English As A Second Language Speakers Research Articles

Negotiating the challenges in speaking English for Indonesian undergraduate students in an ESL university

In Indonesia, English is not widely used for communication. Hence, Indonesian high school graduates who desire to study abroad may encounter difficulties communicating in English. One of the destination countries Indonesian students choose to study in is Malaysia. When studying in Malaysia, some may transition from EFL (English as a Foreign Language) to ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers as they are required to speak English more frequently, especially in academic contexts. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the challenges of speaking English for Indonesian undergraduate students, the contributing factors to the challenges, and the strategies used by the students to navigate the challenges. A number of 15 Indonesian EFL undergraduate students still registered as active students in an ESL university in Malaysia participated in this study. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews, transcribed, and thematically analysed. The findings were presented thematically with narrative excerpts to support them. The results indicated some challenges faced when students adjusted themselves in their higher education institution, including their psychological reactions, speaking academic English, and online learning. Therefore, to help EFL students be more prepared to speak English for academic contexts in an ESL environment, stakeholders in the education sector in Indonesia should consider providing more actions to focus on improving the English-speaking skills of students.

The Complexity of Pragmatic Competence: A Comparative Analysis of Native English Speakers’ and Turkish ESL Students’ Advice-giving Strategies

Studies revealed that English as a second language (ESL) speakers and native English speakers (NES) often used different strategies to offer advice in English. Since these differences can cause cross-cultural misunderstandings and misattribution of intent between ESL speakers and NES, it is important to identify them. For this purpose, this study analyzed the structural and pragmatic differences between the advice-giving strategies of NES and Turkish ESL speakers. 18 NES and 20 Turkish ESL students were recruited and asked to offer written advice to the given cases in a WCDT questionnaire. The analysis revealed that while the NES students tended to use the modal ‘would’, the pronoun ‘I’, and some other politeness features in their advice, Turkish ESL speakers tended to use the modal ‘should’ and the pronoun ‘you’ more. These results indicated that Turkish ESL speakers employed their pragmatic competence in Turkish to construct their discourses in English.

A-272 Neuropsychological Performance in Cognitively Normal Native and Non-Native English Speakers: A Pilot Study

Abstract Objective: Compare neuropsychological test performance of native English speakers (NES) and English as a second language speakers (ESLS), and investigate the effect of native language writing systems. Method: Dataset was obtained from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC). Participants were required to have normal cognition, which was determined by the evaluating clinicians. All neuropsychological tests were administered in English. Participants were age and education-matched. Twenty-five ESLS (Mage= 69.80; MEdu= 15.44) and 25 NES (Mage= 69.84; MEdu= 15.68) met inclusion criteria. Results: Independent samples t-test revealed statistically significant group differences for: Digit Span Forward (DSF) length, Digit Span Backward (DSB), DSB length, Animal Fluency, Trail Making Test-Part A (TMT-A), Trail Making Test-Part B (TMT-B), WAIS-R Digit Symbol (WAIS-R), and Boston Naming Test (BNT). Results showed medium effect sizes that ranged from .62–.78; although, group means were in the average range. The 50 participants were further divided into three groups: native-English speakers only (NES-O), English as a second language speakers with Latin-based language origin (ESLS-LO), and English as a second language speakers with symbolic language origin (ESLS-SO). Post-hoc Hochberg’s GT2 test showed ESLS-LO and NES-O significantly differed on DSB, TMT-B, and WAIS-R. Additionally, ESLS-SO and NES-O significantly differed on the BNT. For these measures, the standardized mean difference was large (d= .80-1.10). Conclusions: These preliminary findings indicate that NES significantly differ in most areas of cognition than ESLS, which suggests that although considered “cognitively normal,” there is greater need for neuropsychological measures that utilize normative samples that better represent all cultures, including ones with different linguistic backgrounds.

E-government information search by English-as-a Second Language speakers: The effects of language proficiency and document reading level

A rapid increase in the use of web-based technologies – and corresponding changes in government and local council policies – in recent years, means that many vital services are now provided solely online. While this has many potential benefits, it can place additional burdens on certain demographic groups, some of whom may become considerably disadvantaged or even disenfranchised. This is particularly problematic for English-as-a Second Language (ESL) speakers, who are often immigrants or refugees and thus have a greater need to access these e-government services, and who may struggle to understand and assess the relevance of complex documents. In this work we investigate the search behaviours and performance of native English speakers and two different groups of ESL speakers when completing e-government tasks, and the effect of document readability/complexity. In contrast with previous work, our results show significant differences between groups of varying language proficiency in terms of objective search performance, time on task, and self-perceived performance and confidence. We also demonstrate that document reading level moderates the effect of language proficiency on objective search performance. The findings contribute to our existing understanding of how English language proficiency affects search for e-government topics, and have important implications for the future development of e-government services to ensure more equitable access and use.

