Nature Of Learning Research Articles

The change of self-disclosure with the passage of time.- The case of Japanese native speakers and Korean Learners’ of Japanese -

The change of self-disclosure with the passage of time.- The case of Japanese native speakers and Korean Learners’ of Japanese -

Can the Probability Distribution of Dependency Distance Measure Language Proficiency of Second Language Learners?

It has been found that the length distribution of many linguistic units fits well the same model, the Zipf-Alekseev function. In this article, we aimed to find out whether this holds for English learners’ interlanguage and whether the parameters in probability distribution of dependency distance can measure the language proficiency of second language learners. We selected 367 participants of English learners of nine consecutive grades and fitted different probability distribution models to dependency distances of their writings in English and of self-built contrastive dependency treebanks based on Wall Street Journal Corpus. It was found that: (1) the Zipf-Alekseev distribution well captures the probability distribution of dependency distance of each grade and native speakers; (2) the probability distribution of dependency distance well measures second language learners’ language proficiency at different learning stages; (3) high-level learners don’t present exactly the same parameters in the probability distribution of dependency distance as those of native speakers, which means learners’ language proficiency is not as high as that of English native speakers and second language learners’ syntactic acquisition process is always constrained by the tendency of dependency distance minimization. This study corroborates that quantitative linguistic methods can be well utilized in second language acquisition researches.

SISTEM PEDAGOGI DALAM CERITA BHAGAWAN DHOMYA LAWAN SISYANIRA (PERSPEKTIF PENDIDIKAN AGAMA HINDU)

<em>The Bhagawan Dhomya Lawan Sisyanira story is part ofAdi Parwa. The story is reflection of the interrelationship between pedagogical components, such as: educational goals, educators, learners, educational tools and educational environment, which form a system in educational practice called pedagogy system. Education components of Bhagawan Dhomya Lawan Sisyanira’s storydirected to student centered learning, which a test of obedience and devoted of Bhagawan Dhomya’s students, namely Sang Arunika tested by paddy fields, Sang Utamanyu tested by shepherds cows and Sang Weda tested by providing dishes in the kitchen. The exam given by Bhagawan Dhomya to his students has been concerned about the nature of learners as the subjects and also educational objects. Therefore, students are directed to adapt and interact with the environment, but still pay attention to the components of pedagogy, so the education can be well done and Hindu religious ecaducation values in Bhagawan Dhomya Lawan Sisyanira’s story relevant to applied as guidance in the implementation of education. Based on the explanation, the purpose of this paper is to describe the pedagogy system, learning approach and Hindu religious education values in Bhagawan Dhomya Lawan Sisyanirastory</em>

Looking Beyond the Simple Scenarios: Combining Learners and Optimizers in 3D Temporal Tracking.

3D object temporal trackers estimate the 3D rotation and 3D translation of a rigid object by propagating the transformation from one frame to the next. To confront this task, algorithms either learn the transformation between two consecutive frames or optimize an energy function to align the object to the scene. The motivation behind our approach stems from a consideration on the nature of learners and optimizers. Throughout the evaluation of different types of objects and working conditions, we observe their complementary nature - on one hand, learners are more robust when undergoing challenging scenarios, while optimizers are prone to tracking failures due to the entrapment at local minima; on the other, optimizers can converge to a better accuracy and minimize jitter. Therefore, we propose to bridge the gap between learners and optimizers to attain a robust and accurate RGB-D temporal tracker that runs at approximately 2 ms per frame using one CPU core. Our work is highly suitable for Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) applications due to its robustness, accuracy, efficiency and low latency. Aiming at stepping beyond the simple scenarios used by current systems, often constrained by having a single object in the absence of clutter, averting to touch the object to prevent close-range partial occlusion or selecting brightly colored objects to easily segment them individually, we demonstrate the capacity to handle challenging cases under clutter, partial occlusion and varying lighting conditions.

Age of Acquisition Effects on Word Processing for Chinese Native Learners' English: ERP Evidence for the Arbitrary Mapping Hypothesis.

