bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Conversational Language Proficiency among International Students at the University Level
Authors: Lao Christy Y. , Krashen Stephen D. , Gribbons Barry C. , Schafrik-Arenault Janice , Michael William B.
Published: December 2016

A common assumption is that international students in English-speaking countries have well-developed competence in academic language, but have deficiencies in conversational language. This assumption is in contrast to the situation among limited English speaking children (CUMMINS, 1989). If true, this lack of conversational language is a problem; even if international students do not plan to reside in an English-speaking country after their studies are complete, the status of English today as a world language means that professionals in many fields need to be able to interact with colleagues on an informal basis.
L2 Processing of Dutch regular and irregular Verbs
Authors: Lalleman Josine A. , van Santen Ariane J. , van Heuven Vincent J.
Published: December 2016

Do Ll and (advanced) L2 speakers of Dutch employ distinct processes — rule application for regulars and lexical lookup for irregulars — when producing Dutch past tense forms? Do L2 speakers of a language that observes the same dual conjugation system as in Dutch (e.g. English, German) produce Dutch past tenses by a different process (i.e. more like that of Ll speakers) than learners of Dutch with a different Ll verb system (e.g. Japanese and Chinese)? We studied the on-line past tense production performance of Ll speakers and of advanced L2 speakers of Dutch varying relative past tense frequency of regular and irreg-ular Dutch verbs. Performance proved slower and less accurate with both Ll and L2 speakers for irregular verbs with relatively low past tense frequency. No frequency effects were found for regular verbs. The results were qualitatively the same for English/German and for Japanese/Chinese L2 speakers, with a striking tendency to overgeneralize the regular past tense formation. We conclude that the mental representation of the Dutch past tense rule is essentially the same for Ll and L2 language users.
My blood, my Nation
Authors: Omoniyi Tope
Published: December 2016

Identity is an important phenomenon both in traditional and in modern Africa. Before the advent of colonialism, people and communities were identified largely by ethnicity within a political framework. However, within each of the ethnic units, there were other parameters by which people were sub-categorised such as family, ancestral trade/calling, Many language attitude studies have investigated the relative popularity of competing languages in multi-ethnic and multilingual mainstream societies (GREENFIELD 1968, LAMBERT et al. 1975, GILES et al. 1983). In post-colonial Africa focus is on the competition between the languages of complex ethnic societies and erstwhile kingdoms now yoked together as one. In communities which straddle the continents' arbitrarily fixed international political boundaries, attitudes have been established as expressing the political alignments and preferred identities of their residents (OMONIYI, B. 1994). This paper will attempt to demonstrate that the language attitudes of members of borderland communities are also expressions of their identities which are variable. The data upon which the discussion will be based come from the Idiroko/Igolo border on Nigeria's southwestern frontier with Benin. Sociolinguistics, Boundaries, Bilateral, Language Politics, Identity.
An investigation of the correlation between Language proficiency, cultural awareness And rhetorical performance of ESL learners
Authors: Alharbi Lafi M.
Published: December 2016

This paper debates the nature and the source of 'influence' on normative writing. In particular, it investigates the influential factor among language proficiency and cultural awareness on the rhetorical performance of ESL learners.
Factors in the Acquisition of the Present Subjunctive in Spanish
Authors: Stokes Jeffery , Krashen Stephen , Kartchner John
Published: December 2016

University level students of Spanish were tested on their (acquired) competence in the subjunctive. Free reading in Spanish was a significant predictor of subjunctive competence, but length of residence in a Spanish-speaking country, formal study, and specific study of the subjunctive were not significant predictors. These results are consistent with previous research on free reading in English as a first and second language.
Strategies of constructing meaning
Authors: Jung Min Sur
Published: December 2016

This study examines the linguistic structures and processes through which news reports about a political issue in South Korea serve to propagate specific ideologies. Critical linguistic analysis is used as the theoretical and analytical framework to examine news reports about the North Korean nuclear threat to South Korea in the New York Times and the Korea Herald. Through a comparative analysis of two newspapers, it illustrates how the linguistic structures and processes in news discourse combine to produce particular meanings which construct ideological representations of social reality by establishing an 'us vs. them' dichotomy from their own particular ideological position. This study makes two contributions. First, it contributes to the development of a theoretical and methodological framework which is capable of revealing the ideological underpinning of news texts. Second, this study demonstrates the ideological role of language within news discourse as an apparatus for molding attitudes and value-systems in readers. This study has an implication for teaching language awareness of the constructive and functional nature of language in general and news discourse in particular in and out of a school setting, (key words : critical linguistic analysis, language awareness, language and ideology, naturalization, propagation)
Corpus analysis and pragmatics
Authors: Luzón Marco María José
Published: December 2016