Sarcasm detection in native English and English as a second language speakers.

Sarcastic speech is ubiquitous in most languages, though understanding sarcasm is highly dependent upon cultural and social contextual factors (Campbell & Katz, Discourse Processes, 2012, 49, 459). It is therefore surprising that little research has examined the ability of nonnative speakers to understand the sarcastic cues of a second language. In the current study, native English speakers and English as a second language (ESL) speakers were tested in each of four different conditions. Three of the conditions presented isolated cues involved in the detection of sarcasm (prosody, written context, and facial expression) and asked participants to identify the emotional intent of the cue (sarcasm or sincerity). The fourth condition combined spoken context, prosody, and facial expressions into each trial and asked the participant to identify sarcasm or sincerity. Participants also indicated their experience with sarcasm through the completion of three questionnaires: Sarcasm Self-Report Scale (Ivanko et al., Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 2004, 23, 244), the Conversational Indirectness Scale (Holtgraves, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1997, 73, 624), and an Exposure to Sarcasm Scale. Results indicated that there were no differences in the ability of the ESL group to understand sarcasm based on facial expression; however, they were less accurate in identifying the sarcastic written context or prosody than the native English speakers. Taken together with the correlations on the questionnaires, findings suggest that experience plays a key role in the ability of ESL speakers to identify sarcastic cues. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Irish English PEPS-C (2015 edition) and Learners of ESL

Introduction: Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C) is a computerised test for assessing the abilities to understand and use speech prosody in communication. It has been used to obtain a profile of strengths and weaknesses in different prosodic forms and functions for different clinical populations (e.g., autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome) and second language learners. The 2015 edition of PEPS-C incorporates four new subtests addressing the understanding and production of lexical stress and phrasal stress, and collapses four form subtests (Intonation/Short-Item Input and Output, Prosody/Long-Item Input and Output) into two (Discrimination, Imitation). However, the suitability of these new tasks has not been reported in any published studies, although they are likely to be relevant for learners of English. Moreover, the present authors update the Irish English (IE) version of PEPS-C to the 2015 edition for another research project on prosodic skills in children with spina bifida. Hence, this paper reports the making of PEPS-C 2015 (IE) and examines the usefulness of this test in assessing a group of non-native speakers of English, as compared to a group of native speakers of IE. Methods: PEPS-C 2015 for Irish English was developed by adapting the test items of the UK English version of the test. The PEPS-C 2015 (IE) was then trialled on 25 native speakers of Irish English and 10 Spanish speakers who speak English as a second language (ESL). Results: All native speakers of Irish English showed competence (scored ≥75% correct) in the comprehension and expression of prosodic form and functions assessed. For the ESL speakers, the test identified two areas of possible difficulty for this group: Phrase Stress Comprehension and Expression, and Contrastive Stress Comprehension. Conclusion: The PEPS-C 2015, with its extra stress tasks, might therefore be useful as a prosody assessment tool for ESL speakers, particularly those with a Romance first language or at an early stage of learning, but further research is needed.

Light verb constructions in spoken L2 English

Abstract Light verb constructions (LVCs), that is, combinations like take a walk or make a choice, are often claimed to be problematic for non-native speakers of English. In this paper, spoken data from the Trinity Lancaster Corpus are used to explore the use of these constructions across different sections of the corpus, representing different proficiency levels (from lower intermediate to upper advanced) as well as different types of acquisitional contexts, namely English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL). The results of the study reveal a tendency towards an increased frequency of LVCs, as well as more complex and abstract uses, as we move from an intermediate to an advanced level and from an EFL to an ESL context. For the EFL speakers, this development corresponds to a better approximation to native English. For the ESL speakers, on the other hand, LVCs seem to have become ‘constructional teddy bears’, used more often than by the native speakers themselves.

English listeners’ judgments of Japanese-accented English vowel productions: Relation to acoustic and kinematic characteristics

The present study investigates how monolingual English listeners categorize foreign (Japanese) productions of English tense and lax vowels with the aim of relating vowel identification to the acoustic and kinematic vowel space. American English front vowels (/i/, /ɪ/, /e/, /ɛ/, and /ae/) were elicited in /hVd/ context from ten Japanese adults who learned English as a second language (ESL). Listeners categorized these vowel productions in a six-alternative, forced-choice paradigm (including the choice /ʌ/). Vowels produced by two native English speakers were included in the perceptual task for comparison. Preliminary results showed higher perceptual accuracy for tense vowels than for lax vowels. As expected, vowels from English talkers were more accurately identified than those from Japanese ESL speakers. To determine whether listeners’ perceptual categorization corresponded with acoustic and kinematic patterns, perceptual data for contrasting vowel categories were compared with measured differences in form...

