Native Norms Research Articles

Loanword phonology in Modern Hebrew

Abstract The phonology of loanwords often differs from the phonology of native words in various aspects. These differences are evident in the prosodic structure and even the segmental inventory. The differences between the loanword and native phonology, however, are not necessarily stable, and it is often the case that what originated as phonological structures in loanwords which were illicit in the native vocabulary eventually overrode the native norm, bringing about diachronic change to the phonology of the native words. Hebrew is no exception in this respect. The stress system of loanwords differs from that of native words, with the latter’s system undergoing changes inter alia due to the effect of loanwords (e.g. ante-penultimate stress, immobile stress patterns). The licit syllable structure inventory of native Hebrew words has been expanded to include loaned structures (e.g. complex codas, triconsonantal structures), and the phonemic inventory of Hebrew now includes several consonants originating in loanwords (e.g. ʒ and d͡ʒ).

Catholic missions in China: failure to form native clergy

ABSTRACTThe success and failure of Christianity in China was tied to the missionaries’ ability to accommodate to Chinese culture and the powers that ruled over this vast nation. A number of reasons have been put forward regarding the failure of Christian missions in China. Inability to adapt to native norms, ignorance of Chinese language, association with Western imperialism, rivalries among various religious orders, congregations and missionary societies, and the reluctance to establish a Chinese ecclesiastical hierarchy all contributed to hindering the propagation of the gospel. This paper argues that the main reason for their failure was the refusal of European clergy to hand over the leadership of the church to the Chinese, in spite of Rome’s edicts to establish an indigenous ecclesiastical hierarchy. With local clergy in charge, the issue of language and cultural adaptation would have been resolved. Unfortunately, the native clergy were looked down upon by their Western counterparts, who were mostly motivated by national and institutional interests rather than pastoral concern for the local people. The appointment of the first Chinese bishop, Gregorio Lopéz (Luo Wenzao), was more a political move than a pastoral need.

Effects of L2 experience on L2 vowel production and L1 speakers' perception of the improved vowels

Effects of L2 experience on the production of L2 vowels were investigated and the perceptual accuracy of the L2 vowels by native speakers was tested to examine whether an improvement in vowel articulation leads to higher accuracy. A total of twenty Mandarin Chinese differing in the experience (6 months vs. 2 years) were compared to ten native Korean speakers in their production of seven Korean vowels, /i,ɛ,ɨ,ʌ,o,u,a/. More experienced Chinese speakers were expected to have acquired new Korean vowels, /ɛ,ɨ,ʌ,o/, in a more native-like manner than the inexperienced group. The results showed that Chinese learners were able to produce the three similar vowels, /i, u, a/ in a native-like manner even before any exposure to Korean. After 2 years of experience, they have shown to produce the new mid vowels, /ɛ, ʌ/ with greater height distinctions (F1 values) from adjacent high vowels. Although the two high back vowels, /o, u/ were deviant from the native norm, the Experienced group learned to distinguish the vowels with a distinctive F2 frequency, which has become a critical cue for the distinction of the two merging vowels by young Seoul speakers. When native Korean speakers were asked to identify the vowels produced by Chinese speakers, not only new mid vowels but also similar vowels were more accurately identified for the experienced group. The greatest improvement in perceptual accuracy was shown for the categories that were newly established by the inexperienced learners.

Sympathy for the devil? A defence of EAP

The ability to communicate in English is now essential to academic success for many students and researchers. Not only has the language established a fairly firm grip in higher education, particularly in the lives of postgraduate students, but also in academic research, where careers are increasingly tied to an ability to publish in international journals in English. Countless students and academics around the world, therefore, must now gain fluency in the conventions of relatively ‘standardized’ versions of academic writing in English to understand their disciplines, to establish their careers or to successfully navigate their learning (e.g. Hyland 2009). English for Academic Purposes (EAP), and the teaching of academic writing in particular, has emerged to support this process (Hyland & Shaw 2016; Hyland 2017a). However, EAP, and its relationship to English language education more generally, is seen from a number of different perspectives, not all of which flatter the field. Among the more critical are that it is complicit in the relentless expansion of English which threatens indigenous academic registers (e.g. Phillipson 1992; Canagarajah 1999), that it is a remedial ‘service activity’ on the periphery of university life (Spack 1988), and that it imposes an imprisoning conformity to disciplinary values and native norms on second language writers (e.g. Benesch 2001).

