Target Language Country Research Articles

Zum Stand des Fachs Cultură și civilizație an rumänischen Universitäten

Abstract Culture and civilization is probably one of the most discussed areas in foreign language didactics. It is taught both implicitly in the teaching of German as a foreign language and as an independent subject in university teaching. It is also offered at many Romanian universities as part of German-language degree courses. Especially in subjects in which prospective teachers and translators are trained, culture and civilization occupies a special position because it plays the undisputedly important role of imparting cultural knowledge about the target language country, which is seen as the second component in foreign language acquisition alongside linguistic knowledge. While foreign language lessons usually deal with everyday cultural topics, university courses on culture and civilization tend to focus on geography, history, politics, media, art and/or economics, usually according to the respective focus of the department where the culture and civilization course is offered. This article deals with academic research on the subject of culture and civilization at Romanian universities after 1995, specifically with the objectives and methods for teaching culture and civilization, the organization of encounters in culture and civilization lessons and possible subject catalogs.

The Spread and Reception of “Penguin Classics” Chinese Literary Translation in the English World

This article will set the penguin classics in Chinese literature translation in the English world the transmission range of readership and accept the situation, from the spread of translation materials, translation mode, sponsors and publishing model, the target language country’s ideology, etc., to interpret cultural classic in the world of circulation process, description influence the spread of Chinese literature external factors, in order to study the real power of global circulation of Chinese literature, translation and publishing and communication model in order to promote Chinese literature more effectively into the English world, expand overseas readers group put forward the theoretical thinking and practical guidance.

Country stereotypes, perceptions and language attitudes: A moderated mediation analysis

This study employed a moderated mediation analysis with the aim to expand our understanding of psychological processes pertaining to learning an additional language. Since moderated mediation analyses are less common in L2 research, this article gives a detailed explanation of the analytical procedure. The data were collected among Malaysian learners of less commonly taught languages, namely Thai, Filipino and Myanmar. The study assessed whether the language learners’ perceptions of a target language country would have a mediating effect on the link between country stereotypes and language attitudes held by the students. It also examined whether demographic factors, such as gender and university major, would moderate the stereotypes-perceptions-attitudes nexus. The findings revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between the country stereotypes and language attitudes held by the language learners. It was also found that the students’ perceptions of the target language countries mediated the relationship between the country stereotypes and language attitudes. Among the demographic factors only the students’ university major – but not gender – had a moderating effect on the stereotypes-perceptions-attitudes nexus. These findings hold some implications for curriculum development.

An In-depth Discussion on Age Effects in Second Language Learning

People believe learning a new language is better to start from a very early age in many countries. This belief is also why many countries lower the age of starting a second language programme in school. The theoretical basis for this belief is the critical period hypothesis and learning mechanism. However, some research shows older learners can learn faster and better than early learners. This research studied if starting young in a second language is better than later. By reviewing amounts of literature, this research discussed this question from four situations: the inside and outside of the classroom in the non-target language countries; the inside and outside of the classroom in the target language countries. Besides the situation of the learners, the learning time and the expectation for early starters and older starters are also different and these two factors also should be considered when thinking about the outcome of learning a second language for early and old learners. The conclusion is that if there is a condition that could provide amounts of target language input for early learners, children are better to start early. Otherwise, it is not important if children start to learn a second language early.

Malaysian university students’ mental images of Portuguese-speaking countries and their motivations to learn Portuguese

This study investigated the mental images of Portuguese-speaking countries held by 91 students learning Portuguese in two large public universities in Malaysia. It also explored the factors that motivated them to learn Portuguese. This is the first such study to present findings on the mental images associated with Portuguese-speaking countries apart from Portugal and Brazil. The data analysis revealed that the students held a wide array of images of Portugal. The country was strongly associated in their minds with football, food, and the shared history of Malaysia and Portugal. The images of Portuguese-speaking countries, with the exception of Brazil, were less diverse and were at times erroneous. The students’ main motivation for learning Portuguese was to broaden knowledge about Portuguese-speaking countries. The students were also interested in learning more foreign languages. The findings suggest that the images of the target language countries had some influence on the language learners’ choice to learn Portuguese. The pedagogical implications of these findings are also discussed.

