Signed Language Linguistics

This paper evaluates the embodied mind perspective in light of disembodied approaches to the mind. According to disembodied approaches, the body plays no fundamental role in constituting the mind. Mind and body are considered two distinct entities. This distinction is sometimes ontological and sometimes based on properties or characteristics. In these approaches, the body is described as a substrate, tool, neural realization, or container. In contrast, the embodied mind perspective argues that the mind is inherently embodied. The body constitutes the mind. Mind and body are not two distinct entities, but rather a single entity. Concepts, thoughts, emotions, and in sum, mental states and processes are fundamentally embodied. This means that the body plays a pivotal role in their formation. In this perspective, the body is the constitutive, not the substrate or tool. What supports this approach is a collection of empirical and cognitive findings. Based on these findings, the brain, body, and the surrounding environment together form a dynamic system, and mind and cognition are the consequences of this dynamic system. This approach is not merely about description or explanation; rather, the embodied mind is the outcome of an interdisciplinary approach that is supported by numerous empirical findings. However, this approach is not without its criticisms. The most prominent critiques highlight several key issues, including ambiguities in its fundamental principles, a lack of empirical evidence, insufficient consideration of higher-order cognitive processes, and the reductionist tendency to reduce all mental states to physical states. In this paper, we seek to critically analyze and evaluate this perspective, examining its theoretical underpinnings within the broader academic discourse.

Ancient Maya texts are informationally dominated by hieroglyphic inscriptions and visually dominated by figural art with distinctly formed hands. The hands suggest iconographically embedded hand signs, which would constitute a unique modality of semantic expression and a discourse complement to hieroglyphic writing. However, the hands have eluded decipherment. Here I take a novel approach. I use relevant phonological parameters (handshape, orientation, position) as features for defining a hand form as a graphic symbol. I also exploit inferences of scribal design and composition to constrain possible hand-sign values. Notably, I examine the hand-sign and hieroglyphic inscriptions of Altar Q, an 8th-century sculptural text that is ideal for its relative abundance of graphic hand signs, sizable hieroglyphic inscription, and wealth of contextualizing information. The resulting evidence (including isomorphisms between hand signs and hieroglyphs, intratextual references for hand-sign values, and direct links between hand-sign and hieroglyphic information) converges on a single solution: Each of Altar Q's hand signs is an esoterically formed numeral for one of four Long Count dates. I thus demonstrate and mathematically verify eleven unique numerical hand signs. Although partial, this initial decipherment of Ancient Maya graphic hand signs provides a strong base for future efforts.

This study is designed to analyze the impact of socioeconomic condition, variant teaching methods, learners' attitude, and environment of school in the overall learning of English as a second language in different school types. In countries where English is a second language, the access to English in school has been limited to the upper strata of society while lower strata can only bear the fee of government schools which obstruct the acquisition of second language. Bilingualism is highly associated with the ability to use two language and this research is conducted to investigate the basic differences between teaching strategies, school environment and learners' attitude towards English as second language in different school types. All these factors are considered to address the contrasting ideologies of private schools and government schools which foster or restrict the process of bilingualism. Methodology: This study was designed quantitatively to gather data from 36 participants (12 from each school type i.e., government school, private school and semi government school). Questionnaire contained three sections and were distributed to participants between 20-30 years of age. Two particular teaching methods i.e. Grammar translation method and Communicative language teaching approaches are focused to investigate the impediment in advancement of bilingualism. Findings: Socioeconomic condition of family affects the choice of school where people with strong financial background prefer to admit their children in highly famous English language school. Bilingualism is prioritized in private school where appropriate environment is provided to the learners while other school types do not implement effective strategies which can help students in learning highly prestigious language. Conclusion: English grammar translation method and communicative learning teaching approaches are used differently in public and private schools which formulate different communicative competency of students. Recommendations: Future studies can be conducted to scrutinize the role of other teaching methods such as direct method, audio-lingual method, total physical response, and structural approach in different types of classrooms to assess the learning of English as second language.

Corpus-based contrastive linguistics has rarely been thoroughly explored with regards to cognitive awareness of the English as a Foreign Language (EFL), Arabic first language (L1) speaking learners. The current study, based on an intervention, quasi-experimental quantitative research design, aims at presenting a pedagogical implementation of learners' awareness driven instructions on contrastive linguistics between English and Arabic languages interchangeably. A purposefully selected sample of 69 beginner level (A1 CEFR) Saudi EFL learners were placed into an experimental group (n = 35) and a control group (n = 34). Learners in the experimental group were exposed to four grammatical contrastive linguistics criteria (between English and Arabic) over a 14-weeks semester duration, and the control group underwent a normal taught course with no intervention over the same teaching duration. Both groups were assessed via purposefully designed, 20-items grammar test before and after the 14-weeks duration. The gathered data was analysed with one sample and independent samples t-tests. The analysis revealed the outperformance of the experimental group compared to the control group in all four grammatical contrastive linguistics criteria. The study concludes with pedagogical implications on the principle of utilising contrastive linguistics as a pedagogical tool in an EFL context.

Title page Click here to view linked References Highlights Activation of sign language while bimodal bilinguals heard spoken words. Non-selective cross modality language activation in native and late signers. Parallel activation of the non-dominant language while using the dominant language.

