Support Language Acquisition Research Articles

The Importance of Machine Translation to University Students

People can no longer avoid using technology in their daily lives because it has been incorporated into every facet of life. The development of computer hardware and software to provide higher-quality translated texts is known as machine translation (MT). This research examined MT’s importance as a tool for university students using qualitative methods. Data was collected through library research from national and international journals. The results demonstrated that students typically appreciate the importance of Web-Based Machine Translation (WBMT) technology for supporting language acquisition. Only a very small number of participants felt that the availability of WBMT tools eliminated the need to learn how to write in English. This is consistent with the finding that most participants recognize the importance of cognitive involvement in English Language learning. Furthermore, MT can improve writing quality in terms of accuracy and syntactic complexity. Excessive reliance on tools may prevent students from thoroughly improving their translation skills.

Sleeping neonates track transitional probabilities in speech but only retain the first syllable of words

Extracting statistical regularities from the environment is a primary learning mechanism that might support language acquisition. While it has been shown that infants are sensitive to transition probabilities between syllables in speech, it is still not known what information they encode. Here we used electrophysiology to study how full-term neonates process an artificial language constructed by randomly concatenating four pseudo-words and what information they retain after a few minutes of exposure. Neural entrainment served as a marker of the regularities the brain was tracking during learning. Then in a post-learning phase, evoked-related potentials (ERP) to different triplets explored which information was retained. After two minutes of familiarization with the artificial language, neural entrainment at the word rate emerged, demonstrating rapid learning of the regularities. ERPs in the test phase significantly differed between triplets starting or not with the correct first syllables, but no difference was associated with subsequent violations in transition probabilities. Thus, our results revealed a two-step learning process: neonates segmented the stream based on its statistical regularities, but memory encoding targeted during the word recognition phase entangled the ordinal position of the syllables but was still incomplete at that age.

Findings From a Two-Year Effectiveness Trial of the Science Notebook in a Universal Design for Learning Environment

This cluster randomized control trial examines the effects of the Science Notebook in a Universal Design for Learning Environment (SNUDLE) on elementary school student science academic achievement and motivation outcomes. Multilevel analyses examined the impact of SNUDLE for all students and important student subgroups. Overall, students who received the SNUDLE intervention had similar motivation and academic achievement in science to their peers who did not receive the SNUDLE intervention. However, relative to students with disabilities in the comparison group, students with disabilities who used SNUDLE scored significantly higher on motivation in science and science academic achievement, with effect sizes (ES) ranging from 0.82 to 1.01. Furthermore, SNUDLE appeared to have a small but statistically significant positive impact on science academic performance among students whose home language is other than English or Spanish with an ES of 0.35. Fidelity of implementation analysis shows sufficient teacher training but fidelity of teacher and student usage of SNUDLE needs to be improved. The qualitative analysis of teacher interviews suggests that teachers perceived benefits of SNUDLE in support language acquisition and science writing skills. Both quantitative and qualitative findings suggest that SNUDLE holds promise for improving academic performance in science and confidence and motivation among some of the most vulnerable student populations.

Early literacy through music

Musical activities hold a lot of opportunity for supporting language acquisition and phonological awareness. In this short introduction article Maria Kay discusses how music can be used to promote many of the skills required for literacy.

Supporting Language Acquisition and Peer Interaction Through Guided Play in a Multilingual Classroom

Supporting Language Acquisition and Peer Interaction Through Guided Play in a Multilingual Classroom

Training Program Supporting Language Acquisition

Training Program Supporting Language Acquisition

Games & Drama Applications in Language Acquisition

This research aims to reveal the effects of games and drama practical applications on language acquisition for pre-school children. “Game & Drama in Language Acquisition” training program has been applied to 4-6-year-old children attending pre-school educational institutions, and the results were analyzed respectively. The study comprises 126 volunteering parents and 126 children attending pre-school institutions. At the same time, 32 teachers have evaluated the activities. The content of the training program includes modules with game & drama activities that aim to strengthen language acquisition in pre-school children. Data collection tools were the Vocabulary Performance Checklist to analyze the concepts and words acquired by children; Identification Scale of Preschool Teachers' Opinions on Game Activities to reveal the parents' views. In the data analysis, in order to determine the differences of the answers reported by the experimental and control groups in the pre-test and post-test, analyzes were performed for independent groups using t-test, variance analysis, and Mann Whitney U test. The statistical results of the data have revealed that games and drama activities supporting language acquisition increase the level of effectiveness significantly when applied together with parental training and that using games and drama in the preschool period is an effective method for the children's development of self-expression and language using skills consciously.

