Search results for "language acquisition."
showing 10 items of 209 documents
What Does it Feel Like to Use English? Empirical Evidence from EFL Students
2013
Recent studies concerning foreign language learning and teaching do not focus exclusively on the cognitive processes of the parties involved, but also on their emotional states, which are intricately interwoven with language learning and use. To date, many researchers have focused on the effects of language anxiety on the learners’ development of communicative competence. However, apart from anxiety, humans experience a wide range of other emotions that foreign/second language use evokes across many learning and communicative contexts. Research on affect in foreign language learning has been growing steadily and has been concerned not only with foreign language anxiety, but also with positi…
New Perspectives on Individual Differences in Language Learning and Teaching
2012
Changing Perspectives on Individual Learner Differences.- Cognitive Factors and Instructed Language Acquisition.- Affective and Social Factors in Language Learning.- Individual Differences in Learning and Teaching Practices.
Metalinguistic Development in First-Language Acquisition
1997
At a very early age, the child is able to manipulate language appropriately, both in its comprehension and its production. Later comes the ability to reflect upon and deliberately control its use. The emergence of these metalinguistic abilities must be distinguished from that of ordinary verbal communication. The key questions concerning this topic are: What is metalinguistics? What knowledge do metalinguistic abilities require? Are they conscious activities? And how do they develop? (also see the review by Tunmer in Volume 2 and by Nicholson in this volume.)
Learning paths on elementary university courses in Finnish as a second language
2015
Along with the growing degree of internationalisation, Finnish university education needs to address issues related to learning and teaching Finnish as a second language. From the perspective of teaching Finnish and related pedagogical development, it is essential to recognise when, where and for which purposes learners need Finnish at the various stages of the language acquisition process. This article focuses on the learning paths of three international students who studied Finnish on a one-term elementary course at the University of Jyvaskyla Language Centre. The article is based on a socio-cultural and ecological view on language learning and teaching. The data consist of learning diary…
Pronunciation Learning Strategy Chains: A Qualitative Approach
2014
Language learning is a daunting process frequently enhanced by a number of factors, for example, language learning strategies deployed in an orchestrated manner (Oxford 1990). Similarly, pronunciation learning may be supported by effective strategies used either separately or in logically combined chains. However, little attention has been given so far to the strategies L2 learners employ when learning the target language pronunciation, not to mention pronunciation learning strategy chains. Hence, there have been a limited number of empirical investigations into pronunciation learning strategies (PLS) in general and in particular the ones following the qualitative design (cf. Bukowski 2004;…
Grammar is the heart of language : grammar and its role in language learning among Finnish university students
2015
This article presents and discusses views on grammar and its role in formal language learning amongst Finnish university students. The results are based on a questionnaire which was distributed to students at the University of Jyväskylä as part of institutional action research. The background to the project was a feeling amongst some teachers of increased divergence between student respectively language teacher understandings of the role of grammar in language teaching. This concern raised the need to find out how students view grammar. The knowledge about thoughts on grammar amongst students would then help teachers to adjust and adept the way grammar is used in language teaching. The main…
Language Learning Methodology for Adults: A Study of Linguistic Transfer
2014
Abstract The purpose of the present research is to bring together the evidence on transfer in adult L2 and L3 language acquisition and investigate the use and the relationship between languages in contact. The role of linguistic transfer ( Odlin, 1989 ) i.e. the imposition of previously learned patterns onto a new learning situation, has a facilitation or inhibition effect on the learner's progress in mastering a new language (L2 or L3). Our findings reveal that the cross-linguistic influence occurs both from the direction of the L2 to the L3 and from the L3 to the L2 ( Odlin, 2003 , Jarvis and Pavlenko, 2008 ). In the case of our participants, in the acquisition of L2 as the foreign langua…
Kulttuurienvälisen tietoisuuden ja kieliasenteiden kehittyminen CLIL-opetuksessa
2018
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) has been claimed to create a positive attitude towards languages and language learning in general and to raise intercultural awareness. The studies on the topics have however remained scarce. This study examines the issue from former pupils’ perspective. The 24 participants, who received English-medium CLIL during their comprehensive school in the 1990s, were interviewed in-depth and the data were analysed qualitatively. Most participants felt that CLIL had had a very positive effect on their attitudes towards English. However, many considered that CLIL had partly been detrimental to their attitudes towards and learning of other languages. The…
Early ERP Evidence for Children’s and Adult’s Sensitivity to Scalar Implicatures Triggered by Existential Quantifiers (Some)
2021
How quickly do children and adults interpret scalar lexical items in speech processing? The current study examined interpretation of the scalar terms some vs. all in contexts where either the stronger (some = not all) or the weaker interpretation was permissible (some allows all). Children and adults showed increased negative deflections in brain activity following the word some in some-infelicitous versus some-felicitous contexts. This effect was found as early as 100 ms across central electrode sites (in children), and 300–500 ms across left frontal, fronto-central, and centro-parietal electrode sites (in children and adults). These results strongly suggest that young children (aged betwe…
The interaction of language and thought in children's language acquisition: a crosslinguistic study
1997
The purpose of this research was to investigate the potential interaction of conceptual representations and linguistic systems in the process of language acquisition. Language–thought interactions were studied in 80 American, 48 Finnish and 48 Polish preschool children. The research focused on the conceptual and linguistic development of space and time. The spatial and temporal conceptual tasks were designed to measure the transition from experiential to inferential knowledge of space/time representations. In the linguistic domain, comprehension and production tests were used to evaluate the children's capacity to understand mono- and bi-referential location in space and time, where mono-re…