Fail to belongs to a type of verbal structures which are in a syntactic construction with other verbs (e.g. fail to win) and which have meanings related to aspect or modality. In this paper we used the COBUILD corpus to analyse the discursive function of fail to and the meaning it adds to the verbal group where it occurs. The paper shows that with regard to function fail to is more similar to auxiliaries than to lexical verbs. Fail to is used in positive clauses to deny an expectation, which explains its association with non-durative aspect and with the modality meanings "non-achievement" and "unfulfilled obligation", and in rhetorical questions and negative clauses it is used to express the speaker's strong commitment to the certainty of a proposition.
Local and ENS Rating of EFL Composition
Authors: Alharbi Lafi
Published: December 2016

This paper reports on an empirical examination of the effect of instructors' formal training, professional experience, culturo-linguistic background, and exposure to the local context on the evaluation of EFL composition. A total of 106 English-native and Arabic-native instructors, with varying academic training, teaching experience, and exposure to the local context of EFL instruction, evaluated the language, the contents, and the rhetorical structures of two EFL compositions - written by Arabic-native speakers - using 10-point scales.

Findings show that instructor's culturo-linguistic background was evidently the most influential factor on the evaluation of EFL composition. Instructor 's exposure to the local Arabic context of EFL instruction testified to confirm this effect.

With respect to the effect of instructor's teaching experience on the evaluation of EFL composition, the findings reveal that expe-rienced instructors appear to be more rigid in their evaluation of EFL composition than their less experienced counterparts. The effect of instructor's formal training on the evaluation of EFL composition is generally inconsistent.
Word order variation in French interrogative structures
Authors: Dewaele Jean-Marc
Published: December 2016

Inter-individual variation in the use of direct interrogative structures (N = 450) is explored in a corpus of spoken native and non-native French. A quantitative analysis of the data reveals that while non-native speakers seem to avoid non-standard structures, they do not use more formal variants systematically. Comparison with data from other native and non-native corpora reveals important differences in the frequency of particular interrogative structures. The choice of interrogative structure seems to be influenced by a number of situational, pragmatic and socio-stylistic variables.
Making sense in a Second Orthography
Authors: Ghahremani-Ghajar Sue-San , Masny Diana
Published: December 2016

The importance of efficiently processing letters and gaining orthographic automaticity has been stressed in first language (L1) reading research. While this level has been well defined in L1 reading, it has received little attention in EFL reading, especially when the writing system in L1 differs from the one in L2. This study investigates the influence of L1 literacy and knowledge of a writing system (Farsi) on reading and processing Roman letters in English. Sixty students were selected from an Iranian university. Results showed that the students process strings of letters in Farsi and Roman script in the same way and produce upward M-shaped patterns. The findings are discussed in the light of the research for Arabic and other scripts. The implications for classroom practices in facilitating foreign language learners’ reading ability are also explored.
Some aspects of repair in native and non-native speaker conversations in English
Authors: Eleftheriadou Martha , Badger Richard
Published: December 2016

The ability to carry out repairs is a key skill in spoken discourse for non-native speakers of English and has been widely studied. However, VAN HEST et al. (1997) have suggested that investigations into repair in L2 need to be more theoretically driven and less concerned with individual differences. Drawing on information from a pilot study of twenty-three conversations, lasting 185 minutes between six native and six non-native speakers, this paper argues that there is no conflict between a concern with individual differences and theory building. What is needed is a contextualised theory which is grounded in particular situations and individual differences. The paper identifies three possible areas of difficulty that may arise if a theory is not contextualised. Firstly, the paper argues that theory driven research encourages methods of data collection that we characterise as experimental and suggest that these need to be supplemented by more naturalistic forms of data collection. Secondly, the paper criticises the view that there are general preferences as to who initiates and who completes repairs and argues that a contextualised theory of repair would capture initiation/completion patterns more adequately. Finally, the paper argues that the distinction between native and non-native speakers needs to be re-examined. This is supported by the finding in the pilot study that there was little variation between native and non-native speakers in terms of these analyses.
Tests as a Second Language Research Method
Authors: Ito Akihiro
Published: December 2016