A corpus-based study of contextual factors influencing Korean EFL learners’ dative alternation

AbstractEnglish datives show two syntactic patterns, the double object dative (DOD) and the prepositional dative (PD). The alternation between DOD and PD is influenced by three contextual factors: lexical verbs, syntactic weights, and information structures. However, it has been observed that English dative alternation by second language (L2) learners significantly deviates from the native norm. Accordingly, this study examines whether the three factors are influential when L2 learners produce dative sentences, by analyzing a learner corpus and a native speaker corpus. Results show that the learners produced PD significantly more frequently than the native speakers did. Even when DOD should be contextually preferred, the learners produced many PD sentences. These results suggest that L2 learners have trouble noticing the contextual factors when structuring English datives. The finding is further discussed as it relates to the major tenets of L2 acquisition such as cross-linguistic transfer, constructional knowledge, and language processing.

ELF Users’ Perceptions of Their ‘non-nativeness’ in Digital Communication Through English: Falling Short of the Target?

In the past years, the unprecedented use of English as a shared language of communication has sparked academic interest in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). One of the main tenets of ELF studies, in the deconstruction of the persisting dichotomy between ‘nativeness’ and ‘non-nativeness’, is a perspective on non-normative forms that does not consider them ‘errors’ or ‘failures’ in comparison to native (Standard) norms. Rather, these forms may occur as the result of meaning-negotiation strategies, or as expressions of identity. However, ELF users appear to show a certain level of self-consciousness when communicating in ELF contexts, often pre-empting potential deviant uses of the language by apologizing for their ‘non-native’ English - or by flagging what they perceive as marked linguistic choices. Indeed, bilingual speakers of English are still traditionally characterized by their non-nativeness as ‘deficient’ language users, where their identity as (permanent) learners is foregrounded within a ‘comparative fallacy’ (Cook 1999) paradigm, that is also projected on language use. This paper explores ELF users' perceptions of their ‘non-native’ use of the language in digital contexts. Such perceptions will be investigated, through a mainly qualitative approach, with data drawn from the Sketch Engine EnTenTen corpus (2013v2), comprising almost 23 billion tokens of web data.

Children's Use of Semantic Context in Perception of Foreign-Accented Speech.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate children's use of semantic context to facilitate foreign-accented word recognition in noise. Monolingual American English speaking 5- to 7-year-olds (n = 168) repeated either Mandarin- or American English-accented sentences in babble, half of which contained final words that were highly predictable from context. The same final words were presented in the low- and high-predictability sentences. Word recognition scores were better in the high- than low-predictability contexts. Scores improved with age and were higher for the native than the Mandarin accent. The oldest children saw the greatest benefit from context; however, context benefit was similar regardless of speaker accent. Despite significant acoustic-phonetic deviations from native norms, young children capitalize on contextual cues when presented with foreign-accented speech. Implications for spoken word recognition in children with speech, language, and hearing differences are discussed.

Toward an Understanding of Heritage Prosody

In previous work examining heritage language phonology, heritage speakers have often patterned differently from native speakers and late-onset second language (L2) learners with respect to overall accent and segmentals. The current study extended this line of inquiry to suprasegmentals, comparing the properties of lexical tones produced by heritage, native, and L2 speakers of Mandarin living in the U.S. We hypothesized that heritage speakers would approximate native norms for Mandarin tones more closely than L2 speakers, yet diverge from these norms in one or more ways. We further hypothesized that, due to their unique linguistic experience, heritage speakers would sound the most ambiguous in terms of demographic background. Acoustic data showed that heritage speakers approximated native-like production more closely than L2 speakers with respect to the pitch contour of Tone 3, durational shortening in connected speech, and rates of Tone 3 reduction in non-phrase-final contexts, while showing the highest levels of tonal variability among all groups. Perceptual data indicated that heritage speakers’ tones differed from native and L2 speakers’ in terms of both intelligibility and perceived goodness. Consistent with the variability results, heritage speakers were the most difficult group to classify demographically. Taken together, these findings suggest that, with respect to tone, early heritage language experience can, but does not necessarily, result in a phonological advantage over L2 learners. Further, they add support to the view that heritage speakers are language users distinct from both native and L2 speakers.

