Grammatical Content Research Articles

Common Neural Functions during Children's Learning from Naturalistic and Controlled Mathematics Paradigms.

Two major goals of human neuroscience are to understand how the brain functions in the real world and to measure neural processes under conditions that are ecologically valid. A critical step toward these goals is understanding how brain activity during naturalistic tasks that mimic the real world relates to brain activity in more traditional laboratory tasks. In this study, we used intersubject correlations to locate reliable stimulus-driven cerebral processes among children and adults in a naturalistic video lesson and a laboratory forced-choice task that shared the same arithmetic concept. We show that relative to a control condition with grammatical content, naturalistic and laboratory arithmetic tasks evoked overlapping activation within brain regions previously associated with math semantics. The regions of specific functional overlap between the naturalistic mathematics lesson and laboratory mathematics task included bilateral intraparietal cortex, which confirms that this region processes mathematical content independently of differences in task mode. These findings suggest that regions of the intraparietal cortex process mathematical content when children are learning about mathematics in a naturalistic setting.

Native language experience shapes pre-attentive foreign tone processing and guides rapid memory trace build-up: An ERP study.

Language experience, particularly from our native language (L1), shapes our perception of other languages around us. The present study examined how L1 experience moulds the initial processing of foreign (L2) tone during acquisition. In particular, we investigated whether learners were able to rapidly forge new neural memory traces for novel tonal words, which was tracked by recording learners’ ERP responses during two word acquisition sessions. We manipulated the degree of L1–L2 familiarity by comparing learners with a nontonal L1 (German) and a tonal L1 (Swedish) and by using tones that were similar (fall) or dissimilar (high, low, rise) to those occurring in Swedish. Our results indicate that a rapid, pre‐attentive memory trace build‐up for tone manifests in an early ERP component at ~50 ms but only at particularly high levels of L1–L2 similarity. Specifically, early processing was facilitated for an L2 tone that had a familiar pitch shape (fall) and word‐level function (inflection). This underlines the importance of these L1 properties for the early processing of L2 tone. In comparison, a later anterior negativity related to the processing of the tones’ grammatical content was unaffected by native language experience but was instead influenced by lexicality, pitch prominence, entrenchment, and successful learning. Behaviorally, learning effects emerged for all learners and tone types, regardless of L1–L2 familiarity or pitch prominence. Together, the findings suggest that while L1‐based facilitation effects occur, they mainly affect early processing stages and do not necessarily result in more successful L2 acquisition at behavioral level.

Энантиосемичные синтаксические конструкции с als würde в немецком языке

This paper discusses the grammatical tense form Konjunktiv II and its use in enantiosemic syntactic constructions with the als würde component. The concept of enantiosemy at the syntactic level in the German language and the concept of asymmetry in syntactic constructions are investigated. The research material included fiction in German and examples from the German DWDS corpus. The main content of the work is the analysis of enantiosemic syntactic constructions with als würde. The following methods were used: comparison and analysis of the structural and semantic features of enantiosemic syntactic constructions and contextual analysis. During the research, syntactic models of sentences with enantiosemic meaning were identified, as well as conditions contributing to the development of their opposite meaning. The paper studied enantiosemic syntactic constructions in the form of complex sentences with an adverbial clause of comparison with als würde, including the verb of behaviour tun and verbs of impression aussehen, scheinen, klingen, as well as with the component es war in the main clause. The research revealed that enantiosemy, which is characterized by asymmetry of form and content, is inherent in these syntactic constructions. The analysis of enantiosemic syntactic constructions with als würde demonstrated that they do not require context in order to be recognized, since the discrepancy between grammatical form and content is inherent in the constructions, namely, in the adverbial clauses of comparison expressing an unreal action. According to the results, certain schemes of syntactic constructions with enantiosemic meaning can be introduced into scientific discourse, which can help identify such constructions in the German language and facilitate further research into the issues of German semantics, stylistics, and syntax.

La capsule video « moyen de transfert » de la connaissance en FLE d'une situation A a A n + 1 situations : chausser de nouvelles lunettes sur le monde a l’ere du numerique

Our work starts from questioning the effectiveness of individual viewing of a video capsule in French, with grammatical content, with a view to targeting the representations of learners related to the effective transfer of knowledge in a virtual class, which, in turn, targets the role of the teacher. This work is therefore interested in the concept of learning transfer among 15-16 year-old learners in digital and distance working situations who do not have academic difficulties and who have an A2 level of knowledge of French in accordance with the CECRL, in heteroglot environment.

