Transfer, similarity or lack of awareness? inconsistencies of German learners in the pronunciation of lot, thought, strut, palm and bath

The current study presents acoustic analyses of non-high back vowels and low central vowels in the lexical sets LOT, THOUGHT, STRUT, PALM and BATH as pronounced by German learners of English. The main objective is to show that learners of English at university level are highly inconsistent in approximating the vowels of their self-chosen target accents British English (BrE) and American English (AmE). To that end, the acoustic qualities of the English vowels of learners are compared to their native German vowels and to the vowels of native speakers of BrE and AmE. In order to facilitate statements about the effect of increased experience, the study differentiates between students in their first year at university and in their third year or later. The results obtained are highly variable: In some cases the learners transfer their L1 vowels to English, other cases show clear approximations to the target vowels, while other cases again document the production of new vowels neither found in German nor in English. However, close approximation to the target vowels only sometimes correlates with higher proficiency. This might be an indicator of a low level of awareness of systematic differences between the BrE and AmE vowel systems. But the data also indicate that the more advanced learners produce more distinct AmE BATH vowels and BrE THOUGHT vowels than the less advanced learners, which points to a partial increase of awareness resulting from increased experience. All in all it seems that raising the awareness of differences between target accents in L2 instruction is necessary if the envisage goal is for learners to reach near-native pronunciation

Exploring L1 Transfer in German Learners of English: High Front Vowels, High Back Vowels and the BED/BAD Distinction

Since the vowel systems of German and English are similar to some extent, German learners of English can be expected to transfer a considerable part of their German vowels to their L2 English. This paper traces the extent and source of positive and negative L1 transfer in two groups of university students from different German L1 backgrounds. To this end, acoustical analyses of three areas of vowel space are provided: high front vowels, high back vowels and mid/low front vowels. While positive transfer widely persists with high front vowels, learners refrain from consistently transferring high back vowels, probably owing to variability both in L1 German and in L2 English. In the case of mid/low front vowels negative transfer is reduced due to exposure to native English, and even more so due to formal instruction, which appears to accelerate the acquisition proces

Statistics of rare events in infinite ergodic theory

This thesis studies the asymptotic behaviour of the transfer operator for systems having a sigma-finite invariant measure. Firstly, a family of Markov interval maps interpolating between the Tent map and the Farey map is considered. This part considers distributional convergence of observables which are integrable, but posses singularities. It turns out that the limiting behaviour on the omega-limit set of the pole depends on the diophantine properties of the pole. Yet, distributional convergence can still be obtained on compact subsets, that do not intersect the omega-limit set of the pole and that are bounded away from the indifferent fixed point. Secondly, this thesis focuses on how to modify the transformation in general and its wandering rate in particular. It turns out that additional assumptions may be required, if the wandering rate is no longer slowly varying but regularly varying. In this part of the thesis a family of non-uniformly hyperbolic maps, known as the alpha-Farey maps is considered

On the asymptotics of the α\alpha-Farey transfer operator

We study the asymptotics of iterates of the transfer operator for non-uniformly hyperbolic $\alpha$-Farey maps. We provide a family of observables which are Riemann integrable, locally constant and of bounded variation, and for which the iterates of the transfer operator, when applied to one of these observables, is not asymptotic to a constant times the wandering rate on the first element of the partition $\alpha$. Subsequently, sufficient conditions on observables are given under which this expected asymptotic holds. In particular, we obtain an extension theorem which establishes that, if the asymptotic behaviour of iterates of the transfer operator is known on the first element of the partition $\alpha$, then the same asymptotic holds on any compact set bounded away from the indifferent fixed point

The Book of Proverbs

The book of Proverbs : critical edition of the Hebrew text with notes / by August Müller and Emil Kautzsch; English translation of the notes by Duncan B. Macdonald.https://scholar.csl.edu/ebooks/1032/thumbnail.jp

Nomaden des Westens - In Deutschland und der Welt zu Hause. Eine Untersuchung internationaler Freiwilligendienste unter migrationstheoretischen und kulturgeographischen Aspekten

Die Arbeit untersucht den Prozess der temporären Migration junger Deutscher im Rahmen eines internationalen Freiwilligendienstes in Afrika, Asien oder Lateinamerika. Zentrale Fragestellung ist neben der detaillierten Analyse des Migrationsprozesses die Frage, ob und inwiefern sich durch einen solchen einjährigen Aufenthalt das Weltbild der jungen Menschen verändert und ob es möglich ist, durch einen solchen Aufenthalt kulturelle Grenzen abzubauen.This Working Paper asks about an analysis of temporary international migration processes of young Germans, doing a year of voluntary work in Africa, Asia or Latin America. The central question is, in how far such a year abroad changes the world view of the young migrants and takes to the reduction of mentally cultural borders

Degradation of DNA damage-independently stalled RNA polymerase II is independent of the E3 ligase Elc1

Transcription elongation is a highly dynamic and discontinuous process, which includes frequent pausing of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII). RNAPII complexes that stall persistently on a gene during transcription elongation block transcription and thus have to be removed. It has been proposed that the cellular pathway for removal of these DNA damage-independently stalled RNAPII complexes is similar or identical to the removal of RNAPII complexes stalled due to DNA damage. Here, we show that-consistent with previous data-DNA damage-independent stalling causes polyubiquitylation and proteasome-mediated degradation of Rpb1, the largest subunit of RNAPII, using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as model system. Moreover, recruitment of the proteasome to RNAPII and transcribed genes is increased when transcription elongation is impaired indicating that Rpb1 degradation takes place at the gene. Importantly, in contrast to the DNA damage-dependent pathway Rpb1 degradation of DNA damage-independently stalled RNAPII is independent of the E3 ligase Elc1. In addition, deubiquitylation of RNAPII is also independent of the Elc1-antagonizing deubiquitylase Ubp3. Thus, the pathway for degradation of DNA damage-independently stalled RNAPII is overlapping yet distinct from the previously described pathway for degradation of RNAPII stalled due to DNA damage. Taken together, we provide the first evidence that the cell discriminates between DNA damage-dependently and -independently stalled RNAPII