In second language acquisition (SLA) research various tests are employed for theory building. However, what tests should be administered to participants in a research setting? In order to address the issue, this study was conducted to examine the reliability, validity of tests themselves, and the difference in results according to the difference of test-types, focusing on cross-sectional restrictive relative clause acquisition and relative clause test-types. Among the variety of relative clause tests, four test-types that appear frequently in recent SLA academic publications were selected. The four test-types were Translation, Cloze Procedure, Grammaticality Judgment, and Sentence Combining. The results from 120 Japanese students indicate the following. First, Sentence Combining shows high reliability in internal consistency and the highest validity. Second, the research results change across the different test-types. Third, the concept of 'test-type (task) related interlanguage variability' should be explained by the combination of quality-related issues such as 'measurement error' and the cognitive demands each test-type requires of the subjects. Implications for the practical issues of language test construction for SLA research, educational evaluation, and the directions for further research are also discussed.
How to create a crisis
Authors: Tickoo Asha
Published: December 2016

In this paper, I will examine esl learner attempts at a key component of narrative prose, its complication. The complication is the defining component of the four-part schematic structure of narrative (Labov 1981, labov & Waletzky 1967), because it introduces the crisis of the story. This is the most impassioned phase of the narrative and therefore one expects (following Labov) that the narrator is the least disposed to strive to uphold prestige norms, and adopted rules. It is ironical, then, that what is acknowledged to be effective development of the narrative crisis is highly convention-bound prose. I will describe the basic textual - semantic, informational, organisational and representational - conventions that govern the development of the narrative crisis. I will then take random samples from a body of 35 student narratives, written by Cantonese-speaking esl learners at a Hong Kong university, to illustrate the difficulties these learners face in conforming to these conventions. In a final section, I will discuss the pedagogical implications of this study.
Non-Foreign-Accented Speech in Adult Second Language Learners
Authors: Neufeld Gerald G.
Published: December 2016

The findings of this study add to the growing number of reports in which investigators claim to have located adult second language learners who, under rigorous test conditions, manage to pass as native speakers in L2. The aims of this paper were two, first, to provide a detailed account of how we tested and qualified our Anglophones as native-like speakers of French and, second, to suggest that, interesting as our data were, more questions emerge than do answers.

Seven of 18 English/French bilinguals, having acquired L2 after the age of 16, were selected by means of a pre-test interview with three Francophones as “potentially of French-speaking background.” These seven, along with three Francophone controls, recited an 81-word passage in French onto a tape-recorder. Sixty-eight native-speaking French raters, of similar dialectal background and weak in English, each heard one of four tapes with differing random roders of the 10 passages, their task being to designate each voice as “Franco-phone” or “non-Francophone.” Four of our seven English-Franch bilinguals obtained ratings statistically comparable to those of our three Francophone controls.
Reading Strategies in L1 and L2
Authors: Yamashita Junko
Published: December 2016

This study compared LI (Japanese) and L2 (English) reading strategies reported by four groups of readers with different reading ability backgrounds. Information on the strategies was extracted by a think aloud method. The following points emerged. (1) Generally speaking, readers tend to transfer their LI reading strategies to their L2 reading. (2) Language independent strategies are more likely to be transferred from LI to L2 than language dependent strategies. (3) High LI reading ability compensates for weak L2 reading ability, but there is a limit to this compensation. These results suggested a stronger relationship between LI and L2 reading processes than is predicted by the linguistic threshold hypothesis. The possibility that we can explain the results by combining the linguistic threshold hypothesis and the linguistic interdependence hypothesis, which have often been treated as conflicting, was discussed.
"Have I got it right?"
Authors: Leong Ping Alvin
Published: December 2016

This paper presents the findings of a survey-based study on the abilities of Singaporean students at a local university to interpret the writing tasks as set out in the instructional verbs of examination questions. The study seeks to determine the extent to which the task requirements of examination questions are clear to the students. The survey findings reveal general comprehension problems among the student respondents as regards the writing tasks demanded of them. Given these findings, this paper further discusses possible avenues of corrective action to help ensure that the underlying intentions of question-setters are uniformly interpreted by students.
Lexical Signatures in Foreign Language Free-Form Texts
Authors: Meara Paul , Jacobs Gabriel , Rodgers Catherine
Published: December 2016

Abstract This paper presents an investigation into the extent to which the lexical choices made by learners of a second language (L2) are distinctive. It follows on from an earlier paper by the same authors in which a neural network was successfully trained to mark a set of texts produced by L2 learners to the same standard, within broad categories, as had been awarded by experienced human markers. For this present paper, we examined a set of L2 texts and searched them for unique lexical choices (‘lexical signatures’). The results suggest a possible explanation for the success of the neural-network trial, and may have some practical implications for determining the levels of achievement reached by L2 learners.
Age differences in foreign language learning
Authors: Cenoz Jasonc
Published: December 2016

