Groups Of Non-native Speakers Research Articles

Development of AI-based Arabic Learning Model to Improve non-native speaker Arabic Speaking Skills

This research delves into the development of an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based Arabic language learning model with the aim of enhancing Arabic speaking skills for non-native speakers. The background of this research arises from the complexity of Arabic language learning, which requires not only an understanding of grammar and vocabulary but also proficiency in speaking with an accurate accent and intonation. The research methodology includes the selection of suitable AI algorithms, the development of a prototype model, and further testing on non-native speakers at the Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam (STAI) al-Yasini, Pasuruan. The utilization of AI technology is expected to provide innovative solutions to address individual learning needs in the context of the Arabic language. Mid-term evaluation results indicate that the AI learning model can positively impact Arabic speaking skills, although some improvements are still necessary. User response analysis provides valuable insights that serve as the basis for further model refinements. Suggestions for future research include further development of the AI model, broader testing across various non-native speaker groups, and the integration of user feedback to enhance Arabic speaking skills holistically. The implications of these research findings are expected to make a significant contribution to the development of adaptive and innovative Arabic language learning.

AFFECTIVE PROSODY IN CHILDREN AND YOUNG NEURO-TYPICAL LISTENERS FOR MALAYALAM LANGUAGE

Affective prosody would refer to the perception of the emotional state of a speaker based on the prosodic aspects of one’s speech. The affective prosody is often studied in individuals with right hemisphere damage or non-native speakers solely because the perception of affective prosody is localized to the right hemisphere and the non-native speakers are reliant on affective prosody as they are deprived of linguistic prosody. The current study was carried out with the aim of investigating if the affective prosody varies as a function of age. The study was carried out on two groups of non-native speakers of Malayalam of 8-12 years and 18-25 years respectively. Different sentence types were presented to these participants in auditory modality and the results showed that the performance of participants in the age range of 18-25 years performed better compared to individuals of the age-range 8-12 years showing that the development of affective prosody would show a developmental trend.

Foot duration and polysyllabic shortening among Arab speakers of English

This study investigates a neglected aspect of second language acquisition. It compares the timing patterns adopted by speakers of English as a foreign language with those of English native speakers. The paper aims to explore the extent to which Arab speakers, whose L1 is not as stress-timed as English is, can acquire the mechanisms of polysyllabic shortening in English. Three groups (English native speakers and two groups of Jordanian speakers of English) were requested to read three sets of monosyllabic, disyllabic and trisyllabic words in a carrier sentence. The total length of the word and the vowel duration in all the words were measured. Clear differences between the native speaker group and the non-native speaker groups were attested. Results show that isochronous foot duration and polysyllabic shortening are a tendency in English speech timing, rather than a fundamental process. Furthermore, acquiring the timing patterns of the stress-timed English rhythm is challenging to Arab speakers.

Pragmatic and syntactic constraints on French causal connectives: An evaluation of native and non-native speakers’ sensitivity

When writing a text, the choice between seemingly equivalent connectives, such as but and however, is not arbitrary: aside from preferences linked to the register or modality of the utterance, there are often pragmatic or syntactic constraints that limit the choice to only one particular connective. For French, theoretical approaches have extensively discussed the syntactic and pragmatic constraints that allow only either parce que (‘because’) or puisque (‘since’). However, experimental findings regarding the actual sensitivity of French speakers to these constraints remain inconclusive. In the current study, we examine the sensitivity of different speaker groups to the constraints associated with the use of parce que and puisque. In a controlled offline-task, we systematically evaluate the sensitivity of a crowd-sourced heterogeneous group of native speakers (Experiment 1) and a group of non-native speakers (Experiment 2). Results show that native speakers are more sensitive to syntactic constraints whereas pragmatic constraints are more equivocal. Non-native speakers, however, are not sensitive to either of these constraints. In addition, the pragmatically complex connective puisque is extremely problematic for non-native speakers, as even the mapping of a seemingly equivalent connective of their L1 did not warrant a good mastery of its pragmatic functions.

