Current Research on Language Learning and Teaching : Case Study of Bosnia and Herzegovina [1 ed.] 9781443893145, 9781443889179

Citation preview

Current Research on Language Learning and Teaching

Current Research on Language Learning and Teaching: Case Study of Bosnia and Herzegovina Edited by

Azamat Akbarov

Current Research on Language Learning and Teaching: Case Study of Bosnia and Herzegovina Edited by Azamat Akbarov This book first published 2016 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2016 by Azamat Akbarov and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-8917-2 ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-8917-9

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Slips of the Tongue: Repressed Thoughts or Prima Facie Evidence of Linguistic Flexibility ............................................................................... 1 Alma Jeftiü A Cross-Cultural Study of Apologies in Bosnian and English .................... 8 Alma Žeriü English as a Window into Understanding the Brain .................................. 17 Ana Tankosiü, Ajša Habibiü and Azamat Akbarov The Wrong Choice of English Prepositions Caused by Negative Language Transfer ..................................................................................... 26 Asmir Doriü Classroom Activities for Young Learners of English ................................ 39 Azamat Akbarov and Larisa Ĉapo The Effect of Classical Music on Vocabulary Recall and Retention of Students Learning English at the University of Mostar......................... 56 Božena Pandža and Izabela Dankiü Aspects and Manifestations of (Narrative) Time in Two Paul Auster Novels........................................................................................................ 64 Darko Kovaþeviü Semantic Comparison of English and BosnianConsanguineal Kinship Terminologies ............................................................................................ 72 Edin Dupanoviü Is Motivation Necessary in the Teaching Process?.................................... 81 Edina Hadžiahmetagiü IT as a Motivational Tool for Different Types of University-level ESL Learners ..................................................................................................... 97 Edina Špago-ûumurija and Džemal Špago and Adi Maslo

vi

Table of Contents

Semi-Free Relatives in Arabic and Bosnian ............................................ 106 Elma Dizdar Use of Rhetorical Figures in English Advertising Language .................. 115 Emel Mehuriü Visual Metaphor in Surrealist Art............................................................ 122 Ilhana Škrgiü Left Branch Extraction from Nominal and Adjectival Small Clauses in English ................................................................................................. 130 Izela Habul-Šabanoviü On Signalling Voices in Newspapers ...................................................... 147 Jelena Markoviü Finite and Non-Finite Relative Clauses in English and BCS: A Contrastive Study ................................................................................ 160 Kamiah Arnaut-Karoviü and Edina Rizviü-Eminoviü Computer Compounds: The Reason Behind the Rhyme ......................... 171 Lidija Perkiü Raising Pragmatic Awareness in Second Language Acquisition: Comparison of Non-Native and Native Complaints ................................ 181 Marijana Prodanoviü The Significance of Teaching the Arabic Language in Light of Promoting Linguistic Diversity and Intercultural Communication ........................... 195 Mejra Softiü Teachers’ Awareness of the Importance of Collocations in the Vocabulary Development of Elementary Level Learners of English.......................... 205 Mirna Begagiü and Alma Milišiü Aspects of English Unaccusative Verbs .................................................. 214 Nadira Aljoviü Some Aspects of Tabloid Adjectives ....................................................... 223 Nevena Vuþen

Current Research on Language Learning and Teaching

vii

Repetitions in L2 and L1 Conversations ................................................. 233 Sanja ýurkoviü Kalebiü Development of Intercultural Education through English Language Textbooks Used in Elementary Schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina ...... 245 Senad Beüiroviü Informal Assessments in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Children ............................................................................................... 259 Tatjana A. Dumitraškoviü English in Bosnian Advertising Discourse .............................................. 268 Vildana Dubravac and Eldin Milak Trees, Nodes and Constituency Tests: Do We Really Need to Teach Theoretical Syntax at Foreign Language Departments? .......................... 285 Željka Babiü Contributors ............................................................................................. 293

SLIPS OF THE TONGUE: REPRESSED THOUGHTS OR PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF LINGUISTIC FLEXIBILITY ALMA JEFTIû

Abstract Slips of the tongue are almost inevitable. It is proven that for every thousand words spoken, people make one or two errors, which means that a slip is bound to occur about once every seven minutes of continuous talk. The average person makes between 7 and 22 verbal slips every day. This paper aims to analyse both linguistic and psychoanalytic aspects of slips of the tongue, as well as describe their prevalence in the Bosnian language. Freud insisted that slips of the tongue represent repressed thoughts or motives, while his contemporary, philologist Rudolf Meringer, said that they are just accidental shifts of linguistic units. By contrast, cognitive scientist Gary Dell contends that slips of the tongue reveal a person's capacity for using language and its components. In order to analyse the most prevalent slips of the tongue that usually occur within a group of native speakers of Bosnian, a random sample of 100 Bosnians (50 males and 50 females, aged 25–55) filled in a questionnaire designed to identify their awareness of the number of slips in their everyday speech, as well as their willingness to describe them as either repressed thoughts or motives or accidental shifts. It is concluded that people are less likely to adhere to Freudian principles of unconscious motives than the description of slips as ordinary errors. The results are further described in the context of Dell's idea of spreading activation according to which language is error prone, which allows for the novel production of words, and is prima facie evidence of linguistic flexibility and proof of the great dexterity of the human mind. Keywords: slips of the tongue, unconscious, errors of speech, linguistic flexibility, dexterity

2

Slips of the Tongue

1. Introduction Slips of the tongue are almost inevitable, and it is proven that for every thousand words spoken people make one or two errors, which means that a slip is bound to occur about once every seven minutes of continuous talk. The average person makes between 7 and 22 verbal slips every day. This paper aims to analyse both linguistic and psychoanalytic aspects of slips of the tongue, as well as describe their prevalence in the Bosnian language. Freud insisted that slips of the tongue represent repressed thoughts or motives, while his contemporary, philologist Rudolf Meringer, said that they are just accidental shifts of linguistic units. In contrast, cognitive scientist Gary Dell contends that slips of the tongue reveal a person's capacity for using language and its components. In order to analyse the most prevalent slips of the tongue that usually occur within a group of native speakers of Bosnian, a random sample of 100 Bosnians (50 males and 50 females, aged 25–55) filled in a questionnaire designed to identify their awareness of the number of slips in their everyday speech, as well as their willingness to describe them as either repressed thoughts or motives or accidental shifts. The results were further described in the context of Dell's idea of spreading activation according to which language is error prone, which allows for the novel production of words that is prima facie evidence of linguistic flexibility and proof of the great dexterity of the human mind.

2. The “Slip of the Tongue” Phenomenon: Theory, Research, and Practice Sigmund Freud derived the terms unconscious, preconscious, and conscious, particularly from slips in speech, slips in reading, and forgetfulness in both “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” and his lectures. He thought that slips are parallel and similar to dreams, and therefore analysed these in depth as part of mental motivation. Freud (2010) believed errors of all types were revealing and sometimes serve as defensive mechanisms. Freudian slips are errors of language, such as word substitutions and mispronunciation, and are defined as any language error that is unintentionally revealing. The words involved in a Freudian slip usually resemble each other in form and function. Freud recognised this and maintained that most errors had several causes that worked together to create the error, and therefore named this an “overdetermination” of an error (Ibid.). This is partially

Alma Jeftic

3

based on the idea of the intersecting association process, or how memory retrieval takes place. However, less known than Freudian slips are mishearing or misleading errors, as well as errors caused by motivated forgetting. According to Freud (2010), people always forget for a reason, which reflects an unconscious wish and desire. Losing things can also reveal unconscious desires. People sometimes lose a valuable thing they have borrowed because, unconsciously, they rebel against giving it back. On the other occasions, a loss can reflect an unconscious wish to get rid of something a person does not like. Freud (2010) also discussed a type of error he called the erroneous idea. This occurs when a person who knows better makes a revealing mistake involving factual or autobiographical knowledge. For example, one might describe her/his home town as the town where she/he grew up as a child, rather than the town where she/he currently lives, if they are different. This might reveal a yearning for the conditions of childhood. According to Freud, people who remember their own ages incorrectly are unconsciously desiring to be older or younger. It is possible to conclude that all Freudian ideas of the unconscious have in common an intrusion into the conscious life by some thought or emotion (an urge or desire) that is “normally outside of awareness,” or which a person is struggling not to think about. Such errors can be revealing if they reflect mental activity going on under the surface, which is not easy to demonstrate. Sigmund Freud paid tribute to Rudolf Meringer and Carl Mayer's study published in 1895. Meringer and Mayers showed the reversal and rearrangement of whole words, syllables or sounds, along with pre-tones or anticipations and echoes, word contaminations, and word substitutions as phenomena responsible for slips of the tongue. These three scientists contributed to the controversy of their standpoints because, for modern psycholinguistics and the psychology of language, speech errors are always an expression of a momentary malfunction of the human speech production system. For the cognitive process of speech production, slips of the tongue offer an insight into speech processing (Kohler and Simon 2002). According to Meringer and Mayer (1895), pre-tones, echoes, and serialisation errors represent the vast majority of slips of the tongue. They do not reveal any hidden point. However, with lexical-semantic slips of the tongue the question of mental motivation is admissible. Meringer was originally motivated by Hermann Paul’s (1880) observations concerning similarities between speech errors and the processes of language change.

4

Slips of the Tongue

He decided to reject the possibility that errors might actually precipitate sound change. According to Meringer and Mayer (1895), speech errors and certain kinds of sound change are not inter-dependent but share a higher cause in the nature of the psychological language organ. Four major generalisations may be extracted from Meringer’s speech error writings: (1) errors are not random but are rule-governed (Meringer 1908, 3; Meringer and Mayer 1895, 9–10); (2) the fundamental unit of speaking is not the speech sound but the word (Meringer and Mayer1895, 6–7); (3) words can be divided into structural components that differ in the strength of their internal representations (Meringer and Mayer 1895, 164); (4) all speakers produce errors in the same way (Meringer and Mayer 1895, 10; Meringer 1908, 6, 123). However, it is evident that Meringer was determined to attach mental processes to the unconscious and describe the topology of the psychic apparatus. Kohler and Simon (2002) tried to induce spoonerisms with the presentation of short written texts of erotic, aggressive, and neutral content. They concluded that after reading the erotic and the aggressive text, slips were produced more often than following the neutral text. In addition, significantly more slips of the erotic kind occurred after reading the erotic text, whereas more aggressive slips were observed immediately after the lecture of the text with aggressive content (Kohler and Simon 2002). The obtained results replicated Motley’s findings on laboratory generated spoonerism errors (Motley et al. 1982). However, the previously analysed experiments did not rely on the possibility of language complexity that was well noted by Dell. According to Dell's idea of spreading activation, language is error prone, which allows for the novel production of words and is prima facie evidence of linguistic flexibility and proof of the great dexterity of the human mind (which has nothing to do with unconscious desires and wishes). Dell’s model claims that speech is produced by a number of connected nodes representing distinct units of speech (i.e. phonemes, morphemes, syllables, concepts, etc.) that interact with one another in any direction, from the concept (Semantic) level, to the word (Lexical selection) level, and finally to the sound (Phonological) level of representation (Dell 1986). Therefore, slips can be the result of pure language complexity from one side, or unconscious wishes and desires from the other.

