[PDF] Fluency In Native And Nonnative English Speech eBook

Author : Sandra Götz
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 33,6 MB
Release : 2013-03-20
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9027272336

GET BOOK

This book takes a new and holistic approach to fluency in English speech and differentiates between productive, perceptive, and nonverbal fluency. The in-depth corpus-based description of productive fluency points out major differences of how fluency is established in native and nonnative speech. It also reveals areas in which even highly advanced learners of English still deviate strongly from the native target norm and in which they have already approximated to it. Based on these findings, selected learners are subjected to native speakers' ratings of seven perceptive fluency variables in order to test which variables are most responsible for a perception of oral proficiency on the sides of the listeners. Finally, language-pedagogical implications derived from these findings for the improvement of fluency in learner language are presented. This book is conceptually and methodologically relevant for corpus-linguistics, learner corpus research and foreign language teaching and learning.

Author : Sandra Götz
Publisher :
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 21,40 MB
Release : 2011
Category : Communicative competence
ISBN :

GET BOOK

"Most of the fluency-related research so far has focused on one of the following aspects: (1) temporal variables in speech production, (2) the use of formulaic language or (3) certain performance phenomena which contribute to a perception of naturalness in speech, such as discourse markers. The mainstream linguistic approach to fluency focuses on temporal variables of speech production and is generally accepted as being the best indicator of a learner's fluency. Recent studies have shown that temporal variables as well as the number of errors correlate highly with native speaker assessments of the learners' overall oral proficiency. However, they have focussed on a small amount of raters and neglected other variables that are equally responsible for a perception of oral proficiency on the sides of the listeners, such as accent, idiomaticity, lexical diversity, register, sentence structure, intonation, or pragmatic features. -- Thus, the present study will take into consideration a combination of these approaches: Firstly, a quantitative analysis of the error-tagged version of the 90,000-word German component of the Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage (LINDSEI-Ger) as compared to the Louvain Corpus of Native English Conversation (LOCNEC) will be presented. Thus, areas will be revealed, in which, on the one hand, advanced German learners of English still deviate strongly from the native target norm and in which they have already approximated to the target norm on the other. Secondly, based on the quantitative findings of the corpus analysis, five learners, that represent certain prototypical accuracy and fluency learner types, are subject to 50 native speakers' ratings of (1) their overall oral proficiency, and (2) seven other perceptive fluency variables. The overall ratings will be correlated with the ratings for the individual variables in order to reveal which of the variables has the strongest impact on an overall perception of fluency. -- Finally, some language-pedagogical implications for the improvement of the oral proficiency in learner language derived from these findings will be presented." -- abstract.

Author : Ulrike Gut
Publisher : Peter Lang
Page : 364 pages
File Size : 24,67 MB
Release : 2009
Category : Corpora (Linguistics)
ISBN : 9783631591154

GET BOOK

Based on an innovative corpus-based approach, this book offers a comprehensive survey of the phonological and phonetic properties of L2 speech in English and German. The first part of the book critically examines current theoretical models and research methodologies in the field of second language acquisition of phonology and describes the advances that have been made in corpus linguistics over the past few years - in particular, the development of phonological learner corpora. It furthermore presents the first learner corpus of L2 English and L2 German that is fully aligned and has extensive phonological annotations: the LeaP corpus. The second part of the book describes the results of the quantitative and qualitative corpus analyses in the following areas of non-native speech: fluency, final consonant cluster realisation, vowel reduction and speech rhythm, intonation and general foreign accent. In addition, the influence of many non-linguistic factors, including instruction and a stay abroad, on the phonological properties of non-native speech is explored.

