Grammar Of Language Research Articles

EFL Grammar Teaching Applying the Just-in-Time Teaching Methodology: An Exploratory Study

Most students and practitioners commonly see grammar teaching and learning as both tedious and unattractive experiences. In this sense, more innovative ways of presenting foreign language grammar are needed. One such novel approach is Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT), which has proven to be beneficial in a wide array of disciplines, including language learning. The present exploratory study aims to examine how JiTT contributes to success rates in English grammar learning at two proficiency levels, and to analyse how participants perceive this methodological approach. Sixty-four English as a foreign language students, divided into beginners and intermediate learners, were exposed to five JiTT grammar lessons throughout an academic semester. Participants’ answers on JiTT quizzes and satisfaction questionnaires were recorded and compared to their performance on a final exam based on the same five grammar points presented through JiTT. Statistical analyses revealed that JiTT had little impact on learners’ success rates in grammar learning, although a higher impact was observed in intermediate learners, in comparison to beginners. However, both groups of participants showed positive attitudes towards the intervention. Results are discussed in the light of how teaching English grammar through JiTT contributes to success rates. The potential of JiTT as a good methodology to be used in foreign language teaching is also addressed.

An Unknown Source on Proselytism among the Udis

Abstract This paper presents the English translation with commentaries of some interesting passages from the unpublished manuscript by Abgar Payazat, an Armenian-Udi intellectual of the beginning of the 20th century. He particularly describes episodes of proselytism among the Udis from the Armenian Apostolic Church to the Russian Orthodoxy. The manuscript itself, is an attempt of compiling a grammar of the Udi language in Armenian.

Using Work in Pairs Method to Improve Students’ Writing Skills in a University Level

The method used was Classroom Action Research (CAR). By using this method, it might raise students' motivation in learning English especially to master language forms, structure and grammar. Most studies focused on improving students’ English skills in high school level. Hence, the researchers planned to implement work in pairs strategy to improve students’ writing skills. It focused on university students who had low motivation and lack of grammar while learning English, especially writing skills. Researchers formulated the research questions; How is work in pairs method be used to improve students’ writing skills? Pre-test and the post-test 2 had improved from lacking to fair. It was proved that implementing the pair work technique is a positive approach to boost students' writing skills, particularly in the context of descriptive writing. The average score of students increased, and the teaching-learning process improved significantly. Work in pairs method was useful in assisting students in writing descriptive text. The researchers hope by publishing this article, it will be useful for teacher and learners on learning English by using this work in pairs method

The paradigmaticity of evidentials in the Tibetic languages of Khams

Abstract This article argues that the evidential system of Khams Tibetan, a cluster of Tibetic languages spoken in the south-eastern Tibetosphere, should be considered a verb paradigm. We propose a paradigm with six evidential categories (egophoric, statemental, visual sensory, nonvisual sensory, sensory inferential, and logical inferential) for all the verb classes. We focus on two varieties – rGyalthang and Lhagang – and examine how these evidential categories are encoded with distinct morphemes. We then discuss the main evidential forms of the copulative and existential verbs available in Khams Tibetan varieties as a whole, as well as their morphological relationship. Our analyses lead us to argue against a differential treatment of evidentiality depending on verb categories. The article concludes that describing the evidential paradigm may be the first essential task in writing a grammar of a Tibetic language.

Grammars Across Time Analyzed (GATA): a dataset of 52 languages

Grammars Across Time Analyzed (GATA) is a resource capturing two snapshots of the grammatical structure of a diverse range of languages separated in time, aimed at furthering research on historical linguistics, language evolution, and cultural change. GATA comprises grammatical information on 52 diverse languages across all continents, featuring morphological, syntactic, and phonological information based on published grammars of the same language at two different time points. Here we introduce the coding scheme and design features of GATA, and we describe some salient patterns related to language change and the coverage of grammatical descriptions over time.

