the evolving perspectives of English as a global language among Turkish pre‐service English teachers (PELTs) in response to a global Englishes‐focused curriculum. Using self‐report data, the study reveals participants' complex and diverse views on language varieties in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) communication, driven by various reasons. After a GE‐oriented course, most participants shifted to plurilithic orientations as they softened their beliefs in native‐speaker English superiority and developed a more sophisticated understanding of English. Seven participants with monolithic orientation appeared to reduce the complex and dynamic nature of language to racialized stereotypes associated with native speaker norms. Based on the findings, how language orientations and ideologies may inform teacher preparation in language teaching was discussed. Several recommendations for further research and preparation of PELTs were made.

Linguistic Models of Mass Media Genres` Stylistic Diffusion in the Communicative Space of Ukraine and Bulgaria

Research attention is focused on fundamental changes in techniques and methods of informing , which activate the communicative capabilities of language and give rise to new genres, forms and formats of interpersonal communication in various spheres and discourses. It actualizes the research problem of the diffuse stylistic nature of mass media genres, argued by the processes of assimilation of public communication`s spheres. The author’s argumentation is based on the vectors of the dynamics of the literary language`s evolutionary potential, that is focused on the format and tasks of social communication. Predictably, the architectonic heterogeneity and polyfunctionality of the language of media texts explain the syncretic nature of the genres. And also the tendency to their constant modification and transformation regarding the structure, meanings and communicative valence of language units. The article interprets models of updating of the functional and stylistic paradigm of modern literary languages in their genre projection and perspective, which do not depend on the time and space of culture. To prove this thesis, the texts of the Ukrainian and Bulgarian media space in the genre of posts in social networks were chosen as the object of analysis. The main research aim is to determine the typicality / atypicality of stylistic diffusion in the genre paradigm of Ukrainian and Bulgarian media. The attention is paid to the bloggers and companies that are well- known in Ukraine and Bulgaria as influencers who make professional activities in the fields of health, beauty, sport, etc., and really model the current mass language consciousness. The research base is formed by texts that were published in the social networks Instagram, Facebook in 2023 – 2024. The functional and stylistic methodology of the mentioned material`s interpretation allows in a comparative discourse to prove the typicality of communicative processes that are resulted in the stylistic diffusion of modern mass media genres.

Analysis of the Current Situation and Development Trends of Japanese Language Education in Chinese Universities

This article mainly analyzes the current development trend of Japanese language education in universities, analyzes the problems in current Japanese language teaching, and positions new goals for the development of Japanese language education and teaching based on the background of the new era. This article explores the development trends of Japanese language education in Chinese universities, including emphasis on practicality, cultural cultivation of students, active implementation of compound and bilingual teaching, order based training, lifelong education, etc., so that Japanese language professionals can truly serve national strategies. Cultivating composite talents with Japanese language skills ultimately enables the cultivation of Japanese language professionals to truly serve the national strategy of the 21st century.

Bilingual Linguistic and National Identity (A Case Study of the Sociolinguistic Surveys in Ukraine)

The article explores the problems of the correlation of linguistic, ethnic, and national identity, and defines related terms and concepts. It also considers the issues of bilingual individuals’ linguistic and national identity. The practical analysis of the current language situation in Ukraine, defined as bilingual, is based on a sociolinguistic survey from May 2022. The theoretical conclusions of the research define ethnic identity as the awareness of an individual’s belonging to a specific group in society and, as a result, sharing values and guidelines for their worldview and communicative behaviour with this group’s representatives. According to the survey, one of the distinguishing features of how Ukrainian citizens determine their national identity is the citizenship criterion. Therefore, national and linguistic identity is a historically changing phenomenon that, under certain conditions and at different times, is determined by the awareness of belonging to a social group within the boundaries of a single state and is associated with the state language. This identity is a two-sided semiotic, discursive construction that manifests signs to distinguish “Us” from “Them”. Currently, in Ukraine, amid the war with Russia, bilingual Ukrainians almost unanimously identify themselves as Ukrainians by nationality, which indicates unity and patriotism. Nevertheless, there are no established criteria for defining ethnic, national, and linguistic identities. The significance and relevance of the situation determine the discursive construction claiming hegemony at this historical moment under these historical conditions. In this regard, national identity is believed to be a dynamic process conditioned by the discursive construction prevailing over a given period. It unites the nation when it faces challenges to cope with.

Self-supervised learning for Formosan speech representation and linguistic phylogeny

Formosan languages, spoken by the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, have unique roles in the reconstruction of Proto-Austronesian Languages. This paper presents a real-world Formosan language speech dataset, including 144 h of news footage for 16 Formosan languages, and uses self-supervised models to obtain and analyze their speech representations. Among the news footage, 13 h of the validated speech data of Formosan languages are selected, and a language classifier, based on XLSR-53, is trained to classify the 16 Formosan languages with an accuracy of 86%. We extracted and analyzed the speech vector representations learned from the model and compared them with 152 manually coded linguistic typological features. The comparison shows that the speech vectors reflect Formosan languages' phonological and morphological aspects. Furthermore, the speech vectors and linguistic features are used to construct a linguistic phylogeny, and the resulting genealogical grouping corresponds with previous literature. These results suggest that we can investigate the current real-world language usages through the speech model, and the dataset opens a window to look into the Formosan languages in vivo.