This article is based on the results of a project that analyses the linguistic development of English as a third language at different ages in a bilingual program. Specifically, it examines the influence of the age of introduction of English as a foreign language on general proficiency. Participants were 60 secondary school students who had Basque and/or Spanish as their first language and Basque as the language of instruction except for the subjects Spanish and English. All the students had studied English for six years but they had started learning English at different ages. Half of the students started learning English in grade 6 and the other half in grade 3. All the participants completed a battery of tests and questionnaires including different measures of proficiency in English: story telling, listening comprehension, composition, grammar and cloze test. The results indicate that older learners present a higher level of proficiency in English. The differences between older and younger students are discussed as related to several factors involved in foreign language learning.
“Explication de Texte” Revisited in an ESP Context
Authors: Dhieb-Henia Nebila
Published: December 2016

This study investigates current reading instruction in ESP. Specifically, it studies what has changed and what has not in a context where explication de texte used to be a major asset in teaching English as a foreign language. Four-point scale questionnaires were gathered from 13 secondary school inspectors, 65 ESP teachers and 94 students. They were asked about using texts to (a) teach grammar and vocabulary, and (b) practice reading strategies (careful reading, skimming, reading from beginning to end and reading only beginnings and ends). To shed additional light on these areas, we asked them three further questions on (c) reading aloud, (d) text length, and (e) time given to read a one-page text. Results showed that although, on some items, some movement away from the traditional approach has been recorded, the majority of reading instruction is still under the spell of explication de texte. This paper suggests that EFL science students need more in terms of reading strategies, if we want to make of them operational readers of literature in their field of study.
The Acquisition of the Plural in Tarifit-Berber
Authors: Rramdani Y.E
Published: December 2016

This paper brings a quantitative and qualitative study of the proficiency of bilingual children in plural formation in Tarifit-berber. These children were born and live in the Netherlands. Besides, a monolingual group in Morocco was submitted to the same plural task. The group in Morocco is used in this study as a reference group.

The expectations about the performances of the two groups are built on two facts. The first, the plural system of Tarifit-Berber is a complex one. Second, children born and grown up in migration (the Netherlands in this case) have a reduced input in their parents' language (Tarifit-Berber). The bilingual children in The Netherlands are expected to have more difficulties in performing the task. The study is intended to show how the two groups performed in the task, types of difficulties faced, commonalities and differences between them.
La Puntuación De Los Escritos Académicos De Los Estudiantes Universitarios
Authors: Serrano Neus Nogué
Published: December 2016

Este artículo presenta los resultados de un estudio sobre el uso de la puntuación en un corpus de textos expositivos y
argumentativos escritos por estudiantes de varias titulaciones de la Universidad de Barcelona, tanto desde una perspectiva
cuantitativa como cualitativa. Aislando los principales contextos en los que este uso se aparta de las convenciones establecidas
se han detectado tendencias claras en relación a los aspectos de la puntuación en los que los estudiantes muestran menos
competencia. Puede ser útil, pues, para orientar la enseñanza de este aspecto de la escritura, tanto en la universidad como, sobre
todo, en los niveles educativos anteriores. El artículo también incluye algunas reflexiones sobre la estrecha vinculación que
existe entre la puntuación y el proceso general de composición del escrito, y sobre la relación que suele establecerse – a nuestro
juicio, erróneamente, tanto desde una perspectiva didáctica como teórica– entre la puntuación y la entonación (y la prosodia, en
general).
Punctuation in English and Its Interlanguage Effects
Authors: Nsakala Lengo M. , Matondo Roger K.
Published: December 2016

This article discusses the manifestations of interlanguage punctuation from a short dialogue in which the subjects of the investigation had to restore missing punctuation marks. The testees realized a meagre score in the task, leaving out punctuation marks where they were compulsory, inserting punctuation marks where they were not needed, and placing punctuation marks where others were required. This state of affairs emanated from a poor command of these orthographic devices. The sample was composed of four groups of students of English, and the one-way analysis of variance conducted on their performance showed a significant difference across the groups. Such a situation proves that although punctuation is under-represented in grammar classes, students manage to acquire incidentally personal information on this area in their target language development. However, the knowledge acquired is inadequate to satisfy the specifications of punctuation in a piece of textual material. It was also observed that students encounter more problems with non-terminal than with terminal punctuation marks. Therefore, systematic instruction is recommended in order to promote students’ control of these devices in text production and in text reception.
The Influence of Learners’ Attitudes to and Perceptions of Call
Authors: Vandewaetere Mieke , Desmet Piet
Published: December 2016

In recent years, the field of Computer-Assisted Language Learning – CALL – has grown tremendously and has seen a number of major developments: CALL has become accessible to a larger and more diverse audience and has developed didactic practices that can be implemented in education. In addition, there has been a growing amount of research that focuses on learners’ attitudes towards CALL and, more generally, towards computer-based language learning environments. These, however, seem to be fraught with methodological problems, often leading to inconsistent results. Rather than corroborating separate unidirectional relations between variables (e.g., the effect of instructional intervention on learning outcomes or motivation), researchers need to develop structural and integrative models that integrate multiple relations between several latent constructs.