Development of Grammar Competence via Work with the Literary Text in Teaching FFL

In this paper we deal with the issue of teaching foreign language grammar using literature in secondary schools. The aim of this paper is to propose and provide teachers of French as a foreign language with effective and practical didactic recommendations for teaching the past tenses in French through authentic literary text. Working with a literary text has the potential to contribute to the learner's self-development, to the development of his/her reading and language skills, to the development of critical thinking and other important aspects of his/her personality. The literary text chosen is the Quebec short story "Le petit bonhomme de graisse", which meets the criteria for selecting a text for didactic purposes in terms of content and scope. From a linguodidactic point of view, it corresponds to the language level B1 according to the CEFR, at which the learners are confronted with the chosen grammatical phenomenon and the problem of its application in communicative practice. When developing proposals for didactic procedure for working with the selected text, we come out from Rafajlovičová's research of the assessment of grammatical competence from the year 2016, which shows that the application ability of foreign language learners is significantly lower in comparison with the mechanical formation of grammatical forms. The partial aim of this paper is to contribute to the development of grammatical competence and its application to learners' communicational practice. In proposing activities related to authentic literary text, we take into account Slovak learners in Slovak schools, but nevertheless these proposals are applicable in the educational system of other countries, where French is taught as a foreign language. The topic of past tenses in French is one of the most difficult phenomenon to learn and use in communication, as the Slovak language operates with a different grammatical system. The proposed activities serve for effective teaching and acquisition of past tenses in French, not only their formation, but also their application to common communicative situations.

Fuzzing-based grammar learning from a minimal set of seed inputs

To be effective, a fuzzer needs to generate inputs that are well formed, so that they are not outright rejected by the Software Under Test (SUT) and can thus detect meaningful bugs. Grammar based fuzzers solve this problem, but they obviously require a grammar of the input language accepted by the SUT. Many times such grammar is unknown. Therefore, different black- and white-box algorithms have been proposed for learning them from SUTs. Black-box algorithms rely only on membership queries, but need access to carefully crafted well formed inputs in order to obtain good results. White-box algorithms require access to the source code and generally produce grammars with higher precision and recall, but at the expense of working only for specific programming languages and libraries. We propose a new algorithm and show through extensive experimentation that it can learn grammars from recursive descendent parsers with consistently high levels of both, recall and precision. Notably, this result was obtained starting with a couple of arbitrary seed inputs and includes evaluations with sophisticated languages such as Java Script Object Notation (JSON). Different to other state of the art white-box approaches, our method does not require sophisticated program analysis techniques such as dynamic tainting or symbolic execution. In fact, the experiments confirm that our method performs extremely well with just a (standard) generic Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) of the parsing program as input. The core of our method uses fuzzing techniques combined with fundamental theoretical results on grammar learning. Compared to other white-box approaches, ours is not tied to specific programming languages and tools, and thus can be easily ported. Regarding performance, we have shown that our algorithm works well in practice and that, under reasonable assumptions, its worst-case complexity is polynomial (with low exponents) w.r.t. time and space requirements.

Ģenitīva prievārdu rekcijas īpatnības lībiskā dialekta Kurzemes izloksnēs

The government of prepositions in modern Latvian literary language has strict norms depending on various factors: preposition, number, gender, meaning, etc. However, the system of preposition government is different and inconsistent in Kurzeme Livonic subdialects. Older sources of Latvian written language and Latvian grammar also point to an unstable government. Until now, in Latvian dialectology, researchers have repeatedly pointed out that the use of genitive preposition with the governed word in the accusative case can be called a traditional feature of Livonic dialect, but it is often impossible to determine a clear grammatical case because of the reduction of the vowel of last syllable, so sometimes the accusative and genitive forms are identical. The aim of the article is to consider and map the preposition uz, pie, pēc and no government in all Kurzeme subdialects of Livonic dialect, where the governed words are singular. The descriptive method and cartography method that describes and compares prepositions and their government are used in the article.

Pengembangan Parsing PCPATR Sebagai Preservasi Bahasa dan Sastra Banjar

Banjar Mantra is part of the Banjar language and literature in the form of words recited orally by certain people. Mantras are considered to have magical powers for supernatural powers and curses. This study aims to develop a sentence parsing device as a Language and Literature Preservation of Banjar using a sentence parsing application (parse PC-PATR). Parse PC-PATR is a sentence parsing application that will produce a pattern tree to represent the syntactic structure of sentences based on the Banjar language grammars. The problem in this research is that the mantra corpus uses the old genre of Banjarese language and literature. Words in the old genre are currently not widely used in communication by the Banjar people. On the other hand, the absorption of Arabic also presents its own problems. Finally, it is difficult to find the availability of experts who still preserve the Banjar mantra. This research used the ADDIE method with 20 Banjar mantras as test sentences and involved 3 committees of linguists as examiners. The research results showed that the naturalness of the test sentences was as low as 6%. The average parsing tree suitability percentage is 98%. This shows that the sentence parser is acceptable even though the naturalness of the test sentences is only 18% on average.