Purpose-Using a newly compiled corpus module consisting of utterances from Asian learners during L2 English interviews, this study examined how Asian EFL learners' L1s (Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese and Thai), their L2 proficiency levels (A2, B1 low, B1 upper and B2þ) and speech task types (picture descriptions, roleplays and QA-based conversations) affected four aspects of vocabulary usage (number of tokens, standardized type/token ratio, mean word length and mean sentence length). Design/methodology/approach-Four aspects concern speech fluency, lexical richness, lexical complexity and structural complexity, respectively. Findings-Subsequent corpus-based quantitative data analyses revealed that (1) learner/native speaker differences existed during the conversation and roleplay tasks in terms of the number of tokens, type/token ratio and sentence length; (2) an L1 group effect existed in all three task types in terms of the number of tokens and sentence length; (3) an L2 proficiency effect existed in all three task types in terms of the number of tokens, type-token ratio and sentence length; and (4) the usage of high-frequency vocabulary was influenced more strongly by the task type and it was classified into four types: Type A vocabulary for grammar control, Type B vocabulary for speech maintenance, Type C vocabulary for negotiation and persuasion and Type D vocabulary for novice learners. Originality/value-These findings provide clues for better understanding L2 English vocabulary usage among Asian learners during speech.

In this reply to Salverda (2016), we address a critique of the claims made in our recent study of real-time processing of American Sign Language (ASL) signs using a novel visual world eyetracking paradigm (Lieberman, Borovsky, Hatrak, & Mayberry, 2015). Salverda asserts that our data do not support our conclusion that native signers and late-learning signers show variable patterns of activation in the presence of phonological competitors. We provide a logical rationale for our study design and present a re-analysis of our data using a modified time window, providing additional evidence for our claim. We maintain that target fixation patterns provide an important window into real-time processing of sign language. We conclude that the use of eye-tracking methods to study real-time processing in a visually perceived language such as ASL is a promising avenue for further exploration.

Noticing the hole (NTH) occurs when speakers want to say something, but realise they do not know the right word(s). Such awareness of lacking knowledge supposedly facilitates the acquisition of the unknown word(s) from later input (Swain, 1993). We tested this claim by experimentally inducing NTH in a second language (L2) for some participants (experimental), but not others (control). Then, in a price comparison game, all participants were exposed to spoken L2 input containing the to-be-learned words. They were unaware of taking part in an L2 study. Post-tests showed that participants who had noticed holes in their vocabulary had indeed learned more words compared to participants who had not. This held both for the experimental group as well as those participants in the control group who later reported to have noticed holes. Thus, when we become aware of vocabulary holes, the first step to improve our vocabulary is already taken.

The aim of the present study was to explore cross-linguistic interactions in language production when the language to be produced and the non-intended language are from different modalities. Concretely, we tested whether Deaf bimodal bilinguals are sensitive to oral language influences when they sign. To that end, 25 Deaf Catalan Sign Language (LSC)-Spanish bilinguals named pictures in LSC while ignoring either written distractor words in Spanish (picture-word interference) or distractor pictures (picture-picture interference). Cross-linguistic interactions were explored by means of behavioural and electrophysiological measures from three categories of distractors: semantically related, phonologically related in the oral language or unrelated to the target picture. No semantic effects were observed in sign latencies, but ERPs differed between semantically related and unrelated distractors. Considering the phonological manipulation, phono-translation facilitation was observed both be...

Identity construction is very much influenced by interactional competence. Having a high level of interactional competence enables students to convincingly construct their desired identities. Learners of English as a foreign language may have a problem constructing their desired identities, especially if they are not particularly fluent in the language. This paper discusses the identity construction engaged in by a group of Jordanian learners of English at Mutah University, Jordan. The observed group consisted of 12 postgraduate students, from different majors, who learn English as preparation for their TOEFL exams. Data were analysed using a conversation analysis approach. The analysis reveals that the students managed to use various linguistic strategies in constructing their desired identities, whilst at the same time were disapproving of the identities constructed by the other group members whenever they felt the identities were inappropriate. This paper concludes that the Jordanian learners have sufficient interactional competence to develop common identities with other group members in their attempt to successfully complete the task given. Contribution/ Originality: This paper contributes to the limited Conversation Analysis (CA) research in the Jordanian context. In addition, it provides novel insights into Arab learners' discursive behaviour in constructing their desired identities and displaying their interactional competence.

Purpose: This study is designed to analyze the impact of socio-economic condition, variant teaching methods, learners’ attitude, and environment of school in the overall learning of English as a second language in different school types. In countries where English is a second language, the access to English in school has been limited to the upper strata of society while lower strata can only bear the fee of government schools which obstruct the acquisition of second language. Bilingualism is highly associated with the ability to use two language and this research is conducted to investigate the basic differences between teaching strategies, school environment and learners’ attitude towards English as second language in different school types. All these factors are considered to address the contrasting ideologies of private schools and government schools which foster or restrict the process of bilingualism. Methodology: This study was designed quantitatively to gather data from 36 pa...

A monolingual and a bilingual primed lexical decision task were used to investigate priming effects produced by attended and ignored visual stimuli. In the Chinese language unilingual experiment, accelerated responses to the traditional Chinese character probe targets were observed when the traditional character probe target was the same as the preceding prime target (i.e., attended repetition, AR). However, when a traditional character "matched" a proceeding simplified Chinese character prime distractor (i.e., ignored repetition, IR), the expected impaired responses (negative priming) were not observed. In the bilingual experiment (Chinese-English), prime stimuli were in Chinese and probe stimuli were in English. Both AR positive priming and IR negative priming between Chinese-English translation equivalents were produced by bilingual subjects in Experiment 2. Further analyses were carried out by dividing subjects into two groups, one less proficient and the other more proficient in English. The contrasting patterns of performance produced by the more and less proficient bilinguals indicate that inhibitory mechanisms can simultaneously operate at two levels of abstraction-global language and local word; and these two types of inhibition can work in a quite independent manner. The contrasting patterns also suggest shared storage with flexible modulation for the conceptual representations of a Chinese-English bilingual's two languages and the words within them.