Alma Jeftic

5

3. Methodology 3.1 Participants This research included 100 participants who voluntarily filled in a specially designed questionnaire; 50% of participants were male and 50% female, aged 25–55. All participants possessed Bachelor degrees at the time of the implementation of the research, and were native speakers of Bosnian.

3.2 Instruments A Likert-type scale was designed to explore the following constructs: -

the participant’s awareness of the number of slips of the tongue she/he can make during the period of one month (4 items); the participant’s readiness to analyse slips as unconscious desires and/or wishes (4 items); the participant’s readiness to describe slips as simple errors that result from language complexity (4 items).

The answers were provided on a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 means “completely disagree” and 7 means “completely agree.”

3.3 Method The participants completed the questionnaire in a quiet classroom environment. All received the same instruction and were given ten minutes to complete the twelve-item questionnaire. The data were later analysed according to the results on three specific subscales: awareness of everyday slips of the tongue/lapsus linguae, readiness to describe mistakes as unconscious wishes, and readiness to describe mistakes as simple errors.

4. Results and Discussion Frequencies of “agree” and “strongly agree” answers for each subscale were measured. In all, 87% of participants said that they were pretty much aware of all the mistakes and errors in speech they had made during the previous month. However, only 31% of participants described their speech errors as unconscious wishes and desires in a Freudian way. Surprisingly, the

6

Slips of the Tongue

majority of them were male participants (70% of the whole group that was willing to understand speech errors as unconscious wishes and desires). In all, 69% of participants described their speech errors as the result of linguistic flexibility in the context of Dell's idea of spreading activation, according to which language is error-prone, which allows for the novel production of words and is prima facie evidence of linguistic flexibility and proof of the great dexterity of the human mind. It is evident that, for the majority of participants, speech errors are mostly just accidental shifts in Meringer’s sense, and have nothing to do with the Freudian idea of the unconscious. However, the fact that the majority of male participants were most likely to adhere to the Freudian explanation can be described in a psychoanalytic way in terms of the need for the large repression of sexual drives and cultural oppression. Therefore, men are most likely to think that the excessive sexual impulses they possess have to be repressed due to the cultural norms. In that case, they usually think that all the repressed thoughts they have (as well as speech errors they have made) have some sort of sexual connotation. In contrast, women usually suppress their sexual impulses even more than men; therefore, they were less likely to adhere to them even during this research (so that we might assume that they did not even want to choose spoonerisms as potential answers, in order to conform to the standards of society).

5. Conclusion It is concluded that people are less likely to adhere to Freudian principles of unconscious motives than the description of slips as ordinary errors, which is in line with Dell’s idea of spreading activation and Meringer’s accidental shifts. However, researchers should extend this analysis in terms of gender differences and repressed sexual drives, as well as cultural norms and standards.

References Dell, G.S. 1986. “A Spreading Activation Theory of Retrieval and Sentence Production. “Psychological Review 93: 283–321 Freud, S. 2010. Psychopathology of Everyday Life. New York: Create Space. Kohler, T., and P. Simon. 2002. “An Experimental Study on Freudian Slips.”Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik, medizinische Psychologie 529 (10): 374–7.

Alma Jeftic

7

Meringer, R. 1908. Ausdem Leben der Sprache. Berlin: B. Behr. Meringer, R., and C. Mayer. 1895. Versprechen und Verlesen: Einepsychologisch-linguistische Studie. Stuttgart: G. J. Goschen. Motley, M.T., C. T. Camden, and B. J. Baars. 1982. “Covert Formulation and Editing of Anomalies in Speech Production: Evidence from Experimentally Elicited Slips of the Tongue. ”Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 21: 578–94. Paul, H. 1880. Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte 2nd edn.. Halle a. d. S.: Niemeyer.

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF APOLOGIES IN BOSNIAN AND ENGLISH ALMA ŽERIû

Abstract The aim of this study is to examine the speech act of apologies in both English and Bosnian languages. Participants in the study, conducted in 2014, were first-year students of the four-year cycle of the Pedagogical faculty, University of Bihac, Department of English Language and Literature, and five native speakers of English. The primary objective was to determine whether there are certain similarities and differences when it comes to the selection of apology strategies in English and Bosnian. In addition, an attempt was made to establish if there is a significant difference in the way in which native speakers of English and EFL speakers (students from Bosnia and Herzegovina) apologise in English, which would show if there is a correlation between language competence and cultural knowledge. Another segment of the research served as a comparison between apology strategies provided by EFL speakers, in English and Bosnian, in order to examine if and to what extent strategies differ when apologising in one’s native and foreign languages. The research data were gathered using a Discourse Completion Test (DCT), commonly used in pragmatic research. The test itself consisted of five hypothetical situations designed as every day events that would, most often, be deemed as requiring an apology. In addition to responding to the question, participants were asked to grade the situations on a scale based on the seriousness of the offence made to determine which situations were considered the most serious social injuries. The results of the study revealed the existence of both similarities, possibly assigned as belonging to the same age group, and some differences, mostly assigned to cultural differences. Key words: pragmatic, speech act, apologies, Bosnian language, English language

Alma Žeric

9

Abbreviations: DCT Discourse Completion Test EFL English as a Foreign Language IFID Illocutionary Force Indicating Device

1. Introduction “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Edward Bulwer-Lytton

The importance of communication in human society has always been evident, and as the metaphorical pen compares to and even dominates the sword, so can a word have the same consequences in society as any other action. One of the first to state his opinion that words accomplish much more than the transmission of information was linguist John L. Austin. In his monumental work “How to do things with words” (1962), Austin sets the stage for the theory of speech acts, whose creator was his student John Searl. Searl defines a speech act not just as a statement but also an action, and one of those speech acts is the apology. This speech act has, in recent years, become a very common subject of many works.

2. Defining and Categorizing Apologies During the 1990s politeness became one of the most popular topics of research in pragmatics. In the context of observing speech acts through the theory of politeness, Brown and Levinson define apologies as: “culturally stabilized interaction rituals with conventionalised formulae” (1987, 235). They claim that all speakers use the same strategies when they find themselves in identical situations. Marc Bergman and Gabriele Kasper, in “Perception and Performance in Native and Nonnative Apology” (1993), define an apology as a: “compensatory action to an offense in the doing of which S was actually involved and which is costly to H” (1993, 82). However, as the authors claim, injuries that may in one culture be regarded as very serious might not even require an apology in another. Janet Holmes writes that, “an apology is a speech act addressed to the person offended’s face-needs and intended to remedy an offence for which the apologizer takes responsibility, and thus to restore equilibrium between the apologizer and the person offended” (Holmes 1990, 156). What this study shows is that even the choice of apology strategies is determined by social factors such as age, sex and social status.

10

A Cross-Cultural Study of Apologies in Bosnian and English

A categorisation that is almost inevitable in most studies of apologies is that of Elite Olshtain and Andrew Cohen from 1983. They propose seven categories, divided into two parts. The first contains five basic categories for the cases when the speaker apologises: an expression of apology, an explanation of the situation, taking the blame, offering a remedy, and a promise that it will not happen again. Each category has several subcategories for the purpose of increasing the delimitation of strategies. The second part contains two strategies for cases where the perpetrator does not feel the need to apologise: denial of the need to apologise and denying responsibility. Similarly, Bergman and Kasper (1993) distinguished seven categories of apologies.

3. Previous Research Deutschmann (2003), in his extensive research in English language within a corpus consisting of a large number of apologies by different speakers in different contexts, makes some interesting observations. First of all, the frequency of strategies in which speakers try to reduce their liability is four times higher than those in which they take responsibility. In addition, the choice of strategies is influenced by the level of formality of the environment in which the apology is performed. Holmes (1990) comes to the conclusion that when the situation is more serious there is a greater chance that the apology will consist of a number of strategies, and vice versa. What can be concluded from the research of these authors is that the use and selection of speech acts is influenced by many different factors. Whether it is sex, age, or belonging to certain classes or groups, even within the same language, we find certain specificities and also some inevitable similarities. It is interesting that in many cross-cultural studies of the speech act of apologising, similar results can be found; i.e., there is no strict division between languages, and all similarities and differences are attributed to the context or situation and the already mentioned social factors. As far as the cross-cultural research of apologies between English and other languages is concerned, perhaps the most important one to mention would be “Cross-Cultural Speech Act Realization Project (CCSARP)” from 1984, and another from 1989 created as a joint effort by an international team of linguists including Blum-Kulkau, House, and Kasper, where apologies in several languages were analysed. The framework for analysing apologies developed within this project was later used in many studies contributing to the collection of comparable data in

Alma Žeric

11

many different languages, and thus continuing the debate between the universality of speech acts and their cultural specificity.

4. The Study As can be inferred from previous studies of apologies, the results confirm that the majority of universalities in language, at least as far as the speech act of apologies is concerned, cannot be conclusively proven. The questions that this research will try to answer are: (1) Are there certain similarities and differences when it comes to the selection of apology strategies in English and Bosnian? (2) Is there a significant difference in the way in which native speakers of English and EFL speakers apologise in English (a correlation between language competence and cultural knowledge)? (3) Do strategies differ when apologising in one’s native language and foreign language (apology strategies provided by EFL speakers, in English and Bosnian)? The data used in this study was obtained using a Discourse Completion Test, which is used in many cross-cultural studies. The test consists of three parts: an introduction that contains instructions on how to properly fill out the questionnaire; the main part, which consists of five hypothetical situations that potentially require an apology; and the final part, where respondents graded the five situations (on a scale from 1 to 5) on the basis of the severity of the offence. The situations are as follows: Situation 1: destroying the property of a family member Situation 2: being half an hour late for a meeting with a friend Situation 3: losing an acquaintance’s property (colleague’s notes) Situation 4: missing a meeting with a professor (a person in a position of “authority”) Situation 5: accidental physical injury of a stranger (old lady). The participants were 46 students of the Pedagogical faculty, University of Bihac, English Department. The students were divided into two groups; the first filled the questionnaire in Bosnian, while the second answered in English. In addition to students, the study included five native speakers of English.

12

A Cross-Cultural Study of Apologies in Bosnian and English

The categorisation of apology strategies used in this study is a combination of the so far used categorisations, and the examples are taken from survey respondents. (1) Explicit expression of an apology: (1.1) IFID—“Sorry!” (1.2) Intensified IFID—“I'm so sorry!” (2) Taking responsibility: (2.1) explicit: the speaker takes full responsibility due to some personal flaw—“It's my fault.” (2.2) indirect: (2.2.1) offer repair/compensation—“I’ll buy you a new shirt.” (2.2.2) verbal redress—“I will never do it again.” (3) Minimising responsibility: (3.1) blaming others—“He pushed me.” (3.2) giving an explanation—“I'm very busy with my midterms.” (3.3) lack of intent—“I didn’t do it on purpose.” (3.4) denying responsibility—“It’s not my fault.”