Применение инновационных методов обучения как условие формирования вторичной языковой личности

The article highlights innovative teaching methods that contribute to the formation of a secondary language personality. These methods in foreign language lessons combine individual, group, oral, and written forms of work and are designed for the use of all four main types of speech activities. The authors provide practical examples of innovative methods’ application with a description of their structural components. The article defines the requirements for teachers’ preparation for lessons using innovative teaching methods. Particular attention is paid to work on students’ feedback: the impact of each innovative method on students is checked by conversation, survey. The authors consider it expedient while organizing project activities to form a secondary language personality, to adhere to the following directions in pedagogical activity: historical, cultural, linguistic. Language portfolio creation and its managing are effective means that contribute to the formation of a secondary language personality and allow to monitor the increase of knowledge level about the history and culture of the target language country. The authors set the goal to test the effectiveness of innovative teaching methods’ use in the formation of a secondary linguistic personality in foreign language classes. To achieve this goal, the following methods were used: analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature on the research problem, pedagogical experiment, survey, generalization, etc. The study describes the experience of using innovative teaching methods in the practice of foreign language teaching. The effectiveness of innovative teaching methods’ use in the formation of a secondary language personality is confirmed by the research results given in the article.

Developing the use of formulaic language for study abroad: a targeted instructional intervention

ABSTRACT This study investigates the immediate and sustained effects of a pre-departure study abroad training on the oral production of L2 Chinese formulaic language across a range of social and transactional interactions. Eighteen upper-intermediate learners of Chinese were assigned to either an instructed or non-instructed group to determine the efficacy of instruction designed to enhance their study abroad year in China and beyond. A three-stage pre-post-delayed longitudinal experimental design was adopted to examine instructional effects over an academic year, elicited by means of a computerised oral task (COT). The assessment was based on quantitative appropriateness ratings and a qualitative analysis of the output. Results show that the instructed group outperformed the control group immediately after the pre-study abroad (pre-SA) instruction, as well as after the year abroad. The significant difference between the two groups, however, decreased after the period abroad as the control group also showed significant improvement without the pre-SA instruction. Nevertheless, the sustained effect of the instruction enabled the experimental group to retain their competitive edge, even after a year in the target language country. The findings demonstrate the longitudinal benefits of pre-SA instruction.

Формирование социокультурной компетенции студентов языковых вузов при работе с поэтическим текстом на французском языке в рамках обучения аналитическому чтению (на примере произведения Эмиля Неллигана «Зимний вечер»)

The study aims to present a scientifically grounded set of techniques and exercises for sociocultural competence formation in philology students when teaching analytical reading of a foreign-language poetic text from the perspective of a competence approach, which contributes to the expansion of students’ vocabulary, mastery of the basics of foreign-language poetic text analysis, involves dictionary work, including independent work. The set of techniques and exercises presented in the paper was developed by its author on the basis of “Winter Evening” (“Soir d’hiver”), an authentic text by the Canadian poet of the XX century Émile Nelligan, and can be successfully used to teach analytical reading to university students as a part of familiarisation with the culture of a target-language country and the mentality of native speakers of the target language. It is important to note that sociocultural competence is an obligatory component of communicative competence and is directed at avoiding misunderstandings in interpersonal communication. Currently, the term “sociocultural competence” still requires clarification of the essence of the concept. Scientific novelty of the study lies in identifying a list of skills, techniques, exercises aimed at sociocultural competence formation in philology students. As a result, it has been proved that the use of the set of techniques and exercises contributes to acquisition of linguistic and sociocultural knowledge about target-language countries by students of a linguistic university, as well as practical mastery of the French language in the process of teaching analytical reading to students.

Модель формирования социокультурной компетенции у иностранных военнослужащих при изучении русского языка

The purpose of the research is to substantiate from a theoretical perspective the model of sociocultural competence formation in foreign military specialists during the preparation course at a military university when learning Russian as a foreign language. The research is novel in that it creates a model of sociocultural competence formation in foreign military specialists, which is built on a level-based approach to teaching the culture of the target language country. The paper describes the organisational and pedagogical conditions of the sociocultural approach to teaching Russian to foreign military personnel, reveals the stages and principles of language teaching as a means of communicating Russian cultural heritage. The content of sociocultural competence can be presented in the form of sociocultural knowledge, experience of communication in Russian, personal attitude to cultural elements, the knowledge of how to use the culture-specific vocabulary of the Russian language in speech in various spheres of communication. As a result, it has been proved that the developed model of sociocultural competence formation in foreign military specialists during the preparation course at a military university is an important foundation for building a methodology for teaching the culture of the Russian language.

