Foreign Language Users Research Articles

LEXICALLY-BASED APPROACH IN ELT: A State of the Art

This paper explores the most recently issues in English language teaching known as lexically-based approach and discusses the current issues and promising contributions to L2 teaching development. Internationally, the perspective is afforded as the demands of current settings and necessities in the context of ELT, particularly the ones consider English as their second and foreign language usage. The diversion of ELT contexts in the world might trigger the imbalance use of teaching approaches, strategies, techniques and teaching model. Therefore, in bridging the gap of the imbalance, this paper suggests some worthy-applied approaches which might be taken as considerations. EFL practitioners, teachers, students, curriculum makers and school practitioners in the level of junior, senior high school and university can incorporate the proposed lexically-based approaches in their teaching and conduct research on the effectiveness of the approaches and techniques they utilize. The effect of chunking, the learning of formulaic phrases, collocation instruction and conscious awareness of learning lexicon can add a different dimension to teaching that may result in better L2 proficiency.

Interactions and mediation between multilingual clients and their psychotherapist

The editors pointed out that all interactions require some degree of mediation. In other words, a common ground needs to be established on which communication can be based, and when difficulties emerge mediation will be required. In this paper, we will argue that there are contexts where the assumption of common ground is stronger or weaker depending on the training, experience and disciplinary background of those involved in the interaction. The need for mediation may thus be greater in contexts where the assumption of common ground is over-optimistic, and where the consequences of not spotting the potential misunderstanding, and hence skipping mediation, may be serious. Language professionals are very much aware of variation in language proficiency and are less likely to assume complete common ground with fluent Foreign Language (LX) users than professionals from other backgrounds for whom language is merely a technical tool that does not merit special attention. Thus, considering an interlocutor who can talk easily about the weather in an LX, a Foreign Language teacher is less likely to assume complete linguistic common ground than a psychotherapist whose main concern is to locate the source of a client’s issues. The language teacher has been taught that students may have linguistic and cultural gaps that are not immediately apparent and that meaning may need to be negotiated in the classroom. The psychotherapist has been trained to try to understand the client’s worldview, but frequently that training ignores their clients’ linguistic profiles and experiences. Negotiation about meanings and across differences and power differentials, which goes to the heart of psychotherapeutic communication, often ignores the linguistic gap. In particular, psychotherapists (especially monolingual ones) may be less aware that multilinguals can have different levels of proficiency in different discourse domains (Grosjean, 2016). In other words, the ability to converse fluently in the LX about certain everyday topics does not necessarily imply an ability to convey subtle, complex emotions in that language. Clients themselves may be unaware of this. 
 The aim of the present paper is therefore to highlight the need for extra awareness among psychotherapists about both visible and invisible linguistic and cultural obstacles to emotion communication that will require mediation with their LX clients, using appropriate strategies.

Interlanguage and Its Implications in College English Teaching and Learning

Interlanguage, often used by foreign language users, is a language system of middle state lying between target language and mother tongue. Interlanguage offers us a brand new perspective to study the second language acquisition, indicates the rules for second language acquisition, and provides enlightenment for foreign language teaching. Based on the analysis of the concept, features and development stage of interlanguage, this essay puts forward constructive suggestions for college English teaching and learning with the aim of stimulating students’ interest in foreign language and helping them improve their English learning ability and proficiency.

Students Opinions About Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication in Foreign Language Teaching

2000’li yıllardan itibaren yabancı dil öğretiminde benimsenen ve Avrupa Dilleri Ortak Çerçeve Programı’nda sistematik biçimde açıklanmış olan Görev Temelli Yaklaşım, yabancı dil kullanıcısını toplum içinde bir sosyal aktör olarak kabul etmektedir. Bireyin sadece dilsel ögelerle değil, toplum içindeki davranışları ile de farklı dil ve kültürden bireylerle iletişim kurduğu savunulan bu yaklaşımda, yabancı dil öğrenen bireyde, kültürel farklılıklara karşı hoşgörülü bir bakış açısı ve kendi kültürel kimliğine karşı da farkındalık geliştirmesi hedeflenir. Bu hedefi gerçekleştirmek için yabancı dil öğretiminde öğrencide, kültürlerarası iletişim yaklaşımında ön plana çıkan bazı kavramlarla ilgili farkındalık kazandırılması gerekmektedir. Bu çalışma Yabancı Diller Eğitimi Bölümü Fransızca Öğretmenliği Programı 4.sınıf öğrencilerinin kimlik, önyargı, klişe, ayrımcılık, etnik merkezcilik ve kültürlerarasılık kavramları ile ilgili görüşlerini belirlemek amacıyla gerçekleştirilmiştir. Durum çalışması olarak desenlenen bu nitel araştırmada, öğrencilerin sözü geçen kavramlarla ilgili görüşlerini detaylı biçimde belirleyebilmek için açık uçlu sorulardan oluşan görüşme formları aracılığıyla veri toplanmıştır. Verilerin analizi sürecinde içerik analizi yönteminden yararlanılmıştır. Çalışmaya katılan öğrencilerin, belirtilen kavramlarla ilgili görüşlerinden ulaşılan temalar yabancı dil öğretimi ile ilişkilendirilmiş ve raporlaştırılmıştır.

