Predicting language learners' grades in the L1, L2, L3 and L4: the effect of some psychological and sociocognitive variables

This study of 89 Flemish high-school students' grades for L1 (Dutch), L2 (French), L3 (English) and L4 (German) investigates the effects of three higher-level personality dimensions (psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism), one lower-level personality dimension (foreign language anxiety) and sociobiographical variables (gender, social class) on the participants' language grades. Analyses of variance revealed no significant effects of the higher-level personality dimensions on grades. Participants with high levels of foreign language anxiety obtained significantly lower grades in the L2 and L3. Gender and social class had no effect. Strong positive correlations between grades in the different languages could point to an underlying sociocognitive dimension. The implications of these findings are discussed

A case study of implementation of international mindedness in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in Hong Kong second language Chinese classroom

Parallel SessionsConference Theme: 'to boldly go... 'This study aims at examining the concept of ‘international mindedness’ as it is evidenced in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in a Chinese as a second language classroom in an international school. The research methodology includes in‐depth semi-structured interviews, classroom observation, classroom discourse analysis (Christie, 2008), and text analysis of students’ work by using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 1994), Appraisal Theory (Martin and White 2005) and Bernstein’s topology of pedagogies of instruction. The findings show how the teacher in this study could be said to have demonstrated ‘international mindedness’ in her teaching, and how students expressed ‘international mindedness’ and how students expressed ‘international mindedness’ in their representations of values and knowledge. The study concludes that IB curriculum officers and educators should consider how to effectively promote international mindedness in IB curriculum and assessment development.postprin

How to Teach English Phonetic Components to Speakers of Japanese : A Review of Previous Studies

The purpose of this paper is to compare some salient suprasegmental andsegmental differences between English and Japanese, to identify difficulties thatJapanese learning English may encounter, and to revisit effective pronunciationteaching based on previous research findings. Current tendency is to focus onintegration of suprasegmental and segmental features rather than choosing either ofthem. Regarding setting priority in teaching pronunciation, a consensus betweenexperienced teachers on relatively important pronunciation features for Japaneselearning English was recently provided by Saito (2014). As for teachers’roles andresponsibilities, there are many factors (e.g., learners’goal, proficiency level, anddevelopment stage)which pronunciation teachers need to take into account. Withthis in mind, teachers are responsible for selecting appropriate approaches, instructionalmaterials, and learning activities from a wide range. Above all, phonemicdistinction exercise,articulatory descriptions or diagrams seem beneficial especiallyfor beginners. Form Focused Instruction (FFI) and social interaction with othersare regarded to be effective approaches to improve phonetic abilities in spontaneouscommunication

Uncovering the myth of learning to read Chinese characters: phonetic, semantic, and orthographic strategies used by Chinese as foreign language learners

Oral Session - 6A: Lexical modeling: no. 6A.3Chinese is considered to be one of the most challenging orthographies to be learned by non-native speakers, in particular, the character. Chinese character is the basic reading unit that converges sound, form and meaning. The predominant type of Chinese character is semantic-phonetic compound that is composed of phonetic and semantic radicals, giving the clues of the sound and meaning, respectively. Over the last two decades, psycholinguistic research has made significant progress in specifying the roles of phonetic and semantic radicals in character processing among native Chinese speakers …postprin

(Dis)connections between specific language impairment and dyslexia in Chinese

Poster Session: no. 26P.40Specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia describe language-learning impairments that occur in the absence of a sensory, cognitive, or psychosocial impairment. SLI is primarily defined by an impairment in oral language, and dyslexia by a deficit in the reading of written words. SLI and dyslexia co-occur in school-age children learning English, with rates ranging from 17% to 75%. For children learning Chinese, SLI and dyslexia also co-occur. Wong et al. (2010) first reported on the presence of dyslexia in a clinical sample of 6- to 11-year-old school-age children with SLI. The study compared the reading-related cognitive skills of children with SLI and dyslexia (SLI-D) with 2 groups of children …postprin

Vietnamese students learning the semantics of English prepositions

Prepositions are significant in sentences because they are used as markers to join words and phrases into a sentence. Teachers usually teach prepositions by providing students with explanations about the usage of prepositions and then gives examples as illustrations. These examples are often accompanied by vivid pictures. This method, however, does not provide students information on how to analyze the different senses of prepositions. This current study, thus, aims to explore the effectiveness and students’ opinions of new pedagogical instructions on ten English prepositions, namely above, among, at, behind, beside, between, in, in front of, on and under. The research design involved a quasi-experimental design adopting pretest-posttest between-group research. Out of 95 students who volunteered to participate in the study, 38 participants were selected. They were divided into two groups for the new cognitive linguistic approach and traditional instructions. Pretest and posttest were used to discover the participants’ improvements. The participants’ opinions of the cognitive treatment were also investigated. The findings illustrate that the group that was treated with CL-based instructions outperformed the traditional group in the posttest although they gained a comparable mean score in the pretest. Most participants also provided positive responses to the new treatment. The findings suggests that cognitive treatment could be employed to assist students in improving their understanding and retaining the metaphorical meanings of the prepositions

The Associative Field of the Concepts “Japan” and “ウクライナ” (Ukraine) based on the Results of an Associative Experiment among Japanese and Ukrainians as the Cultural Stereotypes Evidence

The paper attempts to identify and describe the typical cultural stereotypes of Japanese about Ukraine and0000000000000000 of Ukrainians about Japan on the basis of data gained from a free associative experiment based on stimulus words Japan and ウクライナ (Ukraine). The results of the free associative experiment revealed the associative field of the proper name concept Ukraine among Japanese (Russia, Africa, Europe, Uruguay, Uganda, cold, beautiful women, war, dangerous, black soil, Chornobyl), whereas the associative field of the proper name concept Japan contains lexemes samurai, geisha, sakura, Fujiyama, Fukushima, sushi, Sony, Toyota, anime. According to the qualitative classification of associations, the following are syntagmatic (Ukraine – cold, dangerous; Japan – distant, exotic) and paradigmatic (Ukraine – Russia, Africa, Europe, Uganda, Chornobyl, black soil, war, beautiful women; Japan – Fujiyama, Hiroshima, samurai, geisha, sakura, sake, sushi, Toyota, hentai), with paradigmatic associations being more widely spread. The peculiarity of the Japanese reactions to the word-stimulus Ukraine is the lack of individual reactions, but the presence of phonetic ones, which is explained by the shallow level of awareness of Ukraine in Japan. The prevalence of qualitative reactions with a negative assessment can be noted. A feature of the reactions of Ukrainians to the word-stimulus Japan is the lack of hyperonymic and phonetic reactions. Also, due to the great interest in Japan among Ukrainians, some individual associations can be found. In both cases, no synonymous and causative reactions can be explained by the characteristics of the stimulus words themselves. Many meronymic and qualitative reactions can be explained by those cognitive mechanisms being more accessible. As for the general image of Japan among Ukrainians, the image of exoticism and technology can be observed. The associative experiment proved that both nations are influenced by stereotypes about each other, which can be overcome through educational campaigns