Search results for "Language Acquisition"
showing 10 items of 219 documents
Expeditions among the Lutsi Estonians and the design of Language Learning Materials
2019
The Lutsi Estonians (Lutsis) are a historically South Estonian-speaking minority that has inhabited a network of more than 50 villages in the historical rural parishes of Pilda, Nirza, Brigi, and Mērdzene surrounding the city of Ludza, in the Latgale region of eastern Latvia, for at least three to four centuries. Between 2013 and 2016, I received funding from the Kone Foundation to document the present state of the Lutsis and to write a Lutsi language primer for Latvian speakers. The first part of this paper gives an overview of previous work on Lutsi followed by a description of the present state of the population of Lutsi descendants as I found it during the period of my Kone-funded resea…
Learning English Through Social Interaction: The Case ofBig Brother 2006,Finland
2013
In line with recent Conversation Analytic work on language learning as situated practice, this article investigates how interactants can create language learning opportunities for themselves and others in and through social interaction. The study shows how the participants of BigBrother Finland, a reality TV show, whose main communication is in Finnish, take up resources provided by English and use them for learning in their interaction. This interaction is characterized by an orientation to both the local context and the television audience, a mixture of activity types and translanguaging. It focuses on one of the participants who explicitly evaluates his own proficiency in English as limi…
Towards multilingual competence: examining beliefs and agency in first year university students’ language learner biographies
2021
As working life across the world is increasingly multilingual, multicultural and multidisciplinary, higher education language teaching is faced with a challenge of how to prepare students for it. Many universities have recently developed multilingual pedagogies but central to their success is learners’ perceptions of these practices. To fill this gap, this article explores first year university students’ language learner biographies to gain insight into how learners construct their linguistic realities. The biographies were studied with discourse analytical methods to examine the participants’ beliefs about language learning and their sense of agency in it. The results reveal that participa…
To correct or not correct the erroneous utterances of children: teacher‐initiated organisation of repair in the L2 pre‐primary education classroom
2010
ABSTRACT The research reported on a qualitative study of feedback given in one Finnish pre‐primary education group which integrated English into the programme as a first foreign language. The study was based on the authentic video‐recorded observations of actual pre‐primary teaching sessions (N = 11 lessons). The findings suggested that the reactions of the teachers to child errors depended on the types of errors made by children. The study discussed the tension present in feedback giving when balancing between the aim of maintaining the early interest of children in language learning and the purpose of paying attention to correct ways of using the target language. The data were analysed by…
Parents' willingness and thoughts of English immersion
2009
Tämän kvantitatiivisen proseminaarityön tarkoituksena oli tutkia vanhempien tietämystä kielikylpyopetuksesta sekä heidän halukkuuttaan tarjota sitä englanninkielisenä lapsilleen. Tarkoitus oli selvittää, tietävätkö vanhemmat kielikylvystä entuudestaan ja olisivatko he kiinnostuneita laittamaan lapsensa kielikylpyopetukseen. Tutkielmassa tarkasteltiin myös vanhempien käsityksiä siitä, miten kielikylpy vaikuttaa esim. kielelliseen kehitykseen tai muiden aineiden oppimiseen. Tutkielma tarjosi vanhemmille kahta kielikylpymallia, osittaisen ja totaalisen, joista vanhemmat saivat valita mieluisemman. Tutkimukseen vastasi noin 60 ensimmäisen ja toisen luokan vanhempaa kahdesta Jyväskylän alakoulu…
Atypical perceptual narrowing in prematurely born infants is associated with compromised language acquisition at 2 years of age
2010
Abstract Background Early auditory experiences are a prerequisite for speech and language acquisition. In healthy children, phoneme discrimination abilities improve for native and degrade for unfamiliar, socially irrelevant phoneme contrasts between 6 and 12 months of age as the brain tunes itself to, and specializes in the native spoken language. This process is known as perceptual narrowing, and has been found to predict normal native language acquisition. Prematurely born infants are known to be at an elevated risk for later language problems, but it remains unclear whether these problems relate to early perceptual narrowing. To address this question, we investigated early neurophysiolog…
Connecting the Language Classroom and the Wild : Re-enactments of Language Use Experiences
2018
AbstractUsing multimodal conversation analysis, this article analyses language learning as an in situ process during a teacher-assigned, experientially based pedagogical activity. The activity involved a three-part pedagogical structure, where learners first prepared for and then participated in real-life service encounters, and later reflected on their experiences back in the classroom. The analysis details how the co-constructed telling sequences through which novice second language users re-enact their experiences create an occasion for language-focused activity. We argue that the actions through which the participants display and sustain an orientation to an interactional practice as an…
Trīsvalodīga bērna audzināšana vecumā no 0 līdz 3 gadiem: iekļaušana ģimenē un vienvalodīgā sabiedrībā
2018
Kaut arī bilingvālisms tiek studēts jau vairākus gadu desmitus, trilingualitātei joprojām nepieciešama padziļināta izpēte. Lielākā daļa pētījumu, kas veltīti trilinguālismam, ir balstīti bilinvālisma izpētes koncepcijās, taču trilinguālisms ir daudz komplicētāka parādība, tāpēc tam nepieciešama individuāli fokusēta, izvērsta izpēte. Pētot šo fenomenu, autore darba ietvaros centās sniegt ieskatu bērnu audzināšanas praksēs un veiksmīgos valodu apguves nosacījumos. Šī pētījuma galvenais mērķis bija identificēt izplatītākos šķēršļus ar kuriem sastopas daudzvalodīgas ģimenes, kurās lieto trīs valodas, kā arī, balstoties uz reālu pieredzi, noskaidrot, kādus risinājumus iespējams rast problēmsituā…
Vocabulary Learning Strategies
2015
Aikuisten S2-oppijoiden kielenoppimisen kokemuksia selkomukautetun kaunokirjallisuuden parissa
2020
Artikkeli käsittelee oppimisen kokemuksia selkomukautetun kaunokirjallisuuden parissa kotoutumiskoulutuksen lukupiirissä. Aineistona ovat lukupiirien 24 osallistujan haastattelut. Haastattelut on tehty osallistujien toisella kielellä tai lingua franca -englannilla, ja niitä lähestytään fenomenologista ajattelutapaa hyödyntäen kertomuksina oppimisen kokemuksista. Kokemukset vaihtelevat yksilöllisesti, ja tärkeimmiksi merkityskokonaisuuksiksi nousevat sanat, kielen rakenteet ja kielenkäyttö. Kokemusten yksilöllisyyttä voidaan selittää sosiokulttuurisesta teoriasta käsin: vaikka selkomukautettu kaunokirjallisuus tarjoaa lukijalleen runsaasti kielellisiä affordansseja, tarjoumia, kukin lukija t…