Interaction between syntactic and information structure in the second language processing of Korean dative sentences

It remains an open question whether second language (L2) learners can process linguistic properties at the syntax–discourse interface. This study examines this issue in the context of the L2 processing of Korean dative sentences under different information structure requirements. Given that discourse constraints associated with information structure tend to manifest more strongly in noncanonical than in canonical structures, we tested whether L2 learners of Korean show sensitivity to such constraints during online processing. In a story-continuation task, both native and nonnative speaker groups showed a strong preference for producing canonical dative patterns, indicating their comparable knowledge of the canonical status of Korean dative sentences. In a self-paced reading task, both groups spent longer reading times when the word order of dative sentences did not follow given–new information structure, but only for the noncanonical and not the canonical structure. These results suggest that L2 processing of dative structures at the syntax–discourse interface relies on the same parsing architecture that guides native-speaker processing.

Expansion, contraction, and drift during the development of L2 speech categories

This paper investigates the acquisition of novel segmental categories that are similar to native language segments among two groups of non-native speakers and a native-speaker control group. English and Japanese both contain voiceless alveolar and post-alveolar fricatives, but while the alveolars are effectively identical, the post-alveolars differ in their precise places of articulation. English includes a palato-alveolar while Japanese includes an alveolo-palatal. We elicited pronunciations of these segments in both English and Japanese by a group of intermediate L2 learners of English in Japan and a group of Japanese–English late bilinguals with experience living and studying abroad, plus a third group made up of English native-speakers as a control group. Measurements of Center of Gravity taken at the midpoint of each fricative and F2 taken at the appearance of formant structure immediately following the fricative revealed expansive category ranges among the L2 learners but contracted categories among the bilinguals, with evidence of a new, independent post-alveolar fricative added to their L2 segmental inventory. L2 learners were found to experience persistent transfer effects from phonological neutralization of this contrast in Japanese, whereas bilinguals were found to have overcome such effects.

Move analysis and their lexical verbs of research article abstracts of Filipino and American writers

Rhetorical move analyses of research article (RA) abstracts have established variations across disciplines and cultures. However, there is still a need for more explorations on Applied Linguistics discipline. Comparing native and other group of non-native speakers of English, such as Filipino users of the language, has also been a neglect in research as far as the researcher’s knowledge is concerned. Hence, this study investigated the rhetorical moves in the RA abstracts of American and Filipino writers who are published in two journals related to Applied Linguistics field. The study also explored the lexical verbs underlying each move in all the abstracts. Each abstract was then segmented into moves. Findings revealed that the moves Situating the Research (STR), Presenting the Research (PTR), and Discussing the Research (DTR) were obligatorily used by both groups of writers, while the moves Describing the Methodology (DTM) and Summarizing the Findings (STF) were obligatory only among Filipinos and optional among Americans. Filipino writers appear to develop their own conventions deviating from Americans who are considered native speakers and norm providers. The results also amplify the existence of cultural differences even in abstract writing. Further, the study details lists of lexical verbs that may be used to realize a rhetorical intent of each move. Hence, academic writing instructions may be informed by the rhetorical and linguistic realizations unveiled in this study. Directions for future research are likewise provided.

Production and Perception of Geminate Consonants in English Words by Thai Learners of English: Implications for English Teaching and Learning

The present study aims to explore the production and perception of geminate consonants of Thai learners of English. This study seeks to answer three research questions. First, are there any significant differences in the production of different types of English geminate consonants among five groups of participants (four groups of non-native speakers of English and one group of native speakers of English)? Second, does the level of English proficiency of the English learners affect the production and perception of English geminate consonants? Third, do English orthographic forms affect the pronunciation of Thai learners of English? To answer these three questions, the researcher compared the performance of 90 students from three different levels of language proficiency (low intermediate, high intermediate, and advanced) and of 15 Thai university instructors with the performance of eight native speakers of English. The researcher examined the performance of the participants by using two tasks: reading aloud and dictation. Even though the statistical results showed a significant difference only in the production of lexical geminates between native and non-native English speakers, it should be noted that the students from the lower levels of language proficiency seemed to have greater difficulty in identifying English geminates in regular speech. Ultimately, the researcher would like to argue that teaching pronunciation is not just about teaching students how to produce the correct sounds. It is also about helping them to hear the sounds correctly, so that they can understand what they hear.

