Early Stages Of Language Learning Research Articles

Vastasaapuneet ja osallisuuden rakentuminen yhteisissä ja erillisissä luokkahuoneissa

This article examines the ways in which newly arrived pupils are integrated into the school community and how pupils are supported in adopting the language of instruction. We see language learning as a socialization process: language is for interaction, and through language we situate ourselves in social reality. The article draws on two data sources: a survey of preparatory education teachers in Finland and research project publications drawing on ethnographic data collected in preparatory classes. The survey responses indicate that in some schools, the basis for the integration of newly arrived pupils has been built into the school culture; in others, structures such as group size and spatial arrangement challenge the creation of functional practices. The classroom studies suggest that in the early stages of language learning, learners benefit the most from the linguistic model of their peers, while later, when learning subject- specific content, teachers’ support is crucial for them.

For Critical Language Awareness and Against the “Exclusive-use-of-the-target-language” Myth: The Effects of Sociolinguistic Content in English in an Elementary Spanish Classroom

Scholars have advocated for critical approaches to language education (e.g., Del Valle, 2014; Leeman & Serafini, 2016), including those that promote the development of Critical Language Awareness, CLA (e.g., Alim, 2010; Leeman, 2018). The goal is to develop students’ critical knowledge of the cultural, political, and social dimensions of language. To this end, Del Valle (2014) suggests the inclusion of language-related content units taught in the first or shared language from the early stages of language learning. This proposal entails revising strong beliefs such as the use of the non-target language in the new language classroom. The purpose of our research is to investigate whether including language-related content in English (the shared language) in an elementary Spanish language course helped students develop CLA without hindering class performance. Additionally, we explored if providing this content increased learners’ investment in the language. Results revealed that incorporating the CLA units did not influence overall class performance. Qualitative analyses indicated that students connected the content with their own social experience, which led to greater investment in the language. Finally, the content contributed to developing students’ critical awareness of linguistic ideologies and their impact on the construction of inequality as well as in enabling social change.

Keeping sight of the big picture: a critical response to Ofsted’s 2021 Curriculum Research Review for languages

ABSTRACT This article offers a critical perspective on Ofsted's (2021) Curriculum Research Review for Languages (OCRR). Whilst the OCRR contains much that we would agree with (including its underpinning principle of drawing on research evidence to inform policy and pedagogy), we are nevertheless concerned that it could result in unintended negative effects on both teachers and learners of modern languages. We believe that any problematic elements of the OCRR will be amplified by the powerful status of the organisation whose name it bears. Overall, we think there is a danger that the OCRR could lead teachers to focus too heavily on individual building blocks in the early stages of language learning, and thus lose sight of the ‘bigger picture'. We also disagree with some of the OCRR's specific recommendations, which, we argue, do not seem to be based on sufficiently rigorous or extensive evidence. We suggest that other ‘pillars' may also be important in supporting the edifice of language proficiency, including strategic competence and intercultural understanding. Further, we argue that the OCRR fails to reflect recent technological advances which have transformed the language learning environment. Finally, we argue for the crucial importance of teachers’ professional judgment in determining the most appropriate instructional approaches for a given classroom on a given occasion. Addressing these concerns, our article discusses the following topics: (1) the importance of communication in modern language learning; (2) the development of communication strategies; (3) the potential impact on target language teaching; (4) the position of culture in language learning; (5) the role of challenging texts, spoken and written; (6) the role of technology; (7) the nature of teacher professionalism; and (8) the evidence base on which the OCRR explicitly draws in making its recommendations.

Effective learning strategies and creative methods of teaching the croatian language in early primary school education

Learning is an important process in the intellectual maturation and socialization of a person. It is determined by numerous components, the most important being cognition, motivation and emotions. As modern teaching requires an active role of students in the learning process, a key element for successful learning is quality teaching. Teachers’ main challenge is how to arouse interest among students for the educational field. Thereby, teaching should be based on the choice of approaches and procedures. In this paper were discussed effective strategies and forms of learning in the teaching of the Croatian language at the lower level of primary education, in the classroom teaching. The Croatian language is a complex teaching subject, so the functional teaching of language and literature requires the purposefulness of methods and forms of work. We monitored the applicability of collaborative, experiential and self-regulated learning. Attached are various creative procedures in the early stages of language learning, and offer guidelines for working with students in the classroom. It is important to facilitate situations in which students will become aware of their learning process and make decisions about how to achieve the planned learning outcomes ang goals