Assessment in second language learning is a vibrant field of research endeavor, and the subject matter itself is quite important. In this paper, fourteen geographically dispersed studies are presented which give the reader a sense of the breadth of the assessment research literature.

Mezrigui, Youssef. Communication difficulties in learners of english as a foreign language: whys and ways out- 2011Résumé tel-00681272, version 1- 21 Mar 2012 Cette étude vise à mettre au jour les écueils de communication auxquels sont confrontés les apprenants tunisiens de l‘anglais langue étrangère dans l‘enseignement secondaire, et à partir de ces constats, propose quelques recommandations susceptibles de les aider à surmonter ces obstacles. Ma modeste expérience d‘enseignement, ainsi que les réponses aux questionnaires et aux entretiens semblent corroborer le fait que ces difficultés de communication ont pour origine deux facteurs principaux: le manque d‘exposition à l‘anglais aussi bien sur les bancs de la classe qu‘à l‘extérieur, et l‘inadéquation de certaines méthodes pédagogiques. Une des raisons principales de ce problème provient du fait que les élèves tunisiens ne pratiquent pas suffisamment l‘anglais. En effet, bon nombre de ces élèves ne pratiquent cette langue qu‘en cl...

This study investigates the reading strategies used by academically novice, but high proficiency L2 students of English enrolled in a teacher education programme at a major Swedish university. Data were obtained from personal reading blogs kept by the students as they undertook course reading at home. An analysis revealed that students employed various reading strategies; however, there was limited evidence to suggest that students employed these strategies routinely. The most common strategy reported was connecting to short-term writing task. While students reported reflecting on their reading, they did not appear to amend unsuccessful strategy use, or re-use successful strategies. The study reveals the difficulties and limitations of high proficiency L2 students who lack experience of reading academic literature in English, and discusses pedagogical implications for reading blogs.

The aim of the study was to investigate to what extent the vocabulary and reading components of the Test for English Majors Band 4 (TEM-4) do indeed measure the constructs they are supposed to measure. The concurrent validity of the reading and vocabulary components of the test was studied by correlating results on the TEM-4 with widely used tests of vocabulary and reading comprehension. A total of 60 English Major students, in their second year at a university in North China, were tested using the bilingual Mandarin-English version of the Vocabulary Size Test (Nation & Beglar, 2007), the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (Brown, 2008), which assesses depth of vocabulary knowledge and the TEM-4. 30 out of these 60 students were also individually tested using the York Assessment of reading comprehension Secondary (Snowling et al., 2009). The results show that the reading component of the TEM-4 did not correlate with the YARC. Instead there were modest correlations between the TEM-4 reading ...

This study investigated the lexical resources that a sample of Grade 4 learners (n = 259) used to fulfill an expository writing task. Compositions were evaluated by two raters using an assessment rubric, given holistic ratings, and assigned to groups representing four standards of writing proficiency (limited, adequate, proficient, and excellent). Next, vocabulary profiles were generated for the compositions with online software. Indices of lexical diversity and sophistication were gleaned, including the number of tokens, types, word families, and advanced types used in each composition. ANOVA revealed substantial differences in these indices among the four groups. All lexical indices examined were found to be strong predictors of writing proficiency. Lastly, medium-sized correlations were found between holistic ratings of compositions and learners' English Language Arts scores on the Grade 3 Provincial Achievement Test written one year earlier. Implications for language pedagogy and policy are discussed within the context of elementary education. v 2.4.2

The current study aims to investigate learning difficulties in L3 German experienced by the Turkish undergraduate students. The target group involved 29 students from three academic programs at a state university in Turkey: Travel Management and Tourist Guiding, Tourism and Hotel Management and Aviation Management. In the study, semi-structured interview form was designed by the researcher as data collection tool. In the analysis process of the data, the thematic analysis procedure was conducted. The results of the study indicated that the Turkish undergraduate students had learning difficulties in L3 German due to three main factors such as linguistic facts, effective factors and external factors. The linguistic facts involve the learning difficulties related to the linguistic characteristics of German language, linguistic habitus (effect of L2 English) and the effect of L1. In the context of effective factors, it was discussed that the lack of motivation, negative attitudes toward...

To create an effective teaching, teachers should consider the use of questioning strategies to not only elicit students� attention, but also stimulate their critical literacy. This study aims to know the use of questioning strategies used by the English lecturers in the classrooms. An in-depth research was done to provide the information dealing with the reasons of using the questioning strategies and the questioning strategies used to stimulate students� critical literacy. A case study was carried out by involving two English lecturers of Universitas Muhammadiyah Semarang, Indonesia. Both of them taught the second semester students in Reading class and Language Testing class in the Academic Year of 2017/2018. Data were collected through video-recordings and interview with both lecturers. The findings showed that both lecturers used question-planning strategies and question-controlling strategies as proposed by Xuerong (2012) and Walsh (2011). To stimulate the students� critical lit...

Quality of Life encompasses an individual's well-being and health, social participation and satisfaction with functional daily living. Disabilities such as deafness can impact on the quality of life with spatial variance to the environment. Deafness causes communicative problems with significant consequences in cognitive, social, and emotional well-being of affected individuals. However, information relating to the quality of life of deaf and hard of hearing individuals, especially students in developing countries like Nigeria, which could be used to design special health-related interventions is sparse. This study examined the quality of life of deaf and hard of hearing students in Ibadan metropolis, Nigeria. One hundred and ten deaf and hard of hearing students participated in this cross-sectional study. Participants were drawn from all four secondary schools for the Deaf in Ibadan metropolis. The 26 item Brief version of the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire was used for data collection. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics at statistical significance of p<0.05. Majority (57.8%) of the deaf and hard of hearing students had poor quality of life. Attending the special school for the Deaf, upper socioeconomic status and age (!17years) are significantly associated with better quality of life. However, gender and age at onset of hearing loss had no significant influence on the quality of life. The Deaf community available in the special school appeared to protect against stigma and discrimination, while also promoting social interactions between deaf and hard of hearing individuals.

