Implications For Second Language Learning Research Articles

A Cognitive Study of Spatial Metaphors in English “Deep” and Chinese “Shen”

This paper presents an analysis and comparison of the projection of Chinese “shen” and English “deep” from the spatial domain to other domains of time, sense, emotion, behavior, and society from a cognitive perspective by using the comparative and contrastive method, explaining the universality and differences of SHEN and DEEP in the metaphorical domain concerning their collocation, usage, and frequency under Chinese and English cultural contexts, which serves as an insight for foreign language teaching, translation practice and cross-cultural communication. The results show that since humans share a similar physical structure and living environment, the spatial adjectives “deep” and “shen” show a lot of similarities. However, the usage, collocation, and frequency of use of “deep” and “shen” still reveal some variations, which might have great implications for second language learning and teaching.
  

Dhi-English: Influence of Dhivehi language features on the English narratives of Maldivian ESL learners

This qualitative descriptive study explored the influence of Dhivehi, the first language (L1) of the Maldivian students on learning English, their second language (L2). The questions raised in this paper enabled to identify morphological, lexical and syntactic transfer errors present in the narratives written by thirty-three students at secondary level from three schools in Male’, the capital of the Maldives. Transfer Analysis was used to analyze errors present in the English nar-ratives written by Maldivian ESL (English as a Second Language) learners. The analysis uncov-ered negative transfer of Dhivehi linguistic features in their written English at morphological, lexical, as well as syntactic levels. The findings provide invaluable pedagogical implications for second language learning in the Maldivian context. Thus, it is recommended that ESL teachers as well as curriculum developers in the Maldives take into consideration the possibility of the influence of students’ mother tongue or Dhivehi linguistic features on the process of learning English.

The influence of auditory-visual speech and clear speech on cross-language perceptual assimilation

The perception of non-native speech is influenced by prior attunement to the native language. Evidence from auditory–only (AO) citation speech research indicates that non-native consonants are perceptually assimilated to native language categories, often causing difficulties in discrimination of non-native speech contrasts. But, as auditory-visual (AV) speech and clear speech have been shown to benefit non-native speech perception, we reasoned that modality and speaking style may also assist to clarify categorical distinctions, and goodness-of-fit differences between contrasting non-native consonants. This was tested by comparing the perceptual assimilation of Sindhi consonants by Australian English monolinguals in AO, AV, and visual-only (VO), clear and citation speech conditions. Although the consonants were perceptually assimilated to native categories similarly across AO and AV conditions, in both speaking styles, categorization consistency was dependent on whether the consonants were categorized in the VO condition. Consonants that were uncategorized in VO were more consistently categorized in AO than AV, and citation speech was more consistently categorized than clear. However, these patterns were reversed for consonants that were categorized in VO, where participants used the visual articulatory information to make more consistent categorization judgments for AV than AO, and clear speech was more consistently categorized than citation. These results suggest that the impact of AV and clear speech on cross-language perception depends on the similarities and differences between the articulatory characteristics of native and non-native consonants, and may have important implications for second language learning, as well as human and machine interaction, via the robustness of automatic speech recognition systems.

Aging and the statistical learning of grammatical form classes.

Language learners must place unfamiliar words into categories, often with few explicit indicators about when and how that word can be used grammatically. Reeder, Newport, and Aslin (2013) showed that college students can learn grammatical form classes from an artificial language by relying solely on distributional information (i.e., contextual cues in the input). Here, 2 experiments revealed that healthy older adults also show such statistical learning, though they are poorer than young at distinguishing grammatical from ungrammatical strings. This finding expands knowledge of which aspects of learning vary with aging, with potential implications for second language learning in late adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record

Formulaic Sequences and the Implications for Second Language Learning

<p>The present paper is a review of literature in relation to formulaic sequences and the implications for second language learning. The formulaic sequence is a significant part of our language, and plays an essential role in both first and second language learning. The paper first introduces the definition, classifications, and major features of formulaic sequences. Then relevant studies on second language learning are reviewed, and pedagogical implications will be drawn from previous research. It is suggested that more emphasis should be put on prefabs in foreign language teaching, but at the same time, there is also danger of overemphasizing the role of prefabs in SLA research, given limited exposure to the target language in a foreign language learning environment.</p>

Review of Sharifian & Palmer (2007): Applied Cultural Linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication

Review of Sharifian & Palmer (2007): Applied Cultural Linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication

Applied Cultural Linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication

Applied Cultural Linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication

Interfaces in the prosodic hierarchy: New structures and the phonological parser

In this paper I investigate the assignation of syllabic structure to segments in second language learners invoking principles of parsing and learnability. Drawing on the model of Phillips (1996) in parsing, and the work of Fodor (1999) and Dresher (1999) in learnability, I discuss the implications for second language learning. I also look at the question of whether new phonological structure can be triggered if that structure is lacking in the first language. Drawing on evidence from the acquisition of (1) phonological features in Japanese, Chinese and French learners of English, as well as English learners of Czech, and (2) moraic structure by an English speaker learning Japanese consonant and vowel length contrasts, I argue that second language learners can trigger new prosodic structure. The process of acquisition is a combination of acquiring new structures, and mapping the interfaces of different levels of structure via a phonological parser.

Does difficulty perceiving American English /r/ and /l/ affect Japanese listeners’ lexical confusion of these phonemes?