The role of the conjunctions in the development of the Uzbek language syntax

The use of grammatical forms specific to other systems’ languages in the language, their syntactic formulas specific to that language, and how they express different meaningful relationships to that language remains relevant. One of these grammatical forms is the suffix.This article explores the history of the use of the chun link, its role in the development of the Uzbek language, based on the achievements of modern linguistics. In particular, the linker has formulated both the dictative and the subjective (modus) expressions, and the expressive meaning has been used as a dependent component of the sentence. It has been revealed that subordinate expressions express meaningful relationships such as cause, time, condition, and likeness, and when subjective content is used as a complementary sentence. Also, the ability of the binder to be able to be used in the sentence, between different parts of the sentence, is another indication of this. This problem has been studied in terms of the grammatical content of the sentence, that is, from the perspective of the communicative aspect of syntax.The analyzed language materials clarify the development of the syntactic structure of the Uzbek language and serve as a source for its study. The conclusions and the scientific bases provided help to properly understand the meaning of the chun//chu, which is found in modern Uzbek translations of classical and modern Persian literature.

El recurso audiovisual como herramienta didáctica en la clase de español L2/LE

This article begins by highlighting how integrating the work with audiovisual resources in the L2/LE class can facilitate the understanding of linguistic aspects and make the student cope more safely with lexical and grammatical content. It also points out how audiovisual material can increase student motivation, since it makes the target language and culture much more attractive and easier to decipher. This paper reflects on the convenience of bringing audiovisual resources to the language classroom, since for a long time the video materials that have been brought to L2/LE classes focused mainly on linguistic work, ignoring the cultural component present in all audiovisual production. Through the viewing of a movie or a chapter of a series, students are aware of other communicative aspects, such non-verbal language or socio-cultural aspects, wich are inserted in the real communication situations that we can find in the scenes. For all these reasons, the article shows that the cinema and other audiovisual materials are and should be first-rate didactic tool in L2/LE classes, since we can achieve in the classroom an integration of all skills fully contextualized: our students will read, listen, and speak in real communication situations. This work reviews the evolution of the use of audiovisual materials in the classroom, deals with the implications of the communicative approach and the exploitation of audiovisual resources, and explains the main advantages and disadvantages of working in language classes with audiovisual productions and how to select the most appropriate. Finally, three classroom activities are proposed to work with the movie Diarios de motocicleta (2004).

Teaching Narrative Text Using RPG (Role Playing Game) in SMPN 2 Purwoasri for the Second Year Students

Role playing game is defined as one of the popular genres of video games being released for computer and video game console system. In some of role playing game, the students can give the main character is name of story. Especially in teaching narrative using RPG, narrative is basically story within this story telling, there are many kinds of narrative comedy, mystery, romance, etc. The topic of RPG related with education has become interesting topic recently. In SMPN2 Purwoasri, the teacher has been done the implementation of teaching writing using RPG since a year ago. The game was conducted to make students more interesting in in teaching writing. In this research, the design used is descriptive qualitative design. The subject of the research is students VIII-F class which consists of 30 students. Concerning the preparation that the teachers have in teaching writing English at SMPN 2 Purwoasri. The teacher should have the syllabus or lesson plan before they teach writing English at SMPN 2 Purwoasri. Concerning about the material that the teachers used syllabus and lesson plan based on the curriculum 2013. The method used was think pair solo. While the media used as brainstorming the idea in writing is RPG Final fantasy. The teachers automatically evaluated the students’ writing English in every meeting the teacher gives evaluation using four aspect those are: grammatical, generic structure, words and spelling and content
 
 Key words: narrative text, teaching process, RPG (Role playing game)

Grammar–translation method? Why a history of the methods?Considerations from a Spanish perspective

ABSTRACT This article seeks to draw attention to the particular situation regarding knowledge of the Grammar–Translation Method (GTM), or lack thereof, which still dominates a great part of the teaching and research scenes. Considering mainly what has been published in Spanish, it provides answers to the questions outlined in its title. To that end, it briefly addresses some aspects covered by research on the GTM which show how imprecise knowledge of this method can be. It focuses then on the teaching scene in Spain regarding the GTM in the context of a history of the methods. Its aim is to refute the belief presented in many academic forums by those who still assume that the History of Foreign Language Teaching and Learning begins with the GTM and summarise it as a history of the methods used to teach mainly grammatical contents.