5. The Data Analysis and Results The first and most obvious difference when it comes to apology strategies used by speakers of Bosnian and English is that speakers of English use much more explicit apologies, both with and without illocutionary force indicating devices. All native speakers of English used an explicit apology with an illocutionary force indicating device in all five hypothetical situations, while the speakers of Bosnian used this strategy less (65.92%), although not completely omitting it. With strategies of acknowledgement of responsibility, indirect recognition is much more frequent than explicit ones, which appear only in a minority of apologies in Bosnian (6.66%), while native English speakers did not use them. Indirect recognition, in the form of offers to fix the situation, are the most widely used strategy in both languages (English 72%, Bosnian 52.59%), and all of the subjects used it in at least one hypothetical situation, while the promise that a violation will not happen again was used only once in the English native speakers’ excuses (4%), and nine time with speakers of the Bosnian language (6.66%). When it comes to minimising responsibility, blaming others is the least-used strategy, used only once with a speaker of Bosnian (0.74%), while the strategy of giving explanation is very common in both

Alma Žeric

13

languages. As for the other two strategies, lack of intent is more common (36% in English, 24.44% in Bosnian) than denying responsibility (12% in English, 0.74% in Bosnian). The reason for this could be that the speakers are, by explaining the situation, trying to save face and good relations with other members of society. Another interesting difference observed is that the speakers of English use explicit apologies with intensifies IFIDs mostly in the fourth situation where they have not complied with the agreed dates for meeting a person who is, one might say, in a position of power (professor), while the same apologies in Bosnian are most often in the fifth situation where the offended is an elderly lady, indicating the potential existence of a different value systems. In Bosnian traditional culture, the elderly are respected as bearers of wisdom, while in American culture more respect is given to persons in authority. Table 1 below shows the previously discussed results. Table 1 English (5) S1 S2 S3

S4

S5

Bosnian (27) S1 S2 S3

S4

S5

5

5

5

2

5

12

9

10

14

10

/

/

/

3

/

7

2

4

8

12

/

/

/

/

/

/

/

2

1

6

5

2

5

1

5

21

6

20

/

19

/

/

/

1

/

4

2

/

3

/

3

5

4

3

3

6

18

14

20

6

/

/

/

/

/

/

1

/

/

/

Lack of intention

2

/

/

3

4

10

/

3

6

14

Denying responsibility

/

1

/

2

/

/

/

/

1

/

APOLOGY STRATEGIES Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs) Intensifiers Acknowledgement of Responsibility Compensation/Reparation Promise not to repeat offence Explanation/Accounts Blaming others/Minimisation

As for the differences in the selection of apology strategies between English speakers and Bosnian students in English, there is a greater use of a combination of apology strategies by the students, so that the native speakers most often use apologies that are a combination of three strategies, while the students often use a combination of four or more strategies. The reason for this can potentially be found in the fact that students have, through many years of education and formal learning of a

14

A Cross-Cultural Study of Apologies in Bosnian and English

foreign language, become accustomed to a more extensive and detailed use of language, while the native speakers do not have a subconscious need to “impress” anyone with their extensive vocabulary. In addition to this, unlike apologies in Bosnian (65.92%), when students apologise in English they include more explicit apologies (with and without intensified IFIDs) (94.73%). Here we also find that indirect recognition apologies (58.94%) are much more frequent than explicit ones (17.89%). However, due to the fact that in all the hypothetical situations the majority of respondents combined four or more apology strategies, explicit apologies, in addition to indirect ones which are almost an inevitable apology strategy of BiH students in English, are still used in students’ apologies in English more often than in Bosnian (6.66%). With indirect apology strategies compensation is once again most frequent (English speakers 72%, Bosnian speakers 53.68%), while verbal redress (12.63%) as well as explicit apologies are used by the students more when apologising in English. With strategies of minimising responsibility, a strategy that is not encountered when apologising in English is blaming others, while the strategy of giving an explanation is again used most often (76% of English speakers, Bosnian speakers 54.73%). Lack of intent is encountered in most combinations in English (English speakers 36%, Bosnian speakers 14.73%), while denying responsibility is less so often (English speakers 12%, Bosnian speakers 5.26%). The frequency of using strategies which minimise responsibility is attributed to the speaker’s need to keep their face intact, as already mentioned. Table 2 below shows the previously discussed results. Hypothetical situations are graded in both languages as expected, with the first three situations graded on a scale from one to three, and with situations four and five as the more serious ones. This shows the similarities between the speakers of Bosnian and English, at least as far as the subjects in this study are concerned. The reason for this could be the social factors that Brown and Levinson mentioned. The first three situations, graded as less serious, are related to someone close to the speaker, where the social distance is small (e.g. family member, friend, or colleague). However, when the violation involves a stranger or a person of higher social status with greater social distance, the situations are graded as more severe.

Alma Žeric

15

Table 2 Native speakers (5) S1 S2 S3 S4 S5

Students (19) S1 S2 S3

S4

S5

5

5

5

2

5

10

8

15

10

8

/

/

/

3

/

9

10

4

8

8

/

/

/

/

/

2

/

7

5

3

5

2

5

1

5

15

7

10

2

17

/

/

/

1

/

3

5

/

4

/

Explanation/Accounts

3

5

4

3

3

/

/

/

/

/

Blaming others/Minimisation

/

/

/

/

/

14

16

10

8

4

Lack of intention

2

/

/

3

4

5

/

3

/

6

Denying responsibility

/

1

/

2

/

/

/

/

5

/

APOLOGY STRATEGIES Illocutionary Force Indicating Devices (IFIDs) Intensifiers Acknowledgement of Responsibility Compensation/Reparation Promise not to repeat offence

6. Conclusion The results from this study should not be generalised due to the fact that there are some limitations. These limitations are the relatively small number of respondents only five subjects were native speakers of English and the fact that only a written test was used. In order to come up with some more relevant results in terms of similarities and differences in the choice of apology strategies in English and Bosnian, the scope of subjects, at least regarding the native speakers of English, should certainly be increased. In addition to this, there is a chance that the results would be significantly different if the respondents were more diverse; that is, of different ages and social groups and not just students of English language and literature, who are familiar with the language and culture, and who also have a lot of other similar characteristics that may influence the selection of similar strategies. Also, some authors list the limitations of using a DCT only, and therefore other forms of testing, for example roleplay or analysis of a corpus collected in real-life situations, should be used.

16

A Cross-Cultural Study of Apologies in Bosnian and English

References Austin, John L. 1975. How to Do Things With Words. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Bergman, Marc L., and Gabriele Kasper. 1993. “Perception and Performance in Native and Non-native Apology.” In Interlanguage Pragmatics, edited by Gabriele Kasper and Shoshana Blum-Kulka, 82– 107. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Blum-Kulka, Shoshana, and E. Olshtain. 1984. “Requests and Apologies: A Cross-cultural Study of Speech Acts Realization Patterns (CCSARP).” Applied Linguistics 5 (3): 196–212. Brown, Penelope, and Stephen C. Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Deutschmann, Mats. 2003. “Apologising in British English.” http://www.divaportal.org/smash/get/diva2:143441/FULLTEXT01.pdf. Holmes, Janet. 1990. “Apologies in New Zealand English.” Language in Society 19 (2) 155–199.

ENGLISH AS A WINDOW INTO UNDERSTANDING THE BRAIN ANA TANKOSIû, AJŠA HABIBIû AND AZAMAT AKBAROV

Abstract The purpose of our study is to closely examine the effect of human cognitive and social levels on lexis perception. This relationship is a concern of cognitive linguistics, which concentrates on cognitive and cultural resources in use when the connection between words in the human brain and their usage is made. In the same way, the schema that helps in the organisation of already acquired lexis and which simultaneously assists in the acquisition of new lexis is constructed. The field of cognitive linguistics also encompasses a grammatical approach called cognitive grammar. This approach to language is based on our experience of the world and the ways we perceive and conceptualise it. Exposure to language is mandatory to initiate the acquisition process, which is computed by the brain in various ways. Although cognitive factors have a great impact on meaning perception, social factors cannot be overseen. Language is not only used to express thoughts and interpret meaning, but also to construct meaning from various contexts and discourses. During our study, we conducted an experiment followed by interviews of participants in order to get insights into the human perception of lexis in descriptive texts, and the process of combining these lexical items and how they form grammatical constructions. Keywords: cognitive linguistics, lexis, perception, social linguistics

1. Introduction Every living creature has a brain and some produce sounds, but only humans can produce language as an organised and structured system of words. Some say that nothing but cognition and mental activity are responsible for the comprehension of language. However, social factors

18

English as a Window into Understanding the Brain

should not be overlooked. In mainstream cognitive linguistic circles, it has been acknowledged for quite some time that language should not be studied as a solely mental phenomenon, but also as a social activity (Hollmann and Siewierska 2011). In Methods and Generalizations by Gilles Fauconnier (2000), Cognitive Linguistics is described as, “a science of meaning construction and its dynamics”. Furthermore, if language is seen as a part of cognitive processing, then it can be used as a, “window into understanding the human brain” (Pinker1994). Cognitive linguists believe that various factors, such as environmental, biological, psychological, developmental, historical, and sociocultural, shape language. Cognitive linguistics deals with both cognitive and cultural resources when the connection between meaning perception in the human brain and the outcome (words) is made. “Meaning is considered to be a matter of conceptualization” (Pavloviü 2010); in other words, different users of language interpret words in disparate ways under the influence of cultural and social determinants. Moreover, under the influence of the nature of the human brain, body, and environment, human understanding and reasoning are shaped and constrained. The question of meaning is not just one of language, but also of the possibilities of human cognition, interaction, and expression. Language is symbolic and the line between figurative and literal meanings is very thin. Idioms are one of the segments whose influence on human perception could be closely examined. When they are looked at literally they are not meaningful, which means that knowing the words that construct them is not enough. This leads to the question of what it means to know a word. There is no such thing as completely knowing or completely unknowing, “it is always a matter of degree” (Cameron 2001). It has been argued that there are different levels of word knowledge between complete innocence and complete competence (Miller 1999). Cronbach (1942) described the different kinds of knowledge of a word as the ability to define it, the ability to recognise situations for using it, knowledge of its alternative meanings, the ability to recognise inappropriate uses of the word, and the availability of the word for use in everyday life. Also, there needs to be a connection between the idea of the word and its orthographic form to create concepts in our brain and form conceptual knowledge of the word. The mental representation of the meaning of the word is also important because it can provide insight into the human mind. JohnsonLaird’s (1987) article demonstrates that some theorists have assumed that the sense of a word consists of a structured set of semantic features into which its meaning is decomposed (e.g. Schaeffer and Wallace 1970;

Ana Tankosic, Ajša Habibic and Azamat Akbarov

19

Smith, Shoben, and Rips 1974). Others assume that the mental lexicon takes the form of a semantic network (e.g. Anderson 1976; Anderson and Bower 1973; Collins and Quillian, 1969; Rumel-hart, Lindsay and Norman 1972), or a combination of network and features (Glass and Holyoak 1974/5). A third sort of theory, however, rejects the notion of semantic decomposition and assumes that there are no semantic representations for words, only a vast set of rules of inference, or “meaning postulates” (see Fodor, Fodor, and Garrett 1975; Fodor 1977, Ch.5; Kintsch 1974). Word meaning can be acquired by one of two processes: one can be told what the word means, or one can infer what it means from encountering it in use. Knowing a word involves much more than knowing its meaning and pronunciation. An important component in word knowledge is the context in which the word can be used to express a particular meaning. While learning a mere definition of a word is straightforward, learning a word from its context is a quite complex process. One word may have different (referential or connotative) meanings, or it may be part of a wider range of specific terms in a given semantic field. For example, the verb “move” is a generic term under which there are lower level terms such as “walk” or “run,” and there are even hyponyms such as “march” or “stroll.” One needs to encounter many different contexts in order to master all the meanings of a new word. Context is important not only for acquisition, but also for comprehension. In some cases, context is closely related to meaning, and therefore it adopts all the characteristics related to meaning. In order to have a meaningful experience with the word one must consider its context. Therefore, language is one of the best starting points to examine human comprehension and context interpretation, and to get insight into the cognitive processes supporting them.