When prosody kicks in: The intricate interplay between segments and prosody in perceptions of foreign accent

This study examines the relative contribution of prosody and segments in the perception of foreign-accented speech. Although both prosody and segments have previously been shown to contribute to the degree of foreign accentedness, results for their relative contribution have proven inconclusive and little is known about their interaction. We recorded read speech of five German learners of English – with and without previous exposure to the Belfast English accent – and one native speaker of Belfast English. Through acoustic manipulations that allow separation of prosodic and segmental information in the speech signal, we created combinations of native segments with non-native prosody and vice versa. The resulting stimuli were then presented to 60 native English listeners, who rated their foreign accentedness, in order to establish whether the impact of prosody depends on the degree of foreign accent at the segmental level and/or the other way round. Group analyses of the obtained foreign accent ratings are presented, supplemented by phonetic analyses of the manipulated stimuli and individual L2 speakers. Results confirm that whilst both segments and prosody contributed to foreign accent perception, listeners were more influenced by segments than prosody. In addition, it was found that the impact of prosody on perceived foreign accentedness varied depending on the origin of the segments: listeners’ sensitivity to small prosodic differences from the native norm was compromised when mixed with non-native segments, whereas sensitivity to small prosodic differences from the non-native norm was compromised when mixed with native segments. In light of this, we propose that there needs to be a degree of correspondence between segments and prosody for small deviances in prosody to be perceived. The study thus contributes to research on foreign accent perception and suggests that the interplay between segments and prosody in such perceptions is more intricate than previously thought.

Visual intraoperative estimation of cup and stem position is not reliable in minimally invasive hip arthroplasty

Background and purpose — In hip arthroplasty, acetabular inclination and anteversion—and also femoral stem torsion—are generally assessed by eye intraoperatively. We assessed whether visual estimation of cup and stem position is reliable.Patients and methods — In the course of a subgroup analysis of a prospective clinical trial, 65 patients underwent cementless hip arthroplasty using a minimally invasive anterolateral approach in lateral decubitus position. Altogether, 4 experienced surgeons assessed cup position intraoperatively according to the operative definition by Murray in the anterior pelvic plane and stem torsion in relation to the femoral condylar plane. Inclination, anteversion, and stem torsion were measured blind postoperatively on 3D-CT and compared to intraoperative results.Results — The mean difference between the 3D-CT results and intraoperative estimations by eye was −4.9° (−18 to 8.7) for inclination, 9.7° (−16 to 41) for anteversion, and −7.3° (−34 to 15) for stem torsion. We found an overestimation of > 5° for cup inclination in 32 hips, an overestimation of > 5° for stem torsion in 40 hips, and an underestimation < 5° for cup anteversion in 42 hips. The level of professional experience and patient characteristics had no clinically relevant effect on the accuracy of estimation by eye. Altogether, 46 stems were located outside the native norm of 10–20° as defined by Tönnis, measured on 3D-CT.Interpretation — Even an experienced surgeon’s intraoperative estimation of cup and stem position by eye is not reliable compared to 3D-CT in minimally invasive THA. The use of mechanical insertion jigs, intraoperative fluoroscopy, or imageless navigation is recommended for correct implant insertion.

Perceptual subcategories within non-native English

Listeners׳ ability to distinguish native from non-native speech has been robustly attested, but less is known about the nature of perceptual subcategories within non-native speech. This study examined American English-speaking listeners׳ abilities to perform auditory free classification by talker native language (L1) background on the basis of CV- and word-length excerpts of English productions by L1 American English, L1 Hindi, L1 Korean, L1 Mandarin, and L1 Spanish talkers. Results are examined in terms of classification accuracy and perceptual similarity, and the phonetic properties predicting listeners׳ classification responses are explored. Overall, L1 American English talkers were grouped together, as were L1 Hindi talkers. Talkers from L1 Korean and L1 Mandarin were perceptually similar to one another, although they did not comprise a single shared group. Deviation from native norms in VOT and in spectral and temporal properties of vowels predicted listeners׳ classification responses. These results suggest that listeners can use specific phonetic properties of the speech signal to group talkers on the basis of very little input, and that L1 Hindi talkers form a clear and consistent subcategory of non-native talkers for American English-speaking listeners.

