Native English Speakers Research Articles

A Comparative Study of Turn-Taking in Arabic and English Conversations: Implications for Language Learners

Early work in conversation analysis focused primarily on English conversations. During the past 20 years, conversation analysts started to investigate informal verbal interaction within communities with a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Sidnell, 2007). Although comparative studies have examined a wide range of languages, there seems to be no emphasis on Arabic conversations. This study aims to explore whether there are differences between informal Arabic and English conversations turn-taking system. Six participants, three native Arabic speakers and three native speakers of English, took place in this study. Data were collected through audio recording; seventeen minutes for Arabic conversations and 20 minutes for the English conversation. The study revealed that there were no major differences between Arabic and English informal conversations in terms of the turn-taking system. While English speakers used more filling words such as “mm”, “yeh”, and “so” to keep the conversation going, both Arabic and English speakers aimed to minimize the gap and overlap. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of cross-cultural interactions and offer implications for language teaching and learning.

Lexical coverage in L1 and L2 viewing comprehension

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the relationship between lexical coverage and TV viewing comprehension. Previous studies have indicated that 95% to 98% of lexical coverage may be needed for reading comprehension (Hu & Nation, 2000). To understand informal listening passages, lower coverage figures (95%-90%) may suffice. However, no study has researched the lexical coverage needed to understand audiovisual texts. We adopted a counter-balanced within-participants design, in which 5%, 10%, or 20% of the words in four 2-min documentaries were replaced with nonwords. Native and non-native speakers of English participated in this study. Results showed that comprehension scores decreased as lexical coverage decreased; comprehension at 100% coverage was significantly higher than 90% and 80% in the two groups; and optimal adequate comprehension is achieved with an optimal lexical coverage of 95%, whereas minimal adequate comprehension is reached with a minimal lexical coverage of 80%.

Sociophonetic Study of Dysfluent Behaviour in Native English Speakers

The present project focuses on the study of the influence of two social factors, age and gender, on the frequency and variation of seven different types of dysfluencies (filled pauses, silent pauses, repairs, repetitions, false starts, vowel and consonant lengthening) in the spontaneous speech of native English speakers from England. The first part of the present article provides a general characterization of the relevant types of dysfluencies, together with the main issues concerning the production of speech dysfluencies. The empirical part presents the analyses of the recordings of 32 native English speakers from England. The overall results considering general influence of age and gender show that the only significant difference is between age groups, with older speakers producing more dysfluencies than younger speakers. Gender, on the other hand, does not make the difference significant, except for vowel lengthenings, that were produced significantly more by female speakers than male speakers, and repetitions, which is the only type of dysfluency where the difference is significant and influenced by both age and gender, with older male speakers producing significantly more dysfluencies than any other group.

Linguistic Diversity and Inclusion: Exploring International Students Attitudes Towards Their Own Accents and Those of Native English Speakers

International students studying in English-speaking countries represent a diverse linguistic background and may exhibit varying degrees of accent, which can influence their self-perception and their perception of others. Accordingly, the paper examines the attitudes of international students toward their own accents and those of native English speakers, with particular emphasis on their adaptation processes in academic and social contexts. In this paper, semi-structured interviews were conducted with undergraduate and postgraduate students from China, with varying levels of English proficiency and length of residence in the UK, which aims to elucidate the nuanced attitudes of international students towards accents and their adaptation strategies. The results show that while many students initially perceived British and American accents as prestigious and attempted to imitate them, as they progressed through the language environment they were more inclined to prioritize effective communication and intelligibility over achieving a perfect native accent. This shift is consistent with existing literature, which emphasizes the importance of prioritizing clarity and mutual understanding. Inclusive language policies that prioritize linguistic diversity and communicative effectiveness, thereby fostering learning environments that are conducive to language acquisition.