Language and identity in virtual space

Based on the data drawn from an intensive ethnographic study on young adults in Bangladesh conducted in the virtual space, specifically Facebook (FB) and analysis of those data through a transglossic framework, the paper shows that the meaning-making processes in lingua franca (LF) encounters can be appropriately deciphered when their language is considered in terms of translocalisation, transculturation, transmodality, and transtextualisation. The data also demonstrate that the young adults deliberately flout the linguistic features of English with their Bangladeshi counterparts, while they prefer to approximate a native form of English with other native and non-native speakers of English. Even though their English is variable and emergent in the potential LF context of the virtual space, their conscious choice of approximating a near-native form indicates that they are keenly aware of the ideologies related to ELF and associated with ELF identity attributes. The paper confirms the necessity of reconceptualisation of ELF, considering the idiosyncrasies of young adults’ language practices; and identifies the paradoxes of sociolinguistic profiling of South Asian speakers, based on dichotomous and binary phenomena, such as ELF and non-ELF speakers, EFL (English as a Foreign Language) vs. ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers, or members of the Inner Circle vs. Outer Circle.

The activation of grammaticalized meaning in L2 processing: Toward an explanation of the morphological congruency effect

Objectives: The study was intended to test the hypothesis that L2 speakers have difficulty in automatically activating a grammaticalized L2 meaning that is not morphologically marked in L1. Methodology: The study consisted of three experiments. A sentence–picture matching task was designed to assess the activation of grammaticalized meaning. The participants were asked to judge if a sentence correctly described the physical relationships of three objects in a picture. Hidden in the stimuli that required a positive response was a number agreement manipulation whereby a noun phrase in the sentence may agree or disagree with the number of objects in the picture. A number disagreement effect, as shown in a delay in producing a positive response on items of number disagreement was used to assess automatic activation of number meanings. Data and Analysis: The data constituted reaction times and accuracy rates from 32 English native speakers, 36 Chinese native speakers, 54 Chinese–English bilinguals, and 26 Russian–English bilinguals. Analyses of variance were performed in analyzing these data. Findings: The results showed a number disagreement effect in L1 and L2 among Russian English as a second language (ESL) speakers only. Chinese ESL speakers showed no difference between the two critical conditions in either language. A follow-up experiment showed that Chinese ESL speakers had no difficulty in automatically activating number meanings which were expressed lexically in English sentence processing. These findings provided support for the idea that the well documented difficulty L2 learners have in learning incongruent L2 inflectional morphemes may have to do with their difficulty in automatically activating a grammaticalized meaning that is not grammaticalized in their L1. Originality: The sentence–picture matching task represented a unique and effective approach to the study of the activation of grammaticalized meanings. Significance: The findings from the study represented some first psycholinguistic evidence regarding the activation of grammaticalized meanings among non-native speakers.

The Teaching of English Idioms in Kenyan Secondary Schools: Difficulties and Effective Strategies

The acquisition of idiomatic expressions is one of the primary challenges to learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) in multilingual contexts such as Kenya; yet, the learners are expected to use these expressions in their writing. The study on which this paper is based sought to assess the teaching of English idiomatic expressions in Kenyan secondary schools with a view to establishing the challenges teachers face in teaching the expressions and, thereafter, proposing effective strategies that can be applied for effective teaching of English idioms to ESL speakers. Ten teachers of English from both rural and urban secondary schools in Kenya were interviewed to find out the actual practices in their classrooms, the difficulties they face, and the effective strategies they employ for successful teaching of English idioms. The data collected were qualitatively analyzed. First, the study notes that it is possible to infer semantic relations between the literal sense of individual parts of an idiom and its meaning when interpreting compositional idioms. Second, there is incongruity between form and meaning when dealing with non compositional idioms since their semantic interpretation cannot be retrieved by means of their constituent parts. The study concludes that an understanding of the etymology of idioms can improve the comprehension and retention of idioms. The study recommends that idioms should be taught effectively in schools because the acquisition of idioms by learners will be an important indicator of their mastery of the English language. Keywords: Idiomatic expressions, semantic relations, compositional idioms, non compositional idioms