Research into the second language (L2) reading is an exponentially growing field. Yet, it still has a relatively short supply of comparable, ecologically valid data from readers representing a variety of first languages (L1). This article addresses this need by presenting a new data resource called MECO L2 (Multilingual Eye Movements Corpus), a rich behavioural eye-tracking record of text reading in English as an L2 among 543 university student speakers of 12 different L1s. MECO L2 includes a test battery of component skills of reading and allows for a comparison of the participants’ reading performance in their L1 and L2. This data resource enables innovative large-scale cross-sample analyses of predictors of L2 reading fluency and comprehension. We first introduce the design and structure of the MECO L2 resource, along with reliability estimates and basic descriptive analyses. Then, we illustrate the utility of MECO L2 by quantifying the contributions of four sources to variability in L2 reading proficiency proposed in prior literature: reading fluency and comprehension in L1, proficiency in L2 component skills of reading, extralinguistic factors, and the L1 of the readers. Major findings included (a) a fundamental contrast between the determinants of L2 reading fluency versus comprehension accuracy, and (b) high within-participant consistency in the real-time strategy of reading in L1 and L2. We conclude by reviewing the implications of these findings to theories of L2 acquisition and outline further directions in which the new data resource may support L2 reading research.

In this article, readers can see the error recognition and correction goes far beyond the teachers' responsibility. Indeed, the students take active participation in a set of activities that I called "hunting error" process. Getting students to be aware of their own errors and other students' mistakes in an EFL environment by using a language corpus of mistakes is important for three important reasons. A. The theoretical support of error classification is basic for teachers and students to deal with the "error hunting" process.

Deaf stigmatization in Nigeria begins from the families to the kindred and communities and is more intense in the early days of the deaf child. Using a multidisciplinary approach aimed at collecting different forms of data in Nigerian deaf communities, we focused on cultural practices, linguistic features, and the cause of hearing loss in some of the undocumented deaf communities. Findings from the ongoing research indicate that up to 75% of the deaf children and young adults within our study areas were not genetically born deaf. Different health complications, poverty, and ignorance contributed to childhood deafness. We also identified specific cultural traits of deaf students in Abuja and Imo-late start to school because of nonexistence of early intervention program. Finally, the signed language used by the students in Abuja and Imo had differences and similarities with American Sign Language (ASL) and Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL). The similarities between ASL, GSL, and the school signs are through the impact of ASL on the linguistic structures of most African signed languages and the differences is caused by geographical locations and specific cultural and educational information. Based on the data, we suggest that a more detailed approach to early childhood hearing screening and intervention programs is necessary to mitigate the impact of deafness in Nigeria. We recommend that a study of the school signs and culture of Nigerian deaf communities will provide accurate data for signed language documentation and future linguistic research, cultural and health interventions within deaf communities in Nigeria.

The concept of interactional competence and its assessment as a complex language ability has long been a concern for research. A more recent approach to testing this construct has called for an investigation into the commonly-used concept of washback which refers to the effect of testing on teaching and learning. This study aimed to investigate the washback effect of an interactional competence checklist on EFL teaching and learning. The study combined qualitative and quantitative research methods within a comparative design between an experimental and a control group of 27 advanced English learners. Data was collected through students' oral performance, teacher and student surveys, the IC checklist, and classroom observations. The data were analyzed using mixed ANOVA and content analysis using coding schemes and themes to compare the scores obtained before and after the treatment. The study revealed a statistically significant difference in learners' interactive oral performance before and after the implementation of the checklist. Results indicated positive washback in aspects including familiarity with the checklist, test quality, interpretation and use, motivation, professional development, and learners' studying habits.

Bilinguals’ two languages seem to be coactivated in parallel during reading, speaking, and listening. However, this coactivation in writing has been scarcely studied. This study aimed to assess orthographic coactivation during spelling-to-dictation. We took advantage of the presence of polyvalent graphemes in Spanish (one phonological representation with two orthographic specifications, e.g., / b /for both the graphemes v and b) to manipulate orthographic congruency. Spanish–English bilinguals were presented with cross-linguistic congruent (movement–movimiento) and incongruent words (government–gobierno) for a dictation task. The time and accuracy to initiate writing and to type the rest-of-word (lexical and sublexical processing) were recorded in both the native language (L1) and the second language (L2). Results revealed no differences between conditions in monolinguals. Bilinguals showed a congruency and language interaction with better performance for congruent stimuli, which wa...

Language affiliation and use are important in constructing language identity and motivating individuals towards their language maintenance and vitality efforts. In a multilingual context, these processes are actively promoting or hampering individuals in constructing and demonstrating their linguistic identities. In Pakistan, Urdu is constitutionally recognized as the national language, a marker of national identity and also opted as a medium for integration for different ethno-linguistic communities comprising Pakistani society. English language enjoys the status of official language and pervades all domains of society and is an integral part of the education system right from elementary education owing to the attached instrumental value. English language teachers have often complained of students' perceptions, attitudes, motivational issues; as factors rendering years of English language teaching-learning ineffective. Inadequate language identities are often at the root of this complex situation arising out of linguistic affiliations. The present study attempts to capture university students'L1 (Urdu) and L2 (English) identities and studying them from attachment and preferences with heritage and second languages and their learning. Quantitative data collected from 316 undergraduate students at a public university confirm the measures required to reinforce Urdu language and construction of language identity as part of language maintenance and vitality efforts, and language identity construction as the gap in English language learning efforts owing to the observed dichotomy in their language attachment and use. The findings reveal moderate level of language identity and learners' affiliation with their national language but a contradiction in their preference for its use in everyday living. Consequently, the divergence in attachment and precedence is significant in language policy and planning and teaching-learning of languages.