The Variations in the Use of Sentence Connectors in Timed and Untimed Student Writing: A Comparative Corpus Study of British Students

This study investigates the use of sentence connectors in British students' timed and untimed writings, utilizing data from the British component of the International Corpus of English (ICE-GB). By comparing the frequency and patterns of 54 selected connectors between these two writing conditions, the research reveals that students tend to overuse certain basic connectors like and and or, particularly in timed examinations. The analysis also highlights the impact of time pressure on linguistic choices, showing a preference for simpler connectors in timed settings. The findings contribute to understanding native English speakers' connector usage and suggest implications for academic writing and teaching strategies.

Distinct roles of SNR, speech Intelligibility, and attentional effort on neural speech tracking in noise.

Robust neural encoding of speech in noise is influenced by several factors, including signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), speech intelligibility (SI), and attentional effort (AE). Yet, the interaction and distinct role of these factors remain unclear. In this study, fourteen native English speakers performed selective speech listening tasks at various SNR levels while EEG responses were recorded. Attentional performance was assessed using a repeated word detection task, and attentional effort was inferred from subjects' gaze velocity. Results indicate that both SNR and SI enhance neural tracking of target speech, with distinct effects influenced by the previously overlooked role of attentional effort. Specifically, at high levels of SI, increasing SNR leads to reduced attentional effort, which in turn decreases neural speech tracking. Our findings highlight the importance of differentiating the roles of SNR, SI, and AE in neural speech processing and advance our understanding of how noisy speech is processed in the auditory pathway.

Ethical considerations for treating non-native english-speaking immigrants

ABSTRACT Within the therapeutic setting there have been few ethical considerations deliberated when examining the language barrier between therapists and Non-Native English-Speaking Immigrant (NNESI) clients. The literature reports NNESIs encounter several challenges such as the migration process, experiencing acculturative stress, discrimination, and racism, which in turn impacts their mental health outcomes. These accrued barriers lead NNESI to seek out mental health services. This paper explores the ethical considerations Native-English Speaking and Bilingual Psychologists must consider when providing counseling services to Non-Native English Speakers. These considerations include Third-Party Services, Informed Consent, Cultural Competency, Boundaries of Competency, and Multiple Relationships. For the purpose of this paper, the terms “bilingual” and “multilingual” will be used interchangeably to refer to a person who speaks another language in conjunction with English.

DERCo: A Dataset for Human Behaviour in Reading Comprehension Using EEG

This paper introduces the DERCo (Dublin EEG-based Reading Experiment Corpus), a language resource combining electroencephalography (EEG) and next-word prediction data obtained from participants reading narrative texts. The dataset comprises behavioral data collected from 500 participants recruited through the Amazon Mechanical Turk online crowd-sourcing platform, along with EEG recordings from 22 healthy adult native English speakers. The online experiment was designed to examine the context-based word prediction by a large sample of participants, while the EEG-based experiment was developed to extend the validation of behavioral next-word predictability. Online participants were instructed to predict upcoming words and complete entire stories. Cloze probabilities were then calculated for each word so that this predictability measure could be used to support various analyses pertaining to semantic context effects in the EEG recordings. EEG-based analyses revealed significant differences between high and low predictable words, demonstrating one important type of potential analysis that necessitates close integration of these two datasets. This material is a valuable resource for researchers in neurolinguistics due to the word-level EEG recordings in context.

CAMBODIAN EFL STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF FACTORS INFLUENCING PRONUNCIATION

This study aims to explore students’ perceptions of factors influencing pronunciation. The study was designed quantitatively. The purposive sampling method was used, and 50 Cambodian EFL students at the National University of Battambang were selected as the sample. The questionnaire was designed in a semi-structured format. The data was analyzed by SPSS. The result showed that most participants believed learning English from a young age leads to better pronunciation. Interestingly, it indicated that the mother tongue (Khmer) influences English pronunciation since learners find it difficult to produce some sounds, especially the /th/sh/f/v/ sound in English, as these sounds do not exist in the sound system of Khmer. Additionally, the majority of the respondents believed that being exposed to an English-speaking environment, including real communication with English native speakers or access to English-speaking learning media, can enhance pronunciation. Last but not least, it was also assumed that feedback on pronunciation errors and motivation contribute to a positive learning process. Therefore, this study provides insight into effective pronunciation instruction.