1.1 Aim of the study The main aim of our study is to closely examine the factors influencing lexis perception. Therefore, our research questions were: “What has an influence on lexis perception?” and “How do we construct meaning?” We have primarily focused on cognition and its sole effect on deriving meaning from unknown words when encountered in specific contexts.

2. Materials and Methods In this study we applied the qualitative method. A stratified random sampling design was implemented in selecting study participants.

20

English as a Window into Understanding the Brain

The sample represented 14 students in their 3rd and 4th years at the English language and literature department at the International Burch University. Participants were of Bosnian, Turkish, and Chinese nationalities. The instrument used was a questionnaire consisting of descriptive text by Theodore Dreiser from his work Sister Carrie, where participants were asked to guess the meanings of the words in bold by associating them to other words given in the text. The words given were “satchel,” “timid,” “parting,” “gush,” “clacked,” “environs,” and “irretrievably.” It is important to emphasise that we intentionally provided vocabulary that was unknown to the majority of participants since it was not frequently used. The independent variable was the descriptive text, and the participants’ perception of lexis in the text was the dependent variable. Upon completing the task with descriptive text, participants were interviewed. The interview was conducted in a written form and consisted of three questions. We first asked them whether they were familiar with any of the words given. The second question determined the words they associated with the unknown words in bold, and the third question was on how they guessed the meanings of the unknown words.

3. Results and Discussion The results show that the majority of participants have the correct definition of the words in bold in the questionnaire. What we expected them to do was to read the text carefully and try to understand a word in the given context. They may not have had enough information or they might have been misguided in some cases. Those words were placed specifically to show that cognition, the connections we make between words, and perception play a crucial role in understanding lexis and deriving meaning. Ten participants guessed correctly the meaning of the word “satchel,” while for “timid” only 7 gave the correct definition. For “parting” and “gush” there were 9 correct guesses. Lastly, for “clacked,” “environs,” and “irretrievably,” 8 participants guessed the right meaning. It was not expected that the participants would write the exact definition, rather one that was general or close to the meaning. For example for the word “satchel” it was enough to write that it was a bag, and further explanation was not needed. Moreover, students were not allowed to use a dictionary or any kind of tool that would help them in guessing the correct meanings of the words. Our main interest was the way they guessed the meaning of words, correctly or incorrectly. In that regard, we shall begin with the first word. “Satchel” was found in this part of a sentence: “her total outfit consisted of

Ana Tankosic, Ajša Habibic and Azamat Akbarov

21

a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box….” Students who wrote that it was a bag could understand the meaning from the idea of luggage that was implied in this part, and also the “imitation alligator-skin” segment, which is frequently used in relation to bags. Next was “timid.” In this case, students could not so easily write the correct meaning of the word since the context was misleading. The sentence: “She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth” implied something good, since it stood in context with the words “bright” and “youth,” while it means “shy.” With regard to this, participants would write cheerful, happy, and beautiful, rather than its correct meaning. Therefore, only half of the total number of participants answered correctly. “Parting” was given at the beginning of the sentence: “Whatever touch of regret at parting characterized her thoughts….” It was a more or less familiar word to a majority of students. However, if they did not know the right meaning, the word “regret” implied that it referred to something sad, as farewell usually does. The word “gush” was provided in the context “A gush of tears….” The correct meaning could be immediately noticed since the word occurred with the word “tears,” and also due to the common collocation “to burst into tears.” The word “gush” reminded participants of something onomatopoeic, and since it was mentioned with “tears” they assumed it was connected with the sound of flowing liquid. The next word was “clacked,” and it was used in the sentence: “when the cars clacked by the flour mill….” Here, participants could also be misguided by the flow of the sentence where they could think that “clack by” meant “pass by,” rather than “make a sharp sound,” but what led them to the correct answer was the fact that it was an onomatopoeic word. The word whose meaning could be guessed easily was “environs.” It was used in the sentence “familiar green environs of the village passed in review….” The word was associated with “green” in the text, and since participants knew the word “environment” they guessed the meaning correctly. Moreover, not many words began with the consonants “env.” It was surprising that only 8 participants wrote the correct meaning. A common answer was “trees,” but was not accepted as correct. The last word was “irretrievably,” where participants were supposed to use their background knowledge of prefixes to understand that the prefix “ir” actually represents negation. In which case, “irretrievably” represents something that cannot be retrieved. Moreover, it was used in the context where participants could easily derive the correct meaning, i.e., “the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken.”

22

English as a Window into Understanding the Brain

In the interviews they gave the reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph. The majority of participants got the right meaning of unknown words. Some may not have written the exact meaning but they were close to it, which shows that their similar educational backgrounds affected their schema activation. As the results show, they mostly relied on the context to draw out the meanings of the unknown words. Moreover, making associations with other words in the text helped participants in finding the correct meanings. The difference between those who successfully guessed the meaning and those who didn’t lies in their cognitive levels. In other words, students with higher cognitive levels—by which we mean those who could connect their previous knowledge to the new—could guess the majority of the words’ correct meanings from the context, whereas students with low cognitive levels could not. Another influential factor was exposure to the unknown words. Participants who have known or encountered some of the words were able to complete the task faster and without difficulties.

4. Conclusion Cognitive levels are an important part of meaning perception but they are not enough. Every aspect of language is affected by the knowledge of word meaning. Taking context and discourse into account when deriving the meaning of unknown words is also necessary in order to get the correct meaning. Participants of this study were supposed to recall the meaning of the word they already knew in order to comprehend the meanings of new, unknown words. The results showed that the linguistic context had a great impact on interpreting specific words. Based on word schemata formed earlier, the human brain retrieves stored words and phrases and links them to newly encountered words. This clearly indicates that language is used not only to express thoughts and interpret meaning, but also to construct meaning from various contexts and discourses.

Ana Tankosic, Ajša Habibic and Azamat Akbarov

23

Appendix Questionnaire Dear student, We would appreciate it if you could help us in completing this experiment. We won’t share your personal information. It will be used exclusively in a research paper for the student symposium. Thank you! Ajsa Habibiü and Ana Tankosiü Name: Surname: Age: Nationality: Grade: Read the text carefully and try to guess the meanings of words in bold. “When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money. It was August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting characterised her thoughts, it was certainly not for advantages now being given up. A gush of tears at her mother's farewell kiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken.” ʊ Theodore Dreiser, “Sister Carrie” Satchel – Timid – Parting – Gush – Clacked – Environs – Irretrievably –

24

English as a Window into Understanding the Brain

References Anderson, J.R. 1976. Language, memory, and thought. Hillsdale, NJ.: Erlbaum. Anderson, J.R., and G.H. Bower. 1973. Human associative memory. Washington, D.C.: Winston. Cameron, L. 2001. Teaching Languages to Young Learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Collins. A.M., and M.R. Quillian. 1969. Retrieval time from semantic memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 8: 240-247. Cronbach, L.J. 1942. Measuring knowledge of precise word meaning. The Journal of Educational Research 36(7): 528–534. Fauconnier, G. 2000. Methods and Generalizations. In T. Janssen and G. Redeker (Eds). Scope and Foundations of Cognitive Linguistics. The Hague: Mouton De Gruyter. [Cognitive Linguistics Research Series] Fodor, J.D. 1977. Semantics: Theories of meaning in generative grammar. New York: Crowell. Fodor, J.D., Fodor, J.A., and M.F. Garrett. 1975. The psychological unreality of semantic representations. Linguistic Inquiry 4: 515-531. Glass, A.L., and K.J. Holyoak. 1974/5. Alternative conceptions of semantic memory. Cognition 3: 313-339. Hampe, B., and J. E. Grady. 2005. From Perception to Meaning: Image Schemas in Cognitive Linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Hollmann, W. B., and A. Siewierska. 2011. "The Status of Frequency, Schemas, and Identity in Cognitive Sociolinguistics: a Case Study on Definite Article Reduction." Cognitive Linguistics 22 (1): 25. Johnson-Laird, P. 1987. "The Mental Representation of the Meaning of Words." Cognition 25: 189–211. Kintsch. W. 1974. The representation of meaning in memory. Hillsdale. N.J.: Erlbaum. Miller, G. A. 1999. "On Knowing a Word." Annual Review of Psychology 50: 1–19. Pavloviü, V. 2010. "Cognitive Linguistics and English Language Teaching at English Departments." Linguistics and Literature 8 (1): 79–90. Pinker, S. 1994. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: HarperCollins. Rumelhart, D.E., Lindsay, P.H., and D.A. Norman. 1972. A process model for long-term memory. In E. Tulving, and W. Donaldson (Eds.) Organization and memory. New York: Academic Press. Schaeffer, B., and R. Wallace. 1970. The comparison of word meanings. Journal of Experimental Psychology 86: 134-152.

Ana Tankosic, Ajša Habibic and Azamat Akbarov

25

Smith, E.E., Shoben. E.J., and L.J. Rips. 1974. Structure and process in semantic memory: a featural model for semantic decisions. Psychological Reviews 81: 214-241. Stahl, S. A. 2003. "Vocabulary and Readability: How Knowing a Word Meaning Affects Comprehension." Topics in Language Disorders 23 (3): 241–7.