Writing in Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL): Towards Finding a Balance between Translation Dependency and Creative Writing

The main objective of the paper is to assess the effect of Google translation and other software applications on the students’ writing in Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL). Its central hypothesis hinges on the possibility that some students’ errors are attributable to translation mishaps. The research is based on three main areas of enquiry: first; it seeks to establish patterned input when writing in Arabic, such as a semantic transfer from English to Arabic and literal translation. Second, the paper discusses those areas of the Arabic language that challenge the students’ inability to provide a correct TL (Target Language) output on the levels of morpho-syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Third, the paper argues for the importance of teaching the rudiments of translation at the early stages of language learning. Hence, it proposes solutions and empirical strategies to reducing the students’ reliance on translation by, for instance, educating them about the translation process, and by designing guided writing tasks with rehearsed structures, and without discouraging creativity.

Validity of Vocal Communication and Vocal Complexity in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

To identify valid measures of vocal development in young children with autism spectrum disorder in the early stages of language learning, we evaluated the convergent validity, divergent validity, and sensitivity to change (across 12months) of two measures of vocal communication and two measures of vocal complexity through conventional coding of communication samples. Participants included 87 children with autism spectrum disorder (M = 23.42months at entry). All four vocal variables demonstrated consistent evidence of convergent validity, divergent validity, and sensitivity to change with large effect sizes for convergent validity and sensitivity to change. The results highlight the value of measuring vocal communication and vocal complexity in future studies.

Mark my words: High frequency marker words impact early stages of language learning.

High frequency words have been suggested to benefit both speech segmentation and grammatical categorization of the words around them. Despite utilizing similar information, these tasks are usually investigated separately in studies examining learning. We determined whether including high frequency words in continuous speech could support categorization when words are being segmented for the first time. We familiarized learners with continuous artificial speech comprising repetitions of target words, which were preceded by high-frequency marker words. Crucially, marker words distinguished targets into 2 distributionally defined categories. We measured learning with segmentation and categorization tests and compared performance against a control group that heard the artificial speech without these marker words (i.e., just the targets, with no cues for categorization). Participants segmented the target words from speech in both conditions, but critically when the marker words were present, they influenced acquisition of word-referent mappings in a subsequent transfer task, with participants demonstrating better early learning for mappings that were consistent (rather than inconsistent) with the distributional categories. We propose that high-frequency words may assist early grammatical categorization, while speech segmentation is still being learned.

Supplemental Material for Mark My Words: High Frequency Marker Words Impact Early Stages of Language Learning

Supplemental Material for Mark My Words: High Frequency Marker Words Impact Early Stages of Language Learning

MULTI-CANONS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The development of English as a global of medium has given rise and recognition to various English and this also involves a vital multicultural issues. The present paper envisages to throw light on Multi Canons and the Development of English language today. It emphasizes the need of understanding multicultural issues and norms and traits of various cultures in the process of learning and teaching of English language all over the world. The process of learning and teaching of English language is boosted further if we understand the cultural traits of a language in the light of the cultural traits of the target language. Culture is really an integral part of language learning and teaching. Part of learning and teaching is learning and teaching cultural norms in the language. In the early stages of language learning, students should be encouraged to use the language just to establish the fact that they can use it. Too much emphasis on so called appropriateness may result in an overwhelmingly chaotic situation for beginners or slow learners.

German for Specific Purposes in the Basic Language Sequence: A Case Study in Implementation during Curricular Reform

This article seeks to answer calls in the field to implement German for Specific Purposes in the basic language sequence. The article follows a program's curricular redesign transitioning from “German” to a “German Studies” major and what this means at the beginning and intermediate levels. The first four semesters follow a restructuring through the framework of Maxim et al.'s model () for curriculum reform and Doyle's () articulation for Business Language theory, method, and methodology. It seeks to engage in the ongoing conversation about how to reorganize curriculum, while retaining the critical skills of cultural understanding and analysis of basic business practices and company profiles. Using real‐world examples, technology, and materials, instructors will help motivate and retain students while distinguishing students on the job market. This article explores the current Business Language theory, method, and methodology, how this fits in early stages of language learning, and provides tangible examples from the beginning and intermediate levels.