"Look! It is not a bamoule!": 18- and 24-month-olds can use negative sentences to constrain their interpretation of novel word meanings.

Two word-learning experiments were conducted to investigate the understanding of negative sentences in 18- and 24-month-old children. In Experiment 1, after learning that bamoule means "penguin" and pirdaling means "cartwheeling," 18-month-olds (n=48) increased their looking times when listening to negative sentences rendered false by their visual context ("Look! It is not a bamoule!" while watching a video showing a penguin cartwheeling); however, they did not change their looking behavior when negative sentences were rendered true by their context ("Look! It is not pirdaling!" while watching a penguin spinning). In Experiment 2, 24-month-olds (n=48) were first exposed to a teaching phase in which they saw a new cartoon character on a television (e.g., a blue monster). Participants in the affirmative condition listened to sentences like "It's a bamoule!" and participants in the negative condition listened to sentences like "It's not a bamoule!." At test, all participants were asked to find the bamoule while viewing two images: the familiar character from the teaching phase versus a novel character (e.g., a red monster). Results showed that participants in the affirmative condition looked more to the familiar character (i.e., they learned the familiar character was a bamoule) than participants in the negative condition. Together, these studies provide the first evidence for the understanding of negative sentences during the second year of life. The ability to understand negative sentences so early might support language acquisition, providing infants with a tool to constrain the space of possibilities for word meanings.

Speech rhythm and language acquisition: an amplitude modulation phase hierarchy perspective.

Language lies at the heart of our experience as humans and disorders of language acquisition carry severe developmental costs. Rhythmic processing lies at the heart of language acquisition. Here, I review our understanding of the perceptual and neural mechanisms that support language acquisition, from a novel amplitude modulation perspective. Amplitude modulation patterns in infant- and child-directed speech support the perceptual experience of rhythm, and the brain encodes these rhythm patterns in part via neuroelectric oscillations. When brain rhythms align themselves with (entrain to) acoustic rhythms, speech intelligibility improves. Recent advances in the auditory neuroscience of speech processing enable studies of neuronal oscillatory entrainment in children and infants. The "amplitude modulation phase hierarchy" theoretical perspective on language acquisition is applicable across languages, and cross-language investigations adopting this novel perspective would be valuable for the field.

Implementing a multimodal online program for very young learners of Russian: Educators' perspective

CALL and MALL learning programs have been introduced by preschool teachers into their language classrooms (Sadykova, Kayumova, Khalitova, & Gimaletdinova, 2017; Segers & Verhoeven, 2003), despite reports saying that some of these programs have little educational value (Kazanci & Okan, 2009). This exploratory mixed-methods study aims at examining how Russian language kindergarten and preschool teachers integrate resources of a Russian language online school Live Fairytales™ (Zhivye skazki, 2017) and what design elements of this multimodal digital resource they find conducive or impediment to successful language acquisition by young learners. The data come from the reports of six teachers and survey responses of 18 educators who described and reflected on their experiences integrating resources of the Russian language online school. The data show that teachers made productive use of the digital resource by utilizing its multimodal presentation of the content, integrating interactive activities mostly in a whole-class format, and creating an engaging and enjoyable learning environment of play. Visual representation of material was reported to be the most valuable and necessary for accompanying audio input, introducing or practicing vocabulary, supporting listening comprehension, and overall motivating very young learners to stay on task. This study extends our understanding of what early childhood educators expect from quality digital resources and how they integrate them into educational programs that support language acquisition of bilingual and multilingual preschool children.

The effect of working memory maintenance on long-term memory.

Initially inspired by the Atkinson and Shiffrin model, researchers have spent a half century investigating whether actively maintaining an item in working memory (WM) leads to improved subsequent long-term memory (LTM). Empirical results have been inconsistent, and thus the answer to the question remains unclear. We present evidence from 13 new experiments as well as a meta-analysis of 61 published experiments. Both the new experiments and meta-analysis show clear evidence that increased WM maintenance of a stimulus leads to superior recognition for that stimulus in subsequent LTM tests. This effect appears robust across a variety of experimental design parameters, suggesting that the variability in prior results in the literature is probably due to low power and random chance. The results support theories on which there is a close link between WM and LTM mechanisms, while challenging claims that this relationship is specific to verbal memory and evolved to support language acquisition.