It is our aim in this pilot study to present a methodological framework for CALL-related theory construction. To reach this goal, we psychometrically validated the multifaceted construct of ‘attitude to CALL’. We demonstrate the development and validation of a preliminary integrative model on the concept of ‘attitude to CALL’. Structural equation modelling was used for the validation of our model.
St Aying Abroad with the Family
Authors: Muñoz Carmen
Published: December 2016

The present paper deals with second language learning in an increasingly common type of situation: the one encountered by children of families that move to a different country for a limited period of time. These children enjoy a learning experience that provides them with a naturalistic setting for full immersion in the language community as well as formal instruction at school. The paper presents a case study that investigates the longitudinal development of English proficiency in two Catalan-Spanish bilingual siblings during a year’s stay abroad with their family. Specifically, the study measures gains in the two learners’ written productions in English by examining the development of the dimensions of fluency, syntactic complexity, lexical diversity and accuracy. The findings highlight the variability inherent in L2 development and the possible effects of proficiency level on the language gains. In addition, the on-site observation provides insights into the qualities of the stay abroad experience that also help explain the results.
Considering Cultural Perspectives in Mexico and Peru in the Teaching of Spanish
Authors: Stokes Jeffery D. , Desmet Piet
Published: December 2016

In an effort to better understand Latin American cultural perspectives that should be communicated to students as part of their learning to function in Spanish, a survey articulating 26 hypothesized cultural perspectives of modern Latin Americans was administered to 58 individuals from Mexico and Peru. Survey items were based mainly on the Kluckhohn Model’s five areas: human nature, man-nature, time, activity and relations. Results revealed some statistically significant differences between Mexicans and Peruvians, as well as among participants based on sex, age and rural vs. urban background, but only on a very limited number of the 26 items for each of these four variables. The overall results suggested general, and sometimes very strong, agreement with most of the survey items. Only four of the items produced an average low enough to be indicative of more disagreement than agreement. Participant comments provided further insight into individual cultural perspectives. Results provide important implications regarding the cultural component in the teaching of Spanish.
La Lisibilité Computationnelle
Authors: François Thomas
Published: December 2016

Avec la multiplication des documents disponibles, notamment sur le web, la tentation est grande, pour le professeur de français langue maternelle ou seconde, de se passer des manuels balisés et de proposer à ses étudiants un texte à son goût. Cependant, il risque alors de perdre un temps précieux à sélectionner un texte qui convienne au niveau de ses étudiants. Il existe pourtant des outils dont la vocation est de l’assister dans cette tâche : les formules de lisibilité. Peu connues dans la culture francophone, elles jouissent dans la culture anglo-saxonne d’un large succès. Cet article présente une nouvelle synthèse des études en lisibilité du français L1 et L2. Partant du constat que les études récentes sont trop rares, nous présentons le nouveau paradigme dominant dans les études anglo-saxonnes, que nous avons appelé la lisibilité computationnelle. Ces recherches combinent des techniques issues du traitement automatique du langage et de l’apprentissage automatisé afin de prendre en compte l’ensemble des dimensions d’un texte : lexicale, syntaxique, sémantique et organisationnelle. Nous clôturons ce parcours en présentant nos propres travaux dans le domaine et, en particulier, «Dmesure», un prototype de plateforme web pour la lisibilité du FLE.
The Nature of the Relationship between Student Learning Styles and Performance on Selected English Second Language Tasks
Authors: Cekiso Mzwamadoda Phillip
Published: December 2016

An awareness of individual differences in learning has made ESL/EFL educators and programme designers more sensitive to their roles in teaching and learning and has permitted them to match teaching and learning styles so as to develop students’ second and foreign language learning. The purpose of the present study is to (a) determine what the learning style profiles of College of Education (Eastern Cape) students look like as well as (b) to determine if there is a relationship between the learning styles of these students and their performance on selected ESL tasks. The results indicated that the ESL college learners in the Eastern Cape displayed a variety of learning styles and also performed differently on a variety of ESL tasks.
The Business of Pragmatics. The Case of Discourse Markers in The Speech of Students of Business English and English Linguistics
Authors: Buysse Lieven
Published: December 2016