Evaluating EFL University Learners’ Pragmatic Competence: Brown and Levinson’s Negative Politeness Strategies as a Model

ABSRACT
 Pragmatic competence forms a basic pillar in learning and teaching the communicative use of a foreign language (FL). Evaluating the FL pragmatic knowledge is a challenging and complex area of language testing. Far from the grammatical content of language, the current study aims to evaluate EFL learners' pragmatic competence in terms of communicating the linguistic expressions of negative politeness. Accordingly, it investigates EFL university learners’ ability to show social distance and realize power relations towards addressees. The study also presents the negative politeness strategies on the basis of Brown and Levinson's (1987) theory. 
 It is hypothesized that learners are pragmatically unaware of showing negative face towards addressees. It is further assumed that learners show tendency to go on record without redressive action, which often threatens addressees’ negative face. Added to that, learners are not aware of the appropriate use of politeness strategies followed according to the English culture. To investigate this, a Discourse Completion Test consisting of hypothetical situations that are familiar to learners' university life has been formulated.
 The study concludes that learners experience pragmatic failures while engaging in situations where there is a need to show negative face, and utter direct speech acts frequently. In addition, learners do not distinguish between the appropriate politeness strategies (positive, negative and off record) as far as the cultural orientation of the English language is concerned. They further disregard the appropriate use of address forms that constitute a paramount aspect of negative politeness.

Linguistic Surrogacy With Minimal Semantics Among the Dagomba of Ghana

This paper discusses critical questions on the processing of non-native surrogate languages of the Dagbamba (Dagomba) of Ghana. The Dagbamba use the fiddle, talking drum and double bell to encode speech in Hausa, Akan and other languages they do not speak. Fiddling and talking drums are integral to their festivals, funerals, the installation of chiefs and other cultural events. These instruments are used to entertain, praise, and send messages ranging from daybreak notifications to mobilizing people for war. The surrogate language they produce is a specialized language, interpreted mainly by people deeply rooted in their culture. It indicates nobility and statesmanship. While the performers and their patrons do not understand Akan or Hausa, they process and communicate with Akan and Hausa surrogate languages. The maintenance of the languages of performance is part of the practitioners’ desire to preserve the cultural heritage of Dagbamba. This raises questions about the acquisition of these surrogate languages, the level of accuracy of production and comprehension, the role of music in the processing and the implications of these for linguistic theory. These questions are discussed on the basis of data from recorded interviews of talking drummers and fiddlers. The overarching goal is to highlight the gaps in our understanding of language processing that surface in the study of surrogate language, when processing takes place with a poverty of grammatical content.

Development of Grammatical Knowledge for Communication Activities for Foreign Language Acquisition in Online Classroom for Preparatory Year of Romanian Language at the University of Pitești

The paper focuses on developing grammatical knowledge for communication activities, through interactive sample activities in the online classroom, in the process of Romanian language acquisition as a foreign language of study for young adults, between 18 – 21 years of age, who apply for the Preparatory year of Romanian language at the University of Pitești, Romania. Teaching grammar has always been a challenge in every teaching-learning process of a foreign language. Grammar grounded knowledge is the key for communication in terms of accuracy and fluency, because it is important for learners to have a set of rules and constructions to make use of, in order to develop interactive and communicative abilities. Each set of activities focusing on accuracy or on fluency used to create correct examples of language use, requires adaptation to the communicative needs, depending on the level of the learners and their needs. Recent national and international events make it clear that there is an imperative need to adjust the entire process of delivering communicative grammatical content in order to make grammar become functional at the level of online communication the learners have to achieve. The goal during online classes is to use targeted communicative practice activities and performative tasks that best facilitate communicative grammar comprehension and learning, in order to help young adult learners gain confidence to start speaking and communicate online.

Knowledge about grammar and the role of epistemological beliefs

AbstractThis overview paper discusses two major dimensions of professional teacher competencies: content knowledge and beliefs about linguistics (or grammar, respectively). Research has found that teacher trainees as well as practicing teachers often have gaps in their knowledge about grammar. Since a lack of content knowledge has negative implications for teachers’ actions in the classroom, we need to think of ways to make teacher education in the field of linguistics more successful and sustainable. In the article, several approaches targeting the explanation of low grammatical content knowledge are assessed; however, an emphasis is put on the idea that epistemological beliefs play a major role for students’ learning success suggesting that there is a relationship between content knowledge and beliefs which should be further explored in future research.