Making Authentic Literary Texts Relevant, Meaningful, and Fun in Advanced Beginner and Intermediate Spanish-language Classrooms

Making Authentic Literary Texts Relevant, Meaningful, and Fun in Advanced Beginner and Intermediate Spanish-language Classrooms Laura Graebner Shepin Introduction The incorporation of literary texts in advanced beginner and intermediate level language classrooms (high school Spanish, years 2–4; university Spanish, semesters 2–4) can seem intimidating. Teachers worry about students' ability to understand texts linguistically and to interpret them culturally. Additionally, the thoughtful exploration of literary texts takes time away from other content, specifically grammar and vocabulary, which often seem more straightforward to teach due to the plethora of instructional and assessment tools already available. Lastly, the accessibility of the literary texts found in some text books, and the lack of complete instructional materials for instructors to teach these texts, might discourage instructors from including literary texts in course curriculum. Despite these challenges, it is important to include literary texts at the advanced beginner and intermediate levels for three reasons. First, literary texts present grammar points and vocabulary in context, which actively supports language acquisition, for example, by highlighting the uses of the preterite and the imperfect. Second, literature is the verbal representation of the target culture; literary texts communicate emotions, perceptions, and human experiences in a way a verb chart cannot. A compelling case for the role of literature in the development of world citizens is made by the philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum, who argues that literature simulates a reader's "narrative imagination," which in turn allows the reader to feel empathy for others. Third, successful engagement with literary texts in the advanced beginner and intermediate stages of language study sets students up for continued success in Advanced Placement (AP) courses and upper-division university language coursework. ACTFL's "Guiding Principles for Language Learning" explicitly promote the benefits of literature in the foreign language curriculum. Gillian Lazar argues that authentic literature exposes students to "complex themes and fresh, unexpected uses of language" and is "more absorbing than the pseudo-narratives frequently found in course books" (15). Similarly, Jonathan P. A. Sell encourages L2 teachers to reject fiction authored specifically for the language learner in favor of authentic literary texts, citing its representation of language and culture to be more genuine, and ultimately, more beneficial and interesting to the learner. A well-chosen literary text "can be an effective tool for stimulating and achieving language learning and equipping learners with relevant linguistic and socio-cultural competence" (91–92). In addition to the linguistic authenticity of literature, its emotional authenticity is motivating to the reader and demands a "personal response" (Kousompou 75). In considering specifically how to approach teaching literary texts, Sanju Choudhary describes two approaches for L2 literary analysis. The first of these, reader-response, "demystifies" literature by encouraging readers to make personal connections. The second is a language-based [End Page 313] approach, which focuses language instruction and production related to the literature. Both strategies, he concludes, have value. Lazar's Literature and Language Teaching: A Guide for Teachers and Trainers provides many resources to guide teachers through the selection of texts and activities to support language acquisition, comprehension, and oral fluency in L2 learners, including those at the lower levels. Janet Swaffar and Katherine Arens's chapters 3 and 4 are also particularly useful resources for the selection and instruction of literature at the lower levels. Selecting and teaching a literary text successfully requires, like all good teaching, thoughtful and intentional lesson design. Teachers need to ask the following questions to understand the challenges the text presents to students and to identify the goals the teacher has for student learning: 1. Is the text thematically appropriate? The text must be relevant and accessible to the audience; relatable themes will lead to student success, whereas abstract, philosophical, or overly mature themes will tend to frustrate them. Sometimes the most canonical literary works are not the best fit for advanced beginner and intermediate students. 2. What vocabulary and grammar will students need to know to understand the text? What words and language structures do students already confidently know? What vocabulary and grammar can they be expected to decode on their own using reading strategies such as context clues and cognates? What vocabulary and grammar will need to be glossed...