Investigating Politeness and Academic Background: An analytical Approach

Abstract. Within Language learners' pragmatic competence, speech acts play crucial role which is even further accentuated duet to cross cultural differences. The present study investigated the effect of academic education on acquiring native norms expressing condolences. To this end a discourse completion test (DCT) was administered to two groups of Iranian EFL learners including 30 sophomores and 30 seniors as well as 20 English native speakers (ENS). The result of the study showed significant differences among the three groups in using different condolence strategies except apologetic and sympathy expressions. As the sophomores outperformed the seniors in the appropriate use of some strategies, more attention is required to be paid to the way such strategies are dealt with in English classes.

Accent evaluation from extemporaneous child speech

AbstractA key issue in judging foreign accent is to isolate the phonetic component from potentially confounding higher-level factors such as grammatical or prosodic errors which arise when using natural sentence-length speech material. The current study evaluated accent and intelligibility ratings of children’s speech for isolated words spliced out of extemporaneous material elicited via a picture description task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that word scores and accent ratings provided by native judges pattern as in earlier studies, validating the use of word-based material derived from natural speech. In a second experiment, listeners rated the degree of foreign accent and comprehensibility for unrelated sequences of 1 to 8 words from the same talker. Degree of foreign accent was judged to increase with sequence length, asymptoting by 2 word sequences, although listeners did not rate the sequence based on the most-accented word it contains. Comprehensibility was judged to be lower as sequence length increased, asymptoting at 4 words. These findings suggest that short sequences of randomly-permuted words extracted from extemporaneous speech can be used for robust accent and comprehensibility judgements whose focus is on the phonetic basis for deviations from the native norm.

A Japanese word association database of English

In this paper, two word association (WA) studies are presented in support of recent arguments against the use of native-speaker (NS) norms in WA research. In Study 1, first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) WA norms lists were developed and compared to learner responses as a means of measuring L2 proficiency. The results showed that L2 norms provided a more sensitive measure of L2 lexical development than did traditional NS norms. Study 2 was designed to test the utility of native norms databases in predicting the primary WA responses of Japanese learners to high-frequency English cues. With the exception of only extremely frequent cues, it was shown that native norms were not successful in predicting learner responses. The results of both studies are discussed in terms of cultural and linguistic differences, geographic distance, and dissimilarities in word knowledge between respondent populations. Finally, a proposal is made for the construction of a Japanese WA database of English responses (J-WADE). The methods by which it will be developed, key features, and employment in future research are outlined.

Femininity in mixed-sex talk and intercultural communication

Previous studies of language and gender discuss how men and women use gender-specific conversational styles mainly in relation to English, whereas similar studies for Asian languages remain comparatively few. Moreover, little is known about gender and conversational styles during intercultural communication. This paper explores whether speakers follow similar norms of politeness in mixed-sex talk in their L1 and in intercultural conversations in L2 English, and if femininities are modified, what factors may be involved. It reports findings from a case study of a Japanese female’s conversations with a Japanese male in Japanese and with three male L2 English speakers. It suggests that femininities might be modified to become more ‘immodest’ in English due to factors such as speakers’ varying level of adherence to native cultural norms in L1 and in L2 contexts and the male interlocutors’ ethnicity. For example, female speakers who adhere to native cultural norms in L1 conversations may see L2 intercultural contexts as opportunities to create non-traditional femininities, especially when there is no male interlocutor with shared ethnicity. The construction of L2 femininities may also be shaped by linguistic factors such as L2 proficiency or systemic differences between the two languages.