Brain structural and functional differences associated to language learning abilities

Event Abstract Back to Event Brain structural and functional differences associated to language learning abilities Ruth De Diego-Balaguer1, 2* 1 ICREA, University of Barcelona, Department of Basic Psychology, Spain 2 IDIBELL, Spain Language-related areas are organized in dorsal and ventral segregated but highly interactive streams. Studying individual differences in functional and structural connectivity between those brain regions can clarify the function of each of these specific connections in learning difficulties and inter-individual variability. The dorsal stream has been related to articulation and production while the ventral stream to comprehension and semantic processing. To understand their role in the earliest stages of language learning, we have used artificial languages to study the acquisition of word forms from fluent speech without the influence of semantic information. The evidence presented indicates that the direct functional and structural connectivity between left frontal and temporal structures is relevant for audio-motor integration and critical for the acquisition of new word forms. Indeed, interference with this audio-motor component required to maintain the phonological form disrupts language learning. The ventral connection between left frontal and temporal areas appears to be a supporting pathway in the early acquisition process. Acknowledgements The work presented has been supported by Grants from the MINECO PSI2011-23624 and ERC StG 313841 TuningLang Keywords: word learning, audio-motor integration, Dorsal language pathway, Ventral language pathway, artificial language learning Conference: Microstructures of Learning: Novel methods and approaches for assessing structural and functional changes underlying knowledge acquisition in the brain, Lund, Sweden, 23 May - 23 May, 2014. Presentation Type: Oral presentation Topic: Neuroscience Citation: De Diego-Balaguer R (2015). Brain structural and functional differences associated to language learning abilities. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Microstructures of Learning: Novel methods and approaches for assessing structural and functional changes underlying knowledge acquisition in the brain. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2015.88.00002 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 04 Mar 2015; Published Online: 05 Mar 2015. * Correspondence: Prof. Ruth De Diego-Balaguer, ICREA, University of Barcelona, Department of Basic Psychology, Barcelona, Barcelona, 08035, Spain, ruth.dediego@ub.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ruth De Diego-Balaguer Google Ruth De Diego-Balaguer Google Scholar Ruth De Diego-Balaguer PubMed Ruth De Diego-Balaguer Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

A cross-sectional study of request perspective use among Iranian EFL learners

One of the key aspects in the use of the speech act of request as proposed by Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1984) in their CCSARP study is the perspective in which requests can be encoded. Motivated by the dearth of literature on this point, this study set out to investigate the request perspectives of a sample of 61 request utterances elicited through a discourse completion task (DCT) from 30 Iranian MA EFL learners. The DCT included 6 situations, 2 situations for each social status or relative power (P) level (i.e., +P, -P or =P). The results showed that overall, Iranian EFL learners favored the hearer-oriented perspective most and the speaker-hearer oriented perspective least. The results also indicated that while in +P situations, the most frequent perspective was the impersonal perspective, the dominant perspective in both -P and =P situations was hearer oriented. Since, when requesting, any avoidance of naming the addressee can serve as a strategy for the speaker to sound polite, Iranian EFL learners' frequent use of the hearer oriented request perspective can be interpreted as evidence of impoliteness or the potential to be so. The participants were found to follow routine ways of performing the speech act of request traceable to their early stages of language learning of high school and pragmatic transfer from their L1. In conclusion, the study highlighted the fact that Iranian EFL learners are not fully aware of the power dynamics in interactions and that they are therefore in need of instructional intervention in pragmatics in language learning.

A Discussion‐Based Online Approach to Fostering Deep Cultural Inquiry in an Introductory Language Course

AbstractFostering and assessing language learners' cultural understanding is a daunting task, particularly at the early stages of language learning with target language instruction. The purpose of this study was to explore the development of beginning French language learners' intercultural understanding in a computer‐mediated environment where students discussed online cultural instruction among peers, in English, outside of formal instructional time. Discourse analyses of the discussion transcripts revealed sizeable growth in learners' development of intercultural sensitivity in response to different types of online instructional materials. Volunteer participants provided additional insight into the influences of the instructional materials on changes in their worldviews in post‐discussion interviews. In addition to providing evidence of effective uses of technology to resolve conflicts between target language use and deep cultural learning in the beginning world language curriculum, findings from this study document the application of an assessment model used to measure learners' development of intercultural understanding.

The Earliest Stages of Language Learning edited by GULLBERG, MARIANNE, & PETER INDEFREY

The article reviews the book “The Earliest Stages of Language Learning, edited by Marianne Gullberg and Peter Indefrey.