Explicit Gender Stereotyping in Bilingualism: The Impact of the Foreign Language Effect

This study investigates how the language used to present lexical stimuli influences the expression of gender biases, with a particular focus on the “Foreign Language Effect” (FLE) – the phenomenon where using a foreign language affects judgment and reasoning. Italian native speakers (N=213), English native speakers (N=105), and Italian-English bilinguals (N=192) evaluated 58 words categorized into Power, Weakness, Warmth and Coldness domains for gender connotation. Results indicated consistent stereotypical associations across languages, albeit with variable strength. Critically, participants exhibited attenuated stereotyping when assessing words in a non-native language, providing further empirical validation for the FLE. Foreign language use appears to elicit less automatic social biases, potentially due to decreased emotional activation and increased cognitive distance that occur when processing information in a less proficient language. Additionally, this reduction in stereotyping may be attributed to less exposure to and internalization of sexist language in a second language. By demonstrating the role of language in modulating bias expression, these insights have implications for understanding sociocultural perception formation and developing equitable language policies.

The Effect of YouTube on Speaking and Listening Skills of Students

In an English as Foreign Language context like Saudi Arabia, university business students face a difficult challenge to speak in English and to understand what is spoken. The students don’t have the opportunity in their daily life to listen to native speakers in or outside the classroom, but they are expected to listen to the text book audios in the classes spoken by the native speakers of English. Therefore, the difficulty rises in Listening and Speaking Skills Course as the students are not exposed to the British accent. In order to solve this problem, the researcher used YouTube videos spoken by the native speakers in the experimental group, and the control group just had the normal practice of listening to only the textbook audios. The researcher adopted quasi-experimental design with pretest and posttest in both control and experimental groups and analyzed the performance of the students using SPSS and Excel. The study proved that the results of experimental group improved significantly in their listening comprehension skills and performed better in their presentations than the control group. In the English as Foreign Language contexts, where business students fail to have exposure to the native accent of English, YouTube videos can make a great contribution in improving their listening and speaking skills.

Acoustics of the alignment of narrow focus prosody and lexical stress in native and nonnative English productions.

This study examined the acoustic correlates of the alignment between lexical stress and narrow focus prosody in English and investigated how this alignment is learned by second language learners whose native language is prosodically distinct from English. A production experiment was conducted where native English speakers and Korean learners of English were asked to read aloud sentences with a narrow focus on trisyllabic words with various stress patterns (e.g., ánimal, Novémber, submaríne). In the native English productions, the stressed syllables were characterized by either a rising F0 contour (for word-initial stress) or increased periodic energy (for word-medial and -final stress). The Korean speakers (KSs) produced stressed syllables with a rising F0 contour regardless of stress position, differing from the native speakers, and they exhibited greater periodic energy for word-medial and -final stressed syllables, similar to the native speakers. In addition, the KSs with higher English proficiency showed more native-like patterns by exhibiting a post-focus F0 drop immediately after word-initial stressed syllables. These findings are discussed in the context of existing literature and potential factors contributing to the challenges observed in L2 prosody learning.

A Corpus-Based Multifactorial Study of Help/help to Alternation in Learners’ Language: From the Perspective of Probabilistic Grammar

This corpus-based multifactorial study delves deeper into the well-known alternation between bare and full infinitive complements, specifically regarding the help concordances. It extends the line of research to learners’ language productions with a focus on comparing and contrasting the probabilistic grammatical knowledge reflected in the help/ help to choices, which are constrained by a complex network of factors. Regression modeling indicates that constraints such as the horror aequi and certain morphological forms of the verb help are comparatively stable among groups of Chinese English language learners and native English speakers. Therefore, the principle of cognitive complexity and the avoidance strategy fueling infinitive variations are further tested. While the object typology differs in effect strength, it also prompts consideration of cultural influences on the part of Chinese English learners. In addition, two different patterns of interaction effects are explored in each dataset, which implies that learners’ language choice is usage-based, determined by an unconscious assessment of multiple clues that are learned from language input and shaped by language experiences.