Creative Biography of the First Russian Mongologist Scholar A.V. Igumnov: Historiography of the Theme

The article presents the Russian historiography of the creative biography and scientific heritage of the first Russian and Siberian Mongologist scholar A.V. Igumnov. The article presents a historiographical review of the works of Russian researchers devoted to the initial stage of Siberian Mongolian studies and the role of A.V. Igumnov in the compilation of the Mongolian-Russian dictionary and grammar of the Mongolian language, and the collection of monuments of the Mongolian script. A new evaluation of the dictionary by A.V. Igumnov in the history of Russian Mongolism is proposed. The article presents data on the dictionary and grammar of academician Ya. I. Schmidt, the dictionary of professor O.M. Kovalevsky, who used the materials of the unpublished dictionary of A.V. Igumnov. These facts seriously clarify the history of Russian Mongolian studies and prove the superiority of the Irkutsk translator. The idea of the priority of A.V. Igumnov's dictionary in Russian Mongolian studies is substantiated, and the assessments of Russian researchers on this issue are given. It is assumed that his dictionary was created, but not published and preserved in a manuscript at the Local History Museum of Kyachta.

Grammar in Language and Listening Acquisition

The existence and self-realization of humans are possible due to language, language faculty, and listening acquisition. Anything animate or inanimate perceived in the external world such as an object, phenomenon, entity, etc. acquires a value due to its meaning (semantics). Due to the semantic and syntax structure of a language and its universal dimension, listening plays a key role in the acquisition of language and grammar rules. The present study aimed to discuss the significance of the acquisition of grammar rules in language and listening acquisition based on current literature. The present study data was based on a systematic literature review. In the study, studies on the relationships among language, language acquisition, listening and grammar were reviewed and the acquisition of grammar rules during language and listening acquisition was discussed. The study concluded that listening was effective in the acquisition of grammar rules.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Learning Sign Languages as Additional Languages: Considering Language‐ and Modality‐Specific Factors

AbstractAdditional language (L2/Ln) research largely focuses on learners whose first languages are spoken and who are learning additional spoken languages. In the past few decades, sign languages have become increasingly popular for hearing students in schools. These students must not only learn the vocabulary and grammar of sign languages but also manage a different modality (that is, the channels of production and reception of language) than their first language. This raises questions about the role of both language and modality in the L2/Ln learning of sign languages for non‐signers. In other cases, deaf and hearing signers of a sign language learn a different sign language, raising questions about L2/Ln learning in the signed modality. This Special Issue consists of empirical contributions and a conceptual review article that examine how language and modality shape the learning of sign languages as additional languages. Theoretical issues concerning learning a sign language as another language are discussed.

INDONESIAN GRADUATE STUDENTS’ CONSEQUENCES AND DECISIONS OF ENGLISH ACADEMIC WRITING INSTRUCTION (EAWI) AT HUNGARIAN UNIVERSITIES

This study aims to assess the consequences and decisions of EAWI for Indonesian graduate students studying in a non-native English-speaking environment. This study seeks to shape the perception of the effects of EAWI and facilitate the decision to positively impact Indonesian graduate students enrolled in higher institutions in Hungary. The study employs a semi-structured interview on educational background, English as a medium of instruction (EMI), writing assignments, self-consciousness towards English academic writing (hereafter EAW), and attitudes towards English academic writing. Four Indonesian MA and MSc students enrolled in the Faculty of Social Sciences at three different universities were involved in this study. In addition to data interpretation, the audio-recorded interview was transcribed using a Web speech API application. The extracts were subsequently translated into English, coded, and categorized into the topics chosen. The findings illustrate the consequences of English academic writing instruction on the importance of language features and grammar for students. The results involve possible impacts, experiences, perspectives, and strategies to improve the English academic writing of Indonesian graduate students. Decision ties with the university and departmental regulations and attention to principles to provide an academic writing course in English.

'Can You See What I Say?' Beyond Words

Empathic relational communication is a key competency in spiritual care for establishing a trusting pastoral relationship. Ministry with d/Deaf persons requires a deeper level of relational skill, where attentiveness to sign language, non-manual features, visual cues and facial grammar are important for meaningful pastoral relatedness. It is widely recognized that d/Deaf persons experience higher than average healthcare access barriers and associated psychological impacts, and therefore spiritual need. In addition, d/Deaf persons develop a non-auditory approach to emotional expression and communication. The competencies of clinical pastoral education (CPE) provide a natural context to further develop the necessary deeper relational skills for healthcare ministry. This article draws on the lived experiences of a chaplain for the d/Deaf engaged in CPE and a CPE educator, in order to highlight current deficiencies in pastoral care for d/Deaf persons, and to explore and illustrate how relational empathy and spiritual connection can be deepened among d/Deaf persons in healthcare by developing the competencies of CPE.Supplementary resource: video format in American, British and Irish sign languagesView ASL Keith Nolan videoView BSL Ayesha Gavin videoView ISL John Patrick Doherty video