Textual Functionality of One-Member Sentences in Colloquial Style

Traditional grammar has conceived the study of one-member sentences extracted from texts in different functional styles. The authors have focused on the formal aspect, on the syntax of these structures. It is from the 60s of the twentieth century that linguistic studies take a turn. The grammatical structure is examined according to the meaning it transmits, the contexts in which it is emitted and the communicative intention that is pursued, that is, the semantic, syntactic and pragmatic dimensions are taken into account. A communicative approach to language teaching is followed, aimed at studying the language in use. The theoretical-methodological foundation of this discursive analysis is the textual linguistics and the cognitive, communicative and sociocultural approach. The objective of this article is to propose activities for the teaching-learning of one-member sentences and the analysis of the functionality provided by this grammatical content in a dramatic text with a colloquial style. From the systematization of educational theory and practice, analytical-synthetic, inductive-deductive methods, observation and document analysis were used, which allowed the design of topic I of Spanish Grammar I, as part of the preparation of this subject for the second year of Spanish-Literature major. The textual functionality of the one-member sentences in colloquial style provided a better understanding of the text and a better approach to the speech acts between the interlocutors.

Організаційно-методична модель навчання іноземних студентів наукового мовлення на доуніверситетському етапі

Problem of introducing modern organizational and methodological teaching approaches to foreign citizens of scientific speaking competences at the propaedeutic stage is explored in the article. The primary task of preparatory departments and similar structures of pre-university training of higher education institutions of Ukraine is to achieve communicative competence by foreign students at a level that ensures the assimilation of scientific disciplines in the process of professional training in educational and professional programs. The leading role of the organizational and methodological model of teaching scientific speech to foreign speakers to meet their communicative needs during the study of SSS and profile disciplines is determined. A number of problems that affect the effectiveness of the formation of scientific speech skills is outlined. The issue of the absence of lexical and verb minimums in natural sciences for the initial stage of learning a foreign language is studied. The productivity of interaction of Ukrainian language teachers and profile subject’s teachers in the issues of observance of the unified language regime at the propaedeutic stage, coordination of the structure of textbooks and modeling of educational scientific texts is proved. The text-centric approach is defined as the basic methodical principle. The structure of textbooks on the introductory and basic course of SSS, methodical and didactic materials are described. The expediency of coordinating the teaching of the scientific style of speech with the practical course of the general literary language (in terms of lexical and grammatical content) and the logic of presentation of scientific topics of specialized disciplines is noted. It is proved that the introduction of the studied model has a positive effect on the formation of starting skills of scientific speech and Ukrainian-language communicative competence of foreign students in the professional sphere.

PREPARATIONOFLANGUAGEDATAFORTHEFRANČEKEDUCATIONALPORTALFORSLOVENIANLANGUAGE

The paper presents the processes of creating the portal Franček, the first interactive educational language portal with dictionary and grammatical content for Slovenian, and the preparation of language datafor the portal. The portal, whose design is original and not based on any other language portal, provides information on the words’ meanings, synonyms, morphological paradigms, pronunciation, phraseology, dialect usage, history, and etymology.This data is linked to two educational grammars and accompanied by teaching materials, a game for smart devices, a language counselling service for teachers, and a description of modern teaching methods. The main purpose of the portal is to introduce students of elementary and secondary schools to the use of various dictionaries, to improve their linguistic and metalinguistic competence, and introduce them to other language resources. The portal fills the gap in existing Slovenian language resources, namely the lack of specialized or appropriately suited comprehensive dictionary manuals, primarily intended for the schooling populationand use in education. The paper also presents the creation of new dictionary, grammatical, and teaching content, and the process of its adaptation and consolidation into a new, coherent whole. Due to the age span of target usergroups the content and its visualization are adapted to three age groups (elementary-school grades 1 to 5, grades 6 to 9, and secondary school) based ontheir (meta)linguistic knowledge, while also taking into account the curricula for teaching Slovenianin elementary and secondary school

Una biblioteca en los márgenes: Pedro de Castro aprende árabe

A través de la descripción y análisis de los códices 7887, 8432 y 8434 de la Biblioteca Nacional de España, en este artículo pretendemos redefinir su procedencia, datación, autoría y contenido. Establecer su confección en el entorno del asunto de los libros del Sacromonte e identificar la intervención de Pedro de Castro permite ampliar lo que hasta ahora se conocía acerca de sus intentos de aprender árabe y de profundizar en los aspectos más polémicos de los plomos. Tanto los contenidos gramaticales y religiosos como las abundantes anotaciones con referencia a las fuentes que utilizaba aportan valiosa información acerca de su selección de obras. Materiales gramaticales como la Āŷurrūmiyya, que en estos códices se recoge en diferentes versiones, estaban siendo editados en Roma y Leiden y alcanzarían una gran difusión. La conformación de su biblioteca, a la que debieron pertenecer los códices aquí analizados, fluye en paralelo a la construcción de un saber orientalista en la Europa moderna.