Unpacking Evaluative Meaning-Making Resources in Verbal Movie Descriptions: A Comparative Study of Native and Non-Native English Speakers

The present study explored how native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of English exploit evaluative meaning-making resources of English when sharing their judgements and opinions on English movie descriptions. To this end, 10 native speakers of Australian English and 10 Iranian non-native speakers took part in on-line informal interviews, based on an approach known as snowball sampling. The study employed a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. The results revealed significant differences in the use of evaluative language between the two groups, with NNSs focusing more on Affect, Judgment and Appreciation respectively, while NSs prioritized Appreciation, followed by Affect and Judgment. The findings are discussed by reference to cultural and linguistic differences in the use of evaluative resources. Moreover, NSs relied more on invoked evaluation whereas NNSs showed a preference for inscribed evaluation. However, both groups utilized a higher frequency of positive descriptions in during their descriptions of English movies. These findings can provide valuable insights for language teaching and research, highlighting the significance of incorporating evaluative language resources into language instruction. The study further brought attention to the interconnectedness of diverse evaluative resources such as reference to emotions and judgements with complex linguistic and cultural domains.

THE PHONOLOGICAL AND PHONETIC STUDY OF EMPHATIC PITCH RANGE BY CHINESE EFL LEARNERS

In producing second language (L2) speech, L2 learners tend to deviate from its norms, resulting in foreign-accented speech. Pitch range plays a crucial role in the perception of foreign-accented speech. This study aims to investigate the production of emphatic pitch range in English by Chinese Learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) from both the phonological and phonetic perspectives. There were seven native English speakers and fourteen Chinese EFL learners participating in this study. They were required to read the second part of eighteen dialogue pairs loudly. Through linguistic measures of the recordings, the study found significant differences in three pitch range types between the native English speakers and the learners in the phonological perspective, which might be influenced by Chinese prosody. However, no significant differences were found in the phonetic perspective, which might be impacted by the learners’ native language. In addition, English proficiency did not influence the learners’ performance in the phonological and phonetic perspectives. This may be attributed to the homogeneity among the learners and the effect of their native language. Lastly, focus position significantly influenced the phonological performance of the learners in five pitch range types, which may be explained by multiple factors. However, the effect of focus position on the learners’ phonetic performance was limited to two pitch range types, which may be explained by the principle of least effort.

Comparative Study of Stress Clash Resolution by English Native Speakers and Korean Learners of English

Comparative Study of Stress Clash Resolution by English Native Speakers and Korean Learners of English

A Multi-Modal Study of Persuasive Strategies in Native and Non-Native School Advertisements

The current study investigates how private schools target native and non-native English speakers through YouTube advertisements using a multi-modal discourse analysis approach. The study examines persuasive strategies, how ads appeal to viewers, and influence decision making in native and non-native private school ads. Native school ads may emphasize communicating in English, prestige of private school, and high academic standards. Non-native ads may emphasize diversity of students and resources for learners.Native school ads may use formal, dramatic language while non-native ads use inclusive, accessible language. Ads reflect assumptions about language, education, values and status - native schools emphasize fluency, non-native emphasize inclusive learning. Ads use humor and emotion differently - native ads use culture-specific humor while non-native appeals to shared values like diversity. The study analyzed ads using models from Kress and van Leeuwen(2006), and Halliday(1979) then draw conclusions that verify the hypothesis. Both ad types aim to present a nurturing school but native ads use clearer language while non-native use aspirational, indirect language. Native ads value honesty, respect, collaboration while non-native value inclusiveness, diversity, cultural diversity. The study concludes that ads have similar visual, textual strategies but values and language use varies based on native or non-native audience.