Author : Jan H. Hulstijn
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 47,53 MB
Release : 2015-02-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9027269025

GET BOOK

This book, written for both seasoned and novice researchers, presents a theory of what is called Basic and Higher Language Cognition (BLC and HLC), a theory aimed at making some fundamental issues concerning first and second language learning and bilingualism (more) empirical. The first part of the book provides background for and explication of the theory as well as an agenda for future research, while the second part reports on selected studies of language proficiency in native speakers, as well as non-native speakers, and studies of the relationship between literacy in a first and second language. Conceptual and methodological problems in measuring language proficiency in research on second language acquisition and bilingualism are also discussed. Further, the notion of levels of language proficiency, as rendered by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), is critically examined, suggesting ways of empirically investigating a number of questions that the CEFR raises but is not capable of answering.

Author : Alan Davies
Publisher : Multilingual Matters
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 31,4 MB
Release : 2003-01-01
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781853596223

GET BOOK

Linguists, applied linguists and language teachers all appeal to the native speaker as an important reference point. But what exactly (who exactly?) is the native speaker? This book examines the native speaker from different points of view, arguing that the native speaker is both myth and reality.

Author : Juan de Dios Martinez Agudo
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Page : 362 pages
File Size : 41,90 MB
Release : 2017-05-08
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 1501504142

GET BOOK

Despite being highly debated in applied linguistics and L2 teaching literature, the controversial issue of (non)nativeness still remains unresolved. Contemporary critical research has questioned the theoretical foundations of the nativeness paradigm, which still exerts a strong influence in the language teaching profession. Written by well-known researchers and teacher educators from all over the world, both NSs and NNSs, the selected contributions of this volume cover a great variety of aspects related to the professional role and status of both NS and NNS teachers in terms of both perceived differences and professional concerns and challenges. The strongest aspects of this volume are the global perspectives and the implications for future research and teacher education. It is precisely this international perspective which makes this volume illustrative of different realities with a similar objective in mind: the improvement of second language teaching and teacher education. In today's world, being a NS or NNS should not really matter but rather teachers' professional competences. This publication thus provides a forum of reflection and discussion for all L2 educators who need to be aware of how much they might offer to their future students.

Author : Parvaneh Tavakoli
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 42,65 MB
Release : 2020-12-17
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 1108603432

GET BOOK

Second language (L2) fluency is an exciting and fast-moving field of research, with clear practical applications in language teaching. This book provides a lively overview of the current advances in the field of L2 fluency, and connects the theory to practice, presenting a hands-on approach to using fluency research across a range of different language-related professions. The authors introduce an innovative multidisciplinary perspective, which brings together research into cognitive and social factors, to understand fluency as a dynamic variable in language performance, connecting learner-internal factors such as speech processing and automaticity, to external factors such as task demands, language testing, and pragmatic interactional demands in communication. Bringing a much-needed multidisciplinary and novel approach to understanding the complex nature of L2 speech fluency, this book provides researchers, students and language professionals with both the theoretical insights and practical tools required to understand and research how fluency in a second language develops.

Author : John M. Levis
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 319 pages
File Size : 23,37 MB
Release : 2018-10-04
Category : Foreign Language Study
ISBN : 1108416624

GET BOOK

An intelligibility-based approach to teaching that presents pronunciation as critical, yet neglected, in communicative language teaching.

Author : Marcus Callies
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 14,45 MB
Release : 2015-04-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9027268703

GET BOOK

The aim of this volume is to highlight the benefits and potential of using learner corpora for the testing and assessment of L2 proficiency in both speaking and writing, reflecting the growing importance of learner corpora in applied linguistics and second language acquisition research. Identifying several desiderata for future research and practice, the volume presents a selection of original studies, covering a variety of different languages. It features studies that present very thoroughly compiled new corpus resources which are tailor-made and ready for analysis in LTA, new tools for the automatic assessment of proficiency levels, and new methods of (self-)assessment with the help of learner corpora. Other studies suggest innovative research methodologies of how proficiency can be operationalized through learner corpus data. The volume is of particular interest to researchers in (applied) corpus linguistics, learner corpus research, language testing and assessment, as well as for materials developers and language teachers.