The present study aimed at distinguishing processing of early learned L2 words from late ones for Chinese natives who learn English as a foreign language. Specifically, we examined whether the age of acquisition (AoA) effect arose during the arbitrary mapping from conceptual knowledge onto linguistic units. The behavior and ERP data were collected when 28 Chinese-English bilinguals were asked to perform semantic relatedness judgment on word pairs, which represented three stages of word learning (i.e., primary school, junior and senior high schools). A 3 (AoA: early vs. intermediate vs. late) × 2 (regularity: regular vs. irregular) × 2 (semantic relatedness: related vs. unrelated) × 2 (hemisphere: left vs. right) × 3 (brain area: anterior vs. central vs. posterior) within-subjects design was adopted. Results from the analysis of N100 and N400 amplitudes showed that early learned words had an advantage in processing accuracy and speed; there is a tendency that the AoA effect was more pronounced for irregular word pairs and in the semantic related condition. More important, ERP results showed early acquired words induced larger N100 amplitudes for early AoA words in the parietal area and more negative-going N400 than late acquire words in the frontal and central regions. The results indicate the locus of the AoA effect might derive from the arbitrary mapping between word forms and semantic concepts, and early acquired words have more semantic interconnections than late acquired words.

Examining Collaborative Knowledge Construction in Microblogging-Based Learning Environments

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of the study is to provide foundational research to exemplify how knowledge construction takes place in microblogging-based learning environments, to understand learner interaction representing the knowledge construction process, and to analyze learner perception, thereby suggesting a model of delivery for microblogging. Background: Up-and-coming digital native learners crave the real-time, multimedia, global-interconnectedness of microblogging, yet there has been limited research that specifically proposes a working model of Twitter’s classroom integration for designers and practitioners without bundling it in with other social media tools. Methodology: This semester-long study utilized a case-study research design via a multi-dimensional approach in a hybrid classroom with both face-to-face and online environments. Tweets were collected from four types of activities and coded based on content within their contextual setting. Twenty-four college students participated in the study. Contribution: The findings shed light on the process of knowledge construction in mi-croblogging and reveal key types of knowledge manifested during learning activities. The study also proposes a model for delivering microblogging to formal learning environments applicable to various contexts for designers and practitioners. Findings: There are distinct learner interaction patterns representing the process of knowledge construction in microblogging activities ranging from low-order to high-order cognitive tasks. Students generally were in favor of the Twitter integration in this study. Recommendations for Practitioners: The three central activities (exploring hashtags, discussion topics, and participating in live chats) along with the backchannel activity formulate a working model that represents the sequential process of Twitter integration into classrooms. Impact on Society: Microblogging allows learners omnichannel access while hashtags can filter the global noise down to meaningful bytes of information to target formal and informal learning. When shared amongst global users for participatory communication, it gives access to collaborative knowledge. This study gives practitioners and designers a working model to leverage microblogging and connect to their tech-savvy learners for more connected learning. Future Research: Future research may include experiments of this proposed model for delivering microblogging in: prolonged studies; compared to other microblogging methodologies; in non-hybrid delivery models such as asynchronous-only; in other academic or professional disciplines; or in other educational age ranges.

The Importance of Teaching English through Armenian Culture

Culture and art have always been indispensable parts of language teaching. Cultural texts and various cultural topics have been included in language books and textbooks. However, textbook developers and English teachers give priority to teaching the culture of the target language rather than that of native learners.
 In the current paper we would like to state that it is beneficial to teach English through local culture materials as they increase the cognitive, communicative and social understanding of the learners.
 Having based on our teaching experience, we can claim that specific topics like Armenian music, dances, customs and traditions, Armenian artists and their art works, the cities and architecture, filming and theatre, holidays and festivals and other culture-related topics are of great interest to Armenian learners of English. These topics are, to some extent, familiar to them, so they enhance the learners’ English communicative skills. Moreover, the learners obtain a full comprehension of Armenian culture and develop certain skills to present it to others.

