English Language Speakers Research Articles

Analyzing Strategies for Developing Students Speaking Skills in Public Universities of Pakistan

In Pakistani educational system, English language has a distinguishing place for getting higher education and job opportunities. However, it is challenging task for ESL teachers to develop students speaking skills. Therefore, the current study aimed to analyze the strategies for developing students English language speaking skills and find out the new trends adopted by university teachers for developing students English language speaking skills. The researchers selected 2425 students and 97 teachers from public universities of Pakistan. A self-designed instrument was used to collect data. The calculated reliability of the tool was .876. Data were collected and analyzed by using SPSS and percentage, mean score, and standard deviation were calculated. The results conclude that teachers sometimes use modern and innovative methods to teach the English language, whereas, most of the teachers never use technology to enhance students speaking skills. The study recommends that teachers should pay full attention to develop students speaking skills which is an integral skill of ESL students learning.

An illusion of understanding

The purpose of the Miranda rights in the USA is to ensure that suspects know their fundamental rights under the law, yet even native speakers of English do not always understand their rights (Rogers, Rogstad, Gillard, Drogin, Blackwood and Shuman, 2010; Rogers, Rogstad, Steadham and Drogin, 2011). To evaluate their understanding, Grisso (1998) developed Miranda Rights Comprehension Instruments (MRCI), normed with native speakers and widely accepted in the legal community. Comprehension by second language (L2) speakers of English, on the other hand, is inferred based on their L2 proficiency, but no studies to date offer the scientific basis for causal connections between L2 proficiency and understanding of the Miranda rights. The purpose of the present study was to compare understanding of the Miranda rights among native (n = 82) and advanced L2 speakers of English (n = 183) to determine whether standardised assessments of L2 proficiency can predict comprehension of the Miranda rights. Our results show that most of our L2 participants failed to understand their Miranda rights and displayed significant disadvantages in basic level processing in comparison to native speakers. Furthermore, they were unaware of the failure: using linguistic resources at their disposal these advanced L2 speakers constructed alternative meanings that created an illusion of understanding.

BREAKING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER IN LEGAL EDUCATION: A METHOD FOR AFRICANISING LEGAL EDUCATION

Section 6 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 recognises eleven official languages of the Republic and further requires the State to take practical steps to advance the use of African languages. The Statistics South Africa 2017/18 report shows that most South Africans’ first language are African languages. Despite this reality and the constitutional imperatives, the South African Bachelor of Laws (LLB) curriculum does not prescribe any African language as a compulsory course, and very few sources of law are in an African language. Some law schools do offer some African languages as an elective. However, it is submitted that this is not sufficient. Experience has shown that the inability to articulate oneself in English can be a barrier to completing the LLB degree in regulation-time and admission to legal practice. Furthermore, it is submitted that the Chief Justice 2017 Directive, in which Chief Justice Mogoeng declared English as the only language of record in South African courts, does not address the language problems experienced by court staff. Instead it simply perpetuates the Eurocentric legal system. This is because it counters the advancement and use of African languages envisaged by the Constitution. This article investigates how the failure to advance multilingualism in the current LLB curriculum can disadvantage law students going to practice. It is proposed that law schools begin to address this issue by introducing two innovations. First, it is suggested that law schools make at least one African language a compulsory course. For English first language speakers in particular, this arrangement will strengthen their understanding of the sociological context in which the law operates. Second, it is proposed that each law school should choose an African language that is predominantly spoken in their geographical area and partner with schools of languages to translate sources of law. For African first language speakers in particular, this will assist them in understanding legal concepts better. Translations of legal texts may also allow for law schools to teach the law in the local African language.

Don't Joke About Me: Student Identities and Perceptions of Instructor Humor in College Science Courses.

Humor is a popular tool used by instructors to engage students. However, some instructor jokes may be perceived as less funny and more offensive by particular groups of students. Previous studies have shown that student gender impacts student perception of instructor humor; however, to our knowledge no studies have explored whether there are differences in how other identity groups interpret instructor humor. In this study, we surveyed 1,637 students across 25 different college science courses at a research-intensive institution in the Southwest United States. Students evaluated a set of topics that science instructors might joke about in class as to whether they were funny and offensive. Using binary logistic regression, we analyzed whether students of different identities, including race/ethnicity, political affiliation, LGBTQ+ status, religious affiliation, and native language, differentially perceived joke topics to be funny and offensive if told by an instructor in class. We identified that topics which tended to be perceived by students as funny rather than offensive were generally less likely to be perceived as funny to non-native English language speakers compared with native English speakers. We also found that students were more likely to be offended by jokes about their own identity group. This work identifies potentially humorous topics that instructors should avoid because they could be offensive to groups of students. This study also highlights topics that tend to be perceived as funny to most students, which indicates that instructors who joke about such topics may be universally benefitting college science students.