The influence of studying abroad on word-production acquisition and intercultural growth of Indonesian EFL learner

This paper explores how an English Foreign Language learner who studies abroad acquires and develops her vocabularies according to the subjects’ perspective. The concept of studying abroad in the target language country can lead to the improvement of the language as well as the individual intercultural growth and perspective. Numerous statistical studies on the importance of studies abroad (SA) have mainly identified language acquisition as a successful way. Students who also lived abroad are exposed by other cultural environment, and therefore offering them to experienced cultural differences. Through the interpretation of the interview results, the research reports the learner’s word-knowledge development in the light of their studying abroad (SA) experience. One reason for anyone in learning foreign language is when they move out with their relatives in order to navigate with new worlds, new people, new cultures, and many other things of the country. This research shows that friends in the neighborhood and school contribute greatly to language development. The results showed that internal and external influences affected the English accomplishment of the participant. It turned out, the English proficiency influenced by intrinsic motivation, attitude, personality, cognitive style, and learning strategy. While the external influences of the participant were schooling, curriculum, motivation, and culture in her surroundings. The results show that motivation and anxiety are closely related to the English output.

How to measure gender bias in machine translation: Real-world oriented machine translators, multiple reference points

In this paper, as a case study, we present a systematic study of gender bias in machine translation with Google Translate. We translated sentences containing names of occupations from Hungarian, a language with gender-neutral pronouns, into English. Our aim was to present a fair measure for bias by comparing the translations to an optimal non-biased translator. When assessing bias, we used the following reference points: (1) the distribution of men and women among occupations in both the source and the target language countries, as well as (2) the results of a Hungarian survey that examined if certain jobs are generally perceived as feminine or masculine. We also studied how expanding sentences with adjectives referring to occupations effect the gender of the translated pronouns. As a result, we found bias against both genders, but biased results against women are much more frequent. Translations are closer to our perception of occupations than to objective occupational statistics. Finally, occupations have a greater effect on translation than adjectives.

Содержание страноведческой компетенции иностранных учащихся подготовительного отделения

Friendly cross-cultural and international relations are currently of particular importance for countries and peoples around the world. The state policy of the Russian Federation is aimed at promoting the Russian language and Russian culture, exporting education. The preparatory department, as the first stage of the educational process of foreign citizens in Russia, both provides language training and plays an important role in the socio-cultural development of students, their acquaintance with the target-language country. The paper covers the issue of the formation of the cross-cultural competence of foreign students of the preparatory department, be exact, the theoretical substantiation of the content of this competence: the identification and description of its topical units. The paper analyzes the possibilities of using an interdisciplinary approach in the process of formation of the cross-cultural competence of foreign students of the preparatory department. As the cross-cultural competence, the authors consider the information about the culture, history, and geography of a target-language country, and some national identities of the people of this country. When selecting the content of the cross-cultural competence, the authors took into account the principles and criteria for selection of the content of education, the specifics of foreign students, and special aspects of organizing the educational process at the preparation stage. As a result of the study, the authors identified the content of the cross-cultural competence of foreign students of the preparatory department, specified and described its topical units: cultural-historical, geographical, national, and regional. Besides, the authors described cognitive and functional components of the cross-cultural competence. The paper establishes relations between the disciplines of the humanities and substantiates the application of an interdisciplinary approach within the framework of the formation of the cross-cultural competence of foreign students of the preparatory department.

Becoming a speaker of multiple languages: an investigation into UK university students’ motivation for learning Chinese

ABSTRACT This study explored the language learning motivation of a small group of five university students in the UK through the constructs of Dornyei's L2 Motivational Self System and Henry’s notion of ‘the ideal multilingual self’. The five participants, all successful language learners at school, chose to specialise in modern languages at university and in addition to the foreign languages they had previously learned, decided to study Chinese. Interviews were conducted in the final year of the participants’ university course and their motivational changes during the course of studying Chinese were explored. The results revealed that two students who achieved remarkable success in learning Chinese came to possess a strong desire to integrate in Chinese society, linked to a longer period spent studying in the target language country. We suggest that integrative orientation is a significant component in maintaining the ideal L2 self, especially when a psychological and physical distance exists in relation to the target language, its culture and the country.