THE WRONG CHOICE OF ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS CAUSED BY NEGATIVE LANGUAGE TRANSFER ASMIR DORIû

Abstract This paper investigates the influence of the negative language transfer on the correct use of the English prepositions. The most common prepositional errors made by high school students in their written compositions caused by the negative influence of the L1 on their L2 are identified and classified. The paper is divided into two main parts: theoretical framework and practical research and error analysis. The corpus of the research consisted of 187 compositions written in one school year. The subjects of the research were 56 first-grade, 63 second-grade, and 68 third-grade high-school students who have been learning English as a foreign language. Three main types of errors in the use of English prepositions are identified and described. Finally, some pedagogical implications for the EFL teaching are identified, and limitations of the research methodology and scope discussed and some directions for future research are proposed. Keywords: Language transfer, negative/positive transfer, native language, foreign language, addition errors, substitution error, omission errors

1. Introduction The aim of this research paper is to identify the most common error types in the use of English prepositions caused by L1 interference or negative transfer that the first-, second-, and third-grade students of “Behram-begova medresa in Tuzla” made in their written compositions. It is hoped that it will lead to a better understanding of why the learners

Asmir Doric

27

make such errors and help English teachers to predict and correct the most common prepositional errors that their students make.

2. Theoretical framework Language transfer is defined as the, "influence resulting from similarities and differences between the target language and any other language that has been previously acquired" (Noor 1994, 98). It can be negative transfer or interference and positive transfer or facilitation. Language transfer has its “weak version,” where the transfer is a tool used to account for or explain the errors that actually occur with no attempt to predict, and its “strong version,” where transfer is a basis for predicting which patterns in the L2 will be learnt most readily and which will prove most troublesome. However, Ringbom (2007, 3) argues that the language transfer, “does not occur only across related languages; it is part of a universal phenomenon where learners try to facilitate the learning process by making use of any prior linguistic knowledge. This is particularly important at early stages of FL learning, when linguistic knowledge other than the L1 is very limited.” Language transfer is an important issue in ELT. Positive language transfer results in correct performance and negative transfer results in errors. Negative language transfer occurs quite often in learning LF, where learners inevitably face L1 interference, and the negative influence the L1 has in the L2 learning is due to the differences between the two languages. On the other hand, positive language transfer occurs when similarities between the L1 and the L2 facilitate the L2 learning. (Liu 2011; Meng 2011). However, Cortés (2005, 240) warns that, “it should not be thought that all similarities facilitate the learning and end up in positive transfer,” and that “those similarities could be misleading,” e.g. cognates, or false friends. Benson (2002) points out that language transfer may occur consciously (as a deliberate communication strategy to fill a gap in the learner’s knowledge) or unconsciously (when the correct form is not known or when it has been learned but not completely automatized). Previous knowledge is a starting point for acquiring new knowledge in previously learnt language(s). Negative language transfer may be related to some affective considerations, such as fear of loss of identity if the L2 is learnt too well or feeling that the L2 lacks prestige. English teachers can capitalise on any similarities or differences between their students' L1 and L2. Benson (2002, 70) claims that consciousness-raising, e.g. when teachers explicitly point out or elicit

28

The Wrong Choice of English Prepositions

awareness of the differences between the L1 and the L2, as well as the translation of authentic (or specially constructed) sentences, illustrating specific points and containing a variety of common transfer errors, may be useful in English teaching. In English language teaching and learning, “preposition usage is one of the most difficult aspects of English grammar for non-native speakers to master” (Jalali and Shojaei 2012, 81). Very often, high-school students have good knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary but seem to have serious problems with the correct usage of prepositions. In fact, it seems that prepositions of English are very tricky for EFL learners to master. Not knowing which English preposition to use, my students usually go back to their L1 and rely on literal translation to fill the gap, which causes errors. EFL learners are frequently confused about when and how to use English prepositions so they often omit, displace or misuse them.

3. Research methodology The research focuses on negative language transfer and how it is reflected in practical examples taken from students' writings. The subjects of the research study were 187 high-school students: 56 were first graders, 63 were second graders, and 68 were third graders. They had been learning English for 6–8 years. Their ages ranged from 14 to 17, and their levels from pre-intermediate to upper-intermediate. A corpus of 187 students' written compositions was compiled in one school year. The participants were asked to write their compositions within a 45-minute class session. To get more reliable and uniform data, the students were asked to write four to five paragraphs without consulting their friends. They were not told that their use of prepositions would be studied. Had they been told, they might have underused or overused such words. Each student’s composition was read twice. Errors in the use of prepositions were identified and classified. The types and frequency of these errors were compared to observe similarities and/or differences in the type and number of errors made. Following a framework used by Tahaineh (2010, 83), they were further organised into three error categories: (1) Omission errors—the absence of a preposition that must appear in a well-formed language structure, e.g. “I did not go to school ( ) 20 days”; (2) Substitution errors—the use of the wrong preposition where another should be used, e.g. “My parents are proud on me”; (3) Addition

Asmir Doric

29

errors—the presence of a preposition that must not appear in a wellformed language structure, e.g. “I entered in the classroom.”

4. Analysis and findings The analysis of the compositions shows that the students made 183 prepositional errors, which are considered to be interlingual errors caused by negative language transfer. As the number of the errors and error subtypes is large, only a few examples for the sake of illustration will be given and discussed. All examples of erroneous sentences and wrong uses of English prepositions found in the compositions are “local errors,” i.e. errors within clauses that do not interfere with comprehension, and not “global errors,” i.e. errors in overall organisation which make the relations among constituent clauses confusing (Jha 1991, 52). Although those errors do not interfere with comprehension, they affect the students' proficiency and ability to use English accurately and should be prevented or corrected before they become fossilised. The research findings show that the students make errors in the use of English prepositions partly because they rely heavily on their L1 when they do not know which English preposition to use. This negative L1 interference could be directly related to the problem of literal translation, which a lot of students tend to employ while writing their compositions in English. The students experience difficulty in using English prepositions, which leads to errors that reflect the learners' inability to think in English. Instead, they first think in Bosnian before they write their writing assignments in English. Not using English as their thinking language, the students rely on Bosnian as a means to understand and express their thoughts in English, writing their compositions first in Bosnian and then translating them into English.

4.1. Types of prepositional errors The students made 183 prepositional errors as a result of negative transfer, which are divided into three main categories. As the number of errors is large, only a few examples for the sake of illustration will be given and discussed.

30

The Wrong Choice of English Prepositions

Error type/Grade Omission

First grade

Substitution

45

Addition

6

Total

64

13

7.11 % 24.59 % 3.28 % 34.97 %

Second grade 6 3.28 % 30 16.40 % 8 4.37 % 44 24.05 %

Third grade 11 6.01 % 57 31.15 % 7 7.11 % 75 40.98 %

Total 30 132 21 183

16.40 % 72.13 % 11.47 % 100 %

Table 1. Fig. 1.

The analysis of the prepositional errors shows that the eight most commonly misused English prepositions identified in the students' compositions are: in, to, at, for, of, with, by, and on.

Asmir Doric

31

Fig. 2.

4.1.1. Omission errors Some common English prepositions were omitted from the places in the sentences where they were needed. This error type makes up 16.40% of the total number of prepositional errors. Those instances of preposition omissions in the sentences are caused by the L1 interference. The most commonly omitted preposition is “for,” followed by the preposition “to.” Here are some examples: (1a) I did not go to school ( ) 20 days (omission of “for”) (1b) Nisam išla u školu ( ) 20 dana (2a) You have to listen ( ) your coach (omission of “to”) (2b) Moraš slušati ( ) svoga trenera. In the above sentences (1a to 6a), English prepositions were omitted from the positions in the sentences where they were required. One of the explanations for these omissions is L1 interference, as in all of the above examples the Bosnian equivalents (1b to 6b) do not require the use of prepositions. This may be caused by too much dependence on the L1 and literal translation.

The Wrong Choice of English Prepositions

32 Fig. 3.

4.1.2. Substitution errors The error analysis revealed so many instances of the substitution of the English prepositions. The majority of the errors in the use of English prepositions belong to this category. The students made 132 substitution errors, which comprises 72.13 % of the total number of errors. Using the English preposition “on” instead of “in” is the most common error. Here are some illustrative examples: (3a) Most Internet websites are on English (“on” instead of “in”) (3b) Mnoge internetske stranice su na engleskom jeziku (4a) This is my favorite place on the world (“on” instead of “in”) (4b) Ovo je moje omiljeno mjesto na svijetu (5a) I can do the same on million different ways (“on” instead of “in”) (5b) Ja to mogu uraditi na milion razliþitih naþina. (6a) I cannot communicate on that language (“on” instead of “in”) (6b) Ne mogu komunicirati na tom jeziku. Other significant error subtypes identified include: “on” instead of “at” (36.40%); “in” instead of “to” (10.60%); “on” instead of “of” (7.58%); “with” instead of “by” (7.58%); “on” instead of “to” (6.10%); “in” instead of “at” (4.50%); “for” instead of “of” (3%), etc. Here are some examples:

Asmir Doric

33

(7a) When I look in him … (“in” instead of “at”) (7b) Kada pogledam u njega … (8a) My parents are proud on me (“on” instead of “of”) (8b) Moji roditelju su ponosni na mene (9a) My friend is good in all sports (“in” instead of “at”) (9b) Moj prijatelj je dobar u svim sportovima. Sentences 7a to 22a contain wrong English prepositions. An analysis of Bosnian equivalents of those sentences (7b to 22b), which contain correctly used Bosnian prepositions, points to the presence of the strong influence of the students' L1 on the wrong choice of English prepositions. Those errors may be caused by negative transfer or students' overreliance on their L1. Not knowing or not being sure what preposition to use, the student assumes that there is a one-to-one correspondence between Bosnian and English prepositions and then uses literal translation to fill in the knowledge gap. Fig. 4.

The Wrong Choice of English Prepositions

34

4.1.3. Addition errors Students used prepositions in places where they were not needed. The analysis shows that this error type is the smallest one, with only 21 errors of addition, or 11.47% of the total number of errors. Further data analysis confirmed that all addition errors resulted from L1 interference because they appear in the Bosnian counterparts. Again, dependence on L1 and literal translation play an important role in the appearance of such errors. Here are some illustrative examples: (10a) I entered in my room (addition of “in”) (10b) Ušao sam u svoju sobu (11a) Students usually give up from their dreams (addition of “from”) (11b) Uþenici obiþno odustaju od svojih snova. The sentences 10a and 11a contain the preposition that is not required. The Bosnian counterparts (10b and 11b) contain the correctly used Bosnian prepositions. The errors are caused by the negative transfer or influence of the L1. The students rely on the literal translation and model their English sentences on the Bosnian ones. Fig. 5.