Language affiliation and use are important in constructing language identity and motivating individuals towards their language maintenance and Language affiliation and use are important in constructing language identity and motivating individuals towards their language maintenance and vitality efforts. In a multilingual context, these processes are actively promoting or hampering individuals in constructing and demonstrating their linguistic identities. In Pakistan, Urdu is constitutionally recognized as the national language, a marker of national identity and also opted as a medium for integration for different ethno-linguistic communities comprising Pakistani society. English language enjoys the status of official language and pervades all domains of society and is an integral part of the education system right from elementary education owing to the attached instrumental value. English language teachers have often complained of students‘ perceptions, attitudes, motivational issues...

The relationship between first and second language in early vocabulary acquisition in bilingual children is still debated in the literature. This study compared the expressive vocabulary of 39 equivalently low-SES two-year-old bilingual children from immigrant families with different heritage languages (Romanian vs. Nigerian English) and the same majority language (Italian). Vocabulary size, vocabulary composition and translation equivalents (TEs) were assessed using the Italian/L1 versions of the CDI. Higher vocabulary in Italian than in the heritage language emerged in both groups. Moreover, Romanian-Italian-speaking children produced higher proportions of TEs than Nigerian English-Italian-speaking children, suggesting that L1-L2 phonological similarity facilitates the acquisition of cross-linguistic synonyms.

A monolingual and a bilingual primed lexical decision task were used to investigate priming effects produced by attended and ignored visual stimuli. In the Chinese language unilingual experiment, accelerated responses to the traditional Chinese character probe targets were observed when the traditional character probe target was the same as the preceding prime target (i.e., attended repetition, AR). However, when a traditional character "matched" a proceeding simplified Chinese character prime distractor (i.e., ignored repetition, IR), the expected impaired responses (negative priming) were not observed. In the bilingual experiment (Chinese-English), prime stimuli were in Chinese and probe stimuli were in English. Both AR positive priming and IR negative priming between Chinese-English translation equivalents were produced by bilingual subjects in Experiment 2. Further analyses were carried out by dividing subjects into two groups, one less proficient and the other more proficient in English. The contrasting patterns of performance produced by the more and less proficient bilinguals indicate that inhibitory mechanisms can simultaneously operate at two levels of abstraction-global language and local word; and these two types of inhibition can work in a quite independent manner. The contrasting patterns also suggest shared storage with flexible modulation for the conceptual representations of a Chinese-English bilingual's two languages and the words within them.

Research has pointed to the influence of the first language (L1) in the acquisition of the second (L2). In this study I investigate the interface between siSwati as an L1 and the acquisition of Academic English by students of the tertiary institutions of Swaziland. I examine five theoretical frameworks which are germane to L2 acquisition – error analysis, interdependency, transfer, interlanguage and fossilization. I discuss how these frameworks can help explain the low levels of proficiency in Academic English among learners in tertiary institution in Swaziland. In my research I employ qualitative research methods – questionnaires with both students and lecturers on initial and subsequent encounters with reading and writing both in the L1 (siSwati) and the L2 (English) – as well as quantitative research methods including statistical analyses of demographic and biographic data. In addition, in order to gauge the impact of the L1 on the L2 I analyse written texts of first and final ye...

Research has pointed to the influence of the first language (L1) in the acquisition of the second (L2). In this study I investigate the interface between siSwati as an L1 and the acquisition of Academic English by students of the tertiary institutions of Swaziland. I examine five theoretical frameworks which are germane to L2 acquisition – error analysis, interdependency, transfer, interlanguage and fossilization. I discuss how these frameworks can help explain the low levels of proficiency in Academic English among learners in tertiary institution in Swaziland. In my research I employ qualitative research methods – questionnaires with both students and lecturers on initial and subsequent encounters with reading and writing both in the L1 (siSwati) and the L2 (English) – as well as quantitative research methods including statistical analyses of demographic and biographic data. In addition, in order to gauge the impact of the L1 on the L2 I analyse written texts of first and final ye...

The study is about the language performance of undergraduate learners including the possibilities and challenges faced by them in the learning and development of linguistic competence, mainly communicative competence.The research examines the use of visual texts as supplementary teaching materials and their influence on the barriers caused by the learners’ Affective and Cognitive domains.For these pupils, after leaning the target language for 6-12 year, insufficient communicative competence remains to be one of the major reasons for their low performance in academic and nonacademic settings. It is a longitudinal Case study that challenges the hegemony of the application of the monomodal teaching materials.The study focused on 41 learners for duration of a semester during their Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at Air University, Islamabad.However, the research is conducted in two phases; the cross-sectional study in phase-I serves to provide the background knowledge of the problem ...