Emotionality and pleasantness of mixed‐emotion stimuli: The role of language, modality, and emotional intelligence

The study aimed to explore how 174 Spanish first language (L1) and foreign language (LX) users perceive emotionality and pleasantness in audiovisual and purely visual material eliciting blended emotions, and whether cultural background and Trait Emotional Intelligence (EI) are linked to emotion perception. Overall, LX users tended to provide higher ratings of emotionality and pleasantness than L1 users, suggesting that they might be aware of the LX detachment effect and overcompensate when providing emotion perception ratings. American participants rated the stimuli as more emotional and pleasant than Asian participants regardless of modality of presentation. On the other hand, Trait EI turned out to be unrelated to emotionality and pleasantness contrary to previous evidence suggesting a positive role of EI in decoding emotions.

Multi-word Lexical Items and the Advanced Foreign Language User: Awareness Raising in the Context of Oral and Written Translation Training

The paper has two main objectives: the first is to present an overview of the phenomenon of multi-word items in English, and discuss their prevalence in native speaker usage. The second is to discuss how proficient non-native speakers of English, and in particular those who are training to become translators, may benefit from classroom training that increases awareness of the primary role of chunks and other multiword units in native-like speech. It is argued that classroom training may tend to emphasise grammar rules and lexis over building a repertoire of multi-word items; more practise in this area may improve fluency, conserve energy, and enhance long-term language learning among adult foreign language users with nuanced foreign language performance goals.

THE USE OF ENGLISH IN ONLINE ARTICLES PROMOTING SOUTH KALIMANTAN

Abstract: When compared to popular destinations like Bali or Jogjakarta, the number of tourists visiting South Kalimantan is of course lower. It takes sustainable efforts for South Kalimantan tourism board and related parties to promote this province tourism. Online English articles promoting South Kalimantan are sadly not that many in number. When English articles describing about tourist destinations and hospitality of Banjarese people are hardly found online, at least the articles are well written in order to sell the tourism of this province better. However, language barrier may cause the writers of the articles to use English incorrectly. This study is set to contribute to the promotion of South Kalimantan tourism in terms of foreign language usage. The study is descriptive research because its main objectives are to describe how English is used in articles promoting South Kalimantan and to suggest possible improvements for the misuse of English found in the articles. This research is conducted for three months, December 2017 – February 2018. The location of the research is Banjarmasin. The data of this research are collected from six websites promoting South Kalimantan. After the articles becoming the data of this study are collected, they are read carefully in order to determine the accuracy of the English used in the articles and to find the language phenomena being questioned in this research. After making the decision on the accuracy of English usage in the articles, the researchers then focus to find the misuses of English in the investigated articles. The results of the study are useful to review how English is used in online articles promoting this province. The conclusions drawn for this study are (1) the English used in online articles promoting South Kalimantan are generally accurate though several misuses of the language are still found, (2) syntactic problems in the articles do not disturb of the flow of the stories being told. Thus, the writers of the articles have been successful in promoting South Kalimantan through their writings, (3) Semantic problems in the articles are not that many though improvements are still neededrole, and how it promotes active students’ interaction.

Visual cues and perception of emotional intensity among L1 and LX users of English

ABSTRACT A total of 97 monolingual and multilingual users of English participated in an adaptation of a matched-guise design to investigate the effect of visual cues (co-speech gestural intensity and facial expression) on perception of emotional intensity of the same speaker in two video stimuli in which verbal and vocal emotional information was kept constant. Participants included 41 adults British first language (L1) users of English and 56 highly proficient adult foreign language (LX) users of English. Statistical analysis revealed that gestural intensity was significantly linked to perceptions of emotional intensity by all participants. However, LX users perceived both the low and medium gesture video as significantly more emotional than L1 users. We suggest that LX users may have relied more on the visual channel over the vocal and verbal channels compared to L1 users. The difference between both groups might also be the consequence of overcompensation for the detachment effect of LX emotion speech. The number of languages known, gender, LX users’ English proficiency and length of stay in the UK turned out to be unrelated to perceptions of emotional intensity.