Asmir Doric

35

5. Conclusion This paper has shown that negative language transfer has a negative influence in the process of mastering English prepositions by high-school EFL students in the type of prepositional errors made by the students in their written compositions. Unless students realise they are making prepositional errors because of the negative influence of their L1, they will keep doing it whenever they do not know the exact English preposition. English teachers should make sure that their students realise that languages are not just sets of words but also concepts, and that words, expressions, and grammatical rules vary in all languages. This is one of the reasons why literal translation does not work in most cases. Thus, it is important for teachers to familiarise their students with structures of English and make them understand that their L1 may work in a different way in many aspects, including the correct use of prepositions. The teachers' awareness of similarities and differences between the two languages can help them prevent or correct prepositional errors. As the correct use of prepositions is important for the high-school students in the process of becoming proficient in English, explicit teaching on the subject would help. This research has uncovered some of the most frequent prepositional errors occurring in students' writings caused by negative language transfer from their L1. English teachers should pay special attention to those prepositional errors that seem to become fossilised in students’ interlanguages. If not corrected on time, they can be more difficult to correct. Being a problematic issue in English teaching and learning, the correct usage of English prepositions should be paid considerable attention. It requires a lot of patience, creativity, innovation, and practice-based effective teaching. Traditional methods based on translation into and from students' L1 could be used, but English prepositions should also be taught and practiced using communicative methods based on authentic materials and real-life situations to enable students to practice using prepositions competently in writing and speaking. Although the influence of the L1 is not always negative, English teachers should warn the students not to rely on their L1 heavily. They should also try to encourage their students to think of English as a separate language, different from their L1. More exposure to English language through reading and listening to authentic materials is necessary. English language classroom instruction and practice must focus on those prepositions that are problematic to students. There are nine simple English prepositions that seem to be very difficult for Bosnian EFL learners to master. The prepositions which are

36

The Wrong Choice of English Prepositions

particularly frequent in errors are: “to,” “in,” “at,” “of,” “for,” “about,” “on,” “by,” and “with.” One reason why they are misused has to do with mother-tongue interference. The less-advanced learners will resort more to the L1 when there is a lack of knowledge in their L2. This strategy may often result in negative language transfer, which leads to errors. Prepositions used in one language sometimes have two or more equivalents in another language, which also contributes to the complexity of this issue.

6. Limitations and directions for future research The fact that only errors in the use of English prepositions resulting from the negative language transfer are investigated makes this research quite limited in its scope and generalisability. Another limitation is posed by significant differences in age, personalities, level of English, and writing abilities of the targeted students, which would have been avoided if the same group of students were studied over an extended period. Furthermore, examining the same error types in students’ speech could add further validity to the results of this research. However, the abovementioned perspectives and extensions would have exceeded the scope and the purpose of this research. They could be covered in more detail in future research. Although a cross-sectional design of the conducted research (the three different age groups of students participating) was finally adopted, a longitudinal research design (one group of students participating in the research over an extended period) could shed more light on this issue and yield more reliable results. Further comparative and contrastive research in other subsystems of both Bosnian and English should be carried out to get a wider picture of the issue. This research paper focuses exclusively on high-school students of Behram-begova medresa in Tuzla. This means that the rest of the high-school students or even other age groups of native speakers of Bosnian have not been taken into account. This could be the topic of a much larger-scale future research.

References Alonso, R. A. 2002. “Current Issues in Language Transfer.” Actas del Encuentro Conmemorativo de los 25 años del Centro de Lingüística de la Universidad de Oporto, 231–6.

Asmir Doric

37

Arabski, J. 2006. “Language Transfer in Language Learning and Language Contact.” In Cross-linguistic Influences in the Second Language Lexicon, edited by J. Arabski. New York: Multilingual Matters. Bennui, P. 2008. “A Study of L1 Interference in the Writing of Thai EFL Students.” Malaysian Journal of ELT Research 4 (2): 72–102. Benson, C. 2002. “Transfer/Cross-linguistic Influence.” ELT journal 56 (1): 68–70. Chan, A. Y. W. 2004. “Syntactic Transfer: Evidence from the Interlanguage of Hong Kong Chinese ESL Learners.” Modern Language Journal 88: 56–74. Cortés, N. C. 2005. “Negative Language Transfer when Learning Spanish as a Foreign Language.” Interlingüística (16): 237–48. Gass, S. 1984. “A Review of Interlanguage Syntax: Language Transfer and Language Universals.” Language Learning 34 (2): 115–32. Hamdallah, R. A. M. I., and H. Tushyeh. 1993. “A Contrastive Analysis of Selected English and Arabic Prepositions with Pedagogical Implications.” Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics 28 (2): 181–90. Hussein, A. A., and M. F. M. Mohammad. 2010. “Negative L1 Impact on L2 Writing.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 1 (18): 184–94. Irujo, S. 1986. “Don't Put your Leg in your Mouth Transfer in the Acquisition of Idioms in a Second Language.” TESOL Quarterly, 20 (2), 287-304. Jalali, H., and M. Shojaei. 2012. “Persian EFL Students’ Developmental versus Fossilized Prepositional Errors.” Reading 12 (1): 80–96. Jha, A. K. 1991. “Errors in the Use of Prepositions by Maithili Learners of English and their Remedies.” Tribhuvan University Journal 14: 49–57. Jiang, N. 2004. “Semantic Transfer and its Implications for Vocabulary Teaching in a Second Language.” The Modern Language Journal 88 (3): 416–432. Lekova, B. 2010. “Language Interference and Methods of its Overcoming in Foreign Language Teaching.” Trakia Journal of Sciences 8 (3): 320–4. Liu, Z. 2011. “Negative Transfer of Chinese to College Students' English Writing.” Journal of Language Teaching & Research 2 (5): 1061–8. Meng, L. 2011. “Probe into Language Transfer in Foreign Language Learning.” Theory and Practice in Language Studies 1 (11): 1603–6. Meriläinen, L. 2010. “Language Transfer in the Written English of Finnish Students.” University of Eastern Finland.

38

The Wrong Choice of English Prepositions

Mohan, B. A., and W. A. Y. Lo. 1985. “Academic Writing and Chinese Students Transfer and Developmental Factors.” TESOL Quarterly 19 (3): 515–34. Noor, H. H. 1994. “Some Implications of the Role of Mother Tongue in Second Language Acquisition.” Linguistica Communicatio 6 (1–2): 97–106. Odlin, T. 2005. “Cross-linguistic Influence.” In The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, edited by C. J. Doughty and M. H. Long. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Ringbom, H. 2007. “The Importance of Cross-linguistic Similarities.” The Language Teacher (Special Issue: Language Transfer 31 (9): 3–5. Tahaineh, Y. S. 2010. “Arab EFL University Students’ Errors in the Use of Prepositions.” Modern Journal of Applied Linguistics 1 (6): 76–112. Zobl, H. 1980. “Developmental and Transfer Errors: Bases and (Possibly) Differential Effects on Subsequent Learning.” TESOL Quarterly 14 (4): 469–79.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES FOR YOUNG LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AZAMAT AKBAROV AND LARISA ĈAPO

Abstract Teachers need to make activities developmentally appropriate by considering the characteristics of young learners and how children learn. Therefore, classroom activities should be enjoyable and interesting, supported and scaffolded, meaningful and purposeful, culturally appropriate and relevant. Using all activities that support all aspects of multiple intelligence, teachers will be able to create a classroom environment that will make young learners comfortable and successful in English. The goal of this paper is to investigate classroom activities at the International Primary School of Sarajevo and find out whether or not naturalistic activities are neglected. Keywords: Young learners, teaching English to children, classroom activities, intelligence, methods

Introduction Defining the young learner Before discussing teaching English to young learners, it is necessary to define young learners. “Young learners” refers to school-age children from 5–12 years old, and “very young learners” refers to children under 7. The distinctions between young learners and very young learners have their roots in Piaget's four stages of cognitive development, which include language learning capabilities (Shin 2004): (1) Sensorimotor stage (0–2 years old). Knowledge or intelligence is based on physical interactions and experience with limited use of symbols, including language.

Classroom Activities for Young Learners of English

40

(2) Preoperational stage (2–7 years old). Intelligence is increasingly demonstrated through the use of symbols and language development. This stage is marked with the development of memory and imagination. Children at this stage are very egocentric in the psychological sense and cannot see things from another's perspective. Their thinking is not logical and they do not have the ability to reason. (3) Concrete operations stage (7–11 years old). Intelligence is increasingly demonstrated through logical and organised ways of relating to concrete objects. Children are able to use inductive reasoning and take a specific experience and apply it to a general principle. Children at this stage are less egocentric and can recognise another's perspective. (4) Formal operations stage (11 years and older). Intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts. Adolescents are capable of hypothesising and using both indicative and deductive reasoning. The thinking skills of most children in elementary school are at the concrete operations stage, and experience plays a major role in all learning. Piaget points out that those children are not simply miniature adults who have less experience and thus less knowledge to work with as they approach problems and new situations. They do not think like adults because their minds are not like adult minds. According to Crosse (2007) the characteristics of young learners are: -

They are learning to read and write in their own language They are developing as thinkers They understand the difference between the real and the imaginary They can plan and organise how best to carry out an activity They can work with others and learn from others They can be reliable and take responsibility for class activities and routines.

Teaching English as a foreign language to young learners Teaching English as a foreign language differs from teaching English as a second language. English as a foreign language contexts typically lack in English speaking environments outside of the classroom, and thus young learners may find little to hear and read in English in their immediate surroundings. With the spread of English as an international

Azamat Akbarov and Larisa Ðapo

41

language, ministries of education in countries where English is not commonly spoken are consistently lowering the age of compulsory English education to elementary grade levels. The majority of children start learning English in grades 1 to 3. This is the case with the children at the International Primary School of Sarajevo were this research took place. As Slattery and Willis (2003) point out, it is typical for young-learner classrooms to use fun songs with humour, dancing, and movement for kinaesthetic learning techniques to make input comprehensible through using gestures, pointing at visuals, explaining, demonstrating, and using real objects. Children learn through play. The better the young-learner teacher, the less the children realise that they are involved in a step-by-step English language lesson. The challenge of teaching children an additional language or any other subject is that they often do not understand the importance of school and learning. Therefore, teachers of young learners need to incorporate activities into the curriculum that are meaningful, engaging, and fun. Furthermore, early school programs support approaches for young learners that encourage developmentally appropriate teaching practices. A developmentally appropriate approach puts the child at the forefront of the learning process and stresses the importance of nurturing young learners as they develop physically, cognitively, and personally. As many teachers will attest, young learners are talkative and spontaneous. They have lots of physical energy and are easily distracted. They need to have their interests, imaginations, and curiosity sparked to keep their attention in the classroom. Teachers should harness these natural characteristics of young learners when planning their classes and use social, active, purposeful, creative, and hands-on activities that are interesting and relevant. The children are active learners and thinkers who make sense of the world by interacting with their physical environments. Young learners need a classroom environment that allows them to construct meaning and make discoveries on their own. Here are some techniques for making input comprehensible: -

Use visual cues, like pictures and flashcards Use gestures and body movements Use realia Use graphic organisers, such as T-charts, Venn diagrams, mind maps, and timelines Translate difficult words (only when necessary) Give definitions, synonyms, and antonyms Explain the word or expression

Classroom Activities for Young Learners of English

42

-

Demonstrate Give an example Use the item in a sentence Pronounce words clearly Speak more slowly Repeat and rephrase Use shorter and simpler sentences and phrases Model expected utterances and responses Connect to students’ background knowledge.

