6 research outputs found

    Rules for Automatic Grapheme-to-Allophone Transcription in Slovene

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    Can We Speak?: Approaching Oral Proficiency in the EFL Classroom

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    A oralidade tem vindo a ser progressivamente promovida em programas e currículos, tanto nacional como internacionalmente, como um dos grandes objetivos do ensino da língua estrangeira. No entanto, as características únicas desta competência fazem de si a mais difícil de abordar em contextos de sala de aula. Apesar de toda a relevância dada à oralidade, bem como a todos os seus constituintes na maioria dos documentos oficiais nacionais e internacionais, como as novas metas de Inglês para Portugal, as Aprendizagens Essenciais e o Quadro Comum de Referência para as Línguas (QECR), os professores portugueses parecem debater-se para conseguirem aplicar procedimentos adequados para desenvolverem tais competências na sua plenitude. Assim, este projeto inclui uma análise da teoria e da prática do ensino da língua inglesa nas salas de aula portuguesas, considerando a abordagem à oralidade no geral e à inteligibilidade em particular. Na realidade, o conceito de inteligibilidade está hoje firmemente enraizado na área da linguística aplicada como um dos fatores determinantes para explicar o sucesso, ou não, da comunicação entre interlocutores de diferentes origens culturais e linguísticas. Este estudo está dividido em duas partes distintas, uma primeira parte de cariz teórico e uma segunda parte de cariz prático. Nos capítulos da parte 1 são postos criticamente em perspetiva os conceitos globalização, comunicação e mudança, como base para uma reflexão acerca dos fatores históricos e antropológicos mais influentes para a disseminação e estatuto da língua inglesa. O foco é então direcionado para o papel do Inglês na Europa, bem como em Portugal, atendendo aos contextos de ensino-aprendizagem de ambos para irem ao encontro das necessidades linguísticas dos alunos coevos. Numa tentativa de clarificar os complexos desenvolvimentos da língua, este estudo examina os fundamentos que subjazem a conceitos-chave de proficiência linguística em ambiente educacional, assim como as premissas teóricas que os norteiam. Logo, serão igualmente reavaliadas algumas das compartimentações habituais no mundo anglófono, de acordo com a mudança do “centro de gravidade” que está a ocorrer no uso da língua inglesa. Como afirmado, a parte 2 do estudo é eminentemente prática. O plano e o método através dos quais o estudo se desenvolveu são apresentados, detalhando-se a abordagem metodológica da investigação em relação à informação quantitativa e qualitativa recolhida (questionários / observações em sala de aula / entrevistas / gravações áudio). O propósito é perceber o que está a ser feito pelos professores em sala de aula em termos de oralidade e quão inteligíveis são os alunos de inglês do 9º ano de escolaridade. A partir da informação recolhida, é feita uma análise dos resultados mais pertinentes, que por sua vez conduzirá às implicações e conclusão do estudo. Estas duas últimas secções discutem os potenciais efeitos dos resultados obtidos no processo ensino-aprendizagem da oralidade e a sua influência na inteligibilidade dos alunos, enquanto falantes e ouvintes.Speaking has been increasingly promoted in language syllabuses and curriculums, both nationally and internationally, as one of the major aims of foreign language teaching. However, the unique features of this skill make it the most challenging one to address in classroom-based contexts. Despite the conspicuous importance given to speaking and all its subsets in most national and international official documents, new English targets for Portugal, the subject’s core curriculum and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), Portuguese teachers seem to be at odds with suitable procedures to fully develop them inside the classroom. Thus, this project entails an analysis of the theory and practice of classroom English language teaching (ELT) in Portugal concerned with speaking in general and intelligibility in particular. Indeed, the concept of intelligibility is now firmly established in the field of applied linguistics as one of the key factors in explaining success or otherwise in communication between interlocutors from cultural and linguistic diverse backgrounds. This study is divided in two overarching parts, part 1 is a more theoretical one, whereas part 2 is a more practical one. Throughout the chapters of part 1 globalization, communication and change are critically put into perspective, laying the foundation for a reflection on the most significant historical and anthropological factors for English’s global spread and current status. The focus is then narrowed down to the role of English in Europe and further on in Portugal, bearing in mind the language learning and teaching contexts of these settings to meet the needs of students’ present-day reality. In order to shed greater light on these complex language developments, this study examines the rationale underlying some of the core concepts on educational language proficiency, including their definitions and key characteristics, as well as outlining the theoretical premises on which they are grounded. Thus, traditional divides in the English-speaking world are here reexamined in accordance with the change taking place in the ‘centre of gravity’ of the English language. As stated, part 2 of the study is eminently practical. The design and methods on which the study is carried out are delineated, detailing the research methodological approach of quantitative and qualitative data collection (questionnaires / classroom observations / semi-structured interviews / audio recordings). The goal is to understand what teachers do inside their classrooms in terms of speaking ability, as well as how intelligible 9th grade English students are. From the set of gathered data stems an analysis of the major findings, which in turn lead to the implications and conclusion of the study. These two last sections discuss the potential effect of the findings to the teaching and learning of speaking and its influence on the students’ intelligibility, either as speakers or listeners

    Rules for Automatic Grapheme-to-Allophone Transcription in Slovene

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    Exploring Cross-linguistic Effects and Phonetic Interactions in the Context of Bilingualism

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    This Special Issue includes fifteen original state-of-the-art research articles from leading scholars that examine cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speech. These experimental studies contribute to the growing number of studies on multilingual phonetics and phonology by introducing novel empirical data collection techniques, sophisticated methodologies, and acoustic analyses, while also presenting findings that provide robust theoretical implications to a variety of subfields, such as L2 acquisition, L3 acquisition, laboratory phonology, acoustic phonetics, psycholinguistics, sociophonetics, blingualism, and language contact. These studies in this book further elucidate the nature of phonetic interactions in the context of bilingualism and multilingualism and outline future directions in multilingual phonetics and phonology research

    The Hittite Inherited Lexicon

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    Hittite was the language of the Hittite Empire that ruled over vast parts of Turkey from 1650 - 1180 BC. It was written in the cuneiform script on clay tablets. Linguistically, it belongs to the Anatolian language group, which is one of the twelve branches of the large Indo-European language family. Within the Indo-European language family, Hittite is the oldest attested language. In over 1200 pages this dissertation describes the history of Hittite in the light of its Indo-European origin. It consists of two parts. Part One, 'Towards a Hittite Historical Grammar', contains a description of the Hittite phoneme inventory and a discussion of the sound laws and morphological changes that have taken place between the Proto-Indo-European and the Hittite language stage. Part Two, 'An Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon', contains etymological treatments of all Hittite words of Indo-European origin. One of the most important conclusions of this dissertation is that the Anatolian language group was the first one to split off from Proto-Indo-European and that all other Indo-European branches have undergone a period of common innovations. Therewith Anatolian, and especially Hittite, occupies a very important position within comparative Indo-European linguistics as it sometimes has retained linguistic information that has been lost in all other Indo-European languagesLEI Universiteit LeidenAnatolische taalkund
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