PISA 2015 Reading Test Item Parameters Across Language Groups: A measurement Invariance Study with Binary Variables

Large-scale international assessments, including PISA, might be useful for countries to receive feedback on their education systems. Measurement invariance studies are one of the active research areas for these assessments, especially cross-cultural and linguistic comparability have attracted attention. PISA questions are prepared in the English language, and students from many countries answer the translated form. In this respect, the purpose of our study is to investigate whether there is a measurement invariance problem across native English and non-native English speaker groups in the PISA-2015 reading skills subtest. The study sample included students from Canada, the USA, and the UK as the native speaker group and students from Japan, Thailand, and Turkey as the non-native speaker group. Measurement invariance studies taking into account the binary structure of the data set for these two groups revealed that eight of the twenty-eight items in the PISA-2015 reading skills test had possible limitations in equivalence

CONTRASTIVE INTERLANGUAGE ANALYSIS OF EVIDENTIALITY IN PHD DISSERTATIONS

The present study investigates evidentiality in its broadest sense (Chafe 1986) in PhD dissertations as a genre of academic writing. For this purpose, Chafe’s taxonomy (1986), revised by Ifantidou (2001), has been used as a framework in order to analyze three different groups of datasets, including one group of native speakers of English and two groups of non-native speakers: a group of Turkish speakers of English and the other non-native speakers with diff erent L1 backgrounds. The texts of these three groups are examined in order to fi nd out whether the native language of the participants is a factor in the choice of evidential markers. The results show that the native speakers of English use evidential markers more frequently compared to the non-native authors. In terms of the Native Language/Interlanguage comparison in Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis (Granger 1996, 1998), the overall use of evidentiality reveals that non-native authors do not show native-like features in the use of evidentiality. In terms of the Interlanguage/Interlanguage comparison, Turkish authors of academic texts diff er from the authors with various native language backgrounds in terms of the use of evidentiality.

Old Grammars New (?) Scope: Adjective Placement in Native and Non-Native Spanish

Prior studies have examined the association between modifying adjective placement and interpretation in second language (L2) Spanish. These studies show evidence of convergence with native speaker’s intuitions, which is interpreted as restructuring of the underlying grammar. Two issues deserve further study: (i) there are debates on the nature of native speaker’s interpretations; (ii) previous results could be explained by a combination of explicit instruction and access to the first language (L1). The present study re-examines native and non-native intuitions on the interpretation of variable order adjectives in pre-nominal and post-nominal positions, and extends the domain of inquiry by asking if L2 learners have intuitions about the order of two-adjective sequences, which appear in mirror image order in English and Spanish (faded blue pants vs. pantalones azules desteñidos). Two-adjective sequences are rare in the input, not typically taught explicitly, and have a different word order that cannot be [partially] derived from the L1 subgrammar. Two groups of non-native speakers (n = 50) and native speaker controls (n = 15) participated in the study. Participants completed a preference task, testing the interaction between word order and restrictive/non-restrictive interpretation, and an acceptability judgement task, testing ordering intuitions for two-adjective sequences. Results of the preference task show that the majority of speakers, both native and non-native, prefer variable adjectives in a post-nominal position independent of interpretation. Results of the acceptability judgement task indicate that both native and non-native speakers prefer mirror image order. We conclude that these results support underlying grammar reanalysis in L2 speakers and indicate that the semantic distribution of variable adjectives is not fully complementary; rather, the post-nominal position is unmarked, and generally preferred by both native and non-native speakers.