Listening for Imagery by Native Speakers and L2 Learners

Slobin’s thinking-for-speaking (TFS) hypothesis suggests that speakers are habitually attuned to aspects of an event that are readily codable in the language while they are formulating speech. This TFS process varies considerably cross-linguistically and can be observed in all forms of production and reception including listening for understanding or mental imagery. This study explored whether second language learners (L2) engage in mental simulation of deictic paths while processing motion language online. Forty Chinese native speakers (NSs) and eighty English-speaking learners of L2 Chinese participated in an online judgment task. They listened to motion sentences containing deictic paths while simultaneously watching a motion display of a toward- or away-direction. Since simultaneous presentation of the sentence and the display of the same directionality require the same neural structures to process competing inputs, interference effects are expected and the reaction time to respond should take longer. Results of repeated measures ANOVA show interference effects for the NSs, but not for the L2 learners of both heritage and foreign language backgrounds, suggesting that while the NSs were sensitive to the deictic cues and automatically performed mental simulations of the deictic paths, the L2 learners’ listening for imagery did not pattern with the NSs. The results added to our understanding of L2 learners’ development of TFS in the new modality of listening for imagery.

A Comparative Genre Analysis of Schematic Structures in Public Speeches of Native and Nonnative English Speakers

English speech writing has constituted an increasingly important part of pedagogical contents in the university education of China. As a specific genre, public speeches are diversified in accordance with speakers' specific communicative purposes, which are realized through the application of different schematic structures. It is found that native English speakers and EFL learners in China differ in their persuasive writing in the arrangement of strategic constituents of the speech macrostructure which is made up of moves and steps. Even though the three obligatory moves are predetermined for the structural completeness of the speech writing, steps are of great flexibility and creativity. Since influences from the cultural norms of Chinese are inevitable, a distinction between inductive and deductive ways of reasoning has been recognized. However, the dichotomy between the two patterns of thinking in different cultures has been proven complementary. Thus, it is proposed that developing students' sensitivity and ability in identifying communicative purposes of specific genres, inspiring them to be creative in schematic structures and breaking the prescriptive way of teaching and learning will be of great significance in future public speaking classes.

The receiver's utterance used for self-effacement on the contact situation: The case of Japanese native speakers and Korean Learners’ of Japanese

The receiver's utterance used for self-effacement on the contact situation: The case of Japanese native speakers and Korean Learners’ of Japanese

Multicomponent Linguistic Awareness Intervention for At-Risk Kindergarteners

This study investigated the feasibility of multicomponent linguistic awareness intervention on early literacy skills in at-risk kindergarteners. Seventeen students, including native Spanish-speaking English language learners ( n = 10) and native English speakers ( n = 7), participated in a 6-week small-group therapy program, for a total of 12 intervention hours. Students received therapy in one of the following: phonological awareness and letter knowledge; morphological awareness; or a three-pronged intervention that addressed all three areas. Students demonstrated moderate to large gains in word reading ( d = 1.79–2.19), phonological awareness ( d = 0.73–1.59), morphological awareness ( d = 0.57–3.96), and morphological spelling ( d = 0.77–3.0). Analyses revealed no significant differences based on the type of intervention received. These results provide preliminary evidence for the feasibility of three-pronged linguistic awareness instruction for kindergarten students at risk for later reading difficulties, including English language learners, in intensive intervention programs.

Language processing in bilinguals

In this paper we integrate and reinterpret new data from a set of experiments in our lab in order to tease apart many of the factors thought to influence bilingual processing. Specifically we combine data from studies investigating age of immersion (AoI), manner of acquisition (MoA), proficiency and context of bilingualism to (1) investigate the organization of the bilingual mental lexicon and (2) determine the nature of the interaction between bilingualism and cognitive control. We suggest that a naturalistic MoA promotes the integration of the bilingual lexicon, and that an early AoI per se is somewhat less important (though it tends to lead to a more naturalistic MoA). Further, bilinguals with an integrated bilingual lexicon (i.e., naturalistic learners) only develop cognitive control advantages if they are in a dual-language environment.

Children talking about writing: Investigating metalinguistic understanding

Much of the literature on explicit teaching about language has suggested that equipping students with metalinguistic knowledge is as an important means of enhancing students’ participation in learning. Yet in the context of international jurisdictions which are placing a renewed emphasis on knowledge about language, there is a notable lack of research into the nature of learners’ metalinguistic understanding about writing, as evident in their ability to reflect on written language. Using an analytical framework shaped by Vygotsky's and Hallidayan theories of concept formation and language learning, this paper provides insights into the nature of metalinguistic understanding as manifested in ways in which learners engage with grammatical concepts. Drawing on data selected from two parallel studies in Australia and England in which students aged 9–13 were interviewed about their metalinguistic understanding of writing, our analysis has found that learners’ metalinguistic understanding is more strongly oriented to identification – naming and specifying taught grammatical concepts. The findings have important implications for pedagogical strategies that might facilitate higher-level metalinguistic understanding, enabling learners to elaborate, extend and apply their grammatical knowledge.