Фактор ситуативности контекстов в обучении английской разговорной речи

Фактор ситуативности контекстов в обучении английской разговорной речи

An Empirical Study on ICT Integrated Task Based Language Teaching to Promote English Language Speaking Skills

An Empirical Study on ICT Integrated Task Based Language Teaching to Promote English Language Speaking Skills

Acquisition of Definiteness And Indefiniteness by Behdini Kurdish Learners of English

The acquisition of English grammatical articles by non-native speakers of English language has been the main concern of a wide range of research, especially in languages whose grammatical article system functions differently from the English grammatical article system. Behdini is a variety whose grammatical article system is different from that English grammatical parameter. Thus, the acquisition of L2 English articles among L1 Behdini speakers is investigated in this study along proposals based on the Interpretability Hypothesis (Hawkins & Hattori, 2006; Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007; Hawkins & Casillas, 2008), and the Full Transfer Full Access (FT/FA) hypothesis (Schwartz and Sprouse, 1994, 1996).

Acquisition of Definiteness And Indefiniteness by Behdini Kurdish Learners of English

The acquisition of English grammatical articles by non-native speakers of English language has been the main concern of a wide range of research, especially in languages whose grammatical article system functions differently from the English grammatical article system. Behdini is a variety whose grammatical article system is different from that English grammatical parameter. Thus, the acquisition of L2 English articles among L1 Behdini speakers is investigated in this study along proposals based on the Interpretability Hypothesis (Hawkins & Hattori, 2006; Tsimpli & Dimitrakopoulou, 2007; Hawkins & Casillas, 2008), and the Full Transfer Full Access (FT/FA) hypothesis (Schwartz and Sprouse, 1994, 1996). The researcher developed a Judgement Elicitation Task (JET)   based on the following research question: Will Behdini learners’ English language proficiency level play a role in participants’ judgements? Will these learners be able to acquire English definite, indefinite, and zero articles systematically? In other words, is any development expected in Behdini learners’ acquisition of English articles? 40 Behdini L2 English learners took part in the Judgement Elicitation Task . English learners took an English language proficiency test based on which they were roughly grouped into three sub-groups: elementary (11 participants), intermediate (22 participants), and advanced (7 participants). All participants took two tests: an acceptability judgment test including 46  items (34 pure test items + 12 filler gaps) and a proficiency test with 40  items. The results of the study show that there is a transfer from L1 into the L2ers’ English interlanguage due to the finding that most participants, disregarding their proficiency level, failed to reject the ungrammatical sentences in almost all the categories. The study finds support for the FT/FA proposal, where first language transfer, second language input and access to universal grammar features are argued to have impacts on Learners of English article acquisition among L1 Behdini learners. The result  also show that learners of  English  fluctuate in their choice of articles, which is interpreted by the predictions made by the Fluctuation Theory. Uninterpretable features also, proved to be difficult to acquire by Behdini learners, a point that  can be interpreted the base form of the Interpretability Hypothesis.&nbsp

Does the language we use to segment the body, shape the way we perceive it? A study of tactile perceptual distortions

Tactile perception is referenced to, and modulated by, body parts and their boundaries. For example, tactile distances presented over the wrist are perceptually elongated relative to those presented within the hand or arm. This phenomenon is argued to result from a segmentation of tactile space according to body parts and their boundaries, i.e., touches presented within a body part are perceived as being more similar, and therefore closer together, whereas those that straddle a body part boundary (e.g. presented across two body parts) are perceived as more distinct and thus further apart. We tested the hypothesis that language shapes this effect by providing consolidatory labels for categories and boundaries, as it does in other perceptual domains. We examined the perceptual elongation of distance over the wrist in a group of Croatian adults (n = 37) whose first language does not differentiate between hand and arm at the wrist in common noun terms (instead, the Croatian word “ruka” encompasses the entire limb). Croatian adults, like UK adults reported in a previous study (Le Cornu Knight, Longo, & Bremner, 2014), perceived distances presented proximodistally over the wrist boundary as longer than those presented mediolaterally, whereas the reverse was found for both the hand and the arm. This pattern of results was remained when Croatian participants were split into two groups of inexperienced or proficient English-language speakers. This is striking evidence that body part boundaries consistently modulate tactile perception, despite differences in the linguistic distinctions of such body parts made by one's first language.

Acculturation as a Moderator of HIV Risk Behavior Correlates Among Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men.