Boundaries of word-formation. New reflections on old things

The attitude that word-formation fully coincides with derivation has been well established in the Lithuanian linguistics. The means of formation that fall outside derivation are regarded as peripheries of derivation that are not worth a considerable attention, although formal features of derivation are obvious (skruzdėlė cf. skruzdė), or absolutely fruitless prescriptive discussions about some kind of mistakes (profsąjunga cf. vyrgydytojas) are generated. In addition, composition is attributed to derivation, even when it is not clear where word-formation formant is and how to identify the meaning of forming a compound (nelaižytveršis: nelaižytas veršis). The article puts forward a solution to the discussed problems, which embraces all the formation in the Lithuanian language (not only derivation) and deals with the problems of derivation mentioned here.Seeking to address the problems raised, it is necessary to evaluate the role of language economy in the word-formation and, based on this evaluation, to expand perception of the importance of word-formation. Word-formation embraces not only derivation, but also all other ways of formation that go beyond the boundaries of morphemes. However auxiliary, insignificant or peripheral they may seem, they are a part of an integral word-formation system. All the attributes of this word-formation phenomenon, such as opposition, foundation and formant, synchronically apply to the whole word-formation. For this reason, the boundaries of derivation should be expanded. The most significant question here refers to semantic measuring and the volume of the formation meaning. Taking into account the fact that the main and fully comprehensive function of word-formation is not about increasing the number of words, but rather about rationalisation of their emergence, i.e. language economy, and also assuming that all the aspects of formation meaning (lexical, grammatical as well as economy) overlap and only one of them prevails, the general scheme of formation meaning (not only the derivational meaning) can be presented more or less as follows:Meaning of economy (profsąjunga, mikriukas, epaštas, JT, sodra, nelaižytveršis, eras, skruzdė) economizing means of linguistic expression.Grammatical meaning (gerumas, ėjimas, begalvis, palangė, stiklinė) change in grammatical content economizing means of linguistic expression. Lexical meaning (žiūrovas, namelis, įlanka, snūduriuoti, rugiagėlė, nueiti) change in lexical content economizing means of linguistic expression and changing grammatical content if necessary.Such explanation of the general meaning of formation and inclusion of language economy expands the understanding of formation beyond the boundaries of derivation and allows referring to a new concept of the word-formation system.

El tratamiento del presente de subjuntivo para opinar o valorar en los manuales de Español lengua extranjera

En el presente artículo se analiza el tratamiento del presente de subjuntivo en el valor de opinión o valoración dentro de los manuales de Español como lengua extranjera. Se ha seleccionado un corpus representativo de manuales y se ha analizado mediante un enfoque cuantitativo y cualitativo los siguientes aspectos: si este contenido gramatical se nombra de manera explícita en el índice de los manuales; si dentro de las unidades o lecciones donde se trabaja este contenido se aporta información teórica relevante para los estudiantes; si se desarrollan actividades que ayuden a los estudiantes a aprender e interiorizar esta estructura y a qué metodología pertenecen y, por último, qué tipo de diferencias existen entre losmanuales. Todo ello permitirá obtener determinadas conclusiones que ayudarán a apuntar algunas mejoras necesarias a futuro.

A pilot study of the flipped classroom approach in higher education

Teaching and learning grammar have become arduous tasks in the English classroom. On the one hand, students feel they are studying the same topics repeatedly. Teachers, on the other one, think students are not able to acquire the grammatical contents of the syllabus. As a direct consequence, it can be assumed it is high time to change the traditional methodology and introduce new approaches which allow us to involve students in their learning process. This paper is aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of using the flipped classroom approach when teaching grammar. As it is a learner-centred model, students actively expose to contents at home and the in-class time is used to do tasks related to the previously worked contents. The instrument employed for this study is a questionnaire designed to know students’ opinion about a flipped experience implemented in the English classroom. The results show that this teaching model can be a good option to avoid students’ demotivation when teaching English grammar.

ENSEÑANZA DE LA GRAMÁTICA Y LINGÜÍSTICA DEL TEXTO: UNA SECUENCIA DIDÁCTICA PARA EL AULA DE EDUCACIÓN SECUNDARIA

En este trabajo parte del debate existente en torno al papel de la gramática en la enseñanza de lengua. Tras una revisión de las aportaciones de la lingüística, se propone una secuencia sustentada en la Lingüística del Texto (LT) y un proceso de lectoescritura guiado para la trabajar los textos periodísticos. Se pone el foco en las posibilidades que ofrece la LT para superar las limitaciones que entraña el análisis basado en la oración. Al considerar una unidad mayor, como es el texto y sus diferentes manifestaciones, los contenidos gramaticales pueden enmarcarse dentro de un proceso más amplio de análisis y producción.