Task complexity effects on L2 speech rhythm in spontaneous speech production

Task-based pronunciation teaching studies have shown that the cognitive complexity of a task affects different aspects of second language (L2) speech, such as vowel accuracy and comprehensibility. However, its impact on L2 speech rhythm is still under-researched, especially in spontaneous pronunciation-unfocused tasks. In this study, we first investigated how task complexity influences L2 speech rhythm, and we then explored how L2 speech rhythm metrics might predict global pronunciation proficiency (comprehensibility and accentedness). Eighty-two Spanish/Catalan bilingual learners of English and a control group of eight native speakers (NSs) completed a simple and a complex version of an adapted monologic decision-making task. Oral production data were analysed using well-established rhythm metrics (%V, VarcoV, nPVI-V, and VarcoC), novel distance measures (Euclidean and Mahalanobis distance scores) and ratings from 13 English NSs. Results showed differential task complexity effects on L2 speech rhythm depending on the rhythm metrics and distance measures considered. Additionally, the %V rhythm metric and the Mahalanobis distance measure accounted for a modest amount of variance in both comprehensibility and accentedness scores, with Mahalanobis distances having a more reliable predicting power. The outcomes of this study point to the importance of further examining the role of task complexity in L2 speech rhythm in spontaneous speech and to what extent L2 speech rhythm is related to global measures of L2 pronunciation proficiency. These findings also highlight the need for identifying which rhythm metrics are more suitable to depict L2 speech elicited through different methods, particularly spontaneous speech.

THE DESCRIPTION OF CAKE APPLICATION ASSISTANCE TO THE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILL AT SMA SWASTA ST XAVERIUS GUNUNGSITOLI

This study aims to describe the assistance of the cake application in learning a speaking skill and to describe the students’ reason for utilizing the cake application in learning the students' speaking skills. The research was conducted in class X at SMA Swasta Santu Xaverius Gunungsitoli with a total of 20 students. The research method used is a qualitative descriptive approach. Data were collected through observations and interviews. The results show that students use the cake application and can utilize the cake application in speaking skill. Students take advantage of it by studying the video menu, conversation dialogue, and path menu. The most frequently utilized by students is the conversation dialogue menu because this menu is very complete. Students can learn speaking, dialogue with native speakers, students can see errors the pronunciation in dialogue sentences, and students are also helped by explanations at the end of the dialogue and equipped with Indonesian translations. However, students also need to actively practice and interact with fellow students and native English speakers

Propositional Idea Density in the Writing of Native Speakers and Asian Learners of English: A Corpus-Based Contrastive Interlanguage Analysis

The present study is a contrastive interlanguage analysis of propositional idea density in the written language of native English speakers and Asian learners of English. The study adopted a quantitative method to analyse the ICNALE written essays v2.4 using CPIDR v5.1 software. The study aimed to identify the level of propositional idea density in the writing of English native speakers and Asian learners of English and to examine the effect of the type of English, the theme type, the proficiency level and nationality on propositional idea density. The study is one of the very few studies about propositional idea density in ESL and EFL contexts. Many statistical analyses were performed on CPIDR results using jamovi v2.3 software, and the results of the tests revealed that the propositional idea density in native speakers’ essays was higher than that in Asian learners’ essays. Moreover, the results showed that there was a statistically significant difference among all the participants based on the theme types of part-time jobs and smoking, among native speakers based on occupation type (students, teachers, others) and among Asian learners of English based on the type of English proficiency level and nationality. The findings of the study showed that propositional idea density is a psycholinguistic index of the amount of presupposed knowledge language users have on a specific topic. In other words, propositional idea density is a window to language users’ schemata. Additionally, the findings of the study can be considered an insightful contribution to contrastive interlanguage analysis.