Interaction with an adult needs to support the learning process for the child to acquire new knowledge and skills within his or her zone of proximal development, which is the difference between what a child can achieve alone and what he or she can achieve with the help of the adult. As the adult in the classroom, the teacher must help young learners learn the new language and skills through a process of supporting or scaffolding. It is important to support young learners by using a variety of techniques for making input comprehensible, such as visuals, realia, gestures, and caregiver speech. Here are some strategies for scaffolding the learning process: -

Review known vocabulary Pre-teach new vocabulary Use a variety of techniques to make input comprehensible Provide multiple opportunities during class to repeat and review Teach how to make and use learning tools (e.g. a minibook or fourstep book) Model expected outcomes and responses Encourage student learning strategies (e.g. student-made flashcards) Use the same language in different text types to reinforce new language (e.g. songs and recipes) Recycle language within the same structure (e.g. different foods and actions using the same song format) Praise and encourage students throughout the process.

Brown (2007) emphasised that developmentally and linguistically appropriate learning for teaching English learners should take into consideration the characteristics of young English language learners and their language development, the learning conditions that are most effective for these learners, and the kinds of instructions that best meet their needs.

Azamat Akbarov and Larisa Ðapo

43

Another aspect of being supportive to young learners is to cater to different learning styles, such as audio, visual, and kinaesthetic. Some students learn well by just listening to the teacher and hearing the language input. Other students need more visual cues for comprehension or need to see language written out to understand it. Still others need to move and touch objects to learn most effectively. If teachers do not plan lessons that have a balance of these learning styles, this could cause stress for students or cause some to perform better than others. Finally, instruction should support multiple intelligences as defined by Gardner (1999). According to this author there are eight intelligences: 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9

spiritual/visual or picture smart bodily kinaesthetic or body smart musical or music smart linguistic or word smart logical mathematical or number smart interpersonal or people smart intrapersonal or self smart, and naturalistic or nature smart.

All students are individuals and may exhibit their own combination of the eight intelligences, therefore teachers should try not to favour some kinds of intelligence over others. As we look at our classes closely we make an important discovery—each class is brimming with intelligence, but as with learning styles, each student’s profile is different. The work of many researchers makes us aware of eight distinct forms of intelligence that exist in our students, identified in Table 1 below. Each form of intelligence is valuable and necessary in society, although most schools have tended to support and nurture only the first two: linguistic, and logical-mathematical intelligence. This practice has tended to leave other forms of intelligence with far less recognition in the school setting. Armstrong (2000) points out that, despite the emphasis on the first two intelligences, US students are not excelling in these areas, and he questions whether it might not be the case that children learn best when, “their entire range of capability is addressed and when multiple connections are encouraged in a balanced way.”

44

Classroom Activities for Young Learners of English

Table 1. Multiple Intelligences and Their Applications to the Language Classroom

Sources: Adapted from Gardner (1983; 1993; 1999) and Armstrong (1993; 1994).

The categories are useful in helping us plan our classes and diversify our teaching, but they should never be used to sort students into “boxes” that limit our understanding of the whole person. Howard Gardner (1999, 56) identified this danger very clearly: “People so labeled may then be seen as capable of working or learning only in certain ways, a characterization that is almost never true. Even if it has certain rough andready validity, such labeling can impede efforts to provide the best educational interventions for success with a wide range of children.” As language teachers in a system that has long valued linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligence above all, we are in a good position to support other kinds of intelligence, too. Some teachers, as they plan their units and lessons, lay out all the intelligences on a grid and systematically include some activity for each type. Such an approach respects the value

Azamat Akbarov and Larisa Ðapo

45

of all intelligences and encourages students to do their best work at all times.

Methodology Participants The participants were ten teachers who teach young learners from first to fifth grades at the International Primary School of Sarajevo. They answered questions related to activities for young learners that they implement in their school environments. The activities were following: 9

9

9

9

9

Visual (a) bright coloured pictures (b) flashcards (c) photos (d) posters (e) maps (f) Charts. Audiovisual (a) storytelling (b) TV shows (c) movie clips (d) YouTube videos. Musical (a) songs (b) chants (c) rhymes (d) tapping rhythms (e) listening activities. Bodily kinaesthetic activities (a) Total Physical Response (TPR) method (b) moving (c) dancing (d) gesturing (e) miming (f) interacting with realia. Logical (a) puzzle (b) experiments (c) analysis

Classroom Activities for Young Learners of English

46

9

9

9

9

(d) Patterns. Linguistic (a) reading (b) writing (c) word games. Interpersonal (a) cooperative activities (b) discussions (c) group work (d) teamwork (e) dialogues. Intrapersonal (a) individual work (b) self-study (c) Reflection. Naturalistic (a) field trips (b) topics related to plants (c) Animals, and (d) environment.

Results Classroom activities used most of the time (more than three times a week). As Figs 1 and 2 show, teachers at the International Primary School of Sarajevo mostly implement 19% interpersonal activities (precisely cooperative activities, discussions, group work, teamwork, dialogues), and 16% musical and body kinaesthetic (songs, chants, rhymes, tapping rhythms, listening activities, moving, dancing, gesturing, miming, interacting with realia). Naturalistic and logical activities are used most of the time with 5% and 3%.

Azaamat Akbarov and a Larisa Ðapoo

47

Fig. 1. Classrroom activities used u most of th he time (more thhan three times a week)

m most of the t timee naturalistic intrapeersonal interpeersonal linguistic logical bodily kinestetic m musical audio ovisual visual

most of th he time

0

5

10

15

20

u most of th he time (more thhan three times a week) Fig. 2. Classrroom activities used

naturalistic n 5%

m most of the t timee visual 8%

intrapersonal 10%

audiovisual 8%

in nterpersonal 19%

musical 16% lingguistic 1 15%

logical 3%

bodiily kinestetic % 16%

Classroom Activities A for Yo oung Learners oof English

48

u often (onee or two times a week) Fig. 3. Classrroom activities used

ofte en naturalistic intrapeersonal interpeersonal nguistic lin logical

often

bodily kinestetic m musical audio ovisual visual 0

10

20 2

30

40

Fig. 4. Classrroom activities used u often (onee or two times a week)

intrapersonaal 9% in nterpersonal 6% linguistic 0% loggical 2 20%

b bodily kin nestetic 11%

ofte en naturaalistic 4% % visuual 35 %

m usical 6%

audiovvisual 9% %

Azaamat Akbarov and a Larisa Ðapoo

49

Visual acctivities have been used oftten at 35 %, thhen logical 20%, bodily kinaeesthetic 11%, and audiovisu ual 9%. Fig. 5. Classrroom activities used u sometimess (three or four times monthly))

somettimes naturalistic intrapeersonal interpeersonal lin nguistic logical

som metimes

bodily kinestetic m musical audio ovisual visual 0

5

10

15

220

Classroom Activities A for Yo oung Learners oof English

50

u sometimess (three or four times monthly)) Fig. 6. Classrroom activities used

somettimes

in ntrapersonal 5%

naturalistic 18%

interp personal 1 14% logical 18% linguistic 0%

visual 18%

audiovisual 9%

musical 14%

bodily kinestetic 4%

As Figs 5 and 6 show w, teachers at the Internatioonal Primary School S of Sarajevo im mplement 18% % naturalistic,, visual, and logical activiities, and 14% interpeersonal and musical m activiities Audiovissual and intraapersonal activities haave been used sometimes, att 9% and 5%, respectively.

Azaamat Akbarov and a Larisa Ðapoo

51

Fig. 7. Classrroom activities used u rarely (onee or two times m monthly)

rare ely naturalistic intrapeersonal interpeersonal nguistic lin logical

rarely

bodily kinestetic m musical audio ovisual visual 0

10

20

30

Classroom Activities A for Yo oung Learners oof English

52

u rarely (onee or two times m monthly) Fig. 8. Classrroom activities used

rare ely visual 7% in ntrapersonal 2%

nterpersonal in 0% linguistic 1%

naturalistic % 27%

au diovisual 20%

bodily kinestettic 23%

musical 13%

logical 7%

Teacherss use 27% natturalistic activ vities, 23% boddily kinaestheetic, and 20 % audiovvisual. There are a no activities that teacherrs never use.

Conclu usion In a 45-minute class period, touch hing on everyy intelligence might be quite a challlenge, but wee can certainly y try to keep a balance amo ong all of them over a week, or throughout t a unit. Many of the activ vities and examples inn this paper shhow how we can touch onn a number off different intelligencess in our classees. One of thee important lesssons that teachers can take from thhe research onn learning styles and multipple intelligences is this: What interessts and appealls to us as learrners and as teeachers is an important i consideratioon as we plan. The individual learnerss in foreign language classes diffeer in many ways, w at every y level of innstruction. Wrriters and researchers on learning sttyles have pro ovided a plethhora of ways to analyse and describbe learner diffferences, and d all are useeful. Learnerss can be characterised as visual, auditory, a and kinaesthetic llearners; they y can also

Azamat Akbarov and Larisa Ðapo

53

be classified as holistic or linear learners. Some researchers place learners on a continuum from concrete to abstractor, from sequential to random. Perhaps the most important insight from this information is the realisation that almost all students are different from their teachers and from each other, in a large variety of ways. However, this is a very unreliable guide to meeting the needs and interests of all the students in our classes. In every class we teach, there are bound to be more students who are unlike us than there those like us. It is our job to build bridges to all learning styles, helping students to learn as much of the time as possible, in a way that is natural and comfortable to them. Our goal as language teachers is to support the learning of every student, appealing to a variety of learning styles, and to nurture all forms of intelligence represented in each of our classes. To summarise, our goal is for every learner to experience success on his or her own terms as well as on ours.

Solutions and recommendations Recommendations for naturalistic activities are presented in Fig. 9 below.

54

Classroom Activities A for Yo oung Learners oof English

mmendations for f naturalistic activities at thhe Internationaal Primary Fig. 9. Recom School of Sarrajevo

FFIELD TRIPS::

PLANTS:

- su upporting staff

- onne child-one plant

- initiativve from management

- plaanting in a ga arden

- scchool in natu ure

- plaants in a corrridor

NATUR RALISTIC ACTIV VITIES

ANIMALS: - club about anim mals - pets' day - have an n animal in a school

EN NVIRONMEN NT: - club - rrecycling paper - water savin ng

Sometim mes, naturalisttic activities in n schools are neglected. In n order to improve thee quality of the t education nal system in this school, here are recommendaations for foour fields of naturalistic activities: fieeld trips, activities rellated to plantss, animals, and d the environm ment. Firstly, tteachers must have supporting staff whenn they go to field f trips. It is very diffficult to havee a picnic or field f trip withh only one teaccher. The initiative for organising any trip shou uld come from m managing staff, not from teacherrs. Secondlyy, activates related r to plaants could eaasily be impllemented. Having the plants in eveery classroom m and watering ng them, nurtu uring and observing thhe everyday will w eventually y develop caree and respect for f plants. In springtim me children maay plant floweers or differennt kinds of plaants in the school gardeen. All clubs about plants,, animals, andd environmen ntal issues that exist in the school wiill be warm an nd welcoming . Thirdly, the teachers may organise a “Pets’ daay,” when alll children who have a pet can bringg it to school in order to ennter a competiition. The

Azamat Akbarov and Larisa Ðapo

55

Pets’ day could be organised as a competition or just as an exhibition. It would be useful to consider having an animal in the school as well. Even small fishes may develop love and respect towards animals. Lastly, but probably the most important issue, the environment should be introduced in the classes of young learners. The school may organise collecting recycling paper on a daily basis. Teachers must teach children the importance of saving water as well.