Grammaticality and Acceptability in the Urhobo Language

This paper examines grammaticality and acceptability in the Ulrhobo language. Grammaticality has to do with well formedness of syntactic structures; grammaticality is usually considered as the structure of sentences and the order in which they are combined together to form sentences. A sentence can conform to the syntactic rule if it is constructed in a grammatical form. The study adopts the truth conditioning theory of meaning as a theoretical framework. The truth conditioning theory of meaning deals with the grammaticality and acceptability of sentence structures. The study reviews that the basic grammar of the Urhobo language conforms to the standard paradigm of a language structure such as Qualifier + Noun + verb + modifier + Adjective, etc and that when these sentences are not properly ordered according to the grammatical rules of the Urhobo language, they are systematically deformed (by inversion, suppression or addition of non-terminal elements in its production rules) to produce a series of grammars generating grammatical, semantically acceptable, semi-grammatical or ungrammatical sentences. It also reviewed that the sentence structures of the Urhobo language conform with the constraints of a sentence structure rule and are, therefore, rule, accepted, while others that don’t are, therefore, rule unaccepted. The study further reveals that a sentence must have a string of words that conform to the rule of syntax, such as subject and predicate, which form the basis of grammaticality or acceptability of the sentence. Finally, the study reveals that grammaticality and acceptability can occur in both written and spoken language. It is also a finding that acceptability is more basic rather than grammaticality since all hearers of the Urhobo language can understand or interpret what the speakers convey in a given structure of the language.

Effectiveness of Audio-Lingual Method and Communicative Language Teaching in Enhancing the English Language Grammar Proficiency and Attitude among Intermediate Chinese EFL Learners

The current study delved into examining the effectiveness of Audio-lingual Method (ALM) and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in developing the English language grammar skills and language learning attitude of EFL intermediate Chinese learners. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design in the two groups of 60 Chinese EFL middle grades. The study uses a quasi-experimental research method for two groups of respondents. Findings showed that the ALM and CLT are effective in enhancing the English language grammar proficiency and language learning attitude among Chinese EFL intermediate learners. The gender gap in language learning favors female respondents to exhibit better performance. Consequently, the EFL learners exposed to the Communicative Language Teaching method showed better language learning grammar performance compared to those in the Audio-lingual Method. Language grammar learning attitude is not affected by gender, implying that both sexes were able to obtain the same level of benefits of the ALM and CLT. Finally, the study further concludes that language proficiency is not associated to attitude towards learning grammar of the two groups of respondents after their exposure to Audio-lingual method and Communicative Language Teaching implying that regardless of the learners’ attitude towards learning grammar they are capable of manifesting better performance in language learning with the use of ALM and CLT. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are presented and discussed.

TOWARDS A METHODOLOGY FOR INTERPRETING VISUAL IMAGES AS CYBERNETIC SYSTEM: LACAN AND DELEUZE

This exposition endeavors to outline a theoretical framework for a methodology to interpret visual images that draws on cybernetics, semiotics, psychoanalysis and philosophical ideas. Using images, aesthetics and artistic practices as a means of generating new understanding requires translating, deciphering and interpreting those artistic products and/or processes. How can one decipher the system of visual language that underlies artistic productions? I suggest that cybernetics is requisite for such an endeavor. Cybernetic theory is the science of relations within a system, taking as its problematic the relation between a system and its productions or output; in some instances, it studies how the productions of a system influence the system itself. This exposition endeavors to articulate aesthetics or artistic works in terms of a visual language and as a cybernetic enterprise in the context of art-based research by drawing on the ideas of Lacan and Deleuze. For Lacan, aesthetics exists as a primary mode of discourse for the articulations of the unconscious, as evidenced in images in dreams, art and fantasy. Lacan is renowned for his dictum that the unconscious and its productions are structured like a language, but the kind of structure of meaning at work in the unconscious is less related to the structural grammar of a natural language than the syntax of mathematics and cybernetics. Drawing on Lacanian dream analysis, I evince how such an approach could be applied to aesthetic phenomena. Deleuze presents a semiotic theory, a theory of signs which evinces the generation of novel meaning in the unconscious; it can be said to be cybernetic in the way that it exists in a state of continual evolution, the output produced by the system engendering transformation in the system itself. Deleuze offers a framework for how the work of art or aesthetic phenomenon can be translated into new knowledge through the process of entrainment with signs.