English Listening Anxiety of Indonesian Speakers

Research on foreign language anxiety among Indonesian learners of English has gained some attention thus far. However, few studies have examined specifically English listening anxiety of Indoensian speakers. Previous research in other countries has suggested a number of variables contributing to the foreign language anxiety. Taking into consideration some of the factors that are distinctive for Indonesian learners’ contexts, this present study aims to find out the relationship between number of languages learned or acquired by the learners, gender of the learners, the learners’ English self-rating proficiency, and length of residence of the learners in the target language country with L2 listening anxiety of Indonesian learners of English. This study involved Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS) data that were obtained from 109 Indonesian university students and were analyzed quantitatively using Pearson’s correlation, Spearman’s rho, and one-way ANOVAs. The finding shows that there is a significant negative correlation between Indonesian learners of English listening anxiety with the learners’ length of residence in the target language country and the learners’ English self-rating proficiency. The significant difference in terms of length of residence in the target language country especially lied in between the no residence group and <1-year group, and between no residence group and >1 year. In the English self-rating, the significant difference lied in between Intermediate and advanced groups.

Inter-Language Translation from Chinese to Indonesian: Strategies and Adjustments

Translation usually involves two languages, the source language, and the target language. However, there is a certain situation that compels the use of an intermediary language for translating a source language (SL) text into a target language (TL) text. For example, when the source language texts (such as texts in Chinese) are not easily available in the target language country (such as Indonesia). This paper analyzed the strategies and adjustments made by the translators in doing inter-language translation or translation through an intermediary language, from Chinese to English to Indonesian. The purpose of this research is to compare two versions of translation, the first being the Indonesian translation from English as an intermediary language (IT) and the second is the Indonesian translation directly from Chinese (DT). Research revealed that IT used loss strategy while DT used gain strategy in the form of syntactic and semantic adjustments because there are many culture-specific items of the source language text that are unknown to either English or Indonesian. The findings imply that the translators should have enough skill and knowledge to enable them to accurately communicate the message of the source text to the target text audience.

СПЕЦИФИКА КУЛЬТУРОВЕДЧЕКОГО КОМПОНЕНТА ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНО ОРИЕНТИРОВАННОГО ОБУЧЕНИЯ РУССКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ ИНОСТРАННЫХ ВОЕННОСЛУЖАЩИХ

In view of the current social situation that has rendered a particular acuteness to the world view issues, the importance of socially and culturally oriented sciences in education of all cohorts of students and especially of servicemen who are responsible for the fate of the world has now significantly increased. Regarded as an interdependent indivisible whole being essential of the language learning process, the cultural, regional and country studies through language are believed to have a hierarchical structure, and the components of this whole are shown to fulfill themselves through the following chain: Culture Studies → Regional Studies → Country Studies. It is found in the course of the research that the discussed sciences play a primary role in addressing the social and adaption problems faced by foreigners who first come to study in Russia. Based on the fact that science is understood as part of the national heritage and the system of human spiritual values, the culturological content is proved to include a narrower ‘channel’ for adding information about the target language country, i.e., the one pertaining to regional studies, which is oriented to the occupation foreign students choose, and implies country facts to be given to the extent needed to professionals in particular fields. The paper approaches the culturological component as a substantive part of the professionally oriented Russian language teaching process, which contributes to the basic understanding of the target language country in foreign military men in terms of the country’s cultural perspective and retrospective, as well as of achievements and developments in the professional field since it provides information about world-famous personalities and historical or cultural events of both common civilizational and high professional significance.

