Download or read book English Inversion in Second Language Acquisition of German Native Speakers written by Theresa Schmidt and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 3,0, http: //www.uni-jena.de/, 100 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: On the basis of questionnaire data, this study seeks to find a tendency for native language influence in the judgement of German-speaking learners of English. Seeing that the concept of language transfer has received diverse weight in the history of second language acquisition (SLA), the present account illuminates the issue anew, with a specific linguistic concern. Inversion structures, though not canonical, are very frequent in the German language, whereas the English language offers comparatively rare environments which trigger or allow for inversions. As previous studies found, language transfer, in regard to word order, emerged when the native language exhibited flexible word order, and the language to be learnt, in contrast, had a rather fixed one. This gave rise to the assumption that German natives would generally accept subject-verb inversion in declarative sentences in English, even if for a native speaker of English the structure would not be acceptable. Thus, the second language learners are expected to score high on the acceptability rate for the majority of instances of inversion in English, since the German equivalents of the test items are basically quite acceptable in German

Download or read book English Inversion in Second Language Acquisition of German Native Speakers written by Theresa Schmidt and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-01-20 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2007 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 3,0, http://www.uni-jena.de/, language: English, abstract: On the basis of questionnaire data, this study seeks to find a tendency for native language influence in the judgement of German-speaking learners of English. Seeing that the concept of language transfer has received diverse weight in the history of second language acquisition (SLA), the present account illuminates the issue anew, with a specific linguistic concern. Inversion structures, though not canonical, are very frequent in the German language, whereas the English language offers comparatively rare environments which trigger or allow for inversions. As previous studies found, language transfer, in regard to word order, emerged when the native language exhibited flexible word order, and the language to be learnt, in contrast, had a rather fixed one. This gave rise to the assumption that German natives would generally accept subject-verb inversion in declarative sentences in English, even if for a native speaker of English the structure would not be acceptable. Thus, the second language learners are expected to score high on the acceptability rate for the majority of instances of inversion in English, since the German equivalents of the test items are basically quite acceptable in German.

Download or read book Information Highlighting in Advanced Learner English written by Marcus Callies and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2009-04-08 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the first detailed and comprehensive study of information highlighting in advanced learner language, echoing the increasing interest in questions of near-native competence in SLA research and contributing to the description of advanced interlanguages. It examines the production and comprehension of specific means of information highlighting in English by native speakers and German learners of English as a foreign language, presenting triangulated experimental and learner corpus data as corroborating evidence. The study focuses on learners’ use of discourse-pragmatically motivated variations of the basic word order such as inversion, preposing, and it- and wh-clefts, an underexplored field in SLA research to date.The book also provides a critical re-assessment of the study of pragmatics within SLA. It has largely been neglected to date that L2 pragmatic knowledge includes more than the sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic abilities for understanding and performing speech acts. Thus, the book argues for an extension of the scope of inquiry in interlanguage pragmatics beyond the cross-cultural investigation of speech acts. It also discusses pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching and will be of interest to applied linguists and SLA researchers, language teachers and curriculum designers.

Download or read book The Dynamic Interlanguage written by Miriam R. Eisenstein and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent work in applied linguistics has expanded our understanding of the rule governed nature of language. The concept of an idealized speaker -hearer whose linguistic competence is abstract and separate from reality has been enriched by the notion of an actual interlocutor who possesses communicative compe tence, a knowledge of language which accounts for its use in real-world con texts. Areas of variation previously relegated to idiosyncratic differences in performance have been found to be dynamic yet consistent and lend themselves to study and systematic description. Because language acquisition involves the development of communicative competence, by its very nature it incorporates variation and systematicity. Sec ond-language acquisition is similarly variable, since interlanguage is subject to the same universal and language-specific conventions. In addition, aspects of the second language have been found to be unevenly acquired and are differ entially reflected in particular contexts or settings. Yet, despite our expanding knowledge, this variability is only beginning to be treated in much of the sec ond-language acquisition literature. This volume presents the work of some researchers and methodologists who have taken on the challenge of including variation in their research designs and pedagogical recommendations. Variation is shown to be relevant to lin guistic, social, and psychological aspects of language. It is apparent in the registers and dialects of the target language and in the inter language of learners.