Another point related to the last suggestion above is training the students to use an English dictionary which has a pronunciation guide (e.g. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English), both in the classroom and when they work on their own. The teacher should equally encourage learners to build up their own dictionaries or word lists and insist that all stresses should be correctly placed on words. The teacher should keep a record of the type of stress errors the students actually make. Immediate correction of such mistakes, and later remedial correction sessions will help eliminate them. These sessions may include exercises as the following: (i) Stress shift in words having identical forms, but belonging to different parts of speech: 'abstract (noun; adj)-ab'stract (verb) 'present (noun; adj)-pre'sent (verb) 'transfer (noun)-trans'fer (verb) (ii) Stress shift in words of the same root: 'politics-po'litical-poli'tician 'personalper'sonifyperso'nality de'mocracy-'democratdemo'cratic. Teaching learners to make the appropriate reduction of unstressed vowels. In this respect, one suggested technique is practicing repetition of connected speech, such as recorded discourse. For instance, dialogues are an invaluable device. Loud reading of dialogues from a written script or their memorization and repetition by several speakers in a lifelike situation is also very useful;. Teaching songs and rhymes, especially to young learners even before communicative language. These types of material can be used extensively to imprint the stress and rhythm of English on the learners' minds. 1.1.2. Spelling English spelling is claimed to be a major difficulty for non-native learners and native learners, too in view of the fact that there is a considerable irregularity between the writing system and pronunciation.

English language skills are often listed by employers among key attributes needed for employment and there is a general dissatisfaction with English standards, especially writing skills, following graduation (e.g., Healy & Trounson, 2010; Rowbotham, 2011 in the Australian context). In the case of ESL students, research on whether English proficiency improves after studying at an English-medium university has to date been scarce, and has generally examined students' gains after a relatively short duration. The current study examined students' ESL writing proficiency following a year's study in an Australian university. The study used a test-retest design. A range of measures was used to assess writing, including global and discourse measures. All participants were also surveyed and a subset was interviewed. The study found that students' writing improved after a year of study but only in terms of fluency. There were no observed gains in accuracy, syntactic and lexical complexity. Global scores of writing also showed no change over time. Students stated in their questionnaires and interviews that they did not receive any feedback on their writing from their content lecturers. We discuss our findings in relation to the students' second language (L2) proficiency and the nature of their immersion experience.

Nigeria is a complex linguo-cultural and political mosaic, cobbled together, by Lord Lugard, in 1914 and christened after the 'Nigeria area' by Flora Shaw in 1897. Lugard has been vilified and accused of undermining the geopolity even before the inception of modern Nigeria! However, what he did was to 'amalgamate' the North and South. David-West (2012) reports the difference between 'Amalgam' and 'Compound' thus: in the former, an alloy say of A, B, C though bound together, neither A, nor B, nor C loses IDENTITY but whereas A, B, or C in forming a Compound each loses IDENTITY and forms A NEW ENTITY. So Lugard envisaged and respected the component parts of Nigeria's uniqueness. Research on Nigeria's actual socio-linguistic realities are ongoing as are attempts to fully describe her challenges for the survival of so-called 'minority languages and their cultures' from danger of extinction. Multilingual Theory and Practice in Applied Linguistics: Proceedings of the 45th Annual Meeting BAAL University of Southampton 2 return to civil rule in 1999 has given different ethnic, religious and regional groups in Nigeria opportunities to renegotiate for enhanced status, power and resources in the national polity. The Language Ecology of Northern Nigeria, Middle Belt Peoples and Plight of Minority Languages Indisputably, Hausa is one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria. What many object to is their dominance of the apparatus of government and the implicit tacit acceptance that they have been established as the largest group in Nigeria. The Hausa occupy most of the Northern half of Northern Nigeria. The Hausa were never politically united and admitted to a common, if not obscure, historical descent. Except for some dialectal variation the Hausa share a common language and profess the Islamic religionthough the indigenous Hausa, called the Maguzawa, were non-Islamised. Through a combination of very strong resistance and stubborn will, they rarely yielded no matter who conquered them. Although the Fulani defeated them, the Hausa nonetheless assimilated them such that a distinct group of Hausa-Fulani, whose pedigree was Hausa and Fulani, now exist. The explanation for the dominance of Hausa as a language and Hausa as a group is not the simplicity of their language and culture, nor in fact, even the fact that it could be written-other Northern Nigerian languages have been orthographised-but the evolution of an extremely complex Hausa-Fulani system of political organization which guarantees economic power. This system has now even guaranteed the de-ethnification of indigenous cultures and language endangerment in Central Nigeria. We define de-ethnification as the co-option, subordination and/or neutralization, destruction of certain cultures, artifacts, and cultural values of people lacking political influence, education, and social advantages; consequently their languages are neither developed, supported nor taught as curriculum subjects. Indigenous people are subordinated to dominant cultures and consequently are immersed into the dominant group's languages and cultures in two major ways: a) through conquest and/or (b) through economic and political pressures. Thus, Hausa has gobbled up other cultures and languages in Northern Nigeria, particularly Nigeria Middle Belt culture and languages too weak to resist the pressures -from within and without. Kanuri stands out as different though. The dominance of Hausa language and culture is attributable to: i. the relative advantage that has accrued to Hausa as a language during the colonial period leading to the establishment of the Hausa

حالات چهره در زبان‌های اشاره برای بیان مفاهیم دستوری به کار می‌رود
(Pfau & Quer, 2010; Reilly, 2006; Wilbur, 2000; Dachkovsky & Sandler, 2009).