The Effect of Perception of Teacher Characteristics on Spanish EFL Learners’ Anxiety and Enjoyment

AbstractThe present study explores the relationship between Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety (FLCA) and a number of teacher‐centered variables within the Spanish classroom context. Participants were 210 former and current learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) from all over Spain who filled out an online questionnaire with Likert scale items. A moderate negative relationship emerged between FLE and FLCA. Participants who had an L1 English speaker as a teacher reported more FLE and less FLCA than those with a foreign language user of English. Teacher characteristics predicted close to 20% of variance in FLE but only 8% of variance in FLCA. The strongest positive predictor of FLE was a teacher's friendliness while a teacher's foreign accent was a weaker negative predictor. Teacher‐centered variables predicted much less variance for FLCA. Participants experienced more FLCA with younger teachers, very strict teachers, and teachers who did not use the foreign language much in class. The findings confirm earlier research that FLE seems to be more dependent on the teachers’ pedagogical skills than FLCA.

Mind the Gap: Towards Determining Which Collocations to Teach

Collocations form part of formulaic language use that is considered by many scholars as central to communication (Henriksen 2013; Wray 2002). Today, most scholars agree that teaching collocations to second and/or foreign language users (henceforth “L2 students”) is a must. This study offers a reflection on the directions L2 researchers and teachers may explore, and that could contribute to modelling the teaching of collocations or at least spark the debate on this issue. The fundamental point raised here is the extent to which pedagogy may be informed by knowing the most common lexical collocations (combinations of content words) and using frequency of collocates as a key factor in selecting which collocations to bring to learners’ attention. The results from this study indicate that out of the eight different lexical collocations, adjective+noun and verb+noun collocations are the most common, and should therefore be introduced first. Furthermore, most collocates (“co-occurring words” in Sinclair’s (1991) terms) come from the 1,000 and 2,000 most frequent words. Therefore, this study suggests that the same way that “[u]sing the computational approach as a starting point makes it possible to distinguish between collocations of varying frequency of use” (Henriksen 2013: 32), frequency may be used to select the target words and their collocates once collocations have been identified. This could potentially contribute to addressing the issue of selection criteria of which collocations to teach.

Reading Shakespearean tropes in a foreign tongue: Age of L2 acquisition modulates neural responses to functional shifts

Functional shifts (FSs) – morphosyntactically marked words evoking coherent but novel meanings – are ubiquitous in English and, specially, in Shakespearean literature. While their neural signatures have been explored in native speakers, no study has targeted foreign-language users, let alone comparing early and late bilinguals. Here, we administered a validated FS paradigm to subjects from both populations and evaluated time-frequency modulations evoked by FS and control sentences. Early bilinguals exhibited greater sensitivity towards FSs, indexed by reduced fronto-posterior theta-band oscillations across semantic- and structural-integration windows. Such oscillatory modulations may represent a key marker of age-of-acquisition effects during foreign-language wordplay processing.

The Relationship between Trait Emotional Intelligence and Experienced ESL/EFL Teachers’ Love of English, Attitudes towards Their Students and Institution, Self-Reported Classroom Practices, Enjoyment and Creativity

Abstract This paper reports an investigation into the relationships between global trait emotional intelligence (Trait EI), as well as the four factors that constitute it (well-being, emotionality, self-control, and sociability), and quantitative data from 513 experienced ESL/EFL teachers from around the world about their love of English, their attitudes towards their students and institution, their self-reported classroom practices, their enjoyment, unpredictability and creativity. The results showed significant positive correlations. The analyses revealed that global Trait EI, well-being and sociability were significantly positively correlated with most dependent variables while emotionality and self-control were significantly correlated with a number of dependent variables. Global Trait EI and emotionality were significantly positively linked to the English proficiency of English foreign language users but not to that of the English L1 users. The pedagogical implication is that having a sufficient level of Trait EI helps teachers deal effectively with their own and their students’ emotions.