Download or read book Second Language Development written by Sascha W. Felix and published by Tübingen : Narr. This book was released on 1980 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Acquisition of Phonetic Details Difficulties of the English Pronunciation for German Second Language Speakers and Teaching Suggestions written by Chiara Alina Sachwitz and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2021-11-08 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,7, , language: English, abstract: Nowadays, it seems perfectly normal to many Germans using English words in daily conversations, however, on the level of pronunciation, it is common to stick to the German sound system. Yet, there are language learners who know about the different phonological patterns of the two languages. To understand the reasons why German second language learners face difficulties pronouncing English sounds, this term paper focuses on potential areas of concern. English words are placed into the context of the native language and are characterized by its foreign-sounding accent. This accent is defined as a which give information on a person’s social background and indicate. At the same time, pronunciation itself while the pronunciation of individual sounds does not make a difference in meaning in the German language, it can have a distinctive function in the English language. Many language learners, however, are not aware of this contradiction between their first language and the target language and therefore, tend to pronounce English words incorrectly.

Download or read book English and German A Comparison of Phonological and Inflectional Properties written by Hülya Atasoyi and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2016-01-04 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2.0, University of Duisburg-Essen (Anglophone Studies), course: Languages around the world, language: English, abstract: This paper aims at providing a comparison of phonological as well as inflectional properties of English and German. It presents an overview of how major differences between both languages correlate with potential problems in language learning. Furthermore, the problems in language learning of two languages of similar historical origin will be examined, in particular German native-speakers in learning English and vice versa. In addition, it might be significant to see how both languages are differently hard to learn. However, it has to be considered that the degree of difficulty in learning one of these languages differs for every individual person. Each section will concentrate on the question whether major differences between English and German correlate with potential problems in language learning, in particular sections 3.2, 4.3 and 5. At first, some background information on these languages will be given. Afterwards, by presenting the phoneme inventory, particularly focusing on interference, this paper takes a specific look at the pronunciation difficulties of second language learners. Additionally, a short definition of the term ‘suffixation’ will be given in order to introduce the topic ‘inflection’. Selected inflectional suffixes in English and German, with focus on nouns and pronouns, will be investigated separately with examples in order to give an overview about this morphologic process in both languages. What is also presented in this section is an extensive comparison of inflectional suffixes. Furthermore, a survey was conducted in which students and people with less English and/or German knowledge were questioned. The survey is concerned with difficulties in learning English and German.

Download or read book Second Language Acquisition written by Evelyn Marcussen Hatch and published by Rowley, Mass. : Newbury House Publishers. This book was released on 1978 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Language Acquisition Beyond Parameters written by Anahí Alba de la Fuente and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2016-12-16 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The chapters in this volume take different approaches to the exploration of language acquisition processes in various populations (monolingual and bilingual first language acquisition, L2 acquisition) and address issues in syntax, morphology, pragmatics, language processing and interface phenomena. This volume is a tribute to Juana M. Liceras’ fundamental and enduring contribution to the field of Spanish Second Language Acquisition (SLA). All the chapters in the volume are linked to or inspired by Juana’s extensive body of work, and, like Juana’s research, they all stand at the crossroads of formal and experimental linguistics. Together, the studies presented in this volume are a reflection of Juana’s impact both as a mentor and as a collaborative researcher while at the same time showcasing current trends and new directions in the field of generative SLA.

Download or read book Universal Grammar and Parameter Resetting in Second Language Acquisition written by Martin Kaltenbacher and published by Peter Lang Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diese Arbeit wurde mit dem Forderpreis der Landeshauptstadt Salzburg zur Forderung von Kunst, Wissenschaft und Literatur ausgezeichnet. The book addresses the issue of Universal Grammar (UG) and parameter resetting in Second Language (L2) acquisition. The central questions are: what is the initial state of a learner's L2-grammar and does UG play a role in L2-acquisition? Several hypotheses are evaluated and set in relation to four parameters that are suggested to play a central role in UG and language acquisition. Particular focus is put on parametric differences between English and German. For this purpose Austrian learners have been tested on null subjects and adverbial and verb placement. It is shown that the learners transfer the L1-parameter settings into their early English interlanguage grammars. They are then involved in a disrupted process of parameter resetting, which is not guided by UG but proceeds via cognitive processes and learning strategies. Contents: Universal grammar in language acquisition - The pro-drop parameter - Parameterisation of adverbial and adverb placement - The head parameter - A case study with Austrian learners of L2-English.