Acculturation is associated with increased sexual risk behaviors among heterosexual Latinos, but its influence among Latino gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) remains less clear. Elements of acculturation may create distinct lived experiences among sexual minority Latinos, moderating how beneficial and adverse influences contribute to their sexual risk behaviors. Latino MSM living in New York City (n = 412) were recruited using a modified time-space venue- and web-based sampling method. Negative binomial regression models estimated associations between indicators of acculturation (i.e., language use, nativity status, ethnic identification), sexual minority stressors (i.e., internalized homophobia, sexual orientation-based discrimination), peer condom use norms, and the number of serodiscordant condomless anal intercourse (SDCAI) encounters. Acculturation indicators were then tested as simultaneous moderators of the influence of each predictor variable on the outcome. The association between internalized homophobia and SDCAI was significant only among English language speakers (aIRR = 3.05 [2.13, 4.37]) and those born outside of the U.S. (foreign-born = 0, aIRR = 0.17 [0.08, 0.36]). Sexual orientation-based discrimination and SDCAI were also positively associated among both English-speaking (aIRR = 1.82 [1.22, 2.72]) and foreign-born men (aIRR = 0.34 [0.14, 0.84]). Stronger ethnic identification also moderated the protective effects of peer condom use norms on SDCAI (aIRR = 0.28 [0.15, 0.52]). Results suggest that different dimensions of acculturation help shape how both stressors and protective factors influence HIV risk among Latino MSM. Future research is needed to examine the mechanisms through which these differences in acculturation may act on sexual risk behaviors among Latino MSM.

The Big Five personality factors as predictors of English language speaking anxiety: A cross-country comparison between Morocco and South Korea

This is a comparative study that examined the relationship between the Big Five personality factors and English language speaking anxiety among Moroccans ( N=270) and Koreans ( N=257), who completed the International Personality Item Pool Big Five Inventory and the English Language Speaking Anxiety Scale. The results indicate that Openness and Neuroticism were the only significant predictors of English language speaking anxiety in the two countries, noting that Openness was the strongest significant predictor in Morocco, whereas Neuroticism was the strongest significant predictor in Korea. Implications indicated that assessing the personality of students may predict those who will experience these anxieties.

Lexical Access Patterns of Second Language Speakers of English

Vocabulary plays a major role in concept formation, acculturation, articulation, and all aspects of learning. Unfortunately, although learners may have internalized complex vocabulary through formal learning, they may not have the ability to retrieve known words and concepts or have access to the right words, or lexical access, effectively. This study explores the lexical access patterns of second language speakers of English (ESL). Fifty students from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, participated in this research. Twenty-five represented the more proficient ESL speakers whereas the other 25 represented the less proficient ESL speakers. Four pieces of paper, each with a high-frequency word (i.e., “man”, “people”, “time”, “day”) printed at the centre of the paper, were distributed to the participants as stimuli for them to create four sets of semantic maps. This paper thus presents a qualitative analysis of the semantic mapping of the word “man” and results show that English language proficiency does affect the way participants activate the words from their mental lexicon. The frequency of the words that were activated from the word “man” in the participants’ environment also affects the mapping. The semantic maps produced by the participants reflect ESL speakers’ pattern of lexical access, particularly in the manner the words are categorised in their mental lexicon. This study proposes that semantic mapping activity can be used to reflect and analyse ESL speakers’ vocabulary development, as well as to reflect ESL speakers’ weaknesses in accessing words and their thought patterns in the English language.

The Relationshıp Between Afghanistan EFL Students’ Academic Self-Efficacy and English Language Speaking Anxiety

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between EFL students’ academic self-efficacy beliefs and their English language speaking anxiety at a public university in Afghanistan. A number of 202 students from two different English Language and Literature Departments participated in this study. Two sets of questionnaires were used to collect data in this study. The obtained results revealed that the participants’ both levels of self-efficacy beliefs and their speaking anxiety were rather high. A significant positive correlation was also found between the participants’ self-efficacy beliefs and their English language speaking anxiety. In addition, the two Departments’ students were compared in terms of self-efficacy beliefs and speaking anxiety. The study is concluded with two recommendations for future research and English language teachers to focus more on English language speaking anxiety and be more empathic to students while teaching English language speaking skill.

Diversity in Orthopaedic Surgery: International Perspectives: AOA Critical Issues.