MEASURING COGNITIVE TASK DEMANDS USING DUAL-TASK METHODOLOGY, SUBJECTIVE SELF-RATINGS, AND EXPERT JUDGMENTS

This study explored the usefulness of dual-task methodology, self-ratings, and expert judgments in assessing task-generated cognitive demands as a way to provide validity evidence for manipulations of task complexity. The participants were 96 students and 61 English as a second language (ESL) teachers. The students, 48 English native speakers and 48 ESL speakers, carried out simple and complex versions of three oral tasks—a picture narrative, a map task, and a decision-making task. Half of the students completed the tasks under a dual-task condition. The remaining half performed the tasks under a single-task condition without a secondary task. Participants in the single condition were asked to rate their perceived mental effort and task difficulty. The ESL teachers provided expert judgments of anticipated mental effort and task difficulty along with explanations for their ratings via an online questionnaire. As predicted, the more complex task versions were found and judged to pose greater cognitive effort on most measures.

Errors in the Use of Prepositions and Adverb Particles by Arab ESL Speakers: Performance Analysis Perspective

This research aims at exploring the errors made by Arab Postgraduate Students at USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) in Malaysia in the use of prepositions and adverb particles, as speakers of English as a second language (ESL) from a performance analysis perspective. More specifically, this study was an attempt to investigate the frequency, kind and any developmental tendencies of these errors. The results of this research revealed that Arab ESL speakers committed varied kinds of errors in the use of prepositions and adverb particles. The number of the errors in the use of prepositions and adverb particles were analyzed and conclusions were produced based on the nature of error. Analysis of the corpus revealed that errors made were, mainly, based on the function and replacement of the prepositions and adverb particles. This study is a qualitative study.

The impact of aircraft noise exposure on South African children′s reading comprehension: The moderating effect of home language

Given the limited studies conducted within the African continent, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of chronic aircraft noise exposure and the moderating effect of home language on the learners' reading comprehension. The sample comprised 437 (52%) senior primary learners exposed to high levels of aircraft noise (Experimental group) and 337 (48%) learners residing in a quieter area (Control group). Of these, 151 learners in the Experimental group spoke English as a first language (EFL) and 162 spoke English as a second language (ESL). In the Control group, the numbers were similarly divided (EFL n = 191; ESL n = 156). A univariate General Linear Model was used to investigate the effects of aircraft noise exposure and language on reading comprehension, while observing for the possible impact of intellectual ability, gender, and socioeconomic status on the results. A significant difference was observed between ESL and EFL learners in favor of the latter (F 1,419 = 21.95, P =.000). In addition a substantial and significant interaction effect was found between the experimental and control groups for the two language groups. For the EFL speakers there was a strong reduction in reading comprehension in the aircraft noise group. By contrast this difference was not significant for the ESL speakers. Implications of the findings and suggestions for further research are made in the article.

Proficiency in English sentence stress production by Cantonese speakers who speak English as a second language (ESL)

The present study examined English sentence stress produced by native Cantonese speakers who were speaking English as a second language (ESL). Cantonese ESL speakers' proficiency in English stress production as perceived by English-speaking listeners was also studied. Acoustical parameters associated with sentence stress including fundamental frequency (F0), vowel duration, and intensity were measured from the English sentences produced by 40 Cantonese ESL speakers. Data were compared with those obtained from 40 native speakers of American English. The speech samples were also judged by eight naïve listeners who were native speakers of American English for placement, degree, and naturalness of stress. Results showed that Cantonese ESL speakers were able to use F0, vowel duration, and intensity to differentiate sentence stress patterns. Yet, both female and male Cantonese ESL speakers exhibited consistently higher F0 in stressed words than English speakers. Overall, Cantonese ESL speakers were found to be proficient in using duration and intensity to signal sentence stress, in a way comparable with English speakers. In addition, F0 and intensity were found to correlate closely with perceptual judgement and the degree of stress with the naturalness of stress.