The Role of Linguistic Input in the First Hours of Adult Language Learning

In the field of SLA, the dominant view of the starting point of SLA holds that the properties of the learner's first language (L1) grammar form the basis for the initial state of interlanguage development. It is assumed therefore that second‐language (L2) input processing happens through the lens of the L1 and that the perception of a discrepancy between the configuration of the L1 grammar and the L2 input triggers a restructuring of the developing system. This article takes a different approach to the analysis of the earliest stages of language learning. Based on results from an empirical study of the linguistic input (Polish) addressed to adult learners (French native speakers) in the first seconds, minutes, and hours of exposure to a novel target language as well as learners’ analysis of this input, it is argued that learners use a combination of knowledge stores, including but not limited to their L1 knowledge, to process the novel target language input to which they are exposed.

A Frequency Analysis of Vocabulary in Three First‐Year Textbooks of German

Research shows that the most frequently used words of a language's vocabulary are of great benefit and importance for the learner, especially during the early stages of language learning. Information about word frequency, therefore, plays a critical role when selecting vocabulary for a German course or textbook. This article describes a study which investigates how three current and widely‐used textbooks for first‐year German instruction at American universities and colleges reflect German lexical frequencies. The three textbooks investigated are Deutsch heute, Kontakte, and Neue Horizonte.

Speech segmentation is facilitated by visual cues

Evidence from infant studies indicates that language learning can be facilitated by multimodal cues. We extended this observation to adult language learning by studying the effects of simultaneous visual cues (nonassociated object images) on speech segmentation performance. Our results indicate that segmentation of new words from a continuous speech stream is facilitated by simultaneous visual input that it is presented at or near syllables that exhibit the low transitional probability indicative of word boundaries. This indicates that temporal audio-visual contiguity helps in directing attention to word boundaries at the earliest stages of language learning. Off-boundary or arrhythmic picture sequences did not affect segmentation performance, suggesting that the language learning system can effectively disregard noninformative visual information. Detection of temporal contiguity between multimodal stimuli may be useful in both infants and second-language learners not only for facilitating speech segmentation, but also for detecting word-object relationships in natural environments.

Functional Categories in Child L2 Acquisition of French

Vainikka and Young-Scholten (1994; in press) argued that adult language learners initially project verb phrases and that subsequent projection of functional categories is input driven, with inflectional phrases emerging before complementizer phrases. They assumed that the same is true for first-language acquisition (Clahsen, Eisenbeiss, and Vainikka (1994)). On this account, one would expect child second language (L2) learners to lack functional categories in the early stages of language learning. In this article, we argue against this position using data drawn from a longitudinal corpus of spontaneous production data from two English-speaking children who started attending French kindergarten at age 5. Our data suggest that functional categories and their projections are present in the earliest utterances available. Relevant data include the productive use of determiners, inflection, case marking, subject clitics, wh-questions, and correct negative placement. Changes were largely quantitative rather than...

Comprehension and production of gesture in combination with speech in one-word speakers.

This study explores the role that gesture plays in the earliest stages of language learning. We describe how one-word speakers use gesture in combination with speech in their spontaneous communications, and interpret gesture presented in combination with speech in an experimental situation. Forty one-word speakers (ages 1;2.22 to 2;4.6) were videotaped in a free-play session which provided data on the child's spontaneous gesture and speech production. The children were also given a comprehension task in which the presence and absence of gesture were systematically varied in relation to speech. We found that (1) all of the children spontaneously produced gestures in combination with speech, and (2) all of the children were able to understand gesture when it was presented in combination with speech, not only when the gesture was redundant with speech but also when the gesture substituted for speech. These data suggest that, even at this young age, gesture naturally forms an integrated system with speech in both production and comprehension.

Fine-grained auditory discrimination and performance on tests of receptive vocabulary and receptive language

This research investigated the relation between children's performance on two measures of receptive language and children's auditory discrimination of consonant-vowel sounds having frequency and temporal acoustic differences. The measures of fine-grained auditory discrimination produced significant multiple regression coefficients against both receptive vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised) and receptive language (Token Test for Children) scores. Validation analyses conducted by predicting receptive vocabulary and language scores for a new sample of children and relating them to the actual scores led to significant outcomes. It was concluded that fine-grained auditory discrimination is particularly important in the relatively early stages of language learning.