Health-Related Needs and Barriers for Forcibly Displaced Women: A Systematic Review

The number of forcibly displaced people has been steadily increasing over the last decades. Women represent a large proportion of this population. Due to gender roles, duties of care, educational and economic imbalances, their experiences during flight and relocation differ from those of men and children. The currently available information about their specific health-related needs and barriers to access is scarce. We sought to explore the specific needs of the female refugee population employing a user-centered perspective. Rather than focusing on provider-designed interventions, we aimed at defining what female refugees want and need and which priorities they define themselves. We searched PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and Scopus to identify publications that explored the unique experiences of female refugees between January 1, 2008 and June 30, 2018. Publications needed to address the health needs of refugees, asylum seekers, or displaced individuals, include at least 50% women in their study and employ a user-centered perspective. A framework of themes was identified and applied to all publications. We identified 1945 publications of which 13 could be included in the present review. Twelve of these publications employed qualitative and/or innovative methodology. We identified 5 broad categories of health-related needs (immediate health care, communication, cultural/spiritual, social, and economic). The identified publications described the need for complex, coordinated approaches. Concerted action providing information and culturally sensitive care, while supporting language acquisition and economic empowerment is essential to improve the health status of female refugees. Transformative interventions need to address multiple axes of unequal access for female refugees to improve their overall health.

The universal language of pictures: A critical tool for advancing student writing

Pictures offer a universal language for thinking and recording ideas. Creating pictures before writing can provide an engaging and effective alternative pathway into literacy learning for English learners and others who struggle with writing. As educators face the many challenges of trying to meet the diverse needs of students in their multilingual classrooms, treating pictures and words as parallel, complementary, and equal languages for learning can serve to strengthen students’ literacy engagement, deepen their thinking, and support language acquisition, thus providing a critical bridge into written language. As second‐language experts call for allowing translanguaging—the natural movement between and among languages—and the creation of dual language and multilanguage texts, this article explores why moving to a multimodal, pictures‐first approach to teaching writing offers English learners and their teachers an additional layer of scaffolding to support the acquisition of essential literacy skills.

Saudi EFL Teaching Training Programmes: Teachers’ Perceptions and Needs

This study explores Saudi EFL teachers’ needs and perceptions towards training programmes in Saudi Arabia. The data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire from a total of 215 EFL teachers; 10 of these teachers were also interviewed. The main findings revealed that Saudi EFL teachers have a positive attitude and view that training programmes meet their various needs, such as a need for programmes on English teaching aids; assessment and grading strategies concerning learners’ language proficiency; and programmes concerning classroom practices that implement activities to support language acquisition and development. On the other hand, the teachers showed a need for training programmes on teaching English at the primary school level, plus for training programmes with qualified and professional trainers and educators. The study concludes with some implications and recommendations based on the findings.

Culturally Inclusive Dance: Working with Chinese English Language Learners in the Dance Technique Classroom

ABSTRACT Higher education is experiencing rapidly shifting demographics brought about by the expanding global economy. The influx of English Language Learners (ELLs) into U.S. dance classrooms is creating a shifting paradigm for students and instructors. According to Beth McMurtrie (2012), universities with increasing international enrollments recognize the need to bolster services to support these students. This evolving educational landscape presents an opportunity for dance education. The dance studio provides a unique interchange of movement and language from which dance educators can support language acquisition alongside social, emotional, and cognitive development. Through qualitative analysis of interviews with Chinese ELLs, this article articulates the challenges and benefits interviewees experience in the dance studio, and offers teaching strategies participants found assistive to their learning. Using in-practice sessions, classroom activities were developed. The resulting learner-centered solutions focus on classwork with embedded language objectives, teacher-facilitated interactions, and conscientious modeling to foster culturally inclusive learning environments.

Policy and Practice in Language Support for Newly Arrived Migrant Children in Ireland and Spain

ABSTRACTOver the last decades, migration across Europe has continued to increase. Consequently, offering educational support for migrant students in the schools of host countries has been an extensively debated issue across Europe and further afield, especially in countries with a history of immigration. However, less is known about how education systems in the ‘new’ immigration countries have responded to the needs of recently arrived migrants. This article focuses on language support measures set up for migrant students in state-funded schools in the Republic of Ireland and Spain – both multilingual countries with more than one official language and with a heterogeneous migrant population. In reviewing educational policy and practice in these jurisdictions in the areas of language support for migrants, this article seeks to contribute to the debate on challenges involved in supporting language acquisition by migrant students in formal educational settings.