از جمله مفاهیم دستوری که در زبان‌های اشاره با حالات چهره بیان می‌شوند می‌توان وجهیت، ساخت‌های شرطی، سببی‌، مبتدا، پرسشی‌ و امری را نام برد
(Lackner, 2019)

. دو ناحیۀ نیمۀ بالایی (حالات ابرو و چشم‌ها ) و نیمۀ پائینی صورت (حالات لب و دهان) هرکدام در بیان مفاهیم
دستوری مختلفی دخیل هستند. در این مقاله، با تحلیلی در چارچوب دستور شناختی، به طور ویژه مفهوم «چرخۀ کنترل»
(Langacker, 2013)
تلاش می‌شود نقش حالات صورت در دستور زبان بررسی شود. بسیاری از مفاهیم دستوری در زبان با مفهوم چرخۀ کنترل قابل تبیین هستند. چرخۀ کنترل در لایه های مختلف فیزیکی، ذهنی، حسی و اجتماعی زیست انسان قابل بررسی است و در زبان‌شناسی و شکل‌گیری دستور زبان ابزار سودمندی برای تحلیل‌های زبانی در اختیار ما قرار می‌دهد. چرخۀ کنترل شامل چهار مرحله است که هر کدام از این مراحل یک وضعیت ذهنی و عملی را نشان می‌دهد و می‌توان این وضعیت را به یکی از مفاهیم دستور زبان مرتبط دانست. هدف دیگر این مقاله آن است که در چارچوب زبان‌شناسی شناختی به طرح و بحث این پرسش بپردازیم که چگونه زبان‌هایی کاملاً جدا از یکدیگر در بیان بعضی مفاهیم دستوری شباهت‌های صوری دارند. با بررسی داده‌ها و یافته‌های پژوهش‌های گوناگون از زبان‌های اشارۀ ایرانی، آمریکایی، اسپانیایی، ایتالیایی و موارد مشابه به بررسی شباهت‌ها در حوزه‌های مختلف دستور زبان‌های اشاره و نقش حالات چهره در شکل‌گیری دستور زبان می‌پردازیم.

Deaf stigmatization in Nigeria begins from the families to the kindred and communities and is more intense in the early days of the deaf child. Using a multidisciplinary approach aimed at collecting different forms of data in Nigerian deaf communities, we focused on cultural practices, linguistic features, and the cause of hearing loss in some of the undocumented deaf communities. Findings from the ongoing research indicate that up to 75% of the deaf children and young adults within our study areas were not genetically born deaf. Different health complications, poverty, and ignorance contributed to childhood deafness. We also identified specific cultural traits of deaf students in Abuja and Imo-late start to school because of nonexistence of early intervention program. Finally, the signed language used by the students in Abuja and Imo had differences and similarities with American Sign Language (ASL) and Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL). The similarities between ASL, GSL, and the school signs are through the impact of ASL on the linguistic structures of most African signed languages and the differences is caused by geographical locations and specific cultural and educational information. Based on the data, we suggest that a more detailed approach to early childhood hearing screening and intervention programs is necessary to mitigate the impact of deafness in Nigeria. We recommend that a study of the school signs and culture of Nigerian deaf communities will provide accurate data for signed language documentation and future linguistic research, cultural and health interventions within deaf communities in Nigeria.

Deaf stigmatization in Nigeria begins from the families to the kindred and communities and is more intense in the early days of the deaf child. Using a multidisciplinary approach aimed at collecting different forms of data in Nigerian deaf communities, we focused on cultural practices, linguistic features, and the cause of hearing loss in some of the undocumented deaf communities. Findings from the ongoing research indicate that up to 75% of the deaf children and young adults within our study areas were not genetically born deaf. Different health complications, poverty, and ignorance contributed to childhood deafness. We also identified specific cultural traits of deaf students in Abuja and Imo-late start to school because of nonexistence of early intervention program. Finally, the signed language used by the students in Abuja and Imo had differences and similarities with American Sign Language (ASL) and Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL). The similarities between ASL, GSL, and the school signs are through the impact of ASL on the linguistic structures of most African signed languages and the differences is caused by geographical locations and specific cultural and educational information. Based on the data, we suggest that a more detailed approach to early childhood hearing screening and intervention programs is necessary to mitigate the impact of deafness in Nigeria. We recommend that a study of the school signs and culture of Nigerian deaf communities will provide accurate data for signed language documentation and future linguistic research, cultural and health interventions within deaf communities in Nigeria.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that
affect learner’s self-esteem in the context of oral proficiency
among secondary school students in the district South Karachi.
The study focused on the impact of self-esteem on English
language speaking skill of the target population. The selfesteem
factors in the study were addressed as self-confidence,
self- motivation, gender, grammatical structural knowledge,
vocabulary and usage, fluency and pronunciation. The study
employed survey as the major research. Private schools
operating in the district South Karachi were the samples of the
study. Data was collected through purposive sampling.
Questionnaire and interview were followed as research
instrument. Data was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively.
The study found that self-esteem of secondary school students
is an indispensable aspect of learner’s life and must be
addressed while developing the curriculum for these students

The current study described the development of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory (CDI) for Israeli Sign Language (ISL) and investigated the effects of age, sign iconicity, and sign frequency on lexical acquisition of bimodal-bilingual toddlers acquiring ISL. Previous findings bring inconclusive evidence on the role of sign iconicity (the relationship between form and meaning) and sign frequency (how often a word/sign is used in the language) on the acquisition of signs. The ISL-CDI consisted of 563 video clips. Iconicity ratings from 41 sign-naïve Hebrew-speaking adults (Study 1A) and sign frequency ratings from 19 native ISL adult signers (Study 1B) were collected. ISL vocabulary was evaluated in 34 toddlers, native signers (Study 2). Results indicated significant effects of age, strong correlations between parental ISL ratings and ISL size even when age was controlled for, and strong correlations between naturalistic data and ISL-CDI scores, supporting the ...