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.

Quality of Lithuanian Language of Native and Non-native Students

The aim of the paper is to answer the questions about the extent of specific types of errors in Lithuanian and non-Lithuanian students’ performance on the same test and what it can say about native speakers’ and non-native speakers’ Lithuanian competence. Research material was a C-test completed by 326 third grade pupils of 6 Gymnasiums in Vilnius. There were 127 Lithuanian, 96 Polish, and 103 Russian pupils aged between 16–17. A total of 19,560 test items were analysed combining quantitative and qualitative error analysis methods.Data analysis leads to the following conclusions:1. The analysis of the extent of the errors revealed that the two non-native speaker groups are similar. The native speaker group made significantly fewer errors in all categories. The results of the analysis of the nature of errors suggest that, in principle, grammatical competence of non-native speakers is closer to that of native speakers than lexical competence.2. An examination of the same problematic points for all three groups reveals that, in most cases, both native and non-native speakers make the same mistakes, but non-native speakers make more of them. This suggests that the skills which differentiate between native speakers are the ones that are more difficult to develop for non-native speakers as well.3. Non-native speakers have a narrower vocabulary than native speakers, they make more lexical mistakes. However, it should also be noted that native speaker performance is also dominated by lexical errors.4. Analysis of the most problematic points revealed that grammar mistakes in such cases are more often made by native speakers than by non-native speakers. These grammatical mistakes are probably due to the lack of strong ability of native speakers to see beyond the words immediately following each other, to take into account more complex constructions, long sentences and to understand the logic of the text.

The effects of group set-up on participation and learning in discussion forums

The present study investigated the effects of group set-up in a semester-long telecollaborative discussion forum project in second-semester German. In order to explore whether group set-up affects learning in discussion forums, small groups of non-native speakers (NNS) of German were partnered either with native speakers (NS), other NNS with the same L1, or other NNS with different L1s. The study compared participation and negotiation of meaning routines between the three groups, and assessed overall writing development of the second-semester German learners as a result of forum participation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as an analysis of the negotiation of meaning episodes (Varonis & Gass, 1985) to reveal whether any of the three groups offers a more productive language learning environment. Results indicate that the NS–NNS groups participated the most in the forum and produced the highest amount of negotiation of meaning routines. Students reached higher writing proficiency than comparable second-semester students who did not complete a discussion forum task.

Non-Native Attitudes to /θ/ and /ð/: A European Case Study

This paper investigates the evaluation of the English sounds /θ/ and /ð/ as produced by European non-native speakers. Using the data from a larger web survey, we compared the error judgements by different native and non-native users of English. This was done to establish whether there is any normative convergence among European non-native speakers, or if this was counteracted by other patterns, such as the presence or absence of these sounds in their L1s. Our analysis shows that while European non-native judges do not differ consistently from native-speakers in their judgements, there are also subtle differences between different groups of non-native speakers, implying that we should be careful not to generalise across groups about non-native attitudes to these sounds.

Syntactic complexity in college-level English writing: Differences among writers with diverse L1 backgrounds

This paper explores differences in the syntactic complexity in English writing among college-level writers with different first language (L1) backgrounds. We sampled 200 argumentative essays written by native-speaker (NS) U.S. university students from the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS; Granger, 1996) and 1400 argumentative essays produced by non-native speaker (NNS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners of seven different L1 backgrounds (200 from each L1 background) from the International Corpus of Learner English Version 2.0 (ICLE 2.0; Granger, Dagneaux, Meunier, & Paquot, 2009). These essays were analyzed using 14 syntactic complexity measures with the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (Lu, 2010). When the EFL learners’ L1 backgrounds were ignored, significant differences emerged in only three of the 14 measures between the NNS group and the NS group. However, when the learners were grouped by their L1 backgrounds, significant differences emerged between the NS group and one or more NNS groups in all 14 measures, and the NNS groups demonstrated drastically varied patterns of difference from the NS group. The implications of such varied patterns for L2 writing research and pedagogy and for automatic native language identification of learner texts are considered.