Orthopaedic surgery in the United States is one of the few medical specialties that has consistently lacked diversity in its training programs and workforce for decades, despite increasing awareness of this issue. Is this the case in other English-language speaking countries? Are there inherent national differences, or does orthopaedics as a profession dictate the diversity landscape around the globe?The Carousel group includes the presidents of the major English-language-speaking orthopaedic organizations around the globe-Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Established in 1952, members of this group attend each other's annual scientific meetings during the year of their presidency, learning about our profession in each country and building international relationships. In this article, 13 Carousel presidents from different countries explore diversity in orthopaedics in their training programs and the workforce, with an assessment of the current state and ideas for improvement.

Exploring Factors of Speech Anxiety in Second Language Classroom

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting on English speech of undergraduate students at the SMIU, Karachi. The study prospects two aspects as outcomes of the study, one to discover what are the major issues and hindrances and another one to find their solutions for developing techniques and skills to gain confidence while speaking English as a second language in ESL classroom and in public. It will further investigate as how to help develop a wonderful speech free from speech anxiety. The study administered Likert Scale as a tool for data collection. Forty participating students were recruited from the department of Computer Science, Sindh Madressatul Islam University, Karachi. Speech anxiety is a common phenomenon amongst the students in the second language classrooms. Second language i.e., English, however, has become the lingua franca of the world. It is no longer the language of only native Britishers and Americans, rather, it is a widely spoken language by most people living in every nook & corner of the world. This study investigates as to how ESL learners turn out as nervous speakers while speaking English. Findings of the study suggest that speech anxiety seems to be an unavoidable phenomenon for ESL learners as the data reveal. In addition, this study is associated with the previous studies that there is a moderate level of Foreign Language Speech Anxiety (FLSA) amongst the Pakistani English speakers. Since English is taught from the primary level and every literate person almost understands and speaks English. Pakistani English language speakers should speak without speech anxiety, though it seems to be a part of human nature being nervous while speaking English as a second language. The students should learn how to manage speech anxiety by welcoming it and try to overcome it not by mindless imitation but by being natural in English speech.

Exploring the Lombard Effect in first language Japanese speakers of English

Speakers adjust pronunciations in noise to make communication more effective. This phenomenon, known as the Lombard Effect after Etienne Lombard who first described it in 1911, is characterized by increased intensity, elongation of vowels, emphasis on stress syllables, increased pitch range, and changes to the vowel space (see Brum and Zollinger, 2011). Because the Lombard Effect interacts with linguistic factors (e.g., Wassink et al., 2006 and Patel and Schell, 2008) we hypothesize that a speaker’s native language will interact with the Lombard Effect and that second language speakers of English will carryover these effects. To test this prediction, we recorded native speakers of North American English and L1 Japanese speakers of L2 English participating in a modified map task to illicit natural communication between the speakers and the experimenter, in two conditions: noisy and quiet (presented over headphones). Measurements of vowel duration, vowel quality, and intensity were extracted from key words representing monosyllabic and trochaic words with six vowel qualities: /i ɪ a ae u ʊ/. Preliminary results indicate some language specific differences, but also unexpectedly that vowel space is more compressed in the Lombard condition than in quiet, which has connections to findings of Zhao and Jurafsky (2009) for Mandarin.

Diversity in Orthopaedic Surgery: International Perspectives: AOA Critical Issues.

Orthopaedic surgery in the United States is one of the few medical specialties that has consistently lacked diversity in its training programs and workforce for decades, despite increasing awareness of this issue. Is this the case in other English-language speaking countries? Are there inherent national differences, or does orthopaedics as a profession dictate the diversity landscape around the globe?