In Quest for Reliable English Language Testing Practices in Secondary Education

This paper reports on the current English language teaching context and reformed foreign language policies in the Republic of Serbia. Although the objectives, contents and outcomes formulated in national curricula for all educational levels have been designed in compliance with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment, there is not much evidence on the learning outcomes achieved by students at the end of secondary education. In other words, there are no standardized testing practices present in the secondary education system that would, on the one hand, objectively show to which extent the prescribed outcomes have been achieved, and, on the other, serve as a diagnostic tool that pinpoints which aspects in teaching, learning and assessment practices should be improved. This paper focuses on the issue of assessment and draws attention to the need to introduce reliable testing practices of foreign languages that would serve as the objective indicators of the outcomes achieved, which would, in turn, provide feedback on teaching and learning practices. Through the analysis of the results obtained from grammar, vocabulary and reading tests taken by a group of secondary school graduates, the most common errors have been detected and explained. The results show that the commonest errors result from the lack of understanding of the use of English in a context that demands more than just a straightforward application of rules as used in isolated sentences, and the most demanding reading tasks comprised inference and implication questions. This study aims to research the errors and, subsequently, to investigate the implications relevant in English language teaching and testing and point at the segments that need to be worked on more in English language classes.

What we do and do not know about the Kaunas Polish language

The article aims at providing a synopsis of previous studies on the Kaunas Polish language, as well as identifying knowledge gaps, i.e., the things that – despite extensive research on this language variety – are still not known. At the turn of the 20th and the 21st century, intensified research both on the current Polish language variety, as spoken in the Kaunas region, and its history (mainly over the 19th century up till the 1950s) brought about vast amounts of linguistic and extralinguistic data. However, a detailed analysis shows that there is no easy answer to the question posed in the title of the paper. The article overviews the situation of the Kaunas Polish language, its territorial range, scope, and functions, as well as its defining features observable at the beginning of the 21st century. The author also outlines how the language variety – a subdivision of the Polish in the North-Eastern Borderlands – has evolved over the 20th century. Keywords: Polish language in the former North-Eastern Borderlands (Kresy) – language features typical of the North-Eastern Borderlands – substrate – linguistic borderland.

GENEOLOGICAL BASES OF HOUSEHOLD VOCABULARY IN THE WORKS OF ALISHER NAVOIY

This article provides an understanding of household lexemes used in the works of Alisher Navoi. Information is given on which language the household lexemes used in Alisher Navoi's works are taken from, whether they are native or borrowed. Examples are given of whether the used household lexemes are used or not used in the current Uzbek literary language. The language from which household lexemes were acquired is shown in percentages.

Real-time word recognition in heritage speakers: Evidence from the visual world paradigm

Up to 20% of children in the US come from multilingual households (Census, 2019). However, current language development models are still mostly based on monolingual input. Heritage speaker (HS) children pose a challenge for current understandings of monolingual language development because their first language (the heritage language, HL) becomes their less dominant language as they age (often when schooling begins), and their second language (the majority language, ML) eventually becomes dominant, despite a delayed start. Here, lexical processing—a key hub in the language system—is targeted as a model system in which to ask how HSs become more automatic language processors in the ML. To do so, the proposed study focuses on spoken word recognition, which is a critical bottleneck in early language development, as the ability to efficiently recognize continuous speech paves the way for higher level language abilities. Successful recognition requires listeners to suppress competitors, such that only the target word remains. We present eye-tracking data from school-aged HSs who have become more dominant in English (n = 30). Our findings show that HSs, despite a delayed start in English, reach target words efficiently. We discuss the strategies employed by HS children to resolve competition in their ML.

English language policy in Algeria: Perspectives of university teachers and students

This study explores the implications of the current foreign language policy in Algeria by holding evidence from the Algerian government practices and the Algerians’ beliefs and views. The study also responds to the call of Maraf and Osam (2022a) to study neoliberalism as a possible outcome of the English wave in Algeria and considers further implications of linguistic imperialism as an additional outcome. To do so, the study follows a concurrent mixed methods research design that relies on the contribution of 200 Algerian university students who participated in a questionnaire (amongst 20 who participated in semi-structured interviews) who are affiliated with sixty-four Algerian universities, and 20 university teachers through semi-structured interviews. The study concludes that English is a tool leading to neoliberalism in Algeria and that English poses a threat of unnoticed linguistic imperialism that is already visible in the practices of certain youth groups. These conclusions are a roadmap for future problems similar to shadow education and language shift.