Effects of experience on the processing of phonetic contrasts in foreign-accented Spanish

Non-native accented speech is typically less intelligible than unaccented speech. However, intelligibility improves with experience. Experience might improve intelligibility by guiding listeners’ expectations regarding the systematic divergence of specific acoustic cues from the native norm within the non-native context. If an accent imposes predictable changes on the acoustic cue patterns present in speech, then listeners experienced with that accent may change their judgment of what was said based on whether or not it was perceived in an accented context. In the present study, two groups of native speakers of Spanish with and without significant experience with English-accented Spanish listened to Spanish sentences produced with and without a strong English accent. Each sentence ended in a Spanish word produced with or without English accent, but the voice onset time (VOT) of the first consonant in the word was artificially varied to form a continuum from bata (robe) to pata (paw). Experienced listeners...

First-order politeness in rapprochement and distancing cultures

The close link between politeness and culture has often been highlighted, with some scholars having proposed taxonomies of cultures based on the diverse uses and conceptions of politeness. Generally, research (Hickey 2005; Ardila 2005) places Spanish-speaking cultures in the group ofrapprochement cultures, which relate politeness to positively assessing the addressee and creating bonds of friendship and cooperation; and English-speaking cultures in the group ofdistancing cultures, which primarily use politeness to generate respect and social differentiation. This means that English politeness is not only supposed to be different from Spanish politeness, but diametrically opposed to it. The main goal of this study is to check these predictions against the understandings and use of politeness by native speakers of Spanish from Spain and nonnative speakers of Spanish from the U.S. Thus, this research is grounded in first-order politeness norms, which are then correlated with the informants’ behavior as reported in written questionnaires. The results confirmed these predictions and further showed that the more advanced learners were able to align themselves better with Spanish norms. Nevertheless, even they found some aspects of Spanish politeness –– such as the turn-taking system –– harder to adapt to, suggesting that certain aspects of native norms may be more difficult to abandon. We propose that firstorder notions of politeness may be prototypically structured, with some aspects being more central to its definition and therefore less easily foregone than others.

The parallel language use of Swedish and English: the question of ‘nativeness’ in university policies and practices

As a result of internationalisation, many universities in northern Europe have adopted English as a medium of instruction. At the same time, recent language policies have reinforced the importance of the national language(s) in the academic domain. Parallel language use was introduced and institutionalised in order to ensure students' right to receive education in their native language and to protect the national language(s) from the ‘threat’ of English. In this article, I discuss the concept of parallel language use and the extent to which it promotes ‘nativeness’ as a benchmark for language use in educational contexts. Drawing on the data collected at a major Swedish university, I show that the development of academic literacy in English is often mistaken for a need to achieve a native-like proficiency. I argue that academic language competence requires both more and less than a native/native-like competence. Thus, academics and students at Swedish universities may be mixing apples and pears and setting unrealistic goals regarding English proficiency in academic contexts, based on the standard native English norms.

Resistance and Compliance in Immigrant–Native Figurations: Albanian and Soviet Greek Immigrants and Their Interaction with Greek Society

Focusing on two immigrant populations and their relationships with their native neighbours in Thessaloniki, Greece, this paper highlights that immigrant–native relations are not only cultural relations but also power configurations unfolding through a symbolic contestation over defining the nation and who belongs to it. In everyday interaction, immigrants' behaviour is judged by natives according to the degree of their compliance to the native norms. Immigrant categories are endowed with different resources in resisting the pressure exerted by the native society. Categories that have more resources in symbolic and substantial terms are less eager to comply, thus appearing more ‘different’ in the eyes of the natives.

The development of formulaic sequences in first and second language writing

Formulaic sequences are recognised as having important roles in language acquisition, processing, fluency, idiomaticity, and instruction. But there is little agreement over their definition and measurement, or on methods of corpus comparison. We argue that replicable research must be grounded upon operational definitions in statistical terms. We adopt an experimental design and apply four different corpus-analytic measures, variously based upon n-gram frequency (Frequency-grams), association (MI-grams), phrase-frames (P-frames), and native norm (items in the Academic Formulas List – AFL-grams), to samples of first and second language writing in order to examine and compare knowledge of formulas in first and second language acquisition as a function of proficiency and language background. We find that these different operationalizations produce different patterns of effect of expertise and L1/L2 status. We consider the implications for corpus design and methods of analysis.