The relationship between bi/multilingualism, nativeness, proficiency and multimodal emotion recognition ability

Aims and Objectives: The primary aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between visual–vocal–verbal emotion recognition ability (ERA) and multilingualism – that is, both bilingual first language (L1) acquisition and the level of multilingualism operationalised as the number of languages one can speak. Besides these two factors, we also consider nativeness and proficiency as possible predictors of ERA. Methodology: One-thousand-two-hundred-and-twenty participants completed a survey online consisting of a sociobiographical background questionnaire, an English lexical test and an emotion recognition test including six stimuli. For each of the six audiovisual recordings, participants had to indicate which emotion they thought the L1 English speaker was conveying – happiness, sadness, anger, (positive) surprise, fear, disgust or no/neutral emotion. Data and Analysis: An individual ERA score was calculated for each participant. Correlations between ERA and the different variables were computed – including interactions – and significant correlations were fed into a linear regression model. Findings: The number of spoken languages was unrelated to ERA in our sample. The data revealed an interaction between BFLA and nativeness: bi/multilingually raised English second or foreign language (LX) users outperformed monolingually raised LX users, but bi/multilingually raised L1 users of English scored lower than monolingually raised L1 users. Proficiency was significantly related to ERA. Originality: This study points to a bilingual advantage in emotion recognition in English for participants with specific linguistic profiles. Participants who grew up with two languages from birth had an advantage if it did not include English. The advantage seemed to be cancelled out among bi/multilingually raised English L1 users, possibly due to interferences from their other L1(s) or L1 culture(s). Significance: This study contributes to the scarce literature on bilingual advantage in the affective domain and offers a nuanced view on bilingualism and ERA.

Emotion recognition ability across different modalities: The role of language status (L1/LX), proficiency and cultural background

Abstract This paper considers individual differences in the Emotion Recognition Ability (ERA) of 1368 participants in different modalities. The sample consisted of 557 first language (L1) and 881 foreign language (LX) users of English from all over the world. This study investigates four independent variables, namely modality of communication, language status (L1 versus LX), proficiency, and cultural background. The dependent variable is a score reflecting ERA. Participants were asked to identify an emotion (happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise and disgust) portrayed by a native English-speaking actress in six short recordings – either audiovisual or audio-only – embedded in an online questionnaire. English proficiency was measured through a lexical recognition test. Statistical analyses revealed that participants were better able to recognise emotions when visual cues are available. Overall, there was no difference between L1 and LX users’ ERA. However, L1 users outperformed LX users when visual cues were not available, which suggest that LX users are able to reach L1-like ERA when they can rely on a sufficient amount of cues. Participants with higher proficiency scores had significantly higher ERA scores, particularly in the audio-only condition. Asian LX users were found to score significantly lower than other LX users.

Bidialectalism and Bilingualism: Exploring the Role of Language Similarity as a Link Between Linguistic Ability and Executive Control.

The notion of bilingual advantages in executive functions (EF) is based on the assumption that the demands posed by cross-language interference serve as EF training. These training effects should be more pronounced the more cross-language interference bilinguals have to overcome when managing their two languages. In the present study, we investigated the proposed link between linguistic and EF performance using the similarity between the two languages spoken since childhood as a proxy for different levels of cross-language interference. We assessed the effect of linearly increasing language dissimilarity on linguistic and EF performance in multiple tasks in four groups of young adults (aged 18–33): German monolinguals (n = 24), bidialectals (n = 25; German and Swiss German dialect), bilinguals speaking two languages of the same Indo-European ancestry (n = 24; e.g., German-English), or bilinguals speaking two languages of different ancestry (n = 24; e.g., German-Turkish). Bayesian linear-mixed effects modeling revealed substantial evidence for a linear effect of language similarity on linguistic accuracy, with better performance for participants with more similar languages and monolinguals. However, we did not obtain evidence for the presence of a similarity effect on EF performance. Furthermore, language experience did not modulate EF performance, even when testing the effect of continuous indicators of bilingualism (e.g., age of acquisition, proficiency, daily foreign language usage). These findings question the theoretical assumption that life-long experience in managing cross-language interference serves as EF training.

How much Artistic Freedom is permitted when it comes to Language? - Analysis of a Crime Novel

Abstract In this article a closer look will be taken at the issue of inaccurately using a foreign language, i.e. German in this particular case, in a crime novel or thriller. Of course, in fiction the author has complete artistic freedom to invent and present things as he/she intends and it doesn`t necessarily have to be realistic or legitimate. But what happens when it comes to an existing language being quoted in fiction? For this purpose David Thomas’ thriller “Blood Relative - How well do you know the one you love?” is analysed regarding parts in which German quotes are used. As the plot is located partly in England and partly in former East Germany (GDR) and the protagonist’s wife is of German origin, direct speech, titles and names are used in German. Subsequently, they are translated into English by the author in order to be understood by the English reader. However, there are many grammar, spelling and semantic mistakes in these German expressions and common small talk quotes. This begs the question, is it justified to disregard linguistic correctness with regards to artistic freedom given the fact that we are dealing with a fictional thriller, or is it nevertheless necessary to be precise concerning foreign language usage? How far may one “test” their artistic freedom in this particular case? In order to answer these questions a detailed analysis of the thriller is performed, concerning artistic freedom and modern literature/light fiction as well as the German language used in quotes and direct speech.