Are orthographic effects language specific? The influence of second language orthography on second language phoneme awareness

ABSTRACTThis research investigated first language (L1) and second language (L2) orthographic effects on L2 phoneme perception. Twenty-five native English learners of Russian (n = 13) and Mandarin (n = 12) participated in an auditory phoneme counting task, using stimuli organized along two parameters: consistency and homophony. The learners more successfully counted phonemes in L2 words with consistent letter–phoneme correspondences (e.g., всё /fsʲɔ/, three letters/three phonemes) than in words with inconsistent correspondences (e.g., звать /zvatʲ/, five letters/four phonemes), indicating that L2 phoneme awareness is influenced by L2 orthography and that orthographic effects are not limited to the L1. In addition, the lack of any L1 homophone effects suggests that L2 orthographic effects overrode any potential L1 orthographic interference for these intermediate-level learners, suggesting orthographic effects may be language specific.

Intuitionistic Group Decision Making to Identify the Status of Student's Knowledge Acquisition in E-Learning Systems

Learner's performance evaluation in an E-learning environment is a multi-criteria decision problem and important to personalize the sequence of learning concepts according to their knowledge level. Crisp responses, leads uncertainty in the evaluation process due to successful guesses or choosing a more probable answer. Analysis of learner's response to a complex/subjective questions needs more effort. Moreover, due to uncertainty and imprecise nature of learner, traditional methods are inadequate to assess, how much time he has spent on studying the learning contents and also the number of backtracking he followed. This paper proposes an intuitionistic fuzzy multicriteria decision making that investigates the use of an intuitionistic fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS method) for the evaluation of student in an E-learning environment. Synthetic data are created for the criteria's that affect the student evaluation in E-learning domain and thereafter results are evaluated.

Social Family Models: A Way to Foster Social Skills and Learning

Dear Editor, The social family models of teaching highlight the social nature of learners and are used to develop the learning process through social interactions. Our article discussed the role of these teaching models in the formation of social skills and achieving educational goals. Based on that, we concluded that education systems ought to devise these models in order to facilitate collaborative learning and overcome the social problems in different communities. Evidence shows that vulnerable groups such as youth, adults and families are at risk of numerous social problems. These problems can be categorized as juvenile delinquency, expulsion from school, pregnancy among younger teens, illiteracy, poverty, domestic violence and child abuse.1 Considering social problems as an inevitable part of modern societies, scientific investigation and evidence-based interventions at different levels are essential.2 One of the ways of tackling these problems is through educating younger generations. Education plays a pivotal role in this regard and the development of societies depends upon the development of the educational systems.3 Thus, universities as a single entity can educate others by providing educational opportunities, conducting research and developing field-related activities. In this regard, members of society will be equipped with essential knowledge and skills to participate in social development. Community involvement is an important aspect of any social development that leads to learning. People interact with their family members through appropriate behavior to educate and prepare them for life in society. Individuals learn when the activities, habits, words and thoughts of their society members are internalized within them. Fostering collaborative learning is the most fundamental step for learning in the educational environment.4 There are several matters that play a role in the teaching and learning process. Not only are the professional and humanistic attributes of teachers important in the teaching and learning processes,5 but different teaching models are also of utmost importance for better learning.6 By the same token, providing an appropriate learning environment can contribute to the development of skills and metacognitive awareness of learners.7 If teachers use different teaching methods and models, the results would be the achievement of educational goals. Teaching models are actually learning patterns. Applying these models will not only help the students learn how to gain and retain information, ideas, skills, ways of thinking and opinions, but will also help them in the learning process. Teaching models help students to learn and comprehend a variety of subjects, skills and attitudes. Joyce and Marsha Weil8 categorized four families of teaching models including (a) Individual family models, (b) Social family models, (c) Information processing family models, and (d) Behavioral family models. The social family models emphasize the social nature of the learners, their social behavior and how to enhance the learning process through social interactions. The models associated with the social family are focused on developing the concepts and skills needed to work in groups.9 Consequently, we can deal with social problems through the use of effective educational models or patterns. Social family models help learners learn social skills to build effective relationships with others and avoid irrational social interactions. When members of society establish a sincere relationship with each other, the results can be a sense of safety, reliability and comfort.10 The World Health Organi-