This paper investigates how foreign language learners use discourse markers (such asso, well, you know, I mean) in English speech. These small words that do not contribute much, if anything at all, to the propositional content of a message but modify it in subtle ways, are often considered among the last elements acquired in a foreign language. This contribution reports on close scrutiny of a corpus of English-spoken interviews with Belgian native speakers of Dutch, half of whom are undergraduates majoring in Commercial Sciences and half of whom are majoring in English Linguistics, and sets it off against a comparable native speaker corpus. The investigation shows that the language learners exhibit a clear preference for “operative discourse markers” and neglect or avoid “involvement discourse markers”. It is argued that in learner speech the former take on functions typically fulfilled by the latter to a greater extent than in native speech, and that in some cases the learners revert to a code-switching strategy to cater for their pragmatic needs, bringing markers from Dutch into their English speech. Finally, questions are raised as to the place of such pragmatic devices in foreign language learning.
English-Medium Education in Economics and Business Studies
Authors: Unterberger Barbara , Wilhelmer Nadja
Published: December 2016

With the advent of the Bologna reforms, English-medium education has become increasingly popular in economics and business studies. This paper is a work-in-progress report of the authors’ PhD projects, which both focus on English-taught programmes at Austrian business faculties. In the first section the studies are placed in a broader research context by identifying external forces that have triggered the rise of English-medium instruction in the European higher education context. This includes a discussion of how the Bologna reforms paved the way for more content teaching through a non-domestic language and why this language is usually English. Subsequently, a conceptual framework for this teaching approach is proposed and the question is addressed as to which term is most appropriate for this particular setting: CLIL, EMI or ICLHE? Based on these considerations, the different varieties of English-medium teaching at university and their underlying criteria are identified. Moreover, the research questions and strategies aimed at contributing to a clearer and more nuanced understanding of English-taught business education are outlined. The final section concludes with targeted outcomes and demonstrates the practical relevance of the anticipated results.
If all Business Education Were in English, Would it Matter?
Authors: Wilkinson Robert
Published: December 2016

Increasingly, English is becoming the dominant language of business education. The reasons are well known: internationalization, globalization, and the desire to prepare students for the business environment in the coming decades. This paper speculates about the impact of English-medium instruction in business education on the nature of English proficiency, the nature of the content learned, and the perspective for business practice. Firstly, students can learn content effectively through a foreign language, and have been doing so for centuries. However, with English-medium instruction in a non-English-speaking environment, the growth in language competences in English may rather lie in specific skills, with the acceptance of ‘fossilized’ language use, reduced accuracy and less nuanced communication, even if CLIL approaches are adopted. Secondly, regarding the impact on content learning, it is possible that the learning itself may be relatively unaffected, but if both students and staff have a less accurate and less nuanced competence in English, the expressive competences may be affected. Thirdly, a language imposes its own perspectives on the world. Business education through the medium of English may engender an English filter on students’ perspectives on business practices and communication. This paper suggests that this matters.
Lsp Research Today
Authors: Rycker Antoon De , Buyse Kris , Vangehuchten Lieve
Published: December 2016

The purpose of this article is to examine whether a “general approach for specific purposes”, i.e. a general approach to Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) research, is possible or even desirable. We will briefly review some of the major changes that have taken place in LSP research, and this with a view to situating the five studies that have been included in this special issue of ITL – International Journal of Applied Linguistics. The approach is based on the existing LSP literature, but rather than attempting a comprehensive overview, we will discuss only those trends that may be instrumental in forging a general research agenda for the near future. LSP research has gradually replaced texts as its main object of enquiry in favour of the complex social and discursive practices of a particular discipline. Though the areas covered in this special issue are business, legal and maritime discourse, it is equally interesting to?tices (like recreational team sports). The shift from text to practice, from terminology to communication, has necessitated a principled inter-disciplinary and multi-perspectival stance in terms of both theories and methodologies. In addition, globalisation, technology and other societal forces have affected the dynamics of professional and organisational communication. This article will argue that it is to these trends and developments that the special issue makes a significant contribution. At the same time, it is hoped that our article will open up new possibilities for applied linguistic research and will also stimulate debate on what direction LSP researchers, both experienced practitioners and newcomers, should be moving in.
The Language of Numerical Data and Figures in Internal Company Communications
Authors: Bowker Janet
Published: December 2016

This paper looks at the language used to talk about numerical data and figures as part of in-house, computer-mediated audio-conferencing between managers and their staff in corporate settings. The data consist of a sub-corpus of oral presentations taken from a much larger self-compiled multi-document corpus of business communications. The research is aimed at describing the predominant pragma-linguistic features of these accounts of graphical and numerical data, the most appropriate and effective means of identifying and tracing these, together with the ways participants subjectivize their information and create relevance for their interlocutors, in this specific multi-medial, multi-modal business context. The features focused on include temporal and locational deixis, visual and spatial imagery and the use of time and tense. Findings show that these discourse creation processes play a significant part in the multi-functional character of the presentations, in enacting evaluation, persuasion and the construal of corporate-professional roles and identities. They also reveal something about the nature of virtual professional, communicative space, and the socially-situated creation of corporate-managerial discourse.
English and Mandarin speakers’ mental representations of time
Authors: Yang Wenxing , Sun Ying
Published: December 2016