Does the effect of enjoyment outweigh that of anxiety in foreign language performance?

Interest in the effect of positive and negative emotions in foreign language acquisition has soared recently because of the positive psychology movement (Dewaele & MacIntyre, 2014, 2016; MacIntyre, Gregersen & Mercer, 2016). No work so far has been carried out on the differential effect of positive and negative emotions on foreign language performance. The current study investigates the effect of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) and foreign language classroom anxiety (FLCA) on foreign language performance in a group of 189 foreign language pupils in two London secondary schools and a group of 152 Saudi English as a foreign language learners and users of English in Saudi Arabia. Correlation analyses showed that the positive effect of FLE on performance was stronger than the negative effect of FLCA. In other words, FLE seems to matter slightly more than FLCA in foreign language (FL) performance. Qualitative material collected from the Saudi participants shed light on the causes of FLCA and FLE and how these shaped participants’ decisions to pursue or abandon the study of the FL.

A Study on Hangeul Orthography Guidelines for Foreigners.

This study focuses on a review of Hangeul orthography guidelines in Korean language regulations. It is indispensable to revise the guidelines thoroughly because it has been more than 80 years since a unified plan of Korean orthography was established in 1933, which the current orthography is based on. Also, it has been approximately 30 years since 1989, when the current guidelines were issued and promulgated. The viewpoint towards this review reflects the requirements by education fields of Korean as a foreign language and modern Korean users. Hangeul orthography consists of six clauses, along with an appendix regarding punctuation marks: 1) general rules, 2) consonants and vowels, 3) related to sounds, 4) about forms, 5) spacing between words, and 6) miscellaneous. This paper examined individual clauses and specific usages of the clauses, in terms of Korean as a foreign language. Based on the review, this paper suggests the following tasks in order to establish a draft of Hangeul orthography for foreigners. A. Among the individual clauses, some clauses that embody vocabulary education aspects should be addressed in a Korean dictionary, and deleted in Hangeul orthography guidelines. B. The clauses of Hangeul orthography guidelines should be edited for revision and substitution where necessary. C. The usage of individual clauses should be replaced with more appropriate examples aligned with everyday conversation. D. In order to establish ‘Hangeul orthography for foreigners’, linguists should continuously review several chapters and the appendix of Hangeul orthography, such as components about forms, spacing between words, miscellaneous, and punctuation marks. The purpose of this review is to pursue the simplicity of Hangeul orthography guidelines and the practicality in terms of reflecting more realistic examples. This review contributes to facilitate Korean language usage not only for non-native learners, but also native users. (Hanshin University)

Sociolinguistic Perspectives on the Implications of the Homogenization of the Circles of World Englishes

The marginalization of English second (L2) and foreign language (EFL) users in the academic and practical pursuit of English language teaching (ELT) has fueled the hegemonic power of the inner circle of world Englishes (CWE). Because of the inequality among the circles of world Englishes, this paper pursues a dual purpose: firstly, it sets out to determine the sociolinguistic effects of globalization on the CWE; and secondly, it establishes how these sociolinguistic effects contribute to the homogenization of the circles and a seemingly more equitable notion of (world) English(es). Drawing on available qualitative descriptions and empirical data, three practical contexts of sociolinguistics were identified (viz. demographic shifts, economic motivations, and language education policy) to realize the dual research purpose. Based on a qualitative instrumental case study of a purposive sample of one country from each CWE, the study assesses the possibility to justify the proposition that the functions of English across the circles are becoming more similar as globalization homogenizes the global English sociolinguistic ecology. The findings support claims of major evolutionary processes that entail significant implications for the ELT community across the CWE.

A STUDY OF PROPER PRONUNCIATION AS A FACTOR OF SUCCESSFUL COMMUNICATION

Speaking as a productive skill is one of the very first obstacles that foreign language users face when using the language. Knowledge of a language does not refer to the correct and proper pronunciation however, being able to produce sounds, words or utterances in their proper way does not refer to proficiency of a language nor can it assess the overall level of the user of that particular language. The aim of this study is to present the components of speaking as a productive skill emphasizing the role of acquiring proper pronunciation as a factor for effective communication. The study also presents the most significant "common core" of English pronunciation as a lingua franca, details of the requested phonological competence as knowledge set by the Common European Framework of Languages: Learning, Teaching and Assessment and viewpoints of EFL teachers and authors. Additionally, the study includes data from EFL self- assessments from University students in Macedonia regarding their speaking and pronunciation skills and overall evaluation from their assessor –an English language instructor.