Download or read book Information Highlighting in Advanced Learner English written by Marcus Callies and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the first detailed and comprehensive study of information highlighting in advanced learner language, echoing the increasing interest in questions of near-native competence in SLA research and contributing to the description of advanced interlanguages. It examines the production and comprehension of specific means of information highlighting in English by native speakers and German learners of English as a foreign language, presenting triangulated experimental and learner corpus data as corroborating evidence. The study focuses on learners' use of discourse-pragmatically motivated variations of the basic word order such as inversion, preposing, and it- and wh-clefts, an underexplored field in SLA research to date.The book also provides a critical re-assessment of the study of pragmatics within SLA. It has largely been neglected to date that L2 pragmatic knowledge includes more than the sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic abilities for understanding and performing speech acts. Thus, the book argues for an extension of the scope of inquiry in interlanguage pragmatics beyond the cross-cultural investigation of speech acts. It also discusses pedagogical implications for foreign language teaching and will be of interest to applied linguists and SLA researchers, language teachers and curriculum designers.

Download or read book Teachability and Learnability across Languages written by Ragnar Arntzen and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2019-06-15 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teachability and Learnability across Languages addresses key issues in second, foreign and heritage language acquisition, as well as in language teaching. Focusing on a Processability Theory perspective, it brings together empirical studies of language acquisition, language teaching, and language assessment. For the first time, a research timeline for the role of instruction in language learning is presented, showing how the field of second language acquisition (SLA) research has developed over the last four decades since Pienemann’s work on learnability and syllabus construction over the 1980s. The book includes studies of child and adult second as well as foreign language acquisition research, covering a wide range of target languages including English, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. In addition, future extensions of PT are discussed. This volume is designed for advanced students in international programs of SLA and Applied Linguistics as well as for SLA researchers and second and foreign language teachers.

Download or read book Acquisition of Second Language Intonation written by Marianne Radel and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2009 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frequently, advanced speakers of a second language use the foreign grammar perfectly - often knowing the rules better than native speakers. And yet, by listening to their talking, native speakers know immediately that they are communicating with foreigners. The problem lies in the area of prosody. In classroom situations students might learn how to role an 'r' or form a proper 'th', but not how to produce entire intonation phrases. However, only with intonation is the full meaning, that a speaker wants to communicate, understood. But why is intonation assumed to be of special difficulty to L2 learners? Why are certain features more difficult to learn than others? This investigation sheds some light on the direction of acquisition of intonation by L2 learners (here: L2 Spanish by L1 speakers of German) and simultaneously makes predictions about the markedness of certain phenomena in the languages under consideration. These findings may help language teachers and learners as well-directed teaching materials can be derived and major problems in the acquisition process can be resolved more easily.

Download or read book Language Acquisition and Change written by Jurgen M Meisel and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-17 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under which circumstances does grammatical change come about? Is the child the principle agent of change as suggested by historical linguistics?This book discusses diachronic change of languages in terms of restructuring of speakers' internal grammatical knowledge. Efforts to construct a theory of diachronic change consistent with findings from psycholinguistics are scarce. Here, these questions are therefore addressed against the background of insights from research on monolingual and bilingual acquisition. Given that children are remarkably successful in reconstructing the grammars of their ambient languages, commonly held views need to be reconsidered according to which language change is primarily triggered by structural ambiguity in the input and in settings of language contact. In an innovative take on this matter, the authors argue that morphosyntactic change in core areas of grammar, especially where parameters of Universal Grammar are concerned, typically happens in settings involving second language acquisition. The children acting as agents of restructuring are either L2 learners themselves or are continuously exposed to the speech of L2 speakers of their target languages. Based on a variety of case studies, this discussion sheds new light on phenomena of change which have occupied historical linguists since the 19th century and will be welcomed by advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in the fields of historical linguistics and language acquisition.