References Armstrong, T. 2000. “Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom.” Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, Virginia USA Brown, H. D. 2007. Teaching by Principles: an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. San Francisco State University: Pearson Longman Crosse, K. 2007. Introducing English as an Additional Language to Young Children. London: Paul Chapman Publishing Gardner, H. 1999. Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. New York: Basic Books Linse, C. 2005. Practical English Language Teaching: Young Learners. New York: McGraw-Hill. Riddell, D. 2003. Teaching English as a Second Language. New York: McGraw-Hill. Rivers, W. M., and M. S. Temperley. 1978. A Practical Guide to the Teaching of English. New York: Oxford University Press Shin, J. K. 2004. Teaching Young Learners in English in Second Foreign Language Settings. Boston: National Geographic Learning Slattery, M., and J. Willis. 2003. English for Primary Teachers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wright, A. 1984. Games for Language Learning. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.

THE EFFECT OF CLASSICAL MUSIC ON VOCABULARY RECALL AND RETENTION OF STUDENTS LEARNING ENGLISH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MOSTAR BOŽENA PANDŽA AND IZABELA DANKIû

Abstract Connections between music and language learning have been of interest across many academic fields. The use of classical music in particular has been recommended in the foreign language classroom, and studies suggest that it can help learners to achieve speaking proficiency and other language competences (Abbott 2002; Campbell 2003; Lozanov 1978). This paper aims at examining whether the addition of classical music to the EFL classroom has any effect on students’ vocabulary recall and retention. The participants of the study are 20 pre-intermediate English language learners at the University of Mostar, randomly divided into two groups. The first (experimental) group had their lessons while the background classical music was played, and the second (control) group studied in the absence of the background music. The students were given a vocabulary pre-test, and the same test was also administered as the posttest after 10 sessions. The SPSS was used for data analysis. The results show that the experimental group improved the vocabulary recall and retention more than the control group, and that the use of classical music in the foreign language classroom can be recommended. Keywords: classical music, retention, vocabulary recall, foreign language

Introduction Music is a very effective tool that should play an important role in the EFL/ESL classroom, because it offers a great variety that appeal to students. Most children enjoy music, and it should therefore increase their

Božena Pandža and Izabela Dankic

57

interest in learning a new language in a very entertaining way. Sigurðardóttir (2012) writes that educators need to be willing to incorporate music into their lessons to better enhance their students’ learning and to use music in the language teaching classroom because it can remove language barriers, and should be implemented as early as the first grade. She believes that more music in every language classroom will inspire more students to become creative and independent. It will allow educators and their students to understand each other and connect in a new way. Engh (2012) proposes that music included in the EFLT classroom could reduce boredom, and that the goal is to produce a relaxed state of mind. This was also presented by Lozanov (1978) within Suggestopedia— his foreign language teaching method. Lozanov (1978) suggested the usage of classical music, emphasising the importance of whole-brain stimulation for optimal acquisition as well as relaxation techniques that could help learners tap into subconscious resources that help acquisition and the greater retention of vocabulary and language structures. Dr Lozanov's system is based on the use of certain classical music pieces from the baroque period that have patterns of around 60 beats per minute. Foreign languages can be learned with 85-100% efficiency in only thirty days by using these baroque pieces. His students succeeded in remembering most of the vocabulary, even after not reviewing the language material for four years. Weatherford Stansell (2005), examining the use of music for learning languages, concluded that music in the foreign language classroom has a positive effect on the behaviour and motivation of students. He added that the universal element of music can motivate learners to participate actively during the classes, bringing interest and order to the classroom. Abbott (2002) states that the usage of songs in the FL classroom could be beneficial because music activities help in developing language abilities, remembering language structures, as well as in increasing vocabulary and expanding cultural knowledge. She further believes that music has the power to excite, move, and soothe learners in the language classroom. As Parra Cera, Jiménez Castro, and Caro Oviedo (2010) stipulate, vocabulary is a key factor when learning a foreign language, and it includes giving instructions about the form of words, and the pronunciation and meaning they convey. Many practitioners claim that vocabulary should be the most important in the EFL classroom. Coyle and Gracia (2014) found that the receptive knowledge of vocabulary can be acquired through songs, but that exposure to the song input was insufficient to develop productive knowledge in the majority of children.

58

The Effect of Classical Music on Vocabulary Recall

Hallam, Price, and Katsarou (2002) examined the effects of music on arithmetic and memory tasks in school-age children. They found that calm music leads to better performances when compared with a no-music condition. On the other hand, children who listened to “aggressive” music performed the worst of all. Their finding suggests that, “the effects of music on task performance are mediated by arousal and mood rather than affecting cognition directly” (111). Salcedo (2002) investigated the effect of music on text recall and involuntary mental rehearsal (din) with students from four college-level beginning Spanish classes. The results for the din occurrence showed a significant difference between the classes. Students in the classes who listened to music reported a higher occurrence of this phenomenon than those who only listened to spoken text. Her findings suggest that the use of songs in the foreign language classroom may aid the memory of a text. The results show that the din is increased with music, and therefore may be a more efficient way to stimulate language acquisition. Yilmaz (2011) carried out a research about the Mozart effect and found that teaching vocabulary with music was successful and that music served as a powerful tool in encoding new vocabulary into long term memory. Winter (2010) stated that singing songs might lead to productive vocabulary gains in English language learners. She found that students who were exposed to vocabulary instruction that included songs performed better than those who were not exposed to music. Her major findings revealed that songs are useful tools in the foreign language classroom, not only for vocabulary understanding but also for considerable enthusiasm and motivation for learning. Our study was modelled after that conducted by Abdolmanafi-Rokni and Jannati Ataee (2014), who carried out a research in order to examine whether the addition of background music in the classroom had any effect on Iranian children’s vocabulary recall and retention. Their findings revealed that the experimental group significantly improved the vocabulary recall and retention when compared to the control group. Moreover, the background music had a positive effect on young learners’ motivation in language learning and their attentiveness to the teacher. Schellenberg and Weiss (2012), exploring the influence of background music, found that it could cause improvements in cognitive performance and intelligence in general. They also found that children with higher IQs and better performance at school are more likely to take music lessons and perform well on tests of cognitive abilities. Köksala, Ya÷úan, and Çekiçc (2012) also examined the influence of music on achievement in English learning and found that it had a great influence on vocabulary recall and

Božena Pandža and Izabela Dankic

59

the retention of new vocabulary. Their findings suggest that new vocabulary is learnt faster and stored for a longer time when background music is used. Further, they suggest that the incorporation of music in vocabulary teaching might be a great contribution to both teaching and learning. Although more studies confirm the benefits of the usage of music in language teaching, there are some studies whose findings do not promote the use of music in the classroom. Medina (1993) found that the music and no music treatments produced comparable amounts of vocabulary acquisition and that music does not adversely affect second language acquisition. Wagner and Tilney (2012) did not find the use of classical music especially valuable in the classroom. They investigated brain activity during sessions measuring vocabulary retention over a five- week period. The analysis of language acquisition data revealed no significant improvement during the experimental period. Vocabulary is retained by both the experimental and control groups, although the control group had performed some tasks even better when traditional methods were used.

Methodology The participants of this study are students enrolled at the University of Mostar who took an extracurricular English course given by pre-service English teachers. We selected 20 students whose English-language levels were pre-intermediate according to the placement test (the Cambridge general English test). Their ages ranged from 19-22. The instrument used in this study was a vocabulary test consisting of the pre-test, post-test, and delayed test. The pre-test, which contained 13 multiple-choice items, was conducted to examine vocabulary knowledge. The post-test consisted of the same 13 multiple-choice items used for the delayed test. The music material used in this study was Mozart’s sonata for two pianos in D, K. 448. A projector and a DVD player were also used for the introduction of vocabulary and grammar items. The vocabulary was chosen from 10 lessons in the “Face to Face: Pre-intermediate Students’ Book” (Redston and Cunningham, 2005). Thirty students whose language levels were pre-intermediate were selected for the research. But, for the purpose of this study, we could analyse the results of only 20 students who completed all three tests. They were randomly assigned to two groups. A vocabulary test as pre-test was administered to both groups. The participants in the experimental group were exposed to classical music during all activities. The subjects in the

60

The Effect of Classical Music on Vocabulary Recall

control group did the same activities but without music. The treatment lasted for 10 sessions, i.e. six weeks. Upon the completion of the treatment, all students were given the vocabulary post-test, which contained the vocabulary from the pre-test. In order to investigate learners’ vocabulary retention, the same test was administered again after two weeks. The results of the tests were statistically analysed. The statistical analysis included an independent samples t-test in order to indicate whether the background music had an effect on learners’ vocabulary recall. Since the research measured retention, the same independent t-test was used to show learners’ retention of the vocabulary items. The analysis included mean (arithmetic mean or average result in the group) and SD (standard deviation or deviation of single result from arithmetic mean).

Results The data were analyzed using SPSS. Since the study contained one independent variable (classical music) and two dependent variables (recall and retention), an independent-samples t-test was run twice for both the control and experimental group. The difference between these two groups was the treatment introduced into the experimental group. The independent-sample t-test was used to examine recall in the first case and retention at other times. The results of these two tests are shown in Tables 1 and 2 below. Table 1.Comparison of the music and non-music group in recall Groups Experimental Control

N 10 10

Mean 12.20 8.10

SD 0.918 1.852

Sig 0.000

T 6.268

Note: The full score is 13 *p< 0.05

Table 2.Comparison of the music and non music group in retention Groups Experimental Control

N 10 10

Mean 12.60 7.50

SD 0.516 1.518

Sig 0.001

T 9.695

The effect of classical music on the recall of vocabulary items and retention is evident; actually, the first null hypothesis is retained when we compare the mean scores from these two tables where the results of the

Božena Pandža and Izabela Dankic

61

experimental and control groups are shown. It can be seen that the participants’ mean score in the experimental group is 12.20 (SD=0.918), while the mean score of the control group is 8.10 (SD=1.852). This suggests that the experimental group participants, who were provided with classical music in the background during all activities, were more successful in the recall of words than the control group participants. The results of the independent samples t-test point to the conclusion that the hypothesis is retained and that classical music has a beneficial effect on vocabulary recall (p.0.00