Reading in more than one language remains a debatable issue in literacy pedagogy. The present study aims to illuminates this debate by measuring, and comparing learners' writing, resolving anaphors, and making inference on text using both Sepedi and English among grade 7 readers in three randomly selected schools in rural Limpopo. Two schools speaking the same dialect of Semmamabolo (language closer to standard variety of Sepedi) were selected randomly from Mankweng circuit. One school was conveniently selected from Tzaneen to serve as a pseudo group to measure dialectal influence for reading performance of the learners for both Semmamabolo and Selobdu dialects. The dialectal schools were compared to measure if there were differences in performance and Selobedu School served as a psedo-school, to determine the dialectical difference. The learners were tested on reading comprehension with the use of making inference test and anaphoric resolution test. A onetime series design was used to study and compare the two languages and dialect reading scores within and between subjects. The sample consisted of n=150 participants for the tests in both English and Sepedi. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) results reveal low reading levels in both the participants' home language and English with scores of (-+ 40%) below 75% and no differential dialect performances within Sepedi. The results indicate that learners are not about the same level in their reading comprehension skills in both the languages. These results are interpreted within various theoretical frameworks on the relationship between L1 and L2 reading development.

This article reports on the study of enlarging lexical competence for B2 level learners who learn English as a foreign language (EFL) in Karakalpakstan. The purpose of the paper is to make a theoretical analysis by scientific researchers on the problem and to identify ways of developing the lexical competence of English learners with the help of Information Communication Technologies (ICT). The study conducted materials that analyze scholars' opinions about teaching foreign languages via the Internet-based on modular technology. This research paper uses qualitative and descriptive analysis methods. The participants of the research were 2 nd year ESP students at Nukus state pedagogical institute. In the teaching process, teachers have great emphasis on the students' activities in search processing of new knowledge. In this paper, two research questions were taken into consideration: "What ways are pivotal to develop lexical competence of students who study English as a foreign language?", "What are the most effective tools and techniques for improving students' vocabulary online?" As a result, the authors responded to the research questions from the analytical point of view and gave valuable suggestions for EFL students whose mother tongue is Karakalpak. The paper concluded that teaching English for B2 level learners through the Internet and ICT is considered efficient as a source of inspiration among Karakalpak students for educational learning and enhanced trends of acquiring EFL searching educational content.

The use of GTM (Grammar Translation Method) in the subject of English at the primary level, this method of teaching used to learn foreign languages. In Pakistan ‘English’ used as the second language of people, In Educational institutes, English  taught a compulsory subject. It was being taught through different methods and the main objectives of this study to develop the usage of GTM in educational institutions,
to examine the effectiveness of GTM in learning the English language and to evaluate  the learning concept by students through a GTM. The area of this study in primary PC  Urdu section school attached to the GECE(W) Hyd. The population of this research  study had consisted only of the grade 3rd of PC primary (Urdu) section school attached with the Govt: Elementary College of Education (women) Hyderabad in which 5/10 students & 1 teacher. This research focused on the qualitative method and purposive sampling used in this study and the grammar-translation method was research-based, which was helpful for both teachers and students. The main findings of this study those students and teachers who do not aware of the uses of grammar and its rules and theirs its implication in the educational institutions. This study focused on GTM method, to be taught through the prospective manner to be the usage of this method by the Integration of students within the teachers the recommendation. The  GTM method Teacher should develop the grammar-based collection of ideas, Teachers should get extraverts to help, to involve all students during activities and  give the positive aspects of GTM.
Key words: Grammar, level, Method, Primary, Translation

Deaf stigmatization in Nigeria begins from the families to the kindred and communities and is more intense in the early days of the deaf child to early adulthood. Using a multidisciplinary approach aimed at collecting different forms of data in Nigerian deaf communities, we focused on cultural practices, linguistic features and the cause of hearing loss in some of the undocumented isolated deaf communities.
Findings from the ongoing research indicate that up to 75% of the deaf children and young adults within our study areas (Abuja and Imo) were not genetically born deaf.  Different health complications, poverty and ignorance contributed to childhood deafness. We also identified specific cultural traits of deaf students in Abuja and Imo; late start to school because of nonexistence of early intervention program. Finally, the signed language used by the students in Abuja and Imo had differences and similarities with American Sign Language (ASL) and Ghanaian Sign Language (GSL). The similarities between ASL, GSL and the school signs is through the impact of ASL on the linguistic structures of most African signed languages and the differences is caused by geographical locations and specific cultural and educational information.
Based on the data, we suggest that a more detailed approach to early childhood hearing screening and intervention programs is necessary to mitigate the impact of deafness in Nigeria. We recommend that a study of the school signs and culture of Nigerian deaf communities will provide accurate data for signed language documentation and future linguistic research, cultural and health interventions within deaf communities in Nigeria.

Writing skills hold a significant place in education; requiring years of schooling and proper training to be achieved by students. Urdu and English, regardless of being the medium of Pakistani education system and writing in these languages is inevitable, students go through troubles in developing a coherent piece of writing in either of the languages. There is a general perception that in Pakistan writing pedagogy devalues students' creative and communicative abilities by means of memorization and over dependence on teachers and books. This study explored teaching strategies used by language teachers (Urdu and English) at secondary level in developing writing skills of students. Using survey design twelve in-service language teachers of Urdu and English in semi-government schools were interviewed. The semi-structured and open ended interviews were scheduled with individual teachers and lasted for about 30 minutes regarding their writing instruction strategies. The recorded data were transcribed and thematically analyzed and divided into sub-themes, such as; types of strategies teachers follow, common strategies used by English and Urdu teachers, pedagogical strategies specific to Urdu and English teachers, language teachers' understanding and knowledge of writing pedagogy. The results revealed that Urdu and English language teachers are equally unaware of effective and standard strategies for developing writing skills of their students. Their writing instruction indicated lack of conscious planning for different stages of the writing instruction, absence of authentic writing tasks, and insufficient writing practice for learners. The study concludes with pedagogical recommendations that would be based on strategic and systematic writing instruction that caters to learners' needs.