The development of reading comprehension skills in children learning English as a second language

Reading comprehension is a multi-dimensional process that includes the reader, the text, and factors associated with the activity of reading. Most research and theories of comprehension are based primarily on research conducted with monolingual English speakers (L1). The present study was designed to investigate the cognitive and linguistic factors that have an influence on reading comprehension in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) speakers. The cognitive aspects of reading comprehension among L1 speakers and ESL speakers in the seventh grade were investigated. The performance of both groups was compared and the role of some relevant processes, including word reading, word reading fluency, phonological awareness, working memory, and morphological and syntactic awareness were assessed. Within this sample, three groups were examined: (1) children with poor comprehension (PC) in the absence of word reading difficulties (2) children with poor word reading and poor comprehension (poor readers, PR) (3) and children with both good word reading and comprehension abilities (good comprehenders, GC). The results demonstrated that a variety of cognitive processes, such as working memory and phonological, syntactic, and morphological awareness are important for reading comprehension and compromised in poor comprehenders. The GC group performed better than the PC group on all of the cognitive measures, indicating that comprehension depends on a variety of phonological, memory and linguistic processes and that adequate word recognition skill are important for reading comprehension. The prevalence of the ESL and L1 students was similar across the three reading groups. The ESL and L1 students demonstrated similar performance, indicating that the skills underlying reading comprehension are similar in the ESL and L1 students. This study demonstrated that ESL students are capable of developing word reading and reading comprehension skills that are as strong as those of their L1 peers.

Learning how to read situations and know what is the right thing to say or do in an L2: A study of socio-cultural competence and language transfer

This study investigates the interlanguage behavior of Chinese learners of American English, focusing on how they offer ‘compliments’ in a second language (L2). In this paper, the behavior of Taiwanese ESL (English-as-a-second-language) learners in the United States is compared with that of Taiwanese native speakers of Mandarin Chinese and with that of native speakers of American English, in order to reveal how the ESL learners perform this speech act in naturally occurring contexts. The results showed that the linguistic strategies and options employed to realize compliments by native Chinese speakers were very different from those used by native speakers of English. For example, Chinese speakers were much less inclined to offer compliments than were English speakers. This tendency was also visible in the L2 of Chinese ESL speakers. Therefore, although there were some similarities between the learners and the target language speakers, the performance of the former, in terms of the use of strategies, positive semantic carriers, syntactic formulaic patterns, supportive moves and/or small talk, could often be seen to reflect native language (L1) communicative styles and the transfer of L1 socio-cultural strategies into L2 behavior.

Development of sensitivity to phonological context in learning to spell in English

The study attempts to investigate factors underlying the development of spellers’ sensitivity to phonological context in English. Native English speakers and Russian speakers of English as a second language (ESL) were tested on their ability to use information about the coda to predict the spelling of vowels in English monosyllabic nonwords. In addition, the study assessed the participants’ spelling proficiency as their ability to correctly spell commonly misspelled words (Russian participants were assessed in both Russian and English). Both native and non-native English speakers were found to rely on the information about the coda when spelling vowels in nonwords. In both native and non-native speakers, context sensitivity was predicted by English word spelling; in Russian ESL speakers this relationship was mediated by English proficiency. L1 spelling proficiency did not facilitate L2 context sensitivity in Russian speakers. The results speak against a common factor underlying different aspects of spelling proficiency in L1 and L2 and in favor of the idea that spelling competence comprises different skills in different languages.

Colon Cancer Information Preferences of English-as-a-Second-Language Immigrant Women: Does Language of Interview Matter?

Language of interview, an acculturation proxy measure, may differentiate between cancer information preferences of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) immigrant women in Canada. Using directed content analysis, we compared 28 interviews conducted in Spanish or English. Demographic comparisons were completed using paired t tests and McNemar related samples. Themes identified were: (1) using English language information and (2) improving information for ESL speakers. No differences were found in women's conversations about colon cancer by age, income, education, or employment. However, English interviewees resided in Canada longer and watched less television. Language skill and contextual factors influence women's confidence using English cancer information.

Relationship of prosody by Spanish speakers of English as a second language on the perception of intelligibility and accentedness by native English listeners.

The degree to which prosodic features related to English lexical stress affect the perception of factors such as intelligibility and accentedness by native English listeners was investigated. Acoustic analyses of English multi‐syllabic words spoken by native Spanish speakers who learned English as a second language (ESL) were used to determine the values of the acoustic correlates of lexical stress of these speakers on a set of target words. Values for vowel duration, intensity, and fundamental frequency produced by the Spanish ESL speakers were compared to those values produced by native English speakers. Prosodic variation observed in the ESL speakers was used to formulate a range for manipulations to the target words. To focus solely on prosody and not take into account consonant and vowel quality, manipulations, using the PSOLA algorithm in Praat, were done to the voices of native English speakers. These manipulations captured increases and decreases in duration, intensity, and fundamental frequency on vowels that should or should not carry lexical stress in a particular target word. Listeners rated the resynthesized tokens for factors such as intelligibility and accentedness, and the results suggest that a speaker’s prosody alone can influence a native listener’s judgments on these variables.