Ophelia, Emma, and the beast from the east effortful engaging and the provision of sign language interpreting in emergencies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how the Republic of Ireland’s National Emergency Coordinating Group performed with respect to ensuring access to emergency information for deaf sign language (SL) users over the course of two emergency situations in 2017 and 2018 as a result of storms. The storms book-ended parliamentary and public debate around the recognition of the indigenous SL of Ireland, Irish Sign Language (ISL). The author explores if/how increased political awareness led to better access in 2018, and how access provision maps to best practice guidelines set out by the World Association of Sign Language Interpreters (WASLI) and the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD).Design/methodology/approachThis paper provides empirical insights about the asymmetrical effort that is required of a minority linguistic community, in this instance, community of deaf ISL users and their allies, to secure provision of access to emergency information that is provided as a matter of course to the wider community of hearing English language speakers. The author draws on parliamentary records, social media and print media to document the political, societal and deaf community discourse around ISL recognition and the emergencies.FindingsThe author finds that significant effort was required of deaf people and their allies to secure access to national emergency briefings in 2017, with significant improvement evidenced in 2018 for Storm Emma and the Beast from the East, in the aftermath of the adoption of the ISL Act (December 2017). The author drew on the theory of effortful engaging, which posits that unless we have greater awareness of and pro forma consideration of SLs and deaf people, the burden of work required to ensure appropriate access and participation falls on deaf people.Research limitations/implicationsThere is scope for completing a 360° analysis of stakeholders engaged in the process. Further work should also include interviews with deaf community members and emergency response coordinators.Practical implicationsThis paper identifies implications for emergency coordinating groups: provision of appropriate interpreting must be a pro forma element in the planning for delivery of any emergency information. Broadcasters must be required to ensure that interpreters are visible on screen at all times during live briefings: what is unseen is “unheard” for SL users. Work remains to ensure that deaf people have access to preparatory information in their language, and that they have ease of access to two-way emergency services. Emergency coordinating teams need to integrate the UNCRPD-mapped WASLI-WFD recommendations into their emergency strategy.Social implicationsCommunities depend on information for their survival in times of crisis. Communication requires comprehension and interaction. For SL users, information in an indigenous SL is a lifeline in a time of crisis. This requires emergency response teams to understand that “language” is multi-modal and embed strategies for engaging with deaf communities in all aspects of their processes, with guidance from deaf community leaders and advocates. There is also a need to consider deafblind people and deaf people who have disabilities, who are more vulnerable in crisis situations.Originality/valueThis is the first analysis of state provision of access to information for the Irish deaf community in an emergency setting. It is one of very few empirical analyses of how deaf communities fare in emergency contexts and the first to evaluate a state’s practicevis-à-visUNCRPD-led guidelines on best practice issued by the WASLI/WFD. The socio-political context described represents a unique period where the Irish deaf community and ISL were central to political and media discourse because of the ISL Act and the death of two deaf brothers in tragic circumstances in Autumn 2017.

THE ROLE OF MULTILINGUALISM IN INFLUENCING STUDENTS’ ENGLISH LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN AN OUTSKIRT MALAYSIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL

Malaysia, as a multilingual country, sets a platform for language learning. Bahasa Malaysia is a language for national unity and English is the second language and other languages as the third language. A child may speak a native language at home, speak the local national language at school and also learn at least a foreign language. The fluency of our second or third language may not be as fluent as the first language. As a result, many studies have been conducted about the learners’ mother tongue and the code-switching process. However, a study for the English teachers to overcome the influence of the mother tongue in the Iban community towards their spoken English has not been located. Therefore, a qualitative case study has been conducted in order to provide the description of case-related individuals’ and give deeper understanding of the 1) multilingual learners’ perceptions toward their English spoken language, 2) exploring multilingual influences in their spoken English and 3) To examine the influence of other languages (Bahasa Malaysia and Iban language) towards English. The participants identified are Ibans from Year 3 primary students; that is located at the outskirt primary school in Kanowit in which they are learning standard Iban language, Bahasa Malaysia and English language at school. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, and field notes (i.e. classroom observation). The findings were structured into themes: the frequency in communicating the three languages among the three pupils at school in a day, home language support in learning, peers’ influence in communicating the English language, learners’ effort towards learning English and the mental process in learning the language.

Mindfulness meditation and improvement in depressive symptoms among Spanish- and English speaking adults: A randomized, controlled, comparative efficacy trial

ObjectiveLatino immigrants experience acculturative stress and increased depression risk. Mindfulness meditation improves depressive symptoms, yet the vast majority of research has focused on English speaking populations.MethodsIn this randomized clinical trial with 2 parallel treatment groups, adults with moderate levels of perceived stress (n = 76) were recruited from the Los Angeles community from October 2015 to March 2016, stratified into Spanish- (n = 36) and English speaking (n = 40) language groups, and randomized for 6 weeks of treatment with standardized mindful awareness practices (MAPs) or health education (HE). Main outcome measure was depressive symptoms, measured by the Beck Depression Inventory.ResultsUsing an intent-to-treat analysis, the primary outcome, depressive symptoms as indexed by the Beck Depression Inventory, showed greater improvement in MAPs vs. HE, with a between-group post-intervention mean difference of -2.2 (95% CI -4.4 – -0.07) and effect size of 0.28; similar effect sizes were found in the the Spanish- (0.29) and English speaking (0.30) groups. MAPs showed significant improvement relative to HE on secondary outcome of mindfulness with between group difference of 10.7 (95% CI4.5–16.9), but not perceived stress.ConclusionThe comparable efficacy of Spanish and English formats of mindfulness meditation in improving depressive symptoms suggests that this community based intervention may mitigate depression risk in Latino adults who are experiencing social adversity.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03545074.