Author’s agency in a research article: From the grammar of language to the grammar of communication

Introduction. Writing for publication has been developed for two last decades as an independent field of research to help authors publish their research articles. Starting from the assessment that preparing the publication in a journal is an academic activity that requires learning to construct the author’s positioning in the manuscript, this paper points out the shortage of professionals to assume institutional organisation of training courses in Russia.Aim. This paper aims to suggest a framework for informal practices based on autonomy and the collective organisation of authors to construct an authorial position in the manuscript or author’s agency toward a target journal.Methodology and research methods. Various approaches applied in this paper are based on activity theory: situated learning, Change Laboratory, and expansive learning.A review of Russian and foreign research in writing for publication shows that only one of the three types of authorial agency, that is, transformative agency, might help the author to prepare a manuscript for publication in a target journal. The framework needed for emerging author’s transformative agency re-conceptualises the model of the Change Laboratory for situated learning that aims at the author’s socialisation in the discursive practices of a target journal. Situated learning for writing for publication is based on the principles of the Change Laboratory: collectivity; double stimulation; overcoming the contradiction by ascending from the abstract to the concrete.Results. A framework for three cycles of expansive learning aimed at the emergence of the author’s agency toward a target journal has been developed. The first cycle allows selecting a journal and revealing its implicit rules for manuscript production. The second cycle is focused on step-by-step manuscript revisions. Finally, a change of journal and/or author whose manuscript is discussed involves the third cycle of expansive learning.Scientific novelty. The paper considers manuscript production for publishing in a journal as an academic activity requiring deliberate training in native and foreign languages. The framework for three cycles of expansive learning in writing for publication conceptualises the publication as the author’s participation in social practices involving the journal as a discursive community.Practical significance. The framework suggested in this paper for emerging transformative agency in writing for publication might imply an alternative to the institutional training courses. Three cycles of expansive learning aim to develop the author’s publication competence and improve the quality of research articles.

Towards FAIR Principles in Biodiversity Research: Enabling computable taxonomic descriptions and ecological data with Phenoscript

Taxonomic descriptions hold immense phenotypic data, but their natural language (NL) format poses challenges for computer analysis. In this talk, we will present Phenoscript, a user-friendly computer language enabling computer-readable species descriptions and automated phenotype comparisons, in accordance with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles. Phenoscript facilitates the creation of semantic species descriptions that represent a knowledge graph composed of terms from predefined biological ontologies. A Phenoscript description resembles a NL description, but follows a specific language grammar. We have developed the Phenospy package: a Python-based Phenoscript toolkit. Phenospy converts Phenoscript descriptions into both NL format, facilitating scientific publication, and the Web Ontology Language (OWL) format, enabling downstream analysis and computable phenotypic comparisons. OWL is a standard for sharing semantic data on the Web. While initially designed for phenotypes, Phenoscript can be extended to create semantic ecological data, encompassing environmental traits, functional traits, and species interactions. We will discuss the integration of species and ecological traits encoded in Phenoscript into downstream analysis, highlighting its potential for phenomic-level research in biology.

The Effect of Applying English Authentic Reading Materials on The Eleventh Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement at SMAN 1 Tanjungbalai


 
 
 
 Reading is one of many ways to get some informations. We can find it in many things, such as books, internet, etc As reading dominates all activities in the English subject, the language components,namely pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary should also be learnt to support the language skills. Based on the English teacher interview result that authentic reading materials have never been used by the teachers, reading comprehension on the eleventh grade students of senior high school of SMAN 1 Tanjungbalai. So it was necessary to conduct a research in this school. The research design was quasi experimental. It began from conducting homogeneity test, deciding the experimental class and the control class, giving activities to the control class using the common technique and material usually applied by the English teacher and treatments to the experimental class that was using authentic materials in teaching reading, then giving the same post-test to both classes, and the last analyzing the results of the post test by using t-test. The result of this research The analysis of the post test results showed that there was a significant effect of using English authentic that of reading materials the experimental class got higher mean score than the control class (65, 1>57, 5) of the students’ reading achievement. Then, the result of data analysis using SPSS showed that the t-test value (2-tailed) 0.000, was less than 0.05.is expected to provide useful information for the English teacher to use interesting materials, that is, authentic materials in the English teaching learning process, especially in teaching reading comprehension, since the authentic materials have never been used at SMAN 1 Tanjungbalai.