The questions of whether aspects of language (spatiotemporal metaphor and/or orthography) shape temporal cognition in general and whether English and Mandarin speakers think about time differently in particular have attracted considerable attention and controversy. Focusing on these controversial issues, the present study examines and refines the findings from previous work with some new evidence. Experiment 1 used a card arrangement task in which participants were asked to arrange in order a series of cards depicting temporal sequences of natural events. Experiment 2 included the card arrangement task (the same as in Experiment 1) and a video judgment task. In the video judgment task, the stimulus presented a horizontal or a vertical array of pictures depicting a temporal sequence of natural events, and participants were asked to verify if the temporal sequence described in the pictures was in the correct order. Converging results yielded from the two experiments demonstrate that most Mandarin speakers (approximately 80%) may be identical to English speakers with regard to their salient horizontal bias for temporal cognition. Only approximately 20% of Mandarin speakers, who overwhelmingly rely on the vertical axis to reason about time, may differ from English speakers. The evidence suggests that there might be a possible relationship between language and temporal cognition, but the relationship is far more complicated and indefinite than a simple or absolute causal one. The issue of whether language plays a powerful and critical role that shapes people’s thought remains uncertain and is subject to further examinations and clarifications. Implications for theoretical and empirical issues concerning the language-thought relationship are discussed.
Revisiting Aktionsart types for lexical classes
Authors: Cortés-Rodriguez Francisco J.
Published: December 2016

A good number of lexical and grammatical models make use of systems of meaning representation which are based on a theory of event structure. Theories of event structure quite often take aspectual features as the backbone for the semantic representation of symbolic units, i.e predicates and constructions. One of the most comprehensive and detailed proposals for the aspectual characterization of both lexical units and argumental constructions can be found in the Lexical Constructional Model, which in turn is based on the system for semantic representations from Role and Reference Grammar. However, such a system presents some drawbacks, which stem mainly from not establishing a neat distinction between what is properly lexical and what is contributed by higher constructional units in the denotation of specific events. Taking such a distinction as a basic premise for a sound characterization of events, in this paper a reassessment of the typology of aspectual classes from these models is made; this critical revision is followed by a hierarchical reorganization of such aspectual classes.
Anti-fingerprint properties of engineering surfaces: a review
Authors: Belhadjamor M. , El Mansori M. , Belghith S. , Mezlini S.
Published: December 2016

Various applications require surfaces with anti-fingerprint properties. This article reviews the surface properties that govern the fingerprinting process. The achievement of surfaces free of fingerprints deals with the construction of amphiphobic surfaces that repel water and oil. Based on wetting theories, two key parameters (Surface energy and Roughness) show significant effects on surface wettability. We address in this paper, the basic requirements and strategies of designing and manufacturing amphiphobic surfaces using different substrates. The synergetic effect of low surface energy and functional surface morphology leads to reduced wettability, resulting in anti-fingerprint properties. The trends of future investigations and fundamental conclusions are drawn. The remaining challenges and future outlook of this field are also highlighted.
Hiking strap force decreases during sustained upwind sailing
Authors: Buchardt R. , Bay J. , Bojsen‐Møller J. , Nordsborg N. B.
Published: December 2016

The hypothesis, that sailing upwind in wind speeds above 12 knots causes fatigue, which manifests as a reduction in exerted hiking strap force and/or maximal isometric voluntary contraction force (MVC) of the knee extensors, was evaluated. Additionally, it was investigated if a relationship exists between maximal exerted hiking force (hMVC) and sailing performance. In part 1 of the study, 12 national level athletes sailed upwind for 2 × 10 min while hiking strap forces were continuously acquired. Before, in between and after sailing periods, the MVC of the knee extensors was measured. In part 2 of the study, hMVC was measured dry land in a hiking bench and correlated with the overall results at a national championship. Hiking strap force decreased from the first to the last minute in both 10 min sailing periods (430 ± 131 vs. 285 ± 130 N, P < .001 and 369 ± 74 vs. 267 ± 97 N, P < .001, respectively), but MVC was similar before, between and after the two 10 min sailing periods (878 ± 215 vs. 852 ± 202 vs. 844 ± 211 130 N). In part 2, a significant positive correlation (r2 = 0.619, P < .01) was observed between hMVC and regatta results. In conclusion, upwind sailing in wind speeds above 12 knots causes sailing‐specific fatigue as evidenced by a marked reduction in exerted hiking strap force. However, MVC of the knee extensors was not compromised ∼45 s after hiking was terminated. Additionally, sailing performance is related to maximal hiking force.
Interaction between motor ability and skill learning in children: Application of implicit and explicit approaches
Authors: Maxwell Jon P. , Capio Catherine M. , Masters Rich S.W.
Published: December 2016