Changes in Lexical and Reading Proficiency Through English Input from Video Games

In recent years, video games have slowly been gaining more traction as a learning tool in the academic world. Evidence has been shown that video games can be used as tools to support language acquisition. However, studies, which focus on single-player games and their use outside of a classroom environment, are still sparse. This paper investigates single-player video games and their effect on University student reading and vocabulary comprehension in a mixed-method study. The participants in the study included a treatment group of nine second-year university students and a control group of ten second-year university students. All the students were volunteers from the same program and came from the same university. Data taken included vocabulary size and word recognition tests followed by a reading rate and reading comprehension test. In addition to this data, qualitative data in the form of interviews were included to support the findings of the reading and vocabulary tests. Over two months, data taken from subjects suggests reading rate, reading comprehension, and word recognition speeds showed a statistically significant rise. On the other hand, vocabulary size scores showed the treatment group had lower vocabulary sizes. In addition, the diaries show evidence that repeated incidental encounters with the same word and phrase may have played a part in the above-mentioned benefits. Motivation to play the game was also upheld throughout the two months according to the qualitative data. The data suggest that certain dimensions of reading and vocabulary comprehension such as word recognition speed and reading speed can be developed by using video games as a learning support tool.

Students and Teachers’ Perceptions into the Viability of Mobile Technology Implementation to Support Language Learning for First Year Business Students in a Middle Eastern University

Advancements in technology have enabled us to learn, adapt and exploit our skills and knowledge in new ways. Appreciating the potential of technology may yet give growth and enrich the process of language education, particularly through a student-centred mobile learning environment. Consequently, a constructivist approach to learning can create tremendous possibilities for both language learners and teachers. By exploiting the affordances of mobile technologies and the Internet, a new platform of learning or Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) can be realised, through which learners truly learn to learn. Yet, while many of today’s language institutions and places of learning have begun to understand the potential presented by mobile technology as a tool and resource to content and language development, apprehension may still exist among educational practitioners, learners and senior management. Such apprehension may stem from a lack of understanding in fully appreciating the opportunities and affordances posed by MALL in creating a support structure to learning and teaching excellence. This may be particularly true within developing countries such as those found in the Middle East. Consequently, set in a Saudi university context, the purpose of this study is to investigate learners’ and teachers’ perceptions towards the proposed implementation of a MALL programme, while exploring whether the promotion of mobile technologies could assist learning and become a viable support structure in teaching English as a second language. Interviews were conducted with three English instructors who teach on the first year Business English programme at the university. The study also analysed 191 student participants who completed a Likert scale questionnaire designed to explore their mobile learning experiences, attitudes and perceptions towards the proposed MALL programme in their educational context. The findings from the student questionnaire and teacher interviews generally highlight positive attitudes and a receptiveness towards mobile learning implementation. This is perhaps due to the possibility of new pedagogical scaffoldings being created through MALL in their learning/teaching environment. The results further highlighted opportunities MALL presented in facilitating communication and affording learners greater motivation to engage in independent learning, thus facilitating learner autonomy and allowing for greater collaboration within a richer learner environment. However, while analysis highlighted a proposed MALL implementation could be a useful tool to support language acquisition for ESP/ESL learners (English for Specific Purposes/English as a Second Language), technical issues, network sustainability and comprehensive training were still significant factors of concern.

Prosodie, Inputsprache und Spracherwerb

In order to acquire language, children require speech input. The prosody of the speech input plays an important role. In most cultures adults modify their code when communicating with children. Compared to normal speech this code differs especially with regard to prosody. For this review a selective literature search in PubMed and Scopus was performed. Prosodic characteristics are a key feature of spoken language. By analysing prosodic features, children gain knowledge about underlying grammatical structures. Child-directed speech (CDS) is modified in a way that meaningful sequences are highlighted acoustically so that important information can be extracted from the continuous speech flow more easily. CDS is said to enhance the representation of linguistic signs. Taking into consideration what has previously been described in the literature regarding the perception of suprasegmentals, CDS seems to be able to support language acquisition due to the correspondence of prosodic and syntactic units. However, no findings have been reported, stating that the linguistically reduced CDS could hinder first language acquisition.