Phonetic environment has proven to be one of the most important factors affecting non-native English speakers’ perception of American English /r/ and /l/ [e.g., Lively et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 96, 2076–2087 (1994)]. In the present study native Japanese speakers’ lexical confusion of English /r/ and /l/ are examined through a word translation experiment which employed pairs of English words minimally contrasting /r/ and /l/ in various word positions. Results indicate that English words in which the /r/ or /l/ is located in a perceptually difficult to identify position (e.g., initial consonant cluster: ‘‘branch’’ versus ‘‘blanch’’) are more likely to be mistranslated than those in which the phoneme is located in an easy to identify position (e.g., final singleton: ‘‘compare’’ versus ‘‘compel’’). This finding suggests that errors in phoneme perception and lexical confusion might be related. Pedagogical implications for second language learning will be discussed with respect to results from both learning and retention experiments. [Work supported by TAO, Japan.]

Simultaneous and Successive Second Language Learning: Integral Ingredients of the Human Development Process

This paper analyzes simultaneous and successive second language learning in the context of human development and schooling. The author defines important terms for the analysis before comparing acquisition of a second language to planned school learning of a second language after the mother tongue is acquired. Drawing from sociolinguistic perspective, human development, school learning and language policy, the author discusses conflicting claims about second language learning in the school context. Some fundamental questions are raised about second language learning, to which the author attempts to develop answers. She highlights the role of language policy in successive second language learning, the need for learning school content within its linguistic and cultural context, and the importance of examining the learned content within one's own cultural circumstances. The author differentiates between cultural content within the micro cultures of specific groups and school content learned within the global macro culture of schooling. The author draws some implications for second language learning, stressing that a second language is learned out of necessity in the human development process. Concluding remarks highlight the importance of ensuring that learners have access to the languages they need to experience and monitor their human development processes in rewarding ways.

Learn Zulu the way children do

In order to master Bantu languages, learners have to acquire pervasive morphology, including a complex noun class and agreement system. First and second language learners of Zulu reflect different degrees of accessibility of complex morphology in the language. First language learners have early access to noun classes and agreement followed by basically errorless acquisition of the morphological system. Second language learners, on the contrary, find major problems in working out noun class and agreement. In this paper, findings from the optimal case of language acquisition—first language acquisition—are discussed in light of implications for second language learning and teaching of Zulu.

Assignment of gender to French nouns in primary and secondary language : a connectionist model

In French, grammatical gender is often represented phonologically and/or morphologically. Thus, a language learner's competence for gender iden tification might in part reflect the ability to recognize patterns in noun phonology and morphology. We herein describe a computer-based connec tionist-type network model which learned to identify correctly the gender of a set of French nouns. Subsequently, this model was able to generalize from that learning experience and assign gender to previously unstudied nouns with a high degree of reliability. This gender assignment was accomplished by relying solely upon information inherent in the structure of the nouns themselves, and it occurred in the absence of explicit rules for the evaluation of nouns. Instead, the model discovered criterial gender-specific features when shown examples of masculine and feminine nouns during its initial training period. The model's ability to learn these gender-specific features was found to be related both to its initial connectivity state and to a variable learning-rate parameter. These latter results are discussed with respect to their general implications for second language learning.

Incorporating Native Speaker Norms in Second Language Materials1

This paper examines the distribution and productivity of different linguistic structures and patterns in one target language, French, and shows why this information is important when deciding the linguistic content of French second language textbooks. Comparisons are made between French native speaker language use and the grammar rules typically presented in French second language textbooks, and implications for second language learning are discussed.

Two Languages in One Brain: Recent Work in Neurolinguistics and its Implications for Second-Language Learning

Two Languages in One Brain: Recent Work in Neurolinguistics and its Implications for Second-Language Learning

Discovery of Latent Structure as the Major Process in Language Acquisition: Implications for the Second Language Program

ABSTRACT Generative‐transformational grammar has often been cited as a possible theoretical model for the psychological processes involved in first language acquisition. Of these processes, the discovery of latent structure is widely considered to be the major one. Such discovery may result primarily from inferential operations, and it is plausible that these operations are influential in second language acquisition as well as in first language acquisition. If the discovery of latent structure through inferencing characterizes second language acquisition, a transformational grammar model may have implications for second language learning and instruction. A language program reflecting this model would emphasize the role of syntax in expressing meaning. Instructional techniques based on sets of transformationally related sentences would facilitate the manipulation of syntax while holding meaning constant. Concentration on basic structural alternatives would involve the learner directly with latent structure and encourage its discovery. It would also allow him to focus on expressing his own meaning by deciding from among the structural alternatives for conveying it. Decisions made at the syntactic level would restrict choices at the morphological and phonological levels. Techniques of language habit theory might be useful in mastering the fixed elements of the closed systems at these levels. This theory would thus be incorporated into the more powerful theory of generative‐transformational grammar.

Children's Learning of Unfamiliar Phonological Sequences

4 groups of 15 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-yr.-old children learned nonsense phonological sequences that varied in grammaticality by violating 0, 1, or 2 phonological rules of Ss' native language. The youngest age group made fewer errors in learning the most nongrammatical phonological sequences than in learning grammatical ones. With the 10- and 8-yr.-olds an opposite trend was found. The differences were not statistically significant. Implications for second language learning were discussed.