MULTIMODAL LEARNER’S DICTIONARY WITH HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL COMPONENTS IN EFL CLASSROOM

This article studies the problem of making a multimodal computer dictionary with historical and cultural components for EFL classrooms. The relevance of the research topic is associated with the development of computer lexicography as a branch of applied linguistics at the intersection with digital humanities and digital pedagogy, as well as with the active development of new methods and tools in the practice of teaching foreign languages. The object of the research is a multimodal learners’ computer dictionary that visualizes semantic changes in lexicon of the English language, in particular, the key lexemes of the thematic field “еducation”. The purpose of this article is to substantiate the problems of creating an educational multimodal dictionary of a historical and cultural type in computer lexicography. One of the objectives of the research is to study the specific semantic features of the units in the thematic field “education” in the multimodal learner’s dictionary. The multimodal dictionary plays an important role in the interaction of the user with the virtual system, where the dictionary is not only an additional reference book but also a multifunctional means of teaching and obtaining information about the culture of the target language countries, including the dynamics of its development. The introduction of such dictionaries into teaching is the key to successful immersion in the culture of the target language country and mastering language competencies. This article presents the elements of typology and principles of building computer dictionaries, notes the role of a multimodal computer dictionary in teaching a foreign language, and proposes a model of a learner’s multimodal dictionary of historical and cultural type for EFL classroom, as well as outlines the stages of dynamic development in English vocabulary.

Реализация социокультурной компетенции «обучающихся» в речи на родном и иностранном языке

It is well known, that by using language any text reflects the achievements of culture as a product of people’s social activity, that is, the sign system of the language makes it possible to convey the content of culture. Thus, we establish that when comparing different languages in the working process with the corresponding texts, the recipients of textual information acquire the specificity of certain cultures and the singularity of those languages through the prism of which the nature and content of these cultures is transmitted. We note that a full-fledged intercultural dialogue largely depends on students’ assimilation of the cultural code inherent in the linguistic society of the target-language country. We provide definitions of the constantly supplemented and still open concept of “culture”, formulated by foreign and domestic cultural experts. We state the position that a broader understanding of culture cannot be interpreted without close connection with the particular people’s life, without taking into account the differences between representatives of different peoples. We give concrete examples of how the reality reflected in texts through images not only allows us to better understand and comprehend it, but also affects various characteristics of the person receiving this information. We confirm the position that the study of foreign lan-guages has an impact on the development of the personality mental world, enriches it with know-ledge of a foreign language culture, and is of lasting value. We conclude that the text as a product of oral and written speech characterizes the individual culture of the personality, which is devel-oped, in particular, in the learning process.

Документальный фильм как основное средство обучения старшеклассников иноязычному говорению

We consider the issue of using documentaries in teaching speaking in a foreign language to high school students. Documentaries in the system of teaching high school students to speak a foreign language can be used as an audiovisual support for organizing role-playing games, discussions, debates on the documentary topics, brainstorming in the process of solving the problem stated in the documentary. Videos containing socio-cultural and linguistic information help to reveal the peculiarities of culture, history, customs and traditions of the target-language country. Also, the use of authentic video materials creates conditions for the development of a high level of motivation to learn a foreign language, independent work of students. In order to activate the oral speech activity of high school students, we have developed the stages of teaching speaking in a foreign language: preparatory (working with supports, the lexical and grammatical side of the utterance), implementation (making a dialogical or monological utterance) and control (presentation of the utterance).

Influence of the multicultural environment of a Russian university on the language training of foreign students

The relevance of the study is due to the fact that in terms of the development of academic mobility processes, it is necessary to develop linguo-cultural content that reflects the need-motivational sphere of foreign students, as well as the implementation of the developed content, taking into account the multiculturalism of Russian universities. Besides, it is recognized that in the multicultural university environment, a foreign language culture for a foreign student acts in two ways: as a culture of the target language country, on the one hand, and as a culture of the educational environment of a Russian university, on the other hand. The empirical part of the study was carried out on a sample of 42 foreign students from Russian universities. Students were interviewed through a questionnaire to identify as follows: the attitude of foreign students towards the discovery of Russian culture and learning the Russian language; difficulties in learning the Russian language; their awareness of the qualities that characterize personal effectiveness of language training. It was revealed that foreign students recognized the wealth and beauty (42.9%), the uniqueness of the Russian language and culture (38.1%), the importance of the Russian language as a means of intercultural communication (23.8%). The absolute majority (95.2%) of foreign students experience difficulties in mastering the grammatical structure of the Russian language. As for personal qualities, the students revealed those that are interconnected with the features of national identity and allow foreign students to adapt to the Russian educational environment and reality. Based on the data obtained, it was concluded that the complexity of educational activities served as a guideline in the teacher’s actions in solving problems of mastering a foreign language and culture by foreign students, preserving the national identity of an individual, and training his/her for intercultural communication in a multicultural world space.