Large Language Models, Agency, and Why Speech Acts are Beyond Them (For Now) – A Kantian-Cum-Pragmatist Case

This article sets in with the question whether current or foreseeable transformer-based large language models (LLMs), such as the ones powering OpenAI’s ChatGPT, could be language users in a way comparable to humans. It answers the question negatively, presenting the following argument. Apart from niche uses, to use language means to act. But LLMs are unable to act because they lack intentions. This, in turn, is because they are the wrong kind of being: agents with intentions need to be autonomous organisms while LLMs are heteronomous mechanisms. To conclude, the article argues, based on structural aspects of transformer-based LLMs, that these LLMs have taken a first step away from mechanistic artificiality to autonomous self-constitution, which means that these models are (slowly) moving into a direction that someday might result in non-human, but equally non-artificial agents, thus subverting the time-honored Kantian distinction between organism and mechanism.

Lost in the Middle: How Language Models Use Long Contexts

Abstract While recent language models have the ability to take long contexts as input, relatively little is known about how well they use longer context. We analyze the performance of language models on two tasks that require identifying relevant information in their input contexts: multi-document question answering and key-value retrieval. We find that performance can degrade significantly when changing the position of relevant information, indicating that current language models do not robustly make use of information in long input contexts. In particular, we observe that performance is often highest when relevant information occurs at the beginning or end of the input context, and significantly degrades when models must access relevant information in the middle of long contexts, even for explicitly long-context models. Our analysis provides a better understanding of how language models use their input context and provides new evaluation protocols for future long-context language models.

Development of an Instructional Model to Enhance Competency in the Thai Language for Grade 6 Students

This study introduces a novel learning management model aimed at enhancing Thai language proficiency in sixth-grade students. Confronting challenges such as inadequate teaching resources and a lack of student-centric, practical activities in current Thai language education, this model integrates six key components: foundational principles and theories, clear objectives, diverse learning processes, social systems, responsive teaching, and supportive resources. The approach emphasizes student engagement, self-directed learning, critical thinking, and applicability in real-life situations. Employing a rigorous research and development (R&D) methodology, the study involved analyzing existing educational conditions, developing the instructional model, assessing its impact, and seeking expert validation. The model demonstrated substantial improvements in students’ knowledge, skills, and attributes, as evidenced by the effectiveness index (E.I.) and expert assessments. These evaluations confirmed the model’s suitability, practicality, and beneficial impact on language proficiency. 
 
 The results indicate that integrating self-directed learning, experiential activities, and collaborative techniques significantly enhances language skills. The study underscores the need for adaptive learning strategies, varied instructional media, and comprehensive assessment methods. The model’s success in improving national test scores showcases its potential applicability and effectiveness in diverse educational settings. This research contributes a validated, effective framework for Thai language teaching, highlighting experiential learning, social collaboration, and the integration of ICT. Its successful application in Thai educational contexts suggests its potential for broader adoption in primary language education globally.

Report of the 6th (Virtual) Meeting on the Planetary Protection Knowledge Gaps for Human Missions to Mars on June 1–2, 2022

This paper reports the sixth in a series of meetings held under the auspices of COSPAR (with space agencies support) to identify, refine and prioritize the knowledge gaps that need to be addressed for planetary protection for crewed missions to Mars, as well as to describe where and how needed data can be obtained. This approach is consistent with current scientific understanding and COSPAR policy, that the presence of a biological hazard in Martian material cannot be ruled out, and appropriate mitigations need to be in place.The workshops in the series were intentionally organized to obtain a diverse set of inputs from subject matter experts across a range of expertise on conduct of a potential future crewed Mars exploration mission, identifying and leveraging precursor ground, cis-lunar crewed and Mars robotic activities that can be used to close knowledge gaps.The knowledge gaps addressed by this meeting series fall into three major themes: 1. Microbial and human health monitoring; 2. Technology and operations for biological contamination control, and; 3. Natural transport of biological contamination on Mars. This report describes the findings of the 2022 meeting, which focused on measures needed to protect the crew and the returning Mars samples during the mission, both on the Martian surface and during the return to Earth.Much of this approach to crewed exploration is well aligned with the Principles and Guidelines for Human Missions to Mars described in section 9.3 of the current (2021) COSPAR policy, in terms of goals and intent.There were three specific recommendations:•The crew should be considered as a unit, meaning if one individual gets sick it will be impractical for them to be isolated from the other crew member(s) (this differs from the current COSPAR Planetary Protection Policy language).•Pristine life detection/subsurface samples should be kept separate from the crew during the return trip, both to keep them pristine and to protect the crew. (If there are time sensitive measurement that need to be made during the return trip they could be made on a dedicated non-pristine set of samples).•An approach to break the chain of contact between Mars and the Earth is still needed to protect the broader biosphere, even if crew exposed on Mars appear unharmed.