Download or read book Teaching English Pronunciation to L1 Speakers of German at Gymnasium written by Michael Burger and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2009-04-30 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 2,0, University of Augsburg (Phil-Hist Fakultät), course: Teaching and Learning English Pronunciation, language: English, abstract: In the course of the last three decades a whole new prominence has been granted to the significance of foreign language (FL) learning. Due to the recent development of globalization, further emerging of multi-national enterprises and the coalescence of the European Union, this appears to be the logical consequence. Because of its nowadays widely accepted status as a lingua franca (Acar 2006) the learning and teaching of English as the most frequently spoken second language has gained importance – in Germany as well as in most industrialized countries speaking prevalently another first language (L1). In the recent past, since the end of the 19th century, changing trends have focused on different methods of language teaching, such as the ability to translate texts, correct use of grammar, or wide range of vocabulary. However, the teaching of English pronunciation finally has come back into the focus of interest since the second half of the 1980s due to the mentioned economic and social changes. Nowadays the ability to (net-) work internationally – and thus reach the “ultimate goal of communication with other speakers of the second language” (Brown 1994: 226) seems to be one of the highest goals of achievement of second language (L2) learning. During the time of almost one century of pronunciation teaching the attitude towards the issue has changed as well: as Chun (1991: 179) states in her article, the development started from a segmental and comparative sound repetition learning strategy, followed by a period of simply ignoring the topic completely from the 1960s to the early 1980s, leading finally to the up-to-date approach of teaching suprasegmentals, sentence intonation as well as other aspects of connected speech. The most current approach towards second language teaching lies, according to Neri, Cucchiarini and Strik (2006: 357), in “the achievement of communicative effectiveness”. This means that learners do not necessarily have to eradicate the slightest traces of foreign accent in their productions of L2 speech but are trained to avoid serious pronunciation errors.

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition Morphosyntax and Semantics written by Tania Ionin and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-03-11 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook provides innovative and comprehensive coverage of research on the second language acquisition (SLA) of morphosyntax, semantics, and the interface between the two. Organized by grammatical topic, the chapters are written by experts from formal and functional perspectives in the SLA of morphosyntax and semantics, providing in-depth yet accessible coverage of these areas. All chapters highlight the theoretical underpinnings of much work in SLA and their links to theoretical syntax and semantics; making comparisons to other populations, including child language acquirers, bilinguals, and heritage speakers (links to first language acquisition and bilingualism); dedicating a portion of each chapter to the research methods used to investigate the linguistic phenomenon in question (links to psycholinguistics and experimental linguistics); and, where relevant, including intervention studies on the phenomenon in question (links to applied linguistics). The volume will be indispensable to SLA researchers and students who work on any aspect of the SLA of morphosyntax or semantics. With its coverage of a variety of methodologies and comparisons to other populations (such as child language acquirers, early bilinguals, heritage speakers, and monolingual adults), the handbook is expected to also be of much interest to linguists who work in psycholinguistics, first language acquisition, and bilingualism.

Download or read book The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition written by Paul A. Malovrh and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 608 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, current review of the research and approaches to advanced proficiency in second language acquisition The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition offers an overview of the most recent and scientific-based research concerning higher proficiency in second language acquisition (SLA). With contributions from an international team of experts in the field, the Handbook presents several theoretical approaches to SLA and offers an examination of advanced proficiency from the viewpoint of various contexts and dimensions of second language performance. The authors also review linguistic phenomena among advanced learners through the lens of phonology and grammar development. Comprehensive in scope, this book provides an overview of advanced proficiency grounded in socially-relevant domains of second language acquisition including discourse, reading, genre-based writing, and pragmatic competence. The authoritative volume brings together the theoretical accounts of advanced language use combined with solid empirical research. Includes contributions from an international collection of noted scholars in the field of second language acquisition Offers a variety of theoretical approaches to SLA Contains information on the most recent empirical research that contributes to an understanding of SLA Describes performance phenomena according to multiple approaches to SLA Written for scholars, students and linguists, The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition is a comprehensive text that offers the most recent developments in the study of advanced proficiency in the acquisition of a second language.