The benefits of implicit and explicit motor learning approaches in young adults have been studied extensively, but much less in children. This study investigated the relationship between fundamental motor ability and implicit/explicit learning in children using the errorless learning paradigm. First, the motor ability of 261 children (142 boys, 119 girls) aged 9–12 years (M = 9.74, SD = 0.67) was measured. Second, children with motor ability scores in the upper and lower quartile learned a golf‐putting skill in either an errorless (implicit) or errorful (explicit) learning condition. Four groups were formed: Errorless High‐Ability (n = 13), Errorless Low‐Ability (n = 11), Errorful High‐Ability (n = 10), and Errorful Low‐Ability (n = 11). Learning consisted of 300 practice trials, while testing included a 50‐trial retention test, followed by a 50‐trial secondary task transfer test, and another 50‐trial retention test. The results showed that for high‐ and low‐ability errorless learners, motor performance was unaffected by the secondary task, as was the case for high‐ability errorful learners. Low‐ability errorful learners performed worse with a secondary task and were significantly poorer than the corresponding high‐ability group. These results suggest that implicit motor learning (errorless) may be beneficial for children with low motor ability. The findings also show a trend that children of high motor ability might benefit from learning explicitly (errorful). Further research is recommended to examine the compatibility of implicit and explicit approaches for children of different abilities.
The impact of physical growth and relative age effect on assessment in physical education
Authors: Dalen Terje , Ingvaldsen Rolf Petter , Roaas Truls Valland , Pedersen Arve Vorland , Steen Ingebrigt , Aune Tore Kristian
Published: December 2016

Physical education (PE) is perhaps the school subject most likely to produce relative age effects (RAE). Like in sports, physical maturity gives students an advantage in PE, which might well be mistaken for superior ability. The aim of the present study is to investigate the extent to which physical growth, measured as height, and RAE reflect the assessment in Norwegian PE. Furthermore, we wanted to examine whether there is any gender differences in the assessment in PE as a function of physical growth and RAE. The participants (n = 2978) were pupils in the last three years of secondary school (13–16 years old). A custom‐made questionnaire was designed to collect the necessary data. The correlations between height and mark in PE for boys in 8th, 9th, and 10th grades are respectively r = 0.14, r = 0.32, and r = 0.29. For girls, the correlations are r = 0.11, r = 0.33, and r = 0.21. All correlations are significant (p < .05). The number of pupils achieving top marks was 114 in the first half of the year, whereas it was 65 in the second half of the year. The present study showed that physical growth has an impact on the pupils’ PE attainment. The physical growth is of course also mediated by the pupils’ age. RAEs were found in PE attainments also in the Norwegian school system for both genders, despite all the intentions expressed in the PE curriculum.
Brain tumor biobanking in the precision medicine era: building a high-quality resource for translational research in neuro-oncology
Authors: Ostrom Quinn T , Devine Karen , Fulop Jordonna , Wolinsky Yingli , Liao Peter , Stetson Lindsay , Couce Marta , Sloan Andrew E , Barnholtz-Sloan Jill S
Published: December 2016

The growth of precision medicine has made access to biobanks with high-quality, well-annotated neuro-oncology biospecimens critical. Developing and maintaining neuro-oncology biobanks is best accomplished through multidisciplinary collaboration between clinicians and researchers. Balancing the needs and leveraging the skills of all stakeholders in this multidisciplinary effort is of utmost importance. Collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, health care team members, and institutions, as well as patients and their families, is essential for access to participants in order to obtain informed consent, collect samples under strict standard operating procedures, and accurate and relevant clinical annotation. Once a neuro-oncology biobank is established, development and implementation of policies related to governance and distribution of biospecimens (both within and outside the institution) is of critical importance for sustainability. Proper implementation of a governance process helps to ensure that the biospecimens and data can be utilized in research with the largest potential benefit. New NIH and peer-reviewed journal policies related to public sharing of ‘omic’ data generated from stored biospecimens create new ethical challenges that must be addressed in developing informed consents, protocols, and standard operating procedures. In addition, diversification of sources of funding for the biobanks is needed for long-term sustainability.