A Contrastive Analysis of Metadiscourse Features in Business e-mails Written by Non-native Speakers of English

Abstract Metadiscourse is usually studied in terms of a cross-cultural exploration of interpersonality, mainly in academic English, but we believe that this approach could be applied to other genres. The main purpose of this study is to compare some metadiscourse features used in digital business communications. More specifically, we focus on the interactional metadiscourse devices categorised as boosters. We analysed and compared a corpus of one hundred emails written by two groups of non-native speakers of English working in an export company and using English to communicate in a business environment. One group was composed of workers from Spain and the other was composed of workers from China. Our aim was to analyse the differences in the use of boosters and the causes of variation in their use, which may be related to the need to employ assertiveness or politeness in business contexts.

On mispronunciation analysis of individual foreign speakers using auditory periphery models

In second language (L2) learning, a major difficulty is to discriminate between the acoustic diversity within an L2 phoneme category and that between different categories. We propose a general method for automatic diagnostic assessment of the pronunciation of non-native speakers based on models of the human auditory periphery. Considering each phoneme class separately, the geometric shape similarity between the native auditory domain and the non-native speech domain is measured. The phonemes that deviate the most from the native pronunciation for a set of L2 speakers are detected by comparing the geometric shape similarity measure with that calculated for native speakers on the same phonemes. To evaluate the system, we have tested it with different non-native speaker groups from various language backgrounds. The experimental results are in accordance with linguistic findings and human listeners’ ratings, particularly when both the spectral and temporal cues of the speech signal are utilized in the pronunciation analysis.

Nonnative English Speaker Performance on the Basic English Lexicon (BEL) Sentences

The purpose of this study was to examine sentence-recognition performance for a large, diverse group of nonnative speakers of English on the recently developed Basic English Lexicon (BEL) sentence materials and to determine whether BEL sentence lists are equated in difficulty for this population. The BEL sentences were presented to 102 nonnative speakers of English with normal hearing and varied linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Five hundred sentences were presented mixed with noise spectrally matched to the target sentences. Subjects completed an online questionnaire providing detailed demographic and linguistic information. Listeners' spoken English proficiency was also assessed using the Versant English Test (Pearson Education, 2010). Nonnative listeners showed equal word-recognition performance for 3 groups of BEL sentence lists, each group containing sentence lists that had equivalent difficulty. In addition, spoken language proficiency and several demographic and linguistic factors were significantly correlated with BEL performance. The BEL sentence materials have been tested on a large cohort of nonnative speakers of English and have been found to be appropriate for use in speech-perception testing with this population.

The role of vowel inherent spectral change in the intelligibility of English vowels spoken by English-, Chinese-, and Korean-native speakers

This study is designed to investigate the relationship between Vowel Inherent Spectral Change (VISC) and vowel intelligibility of native and non-native speakers of English. VISC refers to the relatively slow varying changes in formant frequencies associated with each vowel category (Neary and Assman, 1986). Such spectral change has been known to be a major factor in the perception of both the phonetic and phonemic English vowels. In the previous research projects conducted in our lab, we recorded 12 English vowels in /hVd/ format spoken by English native (EN), Chinese native (CN) and Korean native (KN) speakers and examined vowel intelligibility. Overall, vowel intelligibility was significantly higher for native talkers than for non-native talkers. Within non-native speaker groups, CN had slightly higher intelligibility than KN speakers. In this study, we are going to analyze an acoustic feature of the vowels, VISC, spoken by these native and non-native speakers. It is hypothesized that the acoustic differences of vowels spoken by different groups of speakers can account for the variances in vowel intelligibility.