The Relevance of Communication Skills to the Technical Students in the Colleges of Engineering and Technology- A Study

Objectives: The study on the Relevance of Communication Skills to the Technical Students in the colleges of Engineering and Technology proposes to examine the skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing which is rightly termed as LSRW techniques in language learning. It is also proposed to learn the communication skills which could be enriched the knowledge and ability by regular and continuous practice by the students. The significant point is that the learners should acquire listening and speaking skills in direct and indirect methods. The different types of reading strategies would be adopted to improve reading skills. The writing skills would be acquired by using e-materials and laboratory instruments. Methods: For the purpose of the present analysis a class consisting of 50 students was identified. A pre- test was conducted to assess the levels of the students in understanding of vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation and grammatical structures of the students. After the completion of their assignment or work, a test was conducted again to know the result and improvements in the language learning and the process and development of communication skills among the learners. Findings: A pre –test and post –test was conducted and examined the levels of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills of the learners which led to the process and development of communication and further it paved way for the innovative use of LSRW techniques by them. Applications: The method of teaching communication skills could be used in our country where English is taught as a second language in schools, colleges and universities and the use of innovative methods and its relevance which was also useful to non- native language learners.

Virtual Space of English Consonants: Shorter Distance Produced by Japanese Learners of English

This study investigates how Japanese learners of English pronounce two consonants, /s/ and /S/, or /b/ and /v/, of English minimal-paired words whose corresponding words are English-based loanwords in Japanese and written in katakana. Frequency of spectral peak, duration, and intensity of these consonants produced by six Japanese learners of English and six native English speakers are measured with acoustic equipment. Among these phonetic features, significant differences in frequency of spectral peak between /s/ and /S/ are observed. This holds true for both native English speakers and Japanese learners of English. There are also significant differences in duration between /b/ and /v/, and intensity between /S/ and /s/, or /b/ and /v/. A hypothesis that distance between the values of these features for each paired consonants tends to be smaller for the Japanese learners of English than for the native English speakers is also verified. Implications for further research are briefly discussed.

Assessment of Multi-Engine Machine Translation for English to Hindi Language (MEMTEHiL)

English to Hindi translation of the computer-science related e-content, generated through an online freely available machine translation engine may not be technically correct. The expected target translation should be as fluent as intended for the native learners and the meaning of a source e-content should be conveyed properly. A Multi-Engine Machine Translation for English to Hindi Language (MEMTEHiL) framework has been designed and integrated by the authors as a translation solution for the computer science domain e-content. It was possible by enabling the use of well-tested approaches of machine translation. The humanly evaluated and acceptable metrics like fluency and adequacy (F&A) were used to assess the best translation quality for English to Hindi language pair. Besides humanly-judged metrics, another well-tested and existing interactive version of Bi-Lingual Evaluation Understudy (iBLEU) was used for evaluation. Authors have incorporated both parameters (F&A and iBLEU) for assessing the quality of translation as regenerated by the designed MEMTEHiL.

L2 Acquisition of English Unaccusative Verbs: A Longitudinal Study

This paper presents aspects of eight advanced Korean EFL speakers' acquisition of English unaccusative verbs over a period of five years. It examines how three factors−L1 morphology, pragmatic causation, and animacy−have affected their English unaccusative verb grammar during that time. A forced-elicitation grammaticality judgment task was performed three times over this period. It showed that L1 morphology was the most persistent among these factors. The results are compared with Chung (2014), a cross-sectional study, where the same method was used. The findings reveal that the Korean EFL subjects' overpassivization of English unaccusatives is not fossilized, which differs from the findings of Han (2006), who examined two Chinese native learners of English. It also indicates that instruction